I am just getting started with business clients as all of my previous work has been with residential and the occasional "I got a virus and I work for a business" client. This question is regarding registering domains and managing them for clients. How do you guys do it? Let each business sign up with godaddy and register their own domain name and have them keep up with the account number and password so you can make changes that need to be done in setting up things like Office365 or hosted exchange? Or do you keep an account and have them registered through your business account and "sell" it to them for $0 if you were to part ways? I am currently doing the first option but wondering if there is any better ways out there. I am going through this business and doing a IT audit of everything and getting them setup with actual business class hardware and software as right now they have a hodgepodge consumer grade "stuff". (some of it I wouldn't even use at home) Thanks for any ideas.
Managing and keeping up with customer's domains
- Thread starter cstech
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twincountycomputers
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For me it's all or nothing, either I host the website and the email and control the domain name, or I don't host the website, the email and control the domain name.
I DO register the company as the "owner" contact during domain registration and will gladly transfer the domain to some other host if the customer wishes (and they are paid up). I have found over the years that unless I'm the one in control, it's not worth the hassle of being yelled at when "my" email doesn't work because the webhost changed servers and forgot to copy over the DNS records.
I DO register the company as the "owner" contact during domain registration and will gladly transfer the domain to some other host if the customer wishes (and they are paid up). I have found over the years that unless I'm the one in control, it's not worth the hassle of being yelled at when "my" email doesn't work because the webhost changed servers and forgot to copy over the DNS records.
I tell all my clients that they should be the registered owners of their own domains. I just think it's the right way to do it and the right thing to do.
I've had one or two clients get burned by other IT guys who registered the clients domain in their names, since as the registered owner, they can do whatever they want with it.
It depends how you want to handle it as far as billing; whether you pay, mark up and then bill them, or what.
I just always make sure it's registered to the proper owner.
I've had one or two clients get burned by other IT guys who registered the clients domain in their names, since as the registered owner, they can do whatever they want with it.
It depends how you want to handle it as far as billing; whether you pay, mark up and then bill them, or what.
I just always make sure it's registered to the proper owner.
YeOldeStonecat
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We have a wholesale account with GoDaddy.
Most of our clients...we've registered. Clients admin info is also on the registration...to make it easier for them to move it if they like.
However GoDaddys DNS and web and mail sucks....so we use the big golden oldie...RackSpace, for that.
So we register the domains at GoDaddy...point its DNS to RackSpace's DNS servers. And then do the rest at RackSpace....DNS management, web hosting, e-mail hosting, etc.
There are some cases where the domain and DNS is managed by someone else...yet we'll do something like the e-mail filtering. So be it..we work with them to do the DNS records and what's needed. Or there's some cases (like 2x clients I brought in today)....websites already hosted by someone else, but those other hosting companies had crappy or unreliable e-mail..so I took that over. Yet they will still host the websites. So I take over DNS, and point the @ 'n WWW records to wherever is necessary.
We charge them a decent fee each year for maintaining that. Do auto renewals, etc. This way domains don't expire and cause big emergencies like website down or e-mail down. It's well worth it for our clients. It's part of being an MSP...we "manage all their IT needs".
Most of our clients...we've registered. Clients admin info is also on the registration...to make it easier for them to move it if they like.
However GoDaddys DNS and web and mail sucks....so we use the big golden oldie...RackSpace, for that.
So we register the domains at GoDaddy...point its DNS to RackSpace's DNS servers. And then do the rest at RackSpace....DNS management, web hosting, e-mail hosting, etc.
There are some cases where the domain and DNS is managed by someone else...yet we'll do something like the e-mail filtering. So be it..we work with them to do the DNS records and what's needed. Or there's some cases (like 2x clients I brought in today)....websites already hosted by someone else, but those other hosting companies had crappy or unreliable e-mail..so I took that over. Yet they will still host the websites. So I take over DNS, and point the @ 'n WWW records to wherever is necessary.
We charge them a decent fee each year for maintaining that. Do auto renewals, etc. This way domains don't expire and cause big emergencies like website down or e-mail down. It's well worth it for our clients. It's part of being an MSP...we "manage all their IT needs".
TAPtech
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I support existing registrations but always recommend the client switches to my registrar. Registration is pretty dang simple but it makes everything way easier if I have it all "under my wing." I use Enom. It came with the HostGator reseller, I moved away from HostGator but stuck with Enom for registration.
When you have their registration, hosting, email, etc with your known services and reseller setups, everything is easier.
I would never charge a client to release their domain name. They could sign up for their own Enom account and I can transfer the domain to their account at the click of a button.
I'm moving my business towards StoneCat's model. We're the IT guys, this stuff is/should be easy for us. So we'll take care of it. Just give us some money in exchange
When you have their registration, hosting, email, etc with your known services and reseller setups, everything is easier.
I would never charge a client to release their domain name. They could sign up for their own Enom account and I can transfer the domain to their account at the click of a button.
I'm moving my business towards StoneCat's model. We're the IT guys, this stuff is/should be easy for us. So we'll take care of it. Just give us some money in exchange
YeOldeStonecat
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So we'll take care of it. Just give us some money in exchange
Yup..200 to 250/year based on various things...yup.
Magic Miguel
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Is GoDaddy Wholesale acct same as reseller or is it a different type?
donte10
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In your $250/year domain and dns management service, do you include the domain costs or is that a separate cost that the end client pays for the domain separately? Do you separate each domain into its own account with your wholesale account or do you have 1 account with all of your clients' domains in that 1 account? What about hosting?
YeOldeStonecat
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We include the domain fees itself (so those come out of our fee)....but if they get SSL certs we pass that cost to them (with a markup of course). Also included in that is "basic" website hosting, and if they use the included POP accounts...those will be included.
If they have additional domains...like they own 5x domains, 4 of which just do forwarding or something..of course we greatly reduce the price of those additional ones.
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