Domain name registration is something that has dropped in price over the years and rightly so - it's very much a service where the volume of customers has dramatically increased and so the bulk savings of automatic processing allow for keener pricing than there was in the past. Netcraft tell us that there are now 100 million sites - that milestone was passed in late October.

We've got a great number of domains registered at or by Well House Consultants - as well as the regular www.wellho.net that's our root and anchoir point, we have a whole load of other "wellho" domains - .co.uk, .com, .info, .biz to name a few, and also a number of "wellhouseconsultants" domains. Then there's all sorts of others such as www.wellhousemanor.co.uk and one of two relatives, www.grahamellis.co.uk, www.savethetrain.org.uk and on to the more exotic such as www.sheepbingo.co.uk - most of which have there purpose but some of which (not named here) are frankly parked up at the moment. So the falling cost is greatly appreciated.

Most of our domains are now hosted at a couple of good value central points from which we can control their DNS, but just a few remain outside that 'fold'. Some suppliers are excellent and reduce the renewal price as their costs reduce on a year by year basis and I'm happy - more than happy - to stick with that supplier. But, alas, one or two others feel that people will pay steadily more exorbitant fees rather than go to the trouble of moving a domain ... and at times they're right in the short term. In the long term, though, such activities loose the respect and loyalty of their existing customer base.

Case in point this morning. One of our "wellho" domains that's hosted off to one side came up for renewal, and whilst I HAVE renewed "in situ" for another year, I'm swearing that it's the last time. The actual amount involved is small - no more than the cost of a good meal for a year's registration - , but the loss of credibility for [company name omitted] is tremendous.

And when I clicked, reluctantly, on renew, up came a page called upsell1.jsp that offered my privacy for my address and contact details for an extra $10 a year. Then there were upsell2.jsp through upsell4.jsp for me to reject ... offering me their hosting, their spam filters, and their logo design services before the registration was completed.
(written 2006-11-07 07:07:02)

 G902 - Well House Consultants - Web site techniques, utility and visibility

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