Dot Org Domains Price Increase Announced by PIR.org

According to Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica, the Public Interest Registry has announced a .60 cent increase in wholesale prices for the dot org (.org) domain fee. This increase seems negligible to me and, like the cost of postage, seems entirely reasonable to increase. The fact that you can send written or printed communication across the country for less than half a dollar has always been fascinating to me - yet each time the cost goes up a few pennies, people wail about it. Each time a rate increase is announced for anything, people rail against the effect of prices increasing.

Guys, come on, it's sixty cents per year! Yes, it will cost domain squatters a bit more to renew their portfolio of profit-makers. Yes, it will cost true non-profits a few pennies for the domains they hold for true charity work - but just like postage - look at the value received. That name should represent the online identity of an organization. How much more is spent on signage, marketing collateral, branding and visibility for national organizations, press release distribution, PR and marketing, intellectual property protection and on and on. The cost of the domain is, by far and away, the least costly element of an online presence - even at twenty times current levels.

I've always recommended to clients that they consider extending their registration out to the maximum allowable 10 years in any case. Those who do that, including non-profits, not only decrease the likelihood that they'll forget to renew it or that their contact information will go stale and they'll lose it to forgetfulness or just plain negligence. Now I can add this additional reason - you are protected from price increases and lock in your identity for the silly low (wholesale) price of your $6.15 .org domain registration times ten.

And if you own any dot org domains, you still have until November 9th to renew them - you can have a fundraiser to cover that .60 cents. ;-) Just kidding around, but honestly, it's your online identity and worth the tiny cost.

Domain Front-Running Story at WebProNews

Domain Frontrunning is called a "Protection Practice" by Network Solutions and is discussed a domain frontrunning article by Jason Miller of WebProNews, and is interviewed on the SEO101 show from WebmasterRadio.fm with hosts Caroline Shelby and David Brown talking about the practice of reserving domains that are searched, but not purchased at the NetSol site. ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) frontrunning study (PDF) determined that Network Solutions was indeed doing that.

domain frontrunning SEO 101 | The Beginning SEO Podcast - Domain Frontrunning

If you'd like to skip the unrelated stuff, the domain conversation is from 10:30 to the 15 minute mark, then the commercials run until 17:00 minute mark until the 21:30 mark, a total of eight minutes of the good stuff.

NetSol admitted to the practice and backed off of it, but continues their "Protection Program" suggesting that if you call them, they would cancel the "Hold" they had placed on your searched domains OR that you could use their "Whois" search to find out if a domain was available without triggering the "Protection Program" or as we know it - front-running.

Apparently ICANN received over 150 complaints on the practice and determined that only a portion were actual cases of Frontrunning. This is month-old news, but interesting to hear it discussed by Miller, who thoroughly researched the article for WebProNews.