Domain name prices

[Dr. Prop]

I am looking to purchase a domain name, and I am trying to understand how they are priced. hover.com prices domain names on a subscription price / year basis. However, I have heard that people reserve many domains (like 10s of domains) without putting functional websites on them. For example, savetheunionjack.com simply redirects to CGP Grey's home page, and he claims to be reserving many more domains besides. At 10-50 USD per year per domain, I am dubious that CGP Grey is paying hundreds of dollars per year to sit on non-functional domain names from a service like hover. Is this actually the case or is it possible to buy a domain name out right or purchase it for less than hover.com's prices?

[Tabs]

16 minutes ago, Erwins Kitten said:

I am looking to purchase a domain name, and I am trying to understand how they are priced. hover.com prices domain names on a subscription price / year basis. However, I have heard that people reserve many domains (like 10s of domains) without putting functional websites on them. For example, savetheunionjack.com simply redirects to CGP Grey's home page, and he claims to be reserving many more domains besides. At 10-50 USD per year per domain, I am dubious that CGP Grey is paying hundreds of dollars per year to sit on non-functional domain names from a service like hover. Is this actually the case or is it possible to buy a domain name out right or purchase it for less than hover.com's prices?

Domain name squatting, the process you're describing, is where you get a domain name for a standard price (usually a few dollars per name per year) from an official registrar, with the hope that someone, somewhere, will want it more than you and you can charge them a lot to transfer the name into their control.

 

If you hunt around, you can find lots of domain registrars. Any internet provider can become authoritative for a domain so long as the domain doesn't already exist; your ISP may be able to do this for you. I still have a few domains that were £1.99 a year when I was with my ISP of the time, and so long as I don't deregister them that's all I'll pay indefinitely.

 

The price you pay is mainly to cover the upkeep and security/administrative costs of running an authoritative DNS server, so unless you decide to become one (a very expensive process), you're tired to paying a yearly price for a domain name. But yeah, 10-50 dollars a month is a high price unless you're buying from a domain broker (the "legitimate" term for domain squatters as a business) where they price them based on how "good" the name is.

Edited August 13, 2018 by Tabs
Grammatical errors