The Registry at Info Avenue, operating out of South Carolina, offers a trio of reseller options. Although it's an independent company in its own right, the registrar has a powerful group of independent telcos behind it.

by Jeff Goldman [June 11, 2001]

South Carolina's Info Avenue Internet Services was founded as an ISP in 1993 by a group of eighteen independent telephone companies and cooperatives, all based in the Southeast. Renamed Info Avenue in 1996, the company now supports well over 250,000 customers and hundreds of companies in 18 states.

Info Avenue's services include the turnkey community portal solution Home I Go, the web hosting and design company WebTelPro, and a virtual ISP offering. Info Avenue founded its sister company, The Registry at Info Avenue, in 1999, and ICANN-accredited the registrar went live in June of 2000.

On the horizon
The Registry at Info Avenue currently offers the two most common options available in the industry—a simple click-through affiliate program and a bulk-purchase partnership option. But by the end of this month, it will be launching a third option, which will make it a far more solid contender for the ISP market—particularly for those who get involved at its debut.

Affiliates place a banner on their site which links to The Registry at Info Avenue's home page. The affiliate then receives a commission on all services purchased at the registrar; the commission increases on a sliding scale with the volume of referrals. Regardless of the size of the affiliate or the number of referrals expected, there's never a setup fee.

Partners, on the other hand, purchase domains themselves on their customers' behalf through an interface on the registrar's site. They can either set up their own interface for their customers, or simply deal with registrations on a one-to-one basis: regardless, all interaction with the customer is left to the partner.

Bulk pricing for the domains purchased is based on slots, which are applicable either to domains or years. For example, 20 domain names for 2 years each would be 40 slots, 10 domain names for 10 years each would be 100 slots, you get the idea. Pricing is based on the following schedule:

The Registry at Info Avenue will build a customized registration interface for each customer with the same feel as the registrar's own site, but fully branded with the partner's name and logo. Jenny Reed, The Registry at Info Avenue's Marketing Consultant, notes that the process really couldn't be easier.

"It's all private labeled," Reed said. "And it's a lot less complicated than an API."

As an added incentive to attract the first wave of customers, The Registry at Info Avenue's bulk rates will be significantly lowered for new private label partners during the first few months of the program. But Reed is quick to caution that it's just a short-term deal. "That will be a promotion that will run for a limited time as soon as it goes live," she said.

The program is targeted to resellers that can maintain a basic minimum volume—as long as a private label partner registers 25 or more domains per month, there are no fees involved. The focus is on allowing ISPs to get involved with domain registration as quickly and easily as possible, without sacrificing any control over the process.

Simple and Strong
With the backing of 18 local telcos, some as much as 100 years old, The Registry at Info Avenue boasts a solid history and a strong promise of longevity. And both the registrar and Info Avenue itself are continuing to grow quickly, with innovations like the private label program, a new QuickNIC high-volume bulk registration offering, and a national ATM network owned and operated by Info Avenue.

Still, despite all the excitement, The Registry at Info Avenue doesn't offer multilingual domains or country code top level domains (ccTLDs). Reed explains that they're just not part of the company's focus at present.

"We have no plans for that," Reed said. "Our next step is working with the new TLDs."

ISPs considering working with the registrar can count on a solid relationship with a long-established player in the market. And with the new private label interface, this long-established player could well become one of the best options in town.

— End
         

Online resources:
	Registrar Directory
	Registrar Directory: Quick-Reference Chart
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