August 8, 2002 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Leveraging partnerships is a sound method for Web hosting resellers to increase their revenue flow. By offering the ancillary solutions of other third-party service providers to their own clients, resellers can enhance the value of the services they provide, and at the same time increase their profitability.
Through specifically incorporating and tailoring Internet data services to the unique needs and tastes of each customer, resellers can elevate the value of their clientele's experience. The higher the degree of customization, the greater the value obtained by the customer, which results in greater levels of user retention for the reseller. The economics of customized services is thus usually referred to as "value-added" economics, and is a primary key to securing and sustaining a reseller's profitability.
Resellers enhance their own service roster by leveraging partnerships that allow their customers to make use of third-party outsourced services. These services can be developed into a full, integrated self-branded suite of services by the innovative hosting reseller. Many of these services revolve around domain name registration and maintenance. Since domain name registration management systems have become extremely popular, their has been a proliferation of inexpensive and in-depth software packages and online services which resellers can integrate into their core service offerings, in order to bring a new dimension of value-added services to the clients.
Register.com Inc., a leading provider of global domain name registration and Internet services for businesses and consumers that wish to have a unique address and branded identity on the Internet, offers Web host resellers a wide variety of such domain name registration services. The firm offers resellers these services through its "Global Partner Network" wholesale division, a sales channel.
"Resellers work with us to plug into the world of domain names," said Michael Goldstein, Director of Marketing of the Global Partner Network at Register.com in an exclusive interview with the Web Host Industry Review. "Working with a third-party provider such as us allows resellers to avoid a ton of time and money in development."
According to Goldstein, it is exorbitantly costly for a reseller to establish an in-house domain name registration service in-house. By leveraging the services of a back-end provider such as Register.com, resellers escape the cost of setting up their own services, while creating streams of steady income. The Global Partner Network consists of two programs: "my.register.com," an easy-to-use solution that requires no technical knowledge and "Third Party Protocol," an application program interface (API) that allows more knowledgeable resellers to integrate Register.com domain registration services directly from within their Web site. My.register.com allows online retailers to create customizable registration sites in minutes with minimal development resources.
The My.register.com program employs Register.com's proprietary "BestSRS" technology. The BestSRS authoring module enables the firm's partners to customize their registration sites in their own language, using their own images, copy and logos, all through the use of a simple, online, graphically driven user interface. Register.com performs billing and customer support functions and pays resellers a commission.
The Third Party Protocol (TPP) program empowers tech-savvy reseller operations to register high volumes of domain names at wholesale prices. It is designed for partners that would like to perform their own billing and customer support functions. Third Party Protocol partners integrate Register.com's API into their Web site and can easily bundle registration services with their other product offerings. TPP is designed for the full-time, larger Web host reseller that have in-house program expertise and who register enough domain names to justify the use of a wholesale domain name registration system.
"Through the use of these products, our partners obtain complete flexibility on how to insert domain name services into their portfolios," said Goldstein.
Along with basic commodity hosting, many consumers expect some level of domain name management to accompany their service provision. An investment in a solid domain name registration and management system is hence a wise choice made by resellers who wish to keep their roster of services competitive.
