Affiliate Domain Name Registrars

 Affiliate domain registrars are websites that do not perform domain name registration by themselves, but instead use services of accredited registrars. Most accredited registrars have standardized the procedure of becoming an affiliate by introducing formal affiliate programs (e.g. Register.com, NetworkSolutions.com) and paying 15-30% commissions for every registration by a referred customer. This opportunity to generate comparatively large profits with virtually no investment, gave birth to thousands of sites offering domain registration services.

There are two types of affiliate registrars: sites that redirect customers to accredited registrars and do not deal with domain name management and customer service and sites which outsource just the registration functionality, manage the domain and provide customer service. 

 Increasing competition caused the accredited domain registrars to come up with even more sophisticated expansion strategies. After Tucows.com Inc. became accredited by ICANN (even though domain registration is not its primary business), came up with DomainDirect.com - its retail domain registrar, which offers a regular affiliate program and OpenSRS.net - the wholesale domain registrar. OpenSRS provides businesses with a quota and a customizable interface for registering domain names. Businesses (later called outsourcing affiliate registrars) pay for the option to register a specified amount of available domain names and undertake the responsibility to manage these domains as well as to provide customer support. The price of a domain name for a business can be as low as $10 per year, depending on the volume. Some of these registrars also offer affiliate programs or have multiple virtually identical mirror sites, which help them compete for "uneducated traffic[i]".