Interview With Bhavin Turakhia [Directi]

This is a great interview with Bhavin Turakhia – Founder and CEO of Directi. Domain investors will know many of their brands including ResellerClub, Skenzo, LogicBoxes, WebHosting.Info.

Enjoy!

My Easter Present = A Domain & Namecheap Coupons

While eating my hot cross buns this morning I received an email from Snapnames support. It seems that 4 months ago I won a domain at auction and did not receive the credentials from the registrar, Directi.

This wasn’t a pro-active step on the part of Directi or Snapnames; I had contacted Snapnames after winning the auction requesting their assistance to get the credentials. When I logged into Directi I noticed that auto-renew was conveniently turned OFF.

Here are the lessons I learned (again) from this experience:

1. Keep track of the domains you win at auction.
2. Ensure you are sent the credentials – if you don’t get them, follow up with the auction/backordering company.
3. Have your default DNS settings (at the auction company) point to your favorite parking company.
4. Add the domain name to your parking company a few days after you win the auction.
5. When you get the credentials, transfer the domain to your favorite registrar – that way you dont have domains spread everywhere.

Points 3 and 4 will ensure that when the transfer happens, you start earning $$$ immediately. The domain I won had traffic and was directed to my favorite parking company. Unfortunately I did not add it to my portfolio! As such, the parking company has made 4 months of revenue from it. This makes me wonder; what is the % of names pointing to a parking company that don’t have an owner? Must be a nice little earner for the parking company!

I eneded up transferring the name to NameCheap. While doing that, I tested out a few coupons. Here are the ones that work today:

SWITCH2NC – $6.99 transfers
7TULIPS – $6.99 transfers

Happy Easter!

Divyank Turkhia – Owning Your Own Registrar – D2S1 – Live from Traffic DownUnder 2008

Divyank Turkhia is the President Directi. The presentation is quite fast paced, so I’ll try to keep up with the most valuable information.

What’s the wholesale price including ICANN fees?

• .com $7.06
• .net $5.18
• .org $6.95
• .biz $6.62
• .info $6.95
• .name $6.20

Registrar Landscape

• 75% of all registrars have < 5000 domain names each.

Risks Of Not Owning Your Own Registrar

• Juristiction risks. eg: Kentucky, cost of litigation.
• Probability of law suit
• False spam and AUP violation complaints
• Domain renewal risks
• Fraudulent legal notices sent to registrars.

Important Point: Every registrar gets a 45 day auto-renew grace period (AGP).

Privacy of Information

• Not based on Privacy laws of the registrars juristiction, but based on processes set by the registrar

Primary Advantages Of Owning Your Own Registrar

• Maximum security and privacy
• Access to all registry promotion programs
• Domains at cost
• Ultimate control and complete autonomy
• Participation in new TLD launches (landrush and sunrise)
• Ability to make use of a domain during the entire AGP period. Increases liquidity and reduces cost.
• Registrar level transfer locks

Directi Caught Up With 48 Phantom Registrars & Malware Allegations

An interesting story is unfolding thanks to the detective work of Dan Goodin at the Register and many security researchers.  Apparently Directi has “amended its relationship with Estdomains and stopped providing the Estonian registrar with the PrivacyProtect service”.

It’s been reported that Directi CEO Bhavin Turakhia objected to this article that alleged LogicBoxes was associated by Atrivo – an entity that apparently hosts malicious software. The article references work conducted by security researchers. For example:

• The 48 phantom registrars linked to Directi.
• Atrivo Cyber Crime USA – Whitepaper on Atrivo and their Associates

The whitepaper makes very interesting reading.

It appears that there is some debate as to ICANNs requirements. Some people claim that registrars have to identify their business name and address.

The Register interviewed Turakhia from Directi who allegedly said that the “the companies are incorporated in Delaware, although no employees actually work there” and that “listings for all 48 registrars contain a phone number and email address where a principal can be reached.”

Stacy Burnette, Director of Contractual Compliance at ICANN told The Register that:

“telephone numbers in the contact information need not correspond to the location of incorporation“

“ICANN doesn’t require registrars to publicly disclose their place of incorporation.“

What The? This has got me thinking about my domain portfolio…. the Registerfly issues last year…. perhaps it’s time to track down exactly where the registrars trade and who is behind them.