Review My Startup: Coffee & Domains - Simple Domain Registration

13 points by jeffbozek 14 years ago | 22 comments

Hi everyone.

I've been lurking on the site for awhile now. Judging from some of the posts related to domain registration and a lot of the comments on those posts I figured people were having the same issues I was with domain registrars. I decided to go ahead and build something I would use. This is my first step: A simple, clean, and clearly priced domain registration and management product without the annoying upselling. I'd like to keep building on this and add things like SSL certs, an API, add-ons for Google Apps (and more), and an iPhone app. I'd also like to eventually (if things go well) get accredited by ICANN as a registrar and no longer be a reseller.

I'm hoping to get some feedback right now though. What do you dislike about it? What features do you need to see to buy a domain from a place like me? What would stop you from making a purchase? Would you use this product as-is? And anything else you have to say after looking at the site really.

The site is https://www.coffeeanddomains.com

Any and all feedback is welcome.

Thanks!

jawns 14 years ago |

My first impression:

If you're trying to distinguish yourself by being simpler, clearer, and less aggressive than the competition, then I'd say you can stand to take it a bit further with the design of your site.

Go full-on minimalist with your homepage, sort of like the Google homepage.

I'm thinking the only things that need to be on the page are:

* A small logo identifying the site

* $10

* .com, .net, .org

* an input field for the desired domain name

darkmethod 14 years ago |

My initial reaction, "trust is going to be an issue."

Besides that, my first search attempt "www.domainsdoneright.com" brought up as unavailable for the TLDs com net and org. However using "domainsdoneright" brought up com as unavailable, net and org as available. I didn't check for accuracy using whois. Regardless, these results on your app should be consistent. You're going to need to filter for these alternate inputs.

jeffbozek 14 years ago | |

I definitely agree on the trust issue. What do you think would instill more trust?

jeffbozek 14 years ago | |

Also agree on the filtering. I'll work on improving that.

cmontgomeryb 14 years ago |

Unfortunately I don't have anything particularly constructive to add, just that I hope this does take off - it's definitely needed and I would be a customer.

The reason I'm not a customer yet (and there is a domain or two I'm toying with picking up) is that I don't know that you are going to be around next year, and I've no idea what happens to my domain in that situation. As much as I hate GoDaddy, I don't see them disappearing any time soon so unfortunately that's where most of my domains currently are. Can you do anything to reassure me on either of those points? Do you know how much you need to make to stay in business and make it worth your while, and how likely are you to meet that?

Best of luck!

jeffbozek 14 years ago | |

Thanks for the feedback!

In regards to how much I would need to stay in business: The current cost to keep the site up is just under $200 per month. My revenues are already above that. Obviously my credit card transaction fees need to be deducted and the registrar I resell through will get a cut. I plan on paying that out of pocket if it makes no money because I enjoy using it for my domain portfolio and I think my friends do too.

In regards to what would happen if it did shutdown (I obviously would prefer this not to happen): The registrar I resell through (Key-Systems) would then be the registrar you would use. They are among the 15 largest registrars (according to ICANN) and manage more than 3 million domains.

I hope that answers some of your questions. I do agree that with something like domain registrations you have to be very careful.

Thanks!

bradmerrill 14 years ago | |

I agree - that's gonna be everyone's biggest worry until it takes off.

codingsolo 14 years ago |

The site looks great! The favicon should be a one-off of the donut instead of a scaled down version w/ those colors. It appears a muddied.

Your fat footer could host more content, also. The bottom-right logo could stand to be larger.

freejack 14 years ago |

Spend some time on the business model. How many domains are you going to need to sell to cover the costs of your accreditation? Hire another programmer? Turn a profit? Domains is a tough business, be smart about it.

pkamb 14 years ago |

Your "$10 to buy .com!" buttons don't have padding. Despite giving us nice big Call to Action buttons to click... we still have to precisely target the message text itself rather than the button image.

jeffbozek 14 years ago | |

Sorry about that. Thanks for letting me know. I'll fix that!

pkamb 14 years ago | | |

No need to say sorry :D

mike-cardwell 14 years ago |

I don't really have anything constructive to say. I just wanted to say that I think your UI is refreshingly pleasant to use for a domain registration site.

jeffbozek 14 years ago |

Clickable link: https://www.coffeeanddomains.com

naturalethic 14 years ago |

No nonsense registration + dns zone management is something I've been looking for. Add dns management!

jawns 14 years ago |

Just out of curiosity, whose services are you reselling?

jeffbozek 14 years ago | |

I'm reselling Key Systems services.

olegious 14 years ago | | |

By "reselling" do you mean you're an affiliate?

unitedtechguys 14 years ago |

We wrote about you here: http://unitedtechguys.com/2011/07/11/coffee-domains-domain-r...

jeffbozek 14 years ago | |

Awesome. Thank you so much!