I have a fairly extensive portfolio of domain names, some of which I use for my websites, with the majority of domains kept in storage till I’ve time to develop them.

This past week, I got a message from one of my domain registrars GoDaddy that one of my domains had expired. Since it’s a pretty high value (though unused) domain related to the dietary supplements niche, I decided to renew it.

At the domain renewal screen, I see:

So in addition to the $10.89 renewal fee for a year, GoDaddy wants to charge a “Registry Redemption Fee”.

This “redemption fee” is going to cost me $90.

What?

I have to pay the equivalent of 9 year’s registration to get my domain back?

And it’s not likely that GoDaddy will budge on their policy.

I like GoDaddy’s support of female race driver Danica Patrick. I sometimes even like their irreverent (and in my opinion irrelevant) Superbowl TV spots.

What I don’t like is their attitude towards customers. A pretty much unending stream of upsells after you’ve bought your domain, including trying to hock SSL security certificates for your domain (even though 90% of webmasters probably don’t need them).

I’m still pretty upset about some “Website Tonight” website building software GoDaddy sold me a couple of years ago, which generated run-of-the-mill generic HTML websites using some pretty ugly looking templates. The best thing about this software was that you had to pay an annual renewal/license fee, failing which you would not be able to update your website. (Thank goodness I discovered WordPress a short while later).

Much as I would have liked to regain that domain, I decided to cut my losses and move on.

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So imagine my blood pressure increase a day later, when I got notice from another domain registrar NameCheap that one of my domains had expired.

“Oh no, not the same routine again” I thought.

With a sense of dread of I logged into NameCheap’s interface, expecting to pay another crazy “registry redemption fee”.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that my lapsed domain had been given a 27 day grace period, and I could renew it at regular renewal prices (together with a renewal discount code!). This policy is also mentioned clearly in it’s support database.

In addition, I got an email from a NameCheap rep about an hour after filing a support ticket.

NameCheap: Way to go!

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Tony Hsieh, CEO of shoe retailer Zappos, talks about “customer love”, where Zappos customer support reps will go out of their way, including calling a competitor to find out about footwear availability if Zappos does not stock a particular model, and giving this information to the customer.

In a highly competitive niche, it’s measures like these create lifetime customers.

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So back to the domain registration experience: In both cases, I admit it’s my fault that I chose to let the domain expire, rather than check registration lifetimes at the start of each month.

In the case of NameCheap, it truly is my fault, as they proactively send you periodic reminders at the 30-day, 14-day, 7-day, 3-day and 1-day intervals before domain expiry to see if you’d like to renew the domain registration.

Aside from gentle notifications about web hosting and SSL certs, NameCheap doesn’t force you to go through numerous pages of “upgrade” options like GoDaddy does.

In short, NameCheap has created a great customer experience and is one of the reasons why I continue to promote them, even in the absence of an affiliate program.

In the case of GoDaddy, even though they have an affiliate program listed on CJ, I’m hesitant to recommend them to anyone else, even as I’m transferring all my remaining domains out of there as fast as is humanly possible.

So GoDaddy, you’ve certainly succeeded in winning enemies and irritating people. You might want to instead want to take a page out of Dale Carnegie’s book on “How to Win Friends and Influence People” instead.

Want a domain? Go direct to Namecheap with my highest recommendations.

I’ve just renewed another 7 of my current ones for another year at Namecheap, using the coupon code  GOLDDEAL (good for renewals if you have more than 50 domains) which saves you a little under $1 in registration costs.

And I’ve picked up a new one using the Namecheap December 2008 coupon code THREEKINGS, saving about $1 too.

(If you’re looking for great value webhosting, check out Bluehost, which was my first shared webhosting account and I still keep it around, even though I have a dedicated server now).

The next step is to start planning and scheduling time for doing something with the domains. A couple of the partners I’m working with are going into a consolidation phase and weeding down the number of projects each person is working on – no more than 2 major projects – which will go a long way to maintain focus. It’s a great idea in my opinion.

The current promo code is INDIANSUMMER (which may have expired by the time you read this).

But here’s the promo details:

• Low priced Renewals and Registrations. For the next 48 hrs get $8.88 Renewals and Registrations. with Coupon Code OCTNEWS
  
• Transfer Special is back! For the next 72 hours only, transfer most domains for just $6.99.  Coupon Code TRANSCHEAP
  
• Webhosting blowout special! For 48 hrs we are offering any one of our regular web hosting  packages for 25% of the regular price and any re-seller package for 30% off. Coupon Code OCTNEWS.

Unless you already are a high volume customer (eg: 50+ domains registered with Namecheap) you will not be able to use the GOLDDEAL coupon code for renewals, so this is a great promo if you’re starting out and have a handful of domains.

If you need a webhost which is reliable and supports lots of domains, and gives you the ability to host multiple blogs, you should check out Bluehost.

I know it works because I just got a new domain there a couple of minutes ago. More on that later.

Just a note about “Super Affiliates”, I was chatting with Kim Rowley last night about marketing techniques and mentioned the power of video blogging and YouTube.

I wake up this morning and she’s posted a VIDEO product review post at her shopping site TechTheStyle.

