It's good we have trade journal publications like DNJournal to start chronicling this industry a little better. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It'd be nice if someone wrote an article on all the ideas and sales mechanisms registrars, resellers or ISPs have tried to use to SELL names/services related to domain names.
I was reading this old article recently (Week of December 3, 2001):
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2001/12/03/story2.html
Investors drove down the stock price of VeriSign last week, based on a report by a Piper Jaffray analyst that the "zone file" of .com, .net and .org names had decreased in size in October, indicating that more names had expired than new names had been registered. [--SNIP--] The confusion about the zone file contraction arose, said Wiener, from the ongoing expiration in the fourth quarter of a projected 1.5 million domain name registrations that had been distributed late last year in giveaway promotions. Domain name registrars and registration resellers had given away hundreds of thousands of names in the hopes that registrants would pay for renewal at the end of the first year. But only 2 to 3 percent of promotional registrants actually have been choosing to pay for their names, rather than the 13 or even 90 percent that some registrars projected would convert to paying-customer status.
Many registrars, resellers, and ISP's are still doing crazy things in an effort to be competitive and drive down prices further to lure consumers in.
The closest idea I had to something insane was having a 50% off day occur once a month for regular customers. I kept mulling it over but I eventually conceded that I couldn't perceive any sustainable implementation for the offering. Kind of like the "free-shipping" (called "True Price") Outpost.com used to offer, before having to back-off in various ways. Major online stores are still flirting with the concept, as it still seems to be the holy grail for consumers.
Free Domains (or really, really cheap ones) seem to be the holy grail in this industry. Seems like some of these notions just seem to float languidly down the river of bad ideas.
There is such a strategy called being a "loss leader" that fits with these tactics:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lossleader.asp
The strategy of offering a product or service at a considerable discount and loss of profit in order to attract future business.
A common practice when first entering a market, a loss leader's job is to introduce new customers to a service or product in hopes of building future relationships.
It's highstakes gambling all the way...
~ Nexus
