Beat the Domain Price Increase — How to

VeriSign made its “official” notice. Now what?

On February 2 of this year I wrote regarding VeriSign’s disclosure of plans to hike wholesale domain prices later this year. VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) CEO Stratton Sclavos stated they would increase .com prices and .net prices:

“In essence,” stated Sclavos, the .net price increases are “by now locked and loaded.”

VeriSign has made its semi-official notice of price increases, and now the mainstream press is finally talking regarding this. There’s a 6 month waiting period ahead of fresh prices will go into effect, so don’t expect price hikes until mid-October. You’ll pay 42 cents extra for .coms and 35 cents more for .net.

What can you do regarding it? There is a way in theory that VeriSign’s prices could be locked down for 10 years, if every domain name owner renewed his domains for 10 years ahead of the price increase. That would require a hefty cash outlay for most people. A portfolio of 1,000 domains would require a $60,000 investment.

To be practical, it probably makes sense to renew your better domains for a number of years ahead of the price increase goes into affect. You can expect most bargain registrars to increase their prices by $.42 in October.