If that’s not enough, her partner Pat posts a VIDEO followup a couple of hours later here. (I dig the window blinds which gives his video a “Max Headroom-ish” feel and I thought the timecode gave it a techy/industrial feel).

If you’re still suffering from “structured procrastination“, I say “bull-crud”, get off your behind and do something, instead of just wondering why folks like Kim and Pat are so “lucky”…

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Back to the domain, I got a new one – AndrewWeeLive.com – the nice ones I was hoping for were taken already.

The site will be more personal in nature, a theme that I connect with, especially with the recent Sam Harrelson AffiliateFortuneCookie podcasts and the Scott Jangro “JangroCast” (should “JangroCast” be a new trigger term for “Sorry, Jangro“?)

It will also give me a reason to use my new MacBook as more than as just a paperweight.

Anyone have any tips/suggestions on getting started on the Mac?

The discount code/coupon code for Namecheap for January is: WINTERFEVER

The code will cut your registration cost from $9.29 to $8.41.

It won’t make or break the bank for most affiliate marketers out there, but if you save a couple of hundred dollars, that translates into a couple hundred more clicks for you to do testing.

As the new year starts up, I’m hitting the ground running with a new campaign and got a bunch of domains yesterday.

If you’re new at this,  here’re a couple of domain strategies to think about:

• Domain names can be split tested like anything else. At $8-10 a pop, they don’t require as much effort as some of the other variables you might test. Split testing two similar domain names might mean the difference between a 1% and a 5% clickthrough rate (which is huge).
• Go for a benefit-laden domain as these get visitors intrigued, curious and ultimately, motivated to click. Marketing guru Dan Kennedy had to come up with the product name for a new insect killer, his choice “Kills Bugs Dead”. The result? Sales went through the roof…Nuff said.
• Adverbs in your domain name need to be in line with the mindset of your prospects. If you’re selling a high ticket item, you’d want to avoid “free”, “cheap” or “discount” and look at “Quality” or “Best” instead.
• Go for a 1-year registration and if it’s a winner, you can renew it next year. Even if a “2 year registration costs just $1 more”, you’ll probably want to do more tweaking before settling on a domain. I prefer having a whole bunch of 1-year domains to test with.

If you need a hosting account to go with your domains, look for webhosting providers which host a large number of domains. In some cases the hosting account will host an unlimited number of domains.

You might like to check out:

–> Hostmonster

–> Bluehost (slightly higher grade)

They’re both brands/corporate entities owned by the CEO Matt Heaton and are based in Orem, Utah.

gobblegobble

It’ll reduce the 1-year registration from $9.29 to $8.41.

It doesn’t apply for renewals, although I’ve heard that if you have at least 50 domains, you can write namecheap’s customer service and request a custom renewal code.

Having said that, the 1-year registration for .info domains at $4.88 are a bargain and have a level of implied credibility too. (just think about a .INFO versus a .COM). So those are a good alternative.

Although GoDaddy and some of the other registrars might be priced a little lower, Namecheap still gets my vote for its speedy domain change updates and easy-to-use admin panel.

Have a good time saving some cash, and resist the urge to grab 100 more domains…(unless you plan to use them).

Let’s look at this scenario:

You’re a new affiliate marketer starting out, and you want to generate some sales. What do you do?

Maybe you could start a free blog at blogger or wordpress.com. If you’re smart, you’ll register your own domain and get your own webhosting, so you’ll have more control over your web property.

But do you stop at just one blog or website?

Not if you want to have massive success in your affiliate campaign.

What’s to stop you from creating 5 or 10 blogs or websites promoting the same product?

It’s not only an opportunity to occupy multiple positions on the SERPs (search engine results pages), but you will edge out your competition if you push them off page 1 too.

Bear in mind, I’m not asking you to post 10 mirror image copies of the same website. That would be very foolish.

Instead if you can generate content easily, tightly focused around that specific niche, for example, weight loss, you’ll create a virtual fortress centered around the product.

The guys on the Wicked Fire affiliate forum have announced the June discount code for domain registrar NameCheap.com where I’ve been buying the bulk of my domains from.

Domains also come with free privacy protection (so your details aren’t easily available).

Here’s some advice regarding domain names:

.com domains aren’t always the most desirable.

If you are creating a content site, a .info or .org could be equally useful and in some cases be more effective.

If you provide content on a .info site and collect the visitors details, you could easily direct them towards your .com affiliate site later and close the sale. People also tend to place more trust on .info and .org sites because there is a perceived belief that these types of domains are less commercial than .com domains.

At the same time too, there are spam marketers who create .info sites filled with spam.

What you can do instead is create a genuine content site with 10-20 pages of content on a .info site and drive traffic to the affiliate sales page through an autoresponder sequence from aweber or getresponse.

You’d be surprised how much higher your conversions will be.

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I’ve registered a number of new domains just a short while ago and will be pointing them at my Bluehost webhosting account which now comes with hosting for unlimited domains.

It’s a shared hosting account, so I get live chat and prompt email support, compared to reseller hosting accounts which support multiple domains, but the tech support tends to be lower grade.

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Resources:

NameCheap domain registrar (coupon code: junebugz)

Bluehost: $6.95 per month webhosting, hosting unlimited domains