.ws domains from Global Domains International

A number of people have asked us if they can use a .ws domain name registered through Global Domains International (GDI) for their PearlMaker System.

The short answer is no.

Here's the longer answer...

First, the .ws domain space does not mean "web site". That's just marketing propaganda.

The .ws domain tag identifies domains registered in the Western Samoa domain space, and it's relatively expensive.

The minimum fee (for domains containing four or more letters) is US$35 per year, although GoDaddy.com has them on offer at US$9.99 per year (at time of writing). For domain names with only three letters, the annual fee is US$500-$1,000 and for domain names with only two letters the annual fee is US$2,500.

This isn't an unreasonable marketing strategy, however, because the .ws tag has far more universal application than simply identifying Samoan top level domain names.

It's like the .tv top level domain (TLD) space. It was originally the top level domain space for Tuvalu, another South Pacific island nation. But it was sold (before the government of Tuvalu realised its true worth) to a US-based company which, through clever marketing, has created more universal appeal by making it synonymous with television.

Registrations of TLDs in some small countries has become an important source of export income for them, and we applaud their resourcefulness in recognising this marketing opportunity.

Global Domains International and .ws domains

GDI provides a domain name registration service to clients of its web hosting and marketing system. In other words, it registers the domain name you want with www.samoanic.ws in Samoa in the same way that a shopping service does your shopping for you. It's a convenience service to save you time and money.

Anyone could provide this service... including you. No accreditation is required.

Because of the way it presents its marketing message — including its business name — many people are left with the impression that GDI is an official registrar for .ws domain names.

It's not, and what you're really signing up for is a web hosting and marketing system that's not dissimilar to SkyBiz2000, but without the illegal pyramid selling scheme that made that business such a notorious scam. GDI may lack total transparency in its marketing practices, but there's nothing to suggest that it's anything but a legitimate business.

You need to understand what Global Domains International really offers. It's a web hosting service with a very clever marketing system and affiliate program designed to appeal to inexperienced web users, or to people wanting to earn income from selling the GDI service to inexperienced web users.

Since it's really in the business of selling web hosting, with domain names as a key part of its marketing strategy, it only offers domain name forwarding if you host your web site with another web host. This is a redirect service only. So you cannot set up multiple email accounts for that domain name, or use URLs that point to individual directories or pages on your site.

In other words, GDI simply registers a .ws domain name on your behalf with the REAL registrar as a service to effectively lock you into hosting your web site with GDI. It's a very clever marketing strategy for its real service: web hosting.

This is the reason why you can't use a .ws domain name from Global Domains International for your PearlMaker Sponsoring System.

It's not because we can't or won't accept .ws domain names. We can, if you register them directly with an accredited domain name registrar offering .ws domain names. It's just that domain names registered on your behalf by Global Domains International can't be fully delegated to other DNS servers because they're tied to GDI's hosting service.

.ws domain names cannot be transferred to another registrar

This domain space is unusual, because it has only one registrar. All others are really resellers, not true registrars. The .ws central registry does not allow .ws domain names to be transferred to another registrar.