Posts in: Reseller Resources

Help and Advice on Implementing New ccTLDs from OpenSRS

Last week we hosted a webinar for Resellers to get you up to speed on the expansion of our ccTLD lineup that we did in December.

Broadcasting live from the OpenSRS Webinar Broadcast Studios (aka Meeting Room 2)

If you missed the news about that launch, you can check out this post from Adam Eisner – we added dozens and dozens of new ccTLDs to the list of extensions you can sell through your OpenSRS reseller account.

Why ccTLDs? Which Ones Should I Offer? What are the Key Differences?

In the webinar, Adam talked about how we ended up adding all these new cTLDs, including some very open and transparent discussion about why we chose the ones we did.

He also provided some great advice on how you should approach bringing new ccTLDs to your customer base – that included thinking about your location, and the markets you serve.

Plus, he took a few minutes to fully explain some of the differences between these new ccTLDs and the rest of the TLDs we offer.

The webinar runs about 30 minutes with some questions and answers. As with all of our webinars, we recorded it (video and audio) so you can watch it when it’s convenient for you. You can access the recording here.

Another Great Webinar in February!

While we’re talking about webinars, we do have another one already lined up and on the schedule for the first week of February. We’re super excited to have Phil Shih from Structure Research in to provide a look at the hosting industry in 2012. This is exclusive to OpenSRS and promises to be an excellent session.

Find out more about that here, and of course, registration is free.

Being Your Customers’ Trusted Provider

Your customers choose you for a variety of reasons – maybe it’s a higher level of customer support, or specific high quality services you offer. Maybe it’s because they know and trust you, or because you are a part of their local community.

There is a real opportunity to be the trusted provider for your customers – and the provider they trust for everything they need, whether that’s domain registrations, hosting, email or whatever else you might offer them.

Do your customers know that you want all of their business, and do you go out of your way to help them move it to you?

Don’t Forget About Domain Transfers

One of the realities of getting started as an OpenSRS Reseller is that a lot of people already have a domain name. That reality makes your life easier because you don’t need to explain to them that having a domain name for their business is important.

Your customers and potential customers already know the value of a good domain and that opens the door for you to start selling things like a mobile website, hosting, web design, email and trust services to them.

But make sure you don’t overlook that domain when you bring the customer on board. Help the customer transfer their domains to you in any way you can so that you are able to offer a complete, end-to-end set of services.

Pro tip: Our retail division actually offers a concierge service that takes care of transfers for their customers. It’s something the customer is often happy to pay for, and it ensures that the transfer is taken care of successfully. Consider offering transfer concierge services to existing customers to get them to move their existing domains to you.

Helpful Resources

We provide a bunch of step-by-step guides that you can use to help those customers get their domains transferred to you. Transfers can sometimes be tricky and it’s important that you help the customer through the process so they don’t get frustrated and give up. You can grab the guides here.

Our Marketing Resource Center is full of helpful resources for domains, trust, email and publishing there for your use. Check it out.

Having the right information is a great help in making sure you get all the business that your customers want to entrust you with.

Thanks to Flickr user TerryJohnston for the photo, released under a Creative Commons license.

Wake up to .XXX Sunrise

The folks at ICM Registry who run the new .XXX domain extension have put together a really nice video that helps explain why you and your customers should be paying attention to the launch of .XXX.

The video is embedded below (and you should feel free to embed it in your own site or blog if you are participating in the .XXX launch – grab the embed code from YouTube).

Want More Information?

For even more information on the launch and how you can help your customers, regardless of whether they are part of the adult community or not, we have a webinar coming up next week Thursday with Patrick Donaldson, Registrar Liaison, ICM Registry.

He’ll give you all the information you need to make an informed choice about whether you want to be a part of the launch. Adam Eisner, our Director of OpenSRS Product Management will also be there to talk about how OpenSRS will support the launch.

Like all OpenSRS webinars, this is a free event.

There’s More to the Launch of .XXX Than You Might Think
Date: Thursday, August 25, 2011
Time: 9:30 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. EDT (13:30 and 18:00 UTC)
Register now

New Video Series Available for Resellers

We put together a five part series called “Creating Compelling Web Video” that you can use to help your customers make better web video content.

The videos take viewers through the various steps they need to take to make video that stands out from the crowd – from choosing hardware, prepping content, shooting, editing and finally sharing the finished product.

As an OpenSRS Reseller, you are free to use the video series however and where ever you wish. No attribution is required. We tried to keep the look as generic as possible and as with all of our marketing materials, you can add your own branding or logo if you want to make it your own.

Available for download and on YouTube

All five parts are available on our YouTube channel but you can also download the videos in .mov format so you can upload them to your own video host, add your own logo or whatever else you might want to do. The videos and other .TV marketing resources are available on our .TV Marketing Resources page.

Video content is a great fit with .TV domains. Remember that we also have a .TV pricing promotion happening right now through the end of the year. More details on that promo and the signup form are here if you aren’t already taking advantage.

Part one of the series is embedded below to give you a sense of the content and also the production values:

Free Marketing Content: Why Business Needs a Professional Email Address

A short while ago, Michael wrote a plea from Marketing inviting our Resellers to tell us what they need from us that would help them be more successful.

One of the requests was for us to craft some content around the positioning of free vs paid email accounts using domain names for end users. We took a couple of stabs at it, and along with input from you, we’ve produced this one pager you can use however you like. It’s available in our email marketing resources section.

Go ahead and customize it for your own brand, copy and paste into you website, whatever you like. And don’t forget we’re always here for you… tell us what you need and we’ll get on it!

Professional Email Addresses

A lack of trust and perceived professionalism can directly translate to lost revenue.

There are lots of ways you’ve worked to build positive brand and inspire trust with your clients. Pleasant phone greetings when client calls in, a professional sign over the office entrance, even stationary on a nice paper stock are important to let your clients know that you’re serious about your business.

But what about having your own domain name for email?

How does it look after a great conversation with a potential customer when you hand them your card and your email address you expect to have important business conversations with belongs to one of the big email providers offering free service?

Put another way, imagine a lawyer with an email address of consultantpat@hotmail.com. Do you think Pat’s clients would be comfortable knowing that private correspondence with their consultant was being transmitted through a free email service? How would their perception change if Pat’s email were pat@robinsonconsulting.com?

Professional branding aside, there are some great reasons to have your email at your own domain name for business email:

Who’s going to help? Delete an important email? Can’t log in to your account? Have a question about the number of email you can send from your account? The free email service providers have self-service tools to help you figure out your problem, but what can you do if you still have a problem? Who will you talk to and how long will you have to wait for help?

Will your emails be delivered? “I didn’t receive your email”. Does this sound familiar? Free email accounts are very popular with spammers. Did you know that some mail services started blocking mass mail delivery from free email accounts with these domain names?

The switching cost to a domain-based email address later is higher. There’s a strong benefit to having people know where to find you. Changing your email address can be a lot like a retailer relocating. All the business built over the years could disappear, as customers can no longer find you at the address.

Unintended communication could be embarrassing, even damaging. Jon Smith is our hypothetical accountant with a free GMail account at jon.smith@gmail.com. Can you guess the number of times his clients have emailed their sensitive financial documents (even tax returns) to john.smith@gmail.com? Sure, it’s the client’s fault for the mistake, but could this have been prevented if he were Jon@ReliableAccountants.com?

Free email accounts are very popular these days. But if you’re serious about your business and your brand, it might be time to consider how current and potential clients are judging you by a simple email address.

Call and talk to us. We’ll be more than happy to tell you how our services can help your business be more professional, starting today.