Quotes Reglike: Dotster Article

An article in Sunday’s The Columbian discusses Dotster and its mission to become a top 5 registrar.

The article, which includes quotes from yours truly, discusses Dotster’s recent domain happy hour and how the firm hopes to use marketing techniques like this to grow its market share.

Dotster was one of the original discount registars when it launched in 2000. I recall reading regarding the firm on a message board in early 2000. People were going nuts discussing how you could register domains at Doster.com for under $20. How times have changed! I think my original invoice from the firm was #19 or thereabouts.

Dotster later lowered its registration price to $15, but this is almost double what many registrars charge today. It is no longer a low-price registrar. (Still, the firm offers lower rates comparable to GoDaddy for bulk domain owners.)

Will Dotster be able to become a top 5 domain name player? It’s possible. They have the infrastructure counting a reseller system, domain parking service, and expired domain drop catching system. But it will take more than this. It will require going following some of the big domain owners with competitive rates…and more marketing like the domain happy hour.