Domain Registry of America

Domain Registry of America sent me a potentially misleading letter. If you receive something similar, send the letter back marked Return to sender.

The letter started with the heading:

Domain Name Expiration Notice

The letter was an invoice for the renewal of a domain name registration that I had not requested.

Rush Job

When people try to talk you in to handing over money for something you do not need, they make the transaction sound urgent. This letter made the renewal sound urgent even though I do not have to do anything for over four months. If you receive a letter that implies an urgency, be very suspicious.

Companies usually send you a renewal one or two months before it is due. If someone sends you a renewal earlier, check very carefully that it is a legitimate renewal and not just a con artist trying to steal your money. Most people get bitten at least once and pay a bill they do not need to pay or buy something they later regret.

Most of the market is wary of the urgency trick. To use the trick to increase sales, you need a genuine time oriented excuse and honesty up front about the issue.

Most companies fail to get significant business from a clearance sale because there are clearance sales every week. David Jones can run a successful clearance sale because they run a clearance sale just once per year and advertise the fact that they run the clearance sale just once per year.

Some shops have a permanent closing down or liquidation sale. When people see the sale sign up for the second week, people stop shopping at that shop because there is no urgency.

There are genuine deals available. A shop might get an extra few percent discount from a supplier if sales increase past a certain point. The savings are rarely as great as the huge discounts offered by the con artists. If a discount is 60 percent, then the product is damaged, obsolete, second hand, stolen, or all of those.

Some frauds are hard to pick. One domain registry offered to reduce my domain name registration fee from $60 to $50 dollars per year if I paid for 10 years in advance. The discount sounded genuine because it is a reasonable discount for paying in advance. Unfortunately for that registry, I already knew that specific registration was available from legitimate resellers for $8 per year.

As a buyer, you need to look at specials while thinking how much can I save buy not buying anything. As a seller, you need to answer the same question for the buyer using comparisons relevant to the buyer.

Wrong Company

I have never purchased anything from Domain Registry of America or even enquired about their services. Reject letters from unknown companies. Some of the letters are credit card frauds.

If you are sending out this type of letter, please tell the prospect why they were selected. If you are selling something of interest to business owners and are using a mailing list gathered from business magazine subscriptions, then tell your prospect.

Dear Jill, we are writing to people who read business magazines because we know successful managers want to replace their BMW with a Mercedes and everyone else wants a Mercedes to pretend they are successful.

Try for honesty. Dear Jill, we are writing to people who read Womans Day magazine because we know they are impressionable suckers for .... You might not want that level of honesty. If you cannot keep your sales pitch honest then at least be honest about the source of their contact information.

Dear Jill, we are writing to people who read Womans Day magazine because you buy shampoo. We have a new shampoo that prevents cancer, increases fertility, makes men commit, promotes world peace, and gives you a lovely suntan. Stocks are genuinely limited because we make the shampoo from the tear ducts of the rare Panda. Your first bottle is only 2999 dollars payable in monthly instalments of just 349 dollars.

Wrong Price

The letter from Domain Registry of America quotes a price 300% more than retail. The price is 400% more than wholesale. Clearly they only need replies from a few suckers to become rich. The Internet lets you check most prices in a few seconds. Please compare prices and ask why a price is higher.

If you are selling by mail and including a price in the offer, research the alternatives and explain the difference. An honest open approach will make some prospects choose to not buy and that will be offset by a lower rate of return under your money back guarantee.

Return to Sender

If you throw the letter in the bin, the sender will continue sending their misleading mail. They have a profit margin based on mail being very cheap. You can increase their cost by marking the letter Return to sender then dropping the letter back in to the mail. They have to pay an extra fee for returned mail.

Sending one letter back may not stop them sending you mail because some of these con artists are too sloppy with their mail management. You might have to send back several mail over many months. Part of the fun is guessing from the outside of a letter which mail is legitimate and which is fraudulent. Fortunately you can steam open mail, read the content, reseal the mail, then send the mail back.

Marketing people can reduce the cost of those returns by offering a free alternative. Contact me for details.

Conclusion

If you receive something similar to the letter from Domain Registry of America, send the letter back. If you are sending out the letters and receiving lots of letters back, call me for ways to improve your marketing.