The price of owning a .COM and .NET domain names is going up. Verisign, the owner of the Registry for .COM and .NET domain names, is putting up its wholesale pricing as of October 15from $6.00 to $6.42 per domain name.

If ICANN had put this out to bid, the price would be on its way down. Verisign negotiated this little deal with ICANN, the organization that oversees domain names, so that they now have the ability to raise prices on their domain names every year. EVERY year. They can negotiate raising prices at least 7% each year for 4 of the next 6 years, and twice more for security or stability. Translated: expect to see the prices of domain names go up every year.

This little coup increases Verisign's profit by $23,000,000. Their secure certificates have always been among the most expensive by comparison with others, it's pretty clear where they're going to drive domain name pricing.