ICANN certification for personal use

[domainduck]

Does anyone here know if it is legal / allowed to become a certified ICANN registrar for personal use only?

Thanks much.

DD

 

[DNGeeks]

Why wouldn't it be?

If you've got the cash, it might just make sense to do it and save yourself money on domains/renewals and give yourself more security. You might even be able to try and set yourself up to drop catch some domains for the simple cost of a renewal which could save a huge amount of money.

If they require you to be "public" then make a site and charge $399 per year for domain names. That way no one will ever sign up and you've got exactly what you want.

 

[katherine]

Does anyone here know if it is legal / allowed to become a certified ICANN registrar for personal use only?

Thanks much.

DD

Yes it is.
Some people operate private registars, an example is i.net ;-)
Many drop registrars actually are private registars, ie. they work for themselves and do not offer registrations services to the public at large.

 

[abozeed]

So, How it can be??

 

[noelius]

Well, I would be also interested. I'm considering being firstly a reseller and the switch to Icann, however, I don't know if ICANN requires a minimun # of domains or not.

 

[DNGeeks]

Apparently it's quite pricey, but still possible for those with a lot of domains that would save more yearly than it costs.

From icann.org

Registrar Accreditation: Financial Considerations

Before you undertake the registrar accreditation process, please read and consider the following costs to you. This is not an exhaustive list of all costs involved in becoming an accredited registrar, but is meant only as a helpful listing of some costs registrar applicants should be prepared to pay in connection with becoming an ICANN accredited registrar.


To ICANN:
US$2,500 non-refundable application fee, to be submitted with application.
US$4,000 yearly accreditation fee.
Variable fee (quarterly) paid once you begin registering domain names. This fee represents a portion of ICANN's operating costs.
Transaction-based gTLD fee (quarterly). This fee is a flat fee (currently $0.25) charged for each new registration, renewal or transfer. This fee can be billed by the registrar separately on its invoice to the registrant.
Please refer to the ICANN Budget for additional details about invoicing, including options for relief and fee caps.

You must have:
US$70,000 in working capital requirement. THIS DOES NOT NEED TO BE PAID TO ICANN; ICANN requires only that you demonstrate (by submitting an independently verified financial statement) that you have at least this much liquid capital (cash or credit) before your ICANN accreditation becomes effective.

 

[noelius]

Thanks for your reply.

Apparently it's quite pricey, but still possible for those with a lot of domains that would save more yearly than it costs.

From icann.org

Registrar Accreditation: Financial Considerations

Before you undertake the registrar accreditation process, please read and consider the following costs to you. This is not an exhaustive list of all costs involved in becoming an accredited registrar, but is meant only as a helpful listing of some costs registrar applicants should be prepared to pay in connection with becoming an ICANN accredited registrar.


To ICANN:
US$2,500 non-refundable application fee, to be submitted with application.
US$4,000 yearly accreditation fee.
Variable fee (quarterly) paid once you begin registering domain names. This fee represents a portion of ICANN's operating costs.
Transaction-based gTLD fee (quarterly). This fee is a flat fee (currently $0.25) charged for each new registration, renewal or transfer. This fee can be billed by the registrar separately on its invoice to the registrant.
Please refer to the ICANN Budget for additional details about invoicing, including options for relief and fee caps.

You must have:
US$70,000 in working capital requirement. THIS DOES NOT NEED TO BE PAID TO ICANN; ICANN requires only that you demonstrate (by submitting an independently verified financial statement) that you have at least this much liquid capital (cash or credit) before your ICANN accreditation becomes effective.

but how about this:

Variable fee (quarterly) paid once you begin registering domain names. This fee represents a portion of ICANN's operating costs.

How much is this?

 

[DNGeeks]

The page didn't mention anything about those. I suppose something may be hiding on their site, but they do say variable so the only way to find out for sure is to ask another registrar.

 

[rush]

So what does it cost to purchase domain names if you are an ICANN certified registrar?

Also, how would becoming your own ICANN certified registrar increase your chances of catching expiring domains? Is this what SnapNames, Pool, and others are using? They must have multiple connections or something though, or they wouldn't have an edge over everyone else. How could they do that? I am guessing that maybe, each account you have with ICANN has a maximum number of connections you are allowed to use on their servers, and maybe Pool and SnapNames are operating multiple registrars, which would help to grab those high competition names.

Is this even close?

 

[Mr. Deleted]

they have a lot of Partners that work with them, and Pool is not an ICANN registar itself, but it has partners that are.

 

[Mr. Deleted]

Why wouldn't it be?

If you've got the cash, it might just make sense to do it and save yourself money on domains/renewals and give yourself more security. You might even be able to try and set yourself up to drop catch some domains for the simple cost of a renewal which could save a huge amount of money.

If they require you to be "public" then make a site and charge $399 per year for domain names. That way no one will ever sign up and you've got exactly what you want.

www.i.net is a private registar for www.fma.com

 

[noelius]

So, this sounds like a way to charge registrars whatever they want, isn't it?

I've found in ICANN website that it's calculated yearly, but can't be more than 20,000 a year. :nono:

 

[DNGeeks]

Found this today (http://www.icann.org/registries/agreements.htm)

Maximum prices
.com US$6.00
.net US$4.25

So the question you now need to ask is

If it costs $25k per year to be accredited (a high number, hopefully less). Do you have enough domains to make it worthwhile? If the best you can get at a regular registrar is just around $7 then to save money you would need to own around 25000 domains (25000 * $1.0 savings).

If you own more than that, bonus, you can save some bucks.

I'm not sure if that maximum price of $6.00 includes the $0.25 icann fee. If it does not then you're looking at 33500 domains to start saving money. Also note that this says Maximum price, the price may actually be less than that (doubtful, but possible).

In my opinion, if you're at 40,000+ domains, why not get yourself accredited. It can save you money and you can add your own security which may be worth more than the money you save.

 

[noelius]

Yes, that appears to be. However, maybe coudl be interesting associate some users that want to buy domaisn cheaper with a current registrar-reseller (selling domains by reselling another's registrar services).

How much are you paying for domains? Would you prefer buying them for...
9.99??
8.99??
7.99??
6.99??
6.50??

Yes, I know cheaper would be better, but from what price would you buy domains??

 

[DNGeeks]

It's not just the price, it's also the level of control you can have over your own domains. I sure as heck wouldn't want one domain with a registrar like enom or godaddy never mind 40,000+ of them.

Save the money, and have higher security and more peice of mind and a control panel that you can customize to do exactly what you need and to look exactly like you want.

 

[noelius]

It's not just the price, it's also the level of control you can have over your own domains. I sure as heck wouldn't want one domain with a registrar like enom or godaddy never mind 40,000+ of them.

Save the money, and have higher security and more peice of mind and a control panel that you can customize to do exactly what you need and to look exactly like you want.

Well, DnGeeks, thanks for your reply. So do you think that control panel is even more important than the price? Well, maybe you are in the true, as long as I'm using a registrar beacuse of some options like saved list fo domains and more, which makes me very easy to use it.

What I would like to do is to set up a reseller service because I'm spending too much money on domains, and also because I would like to integrate some ideas that I have (like for example a better control panel than I have).

So, what do you recommend? Try to have my own reseller account and then try to switch to a ICANN one or trying to be directly a ICANN one?

Thanks.

PS: Again, can you say me which price are you paying for your domains? :dance: