How to become a domain reseller

Domain reselling helps add a valuable stream of income to your business and gives you many cross-selling opportunities for email and cybersecurity services.

Domain resellers are individuals and businesses that offer domain registration and management services to their customers, while not being domain registrars themselves. Most domain resellers also sell other products and services besides domains, usually in the realm of digital services. You can become a domain reseller by partnering with a domain registrar and buying domain names in bulk to resell to other individuals and businesses.

Domain reselling helps add a valuable stream of income to your business and gives you many cross-selling opportunities for email and cybersecurity services. It is a great way to add value to your brand and increase customer retention.

What is a domain reseller?

A domain reseller is someone that offers domain registration services to their customers, while not being an accredited domain registrar themselves. Domain resellers typically add value to domain names by offering additional products and services to their customers, such as hosting packages, security products, web design, and marketing services. Most domain resellers are part of domain reseller programs at registrars, which gives them access to special prices that regular users cannot get.

How does domain reselling work?

Domain reselling means working with a registrar that operates with the different registry operators that control TLDs. Now, you could skip the middleman and directly do business with the registry operators, but that would mean a whole lot of extra work. You have to realize there are more than 1,500 TLDs out there, and that number keeps growing. If you had to deal with every one of them, arranging price deals, promotions, and so on, you wouldn’t have much time left to sell the actual domain names.

Domain resellers always work with domain registrars, like Openprovider. Registrars are entities accredited by ICANN, the governing body of the domain industry, to sell domain names. This means that they have to comply with a long list of rules and regulations and deal with the complex technical and administrative work of domain registration. Trying to become accredited as a registrar is a lot of work, which is why many people choose to be domain resellers to get access to domain names in a simple way.

What is the difference between domain reselling and domain investing?

Domain investors buy domain names with the hopes of these names becoming more valuable over time so that they can sell them to others for a much higher price. Meanwhile, domain resellers register domain names on behalf of their end customers, who are usually people looking for hosting or web design services. These domain names are not typically particularly high in value.

Who can be a domain reseller?

In theory, anyone can be a domain reseller. Domain resellers commonly run businesses in web, email, and cloud hosting. Others provide marketing, SEO, or web design services. Many domain resellers are freelancers or run small agencies, but large enterprise companies can also be considered domain resellers if they resell domain names from a domain registrar.

Why become a domain reseller?

Adding domain reselling to your business offers multiple benefits.

1. New revenue stream

By selling domain names, you can create an additional source of income for your business. Many domain registrars allow domain resellers to buy domains in bulk at special, low prices that are not available for regular customers. Being a domain reseller allows you to set your own domain prices for your customers, allowing you to generate profit on your sales.

2. No advanced technical knowledge required

You don’t typically need to be a technical expert to become a domain reseller. Domain registrars generally handle the technical aspects of domain registration and management, leaving you to focus on providing value to your customers.

3. Room to grow

You can start small and scale your domain reselling business as your customer base grows. With over 2,000 different domain extensions available on the market, plus many domain-related products and services you can offer, there is lots of room for growth.

4. Add value to your brand.

Offering domain registration services on top of your existing offer can help attract new customers to your brand. Customers want to buy online services from one place, rather than having a domain name in one place and their hosting provider and content management system somewhere else. Selling domain names adds value to your business and positions you as a one-stop shop on the market for all things related to establishing an online presence.

5. Customer retention.

Once customers have registered their domain with you, they're more likely to stick with your business and purchase any other products they need for their online presence with you.

6. Cross-selling opportunities.

Adding domain names to your offer provides you with ample opportunity to add even more related products and services, such as DNS management, Whois Privacy Protection, and SSL certificates. Domain names are also typically associated with email services, making business email and email security products logical additions to your offer, too.

How to be a successful domain reseller?

With so many domain resellers on the market, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd and attract customers to your business. At Openprovider, we have worked with hundreds of domain resellers over the years. These are a few tips to help your domain reseller business stand out and be successful:

1. Understand the domain market.

While the domain market may seem like a static one to outsiders, it is quite the opposite! As a domain reseller, it is very important to keep up with industry trends to understand what your customers might want and to identify growth opportunities. Two current big trends in the domain market include advanced security products and .ai domains.

2. Invest in your marketing strategy.

This includes creating a professional and user-friendly website and using digital marketing channels such as social media, SEO, and online advertising to reach your target audience. A clear brand identity can do a lot to help your domain reselling business stand out.

3. Set competitive pricing.

Research the pricing strategies of other domain resellers and set competitive prices for your services. You can also attract customers to your business by offering promotions, discounts, and bundled packages (e.g. domain name + hosting + email).

4. Differentiate your services.

Study the competition and identify ways to differentiate your domain reselling business from theirs. What can you offer that others are not doing (much) of yet?

5. Provide great customer service.

61% of customers are likely to switch brands due to poor customer service. Make sure your customer service is better than the competition - it’ll help keep your customers coming back to you, and - most importantly - refer your business to other people in their network. Being proactive and responsive and delivering great work will always result in growth.

6. Automation and integration.

If you run a larger domain reselling business, streamlining your processes through API integrations which can improve efficiency and take a lot of manual work out of your hands. This increases your productivity and reduces the risk of errors.

How to choose a suitable domain reselling partner

There are hundreds of accredited domain registrars on the market, many of which offer special domain reseller programs. We understand that it can be difficult to determine which one is the best for you. These are a few points you can pay attention to when choosing the best domain reseller program for you.

Transparent pricing

This is certainly not the only thing you should be looking at when selecting a domain reseller, but it is certainly an important factor! Compare the prices of different domain reseller programs, and be careful to not fall for deals that sound too good to be true - some renewal prices magically go up after the first year! As a domain reseller, you should want full pricing transparency from your domain registrar. Openprovider is fully transparent about our prices - with us, you always know what you are paying for.

Painless domain transfers

If you already have domains elsewhere and you want to consolidate your portfolio at just one domain registrar, it is a good practice to look into the domain transfer process of this registrar. At Openprovider, our automated transfer robot makes consolidating your domains with us a breeze. You can sit back and relax, while our domain experts take care of everything.

Intuitive control panel

A centralized, easy-to-use control panel is a must for any domain reseller business. Having a control panel that is comfortable to use simplifies your domain operations, leaving you with more time to focus on what you do best: providing the best products and services.

At Openprovider, you can manage your domains, SSL certificates, and DNS zones from one centralized location. Our Reseller Control Panel is easy to use and has all the tools you need to succeed as a domain reseller. Best of all, you can sign up for free and look around our panel. You don’t need to buy anything or deposit money into your account - you can take all the time you need to look around and decide if our panel is right for you.

Expert support

As a domain reseller, you expect your domain registrar to take care of the technical and operational aspects of domain management, so you can focus fully on your business. You need to be able to trust your registrar to manage your domains with care.

At Openprovider, we have over twenty years of experience in the domain industry. We care about our customers and we want to build long-lasting relationships with them, and this pays off - more than 25% of our customers have been with us for more than ten years.

Find out more about Memberships (our reseller program) here.

Accreditation

Lastly, it is always a good idea to check if your domain registrar holds important accreditations in their field. ICANN accreditation is always a good one to look for, as this means that a registrar is officially accredited to sell domain names with gTLDs. If you are looking for particular ccTLDS, check for accreditations from independent ccTLD registries, such as SIDN and Denic. Security is another important factor to consider when you are choosing a domain registrar. A good way to verify if your domain registrar prioritizes security is to look for relevant accreditations, such as ISO 27001.

Is domain reselling profitable?

Domain reselling can certainly be profitable. Many domain registrars have special domain reseller programs. These programs allow domain resellers to purchase domains in bulk at special prices, also commonly called “wholesale prices”. This means that you can buy domain names at a much lower rate than regular customers can, as long as you buy them in large quantities. Usually, the more domain names you buy, the more the prices go down.

Our business model at Openprovider is slightly different from that of most domain registrars. We offer domains at cost price: for all domains that we are accredited for, you pay exactly the same prices as we do at the registry. To get access to domains at cost price, you need to sign up for our Membership Plan, our version of a domain reseller program. Membership Plans work with a yearly fee, and different tiers of our Membership Plan give access to different numbers of domain operations at cost price. A Basic S Membership is just $49.99 per year, and on average, it will yield you 6X ROI and $240.48 in savings!

Openprovider Memberships offer many extra benefits that can help your domain reseller business grow. These include discounts on products like SSL certificates, Premium DNS, and EasyDMARC, the opportunity to resell our Member-exclusive business email solution, and access to exclusive webinars, marketing materials, and sales toolkits. Web hosters will also be glad to hear that we lowest prices on the market for Plesk, and our API is a great way for larger domain resellers to integrate our domain and SSL registration modules with their own websites and systems.

How to set up a domain reseller account with Openprovider

You can set up a domain reseller account at Openprovider in just a few clicks.

Click here to sign up.
Enter your email address and choose a password for your domain reseller account.
Add your first name, last name, and phone number.
Choose whether you are opening your account for a business or for personal use.
Fill in your address and choose a currency for your account (EUR, USD, GBP, or INR). Be aware that you will not be able to change this currency in the future.
In case you are opening a business account, you will also need to supply information about your business entity and VAT number during this step.
Tell us how many domains you currently own at other platforms (0-10000+). This helps us better serve your needs in the future.
That’s it - your domain reseller account is ready for use!

As you can see, you do not need to immediately purchase domains or get a Membership to open a domain reseller account at Openprovider. You can look around our control panel and pricelists and see if you are the right fit for us. Our sales team is also happy to assist you with any questions you have about domain reselling at Openprovider and to give you a demo of our products and Memberships. Once you are ready, you can purchase the Membership of your choice in a few clicks through the control panel.

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