Leased subdomains question

[William]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge in leasing subdomains, anything to consider, and Nominet's view on it - I'm getting a bit lost in all the Nominet documentation! It appears to be allowed provided I'm not 'selling' a subdomain outright.

The idea would be owning a certain domain, and leasing out subdomains of it on a monthly basis. A conceptual example (it's not one of these domains) would be owning forsale.uk or company.uk and leasing:

cars.forsale.uk
clothes.forsale.uk
houses.forsale.uk
etc...

or

plumbing.company.uk
building.company.uk
security.company.uk
etc...

The idea would be that the snappy subdomain could be used in marketing (e.g. in advertising, on the side of a company''s van, or somewhere where it may be easier to remember something shorter - security.company.uk vs johnsmithssecurityservicesltd.co.uk), or 'lease' a package to comapnies that don't currently have much online prescence / a website / want a revamp. Build and host a basic website for them including the snappy domain for a fixed monthly price (e.g. £50/75/100 a month depending on the subdomain and web requirements).

Alternatively, the snapy subdomain could point to their existing website, but again, be used in advertising etc...

Does anyone have any (constructive ) thoughts or considerations, or reasons why it wouldn't work?

Appreciate anything!

Thanks in advance,

William

 

[dee]

This is exactly what it.com are doing at the moment.

 

[DJ]

This idea would only be as good as the domain name. I imagine it would have to be a real belter to gain traction.

 

[diablo]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge in leasing subdomains, anything to consider, and Nominet's view on it - I'm getting a bit lost in all the Nominet documentation! It appears to be allowed provided I'm not 'selling' a subdomain outright.

Why not ask Nominet directly? That's the first hurdle to clear. Then if you get the green light, there's no reason why it wouldn't work on suitable names.

 

[William]

Thanks all! That's really helpful, plus hadn't seen IT.com's setup - it's interesting!

Contacted Nominet and they said no issues. So hopefully watch this space...

 

[diablo]

Thanks all! That's really helpful, plus hadn't seen IT.com's setup - it's interesting!

Contacted Nominet and they said no issues. So hopefully watch this space...

Be really interesting to hear how your plans develop. Good luck!