DomainZoo may not have reached the level of success that its founders hoped for, but the registrar continues to pride itself on low prices and quality customer service.

by Jeff Goldman [December 28, 2007]

DomainZoo was founded in 1999 with the aim of offering domain names in a more fun and creative way than Network Solutions and Register.com, the market leaders at the time. "We saw them as kind of sterile—all business," recalls company president Steve Sullivan.

In the years since then, however, the company has had to settle for simply following the pack. Like most other registrars, DomainZoo now upsells a wide variety of value added services to its customers—everything from webhosting to marketing tools. "It became a business for us," Sullivan says. "The fun side kind of went away, and the bottom line came forward."

Sullivan says it quickly became clear that the most logical thing to do was to emulate the leader. "We looked at Go Daddy and Wild West Domains and said, 'Those guys are offering all these services, and they're dominating the market,'" Sullivan says. "So we started mirroring our site and services around them, offering similar products, finding out who their providers are and getting on board with them. We basically tried to follow the best."

And looking back, Sullivan says, he's proud of the customer base the company has managed to build and retain in an increasingly competitive market. "We had the advantage of capturing the base early on, and we've continued to grow that base," he says.

Affiliate and reseller programs
The best way for an ISP to work with DomainZoo is through its straightforward affiliate program, which the registrar provides through a partnership with affiliate marketing company ClixGalore.

It couldn't be simpler—the company offers a wide range of banners, both static and interactive, that the affiliate can place on their site, and the affiliate then receives a commission for every click-through that results in a sale. There's no setup fee for the program, and commissions range from 15-20 percent percent depending on volume.

DomainZoo also offers a reseller program, but it's simply the company's own repackaging of the Wild West Domains reseller system. "It seemed like the norm to pick up a third party solution, brand it, and be done with it," Sullivan says. "So we signed up with Wild West to offer their reseller system branded under us."

Still, Sullivan says there is one key advantage to working with DomainZoo rather than Wild West on a reseller basis: personal attention. Clients can choose to use Wild West's 24-hour customer service option, or they can use DomainZoo's customer service—which Sullivan says consistently offers much quicker responses than Wild West does.

Staying small
The benefits that DomainZoo gets from outsourcing its reseller program, Sullivan notes, are the same as the benefits that any ISP sees from outsourcing key services. "We wanted to keep our domain business solid and put all our money in that, and still be able to offer other services through these shared branding programs with other companies," he says.

The company's domain business remains focused on two key strengths—low pricing and responsive customer service—and Sullivan says he continues to work on solidifying DomainZoo's relationships with its customer base. "We newsletter our customers, give them specials, run promotions, offer them tips," he says. "We're trying to communitize the site and let people know that we want them to continue to be loyal customers while we slowly grow. We're not just out there to say, 'Hey, come transfer to us for $10.99!'—and then the next thing you know, you can't get a customer service person on the phone."

Sullivan says DomainZoo's most recent efforts have been focused on adding new TLDs, and on implementing back-end upgrades for managing multiple domains and bulk transfers. Looking ahead, he says, it's all about customer relationships. "We didn't make it to the top, but we're proud of what we created," he says. "And we have a lot of customers to offer services to and keep happy."

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