If ease is what you please, then you may want to checkout this domain name registrar—Domain Bank lives to serve—ad pays a nice commission, too.

by Jeff Goldman [March 12, 2001]

Domain Bank, Inc., based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, offers a simple, low-stress affiliate program for ISPs seeking to get involved in domain registration game with a minimum amount of aspirin required.

The registrar was founded in 1997, and was one of the first to be ICANN-accredited in 1999. Domain Bank is both a founding member of CORE and a member of Afilias, the group that's set to administer the new dot-info domain name. With just fifteen employees, Domain Bank has registered a quarter of a million domains and boasts about a thousand affiliates.

Roger Wehbe, Domain Bank marketing director, said that the key to his the company's success lies in the lack of pressure it places on ISP affiliates.

"We handle everything," Wehbe said. "We make it so all they have to do is just sign the contract."

Hands-off registration
Domain Bank's affiliate program gives an ISP a fully branded registration site that fits in seamlessly with the service provider's look, feel and image. Users click a link on the ISPs site that takes them to the branded destination to register domains. Once there, customers pay Domain Bank directly, but they see only the ISPs name and logo. And once the transaction is completed, the user is returned to the ISPs home page.

According to Wehbe, the arrangement allows ISPs to leave pretty much all the work—and the hassles—to Domain Bank. "We mail them a commission check each month," Wehbe said. "We handle the credit card collections, the charge-backs, the customers calling and screaming at us."

And, he adds, the setup process can be as hands-off as the ISP wants it to be. If the affiliate really wants to leave it all to Domain Bank, they can ignore the entire setup process and just approve the result.

"We just go to their web site and steal the look and feel," Wehbe said. "It just makes it easier for them. We'll say, how does this look for you, and they'll say, hey, that's cool, let's go."

There's no fee whatsoever for the setup, and commissions are set at 43 percent, or $15 for each $35-per-year registration. Wehbe noted, though, that the commission is negotiable at higher volume levels.

"It's on a one-on-one basis," Wehbe said. "If a customer comes to me and says, I do 30,000 names a month, they'll probably get a better deal than just 43 percent."

The ISP affiliate also receives a browser-based reporting utility, which displays all the domains its users have registered, along with the commissions for the month. Examples of the branded setup can be seen at the sites of such Domain Bank customers as HostMe! and Trademark.com.

Simple is as simple does
Domain Bank's pricing isn't discounted, and it doesn't offer multilingual domains or country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) The company's focus is on simplicity. According to Wehbe, this keeps the company's sales pitch short and sweet.

"We offer all the basic services like domain name forwarding and so forth, but everybody does that," Wehbe said. "The selling point of what we have is that there's no cost commitment to get in, we handle all the work up front, and all we do is we send the people a link and say, 'Just link to this.'"

A curious user could examine the URL of the registration link and find their way to Domain Bank, or they could do so by doing a whois search on their newly registered name. But even if they do make their way to the registrar, they won't find any services there that compete with their ISP. To offer that, Wehbe notes, would be counterproductive.

"That's like biting the hand that feeds you," Wehbe said.

With a profitable, straightforward business model and a large and growing number of affiliates, Domain Bank offers a solid answer for an ISP seeking a simple entry into the world of domain registration. Wehbe is proud of the strengths of his business. "We're a real tight shop," Wehbe said. "We're profitable, and we're going to be around for a very long, long time."

— End