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By: James Koole on May 29th, 2009
Posted in: OpenSRS Services
Tags: .TEL
Comments: 0

Two items of note from Telnic, the Registry operator for the .TEL domain extension:

MX Records for .TEL domains

First up, Telnic has let us know that they will be updating the TelHosting platform on Thursday June 4th, 2009. The big news in this release of the web-based application where you manage your .TEL domains is the addition of MX Record management. We’ve had a couple of requests to add the ability to add MX records to .TEL domains since the launch of .TEL a few months back.

With this new release, it will be easy to add MX Records and to offer .TEL domain owners the ability to use their .TEL domains as email addresses.

.TEL domain owners can log in to the TelHosting platform at http://telhosting.opensrs.com/. There won’t be any downtime associated with the upgrade to the TelHosting platform, although Telnic suggests that users logged in at the time of the upgrade might experience a loss of session, requiring a re-login.

We’ll follow up with a few screenshots showing how to manage MX Records on Thursday, once the new version is up and running.

Superbook iPhone App

Also of note is the release of a new .TEL app for the iPhone called Superbook. Users of Apple’s popular phone and mobile Internet device can grab the app for free from the iPhone App Store. There’s more information for developers at the Telnic developers website. Interestingly, .TEL releases all its apps as open source projects, so you could download the source and create your own customized version of the app if you were so inclined.

Superbook allows iPhone users to lookup .TEL domains, act on the information (including dialing the stored phone numbers). It also uses the location services built into the iPhone to find .TEL entries based on your current location and the location data stored in the .TEL domain.

This application opens up some interesting possibilities for .TEL domains, especially considering the location integration. Users could use the app to find companies or retailers that are nearby, or use the app to keep track of friends.

The app is free.

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By: James Koole on May 27th, 2009
Posted in: Announcements
Tags: Promotions
Comments: 0

Starting on June 1st, and continuing through until the end of July, both .US and .ORG domain names are on sale!

• .US domains will be just $3 which is 70% off the usual price. This promo lines up perfectly with the 4th of July and the U.S. Independence Day celebrations. Take advantage and offer .US domains to your customers as a way to show their patriotism.
• .ORG domains will also be on sale at a Registry cost of $5.50. Remember that .ORG are sold under our cost-plus model, meaning you’ll need to add your management fee and the ICANN fee. The regular Registry cost for .ORG domains is $6.75.

You’ll need to sign up to receive the special pricing, and we also ask that you agree to some basic terms and conditions. Click for more details about these promos and our other ongoing promo campaigns.

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By: OpenSRS Team on May 26th, 2009
Posted in: Events
Tags: WHIR Networking Events
Comments: 0

The WHIR continue their incredible series of networking events all over North America with a stop in Los Angeles on Thursday June 18th at House of Blues Sunset Strip.

Solomon Amoako, Sara Lopes, and Le Quan Truong from the OpenSRS team are attending and would enjoy the chance to get to know you better. While you’re there, be sure to get in on the prize drawing where you could win a cool Wifi Internet Radio!

The events are free, but you must RSVP and there is a limited number of spots available, so act fast.

Special thanks to Flickr user Stephen Dyrgas for making his image available under a Creative Commons license.

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By: OpenSRS Team on May 26th, 2009
Posted in: Partners and Resellers
Tags: Meet the Resellers
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This latest installment in the “Meet the Resellers” series features Steffan Søndermark Fallesen, founder of Servage, an innovative web host located in Germany.

Steffan Søndermark Fallesen, Servage (and friend)

James McNally (JM): How long has Servage been doing business and what are all the services you offer to your customers?

Steffan Søndermark Fallesen (SSF): I started Servage Hosting in 2004 with the dream of providing one package that included everything so that customers could grow with it without having to upgrade or make advanced purchase decisions.

Servage Hosting has a unique position in the webhosting market with our simple strategy. We still offer one solution that is loaded with features and includes absolutely everything that a webmaster needs. Every week new features are added and our customers trust that we continuously add new and exciting functions to our package.

JM: Any interesting stories from your company’s history?

SSF: Servage is really all about software and great service. So unlike almost all other webhosting companies we started out developing our own cluster structure and control panel software. We wanted to be the first company to offer clustered webhosting to the mass market so that everyone could take advantage of this great new technology.

The first year we went from just two server racks to filling out the colocation facility where our servers were located. So without planning much we had to start building our own datacenter from scratch which was a major challenge for us at the time.

JM: How did you personally get into the Internet business?

SSF: I have been playing around with computers as long as I can remember and ended up studying computer science. During my studies, I did the initial coding on the cluster backend software and after graduation all my time was spent on making Servage ready for business.

Harbor, Flensburg, Germany

JM: Where are you located and what makes it such a great place to do business?

SSF: Our company is located in Flensburg which is probably one of the most beautiful locations in Germany. Located by the sea and surrounded by nature it is just an ideal place to live, and combined with a fairly large university it is a great business location too!

I grew up in Denmark and after my studies I needed to select a location to start Servage. At that time Germany was just a better place to purchase bandwidth, so without many thoughts I selected the nicest town and moved here.

JM: How long have you been an OpenSRS Reseller and how has your partnership with OpenSRS helped your company succeed?

SSF: Servage has been using OpenSRS from day one and we have been quite pleased. When we started out we needed a provider with a really good API and OpenSRS provided us with that, along with fair pricing.

JM: What can we do to make the relationship stronger?

SSF: You have done quite a bit already, especially lately, when we got a visit from Marco Zuliani and Elliot Noss. It was nice to meet a few of you guys face to face.

If you’re a reseller interested in sharing your story with our readers, get in touch with me (jamesmATopensrsDOTcom). We’d love to hear from you!

Special thanks to Flickr user Arne List for making his image available under a Creative Commons license.

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By: OpenSRS Team on May 21st, 2009
Posted in: Reseller Resources
Tags:
Comments: 1

Yesterday, a few members of our marketing team and myself conducted a conference call with one of our resellers, brainstorming ideas to help them improve their use of social media. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock lately, you’ve probably been hearing a lot about this “social media” thing and why your business should be using it. For a quick intro, check out the clever video above.

Simply put, the web has evolved to the point where our web sites are no longer one-way broadcasts to an unseen, unheard audience. Tools like blogs, podcasts, photo- and video-sharing sites and forums have democratized the web forever, allowing customers to talk back to the companies whose products they use. This can feel a bit scary for companies just venturing in. We’ve been doing this for a while, and although we still learn something new every day, I thought it might be useful to share a few general principles we’ve found to be useful:

• Communicate in a human voice, not a corporate voice: Your customers are human beings and they like dealing with other human beings. The truth is that every company is run by real people. Don’t be afraid to show a little of your unique personality online.
• Your customers are talking about you online. Make sure you know what they’re saying: Brand monitoring is essential, and can be as simple as setting up some free Google alerts that email you when your company name shows up on a web page. Sometimes customers don’t tell us things directly, but they always want to be heard and listened to.
• Own your brand: Social media tools are springing up all the time, and it’s important to check them out early, even if it’s just to register your company name as a username. If you don’t, you leave yourself vulnerable to a disgruntled customer doing it for you. Not every celebrity on Twitter is the actual person, and it’s the same for companies.

In true social media style, we’d like to hear from you. Are you using social media tools yet at your business? What’s been most effective for you? Have any pointers for us and our resellers?

P.S. While we’re at it, why not follow us on Twitter? I’m @JamesMOpenSRS, and you can follow our main account by clicking on the nifty icon in the sidebar. You can also receive status page updates by following @OpenSRSstatus.