By: Michael Goldstein on March 27th, 2013
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OpenSRS resellers should have an inside track on at least one great new gTLD…

http://tucowsinc.com/news/2013/03/domain-industry-veterans-team-up-to-run-online/

By: Michael Goldstein on March 14th, 2013
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It has come to my attention that not every reseller visits our Marketing Resources every day. So I wanted to quickly highlight some co-op print ads we created to help those of you that promote Ting.

We have three versions, highlighting different benefits. Each come in two layouts – a standard magazine and a half-page horizontal newspaper. Each focus on the significant savings that businesses and families could realize by switching to Ting.

There is a blank area for your “Authorized Reseller” logo and a call to action that should be customized to include your unique URL. We provide PDFs for easy viewing, EPS files and the Ting font file.

Enjoy! Please let us know if you find these useful and if there is anything else we can do to help.

By: Michael Goldstein on March 8th, 2013
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If you’ve spent any time reading us or drinking with us, you have almost certainly heard a member of the Tucows herd singing the praises of the Open Internet and vowing to either enlighten or destroy its enemies. It’s sort of our thing. We are thrilled and humbled by what can be achieved when billions of people have access to information and a vehicle to communicate, collaborate and co-create. We are increasingly wary of large corporations that are willing to compromise consumer experiences and impede progress to protect their market shares. We are similarly concerned about politicians that legislate on the Internet without truly understanding the world they are affecting.

So we were thrilled when some friends approached us about an organization called the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition). The i2Coalition launched about six months ago to provide a voice in Washington, D.C for the folks who “power” the Internet – principally web hosting companies and services, like ours, that support their efforts. After the SOPA and PIPA fight over a year ago, industry experts recognized the need for continued leadership in the ongoing public policy debate about the Internet. Tucows proudly joined with more than 40 other industry allies to be a founding member of the i2Coalition to help educate Congress and protect Internet freedoms.

The i2Coalition has experienced a great deal of success since its official launch last September. The i2Coalition recently hosted Internet Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill, where they educated lawmakers and opinion leaders about the Internet and how it works. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jerry Moran (R-KS), as well as Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), joined the i2Coalition at an educational event focusing on just how the Internet works.

Since its launch, the i2Coalition has been a leading voice in many domestic and global policy discussions, including cybersecurity, privacy, and patent reform as well as continuing to work with lawmakers to promote how the nuts and bolts of the Internet work.

The i2Coalition stands ready for the next legislative battle and is recruiting allies to join the fight.  They’re kicking off a membership drive with a webinar “12 Reasons to Join the i2Coalition: What You Get and Why It Matters” on Tuesday, March 26 from 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM CDT. Sign up to learn about membership or visit www.i2coalition.com/join to become a member today.

We think the i2Coalition is doing great work to represent and protect many of your interests in Washington, D.C. We also think many of you would have great ideas and expertise to bring to this initiative. Please check out their website, attend the webinar and consider supporting their efforts.

By: Michael Goldstein on January 21st, 2013
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We are checking out a new industry show this year that we think could be relevant to a lot of you.

Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas at The Venetian & Sands Expo Feb. 27-March 1.

It looks similar to the hosting conferences where we tend to meet many of you. Companies like us with products and services to offer come to meet companies like you with end user relationships to offer. This event is focused on the telecom industry. We will be talking mostly about Ting and a bit about our email service. If you offer mobile, VOIP and other telephony solutions to your business customers, this could be chance to learn a bit about the latest trends and products and connect with some of the providers. If you have not ventured into this world much, it is a chance to gauge the opportunity.

It sounds like it will be well attended. We would love to see some of you there.

You can register here.

Use our code, exh13, for a free pass to the Expo Hall or $50 off the Conference and Expo Pass.

By: Erik Bartz on December 19th, 2012
Posted in: General, Inside OpenSRS
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It has been a busy year at OpenSRS, so I thought I’d take the time to look back at some of the highlights.

ccTLDs

We bought epag in 2011, helping us add over 100 new second and third-level extensions to our portfolio. But doing so took plenty of development and time incorporating them into OpenSRS, making it easier for you to do business around the globe all from a single platform. And we’re not done yet!

Working Better with Third-Party Systems

We joined the Parallels Domain Name Network early in the year so resellers can signup to sell OpenSRS directly within Parallels products. Plus we’ve been testing updated and more robust plugins for WHMCS.

goMobi Updates

We’ve had goMobi available for a couple years now, but I think you’d agree some great new features were rolled out this year to make it worth a mention. Some of the new features included: custom icons, live previews, more sharing options, more site templates, custom background images, plus many more. We’ve seen incredible interest in this product, and can’t wait to see the new sites you build with it.

Ting Offers

We rolled out a revenue sharing Offer for Ting, the Tucows mobile phone MVNO in the US. While still new and relatively small, we’re very excited about the growth in Ting and working with our resellers to expand its reach. And for resellers who’d like to try before recommending Ting, we launched trial program called Taste of Ting.

Webmail 5.6 

Our hosted email product got a nice facelift on the front-end and some much needed upgrades in the backend. Although email suffered some unfortunate outages this year, we’ve removed the main source of the problem from our infrastructure. 2013 should be much smoother…

Super Low EV Pricing and UC/SAN Certs

In September we cut pricing on Extended Validation certificates across the board to be industry leading; and boy have you seized the opportunity. Making the jump from OV to EV certs for the better features is now a much smaller price gap; which is a great value proposition you can make to your customers. Perhaps 2013 will be the year DV certs go away…

Help & Support Upgrades

Part of being “Reseller Friendly” is providing a great customer support experience. To help us achieve this for you each we’ve begun rolling out a few ‘upgrades.’ First, the new support site which brings together in one place our announcements, knowledge bases and forums; plus a robust ticketing system. We’ve also begun asking for feedback after each ticket is resolved and closed; not only telling us how we’re doing but giving insights into how we can improve going forward.

We’re delighted to have you as part of the OpenSRS ecosystem; and we’re looking forward to surprising and delighting you in 2013.