You may find it odd that a communications firm would try to keep its domain name reselling program a secret. But when it comes to bulk domain name registrar services for ISPs, it's no secret that Stargate is cheap.

by Jeff Goldman [July 9, 2001]

Stargate Communications, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, offers ISPs an extremely low-cost reseller program, backed by an experienced Web hosting and design company.

The company’s been around for quite a while, and it’s built up a broad range of services in the process. According to Don Welbourn, Stargate vice president of sales, the family-owned company has followed a logical progression toward domain name registration since its founding in 1989.

"Our roots are in telecommunications—we used to provide data warehousing and Tollfree services for Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 pharmaceutical companies," Welbourn said. "Then we got into database management, and it just was a natural lead-in to Web site hosting and Web development. And from there, we got ICANN-accredited in early 2000."

Reselling on the QT
Take a look around Stargate’s Web site, and you’ll find a lot of information on retail domain name registration ($10 apiece), some information on their Web hosting, and a quick reference to their click-through affiliate program—but you won’t find a single mention of their reseller program. And that’s how Welbourn wants it.

There’s no setup fee for the program—the only requirement to sign up for the service is that you purchase a minimum of 51 domains at a time. Once the domains are purchased, there’s no limit on how long you can take to use them. Buy more than 51 at a time, and the prices are reduced (right).

Still, Welbourn notes, a number of ISPs choose to manage the process themselves, without using the API. "We offer a bulk utility, so they can take a day’s worth of orders and process them manually through our own Web site," he said. "We have a lot of customers doing that—it depends on what the architecture is of their existing Web site. Most of the ones that do that are foreign, so they may not have the ability to embed the API code into their existing Web site architecture."

Finally, there’s Stargate’s affiliate program, the one reseller offering you can find out about by going to their Web site The affiliate program couldn't be simpler—put a link to Stargate’s main page on your site, and they’ll pay you a dollar for every domain registration that comes through you.

It’s good to be a host
Keeping things transparent is a priority for Welbourn, and he explains that the reseller API is the best way to do that. "It’s the most transparent way to utilize our services," he said. "The customers don’t come to our Web site for any reason, not even to manage their domains—the only way they would have any knowledge of Stargate is through whois."

Stargate offers ccTLDs to its retail customers from 250 different countries through a third party arrangement, but those can’t be sold through the API or discounted for bulk purchase. Welbourn contends that a more involved setup just wouldn't be worth it. "Being an American company, obviously most people want .com, .net, and .org," he said. "There’s not a huge market for the other country level domains."

And the company maintains a similar position on multi-lingual domains—Welbourn explains that it’s all a matter of keeping focus. "Once we go to the multilingual domains, it’s going to kind of muddy the waters a bit for us, and we just don’t think the profitability is going to be there initially," he said. "I think that eventually it will be, but right now we’re focusing on .com, .net, and .org for the most part."

Aside from the discount pricing, there’s one thing that certainly makes Stargate stand out—they seem to be just about the only registrar that’s actually proud to be maintaining a Web hosting business as well. One significant reason for that pride is that it supports a level of discounting that other registrars might not be able to afford.

"Registration’s not our sole source of revenue," Welbourn said. "It kind of puts us in a unique position to offer the registrations at a lower cost."

And there’s another key benefit, too—the infrastructure supported by the hosting business gives the registrar unique strengths in terms of connectivity. "We maintain our own data center—we don’t colo or use dedicated server services from a third party," Welbourn said. "We have a direct connection to the Internet backbone—we've got an OC-48 connection—so I think we’re more infrastructure-based than your typical registrar."

With about 300 resellers currently signed on, Stargate has a solid offering that’s well worth any ISP’s attention. And, Welbourn notes, there’s a lot more to the registrar than just the discount prices. "Although we’re low-cost, we feel that the range of services that we offer for that cost surpasses what’s out there," he said.

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Related articles:
	[June 29, 2001]	eBay Won't—Afternic Will—Sell Domain Name
	[May 25, 2001]	VeriSign Shuts Down TLD List
	[May 11, 2001]	ICANN Proposed Budget Leaked on the Web
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