By: OpenSRS Team on September 10th, 2008
Posted in: Inside OpenSRS
Tags: WHIRTV
Comments: 0

Today, in partnership with the Web Host Industry Review, we released a series of videos featuring six of my colleagues called “Inside OpenSRS”. You’ll hear from people working in Reseller Support, Network Operations, Security and Compliance, Development, and Product Management.

For me, these videos have been a great introduction to some of the brilliant people we have working here, and I hope to bring you more from them and many others like them on the blog in the months to come.

Being humans first, geeks second and business people third is one of our brand promises for OpenSRS. The production and distribution of these videos is a first step in our strategy to help you to see what makes us tick and to show you that we are 100% committed to being “reseller-friendly”.

Watch the videos here

By: James Koole on September 9th, 2008
Posted in: Reseller Resources
Tags:
Comments: 2

Scenario: You have a customer who wishes to transfer their domain name from GoDaddy to OpenSRS (into your Reseller account). Good news! But despite the best efforts of the customer, GoDaddy blocks the transfer and the customer ends up stuck at GoDaddy for another year.

It happens a lot and the reason is a simple one: GoDaddy institutes a 60-day lock on domains if the domain holder makes a change to the administrative email contact. GoDaddy claims to do this for the protection of its users, but the lock policy has the added benefit to GoDaddy of locking the domain down for two months.

So, if a user decides to move out of GoDaddy less than two months before the domain name in question expires, and then updates their administrative email information to ensure that they can receive and approve the transfer requests, they have inadvertently locked themselves into GoDaddy and will be forced to renew the domain with them (which puts another 60-day lock on the domain, by the way).

How to help customers get out of GoDaddy

Education is the key.

Explain the transfer process: Make sure you fully explain the transfer process. Explain that there will be emails sent to the email account of the listed administrative contact that require action for the transfer to succeed. Explain that they should remove the administrative lock before attempting to transfer the domain. Explain how the EPP code works, and perhaps even show the user where to find it in the GoDaddy interface. GoDaddy provides a guide to unlocking domains here.

Explain the GoDaddy lock policy: Be up front and ask the customer if that email contact is up to date. If not, explain to them what GoDaddy will do when they update it. Tell the customer that you are trying to make sure the transfer is successful and ensure that they are only changing that administrative contact if it is absolutely necessary (e.g. they don’t have access to that email account anymore).

What is ICANN Doing?

Tucows/OpenSRS is active in ICANN and we’re strongly in favour of domain name portability. We continue to work at the ICANN level to get this problem solved. ICANN has issued a statement on the practice of putting a lock in place on a WHOIS change saying clearly, “A registrant change to Whois information is not a valid reason to deny a transfer request.”

The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) is studying the issue and should be putting forward recommendations to ICANN shortly.

In the meantime, customer education is the key – make sure you’re doing everything you can to ensure domain name transfers in will be successful.

By: James Koole on September 5th, 2008
Posted in: Reseller Resources
Tags:
Comments: 2

GoDaddy is at it again. Raising prices that is.

For a lot of our Resellers, GoDaddy probably represents the single largest competitor in the domains and hosting area. These recent price increases announced by GoDaddy signal an opportunity for you. Now is the time to aggressively take on GoDaddy and do a little customer education and drive sales.

.NET and .ORG domain names now set domain buyers back $15.19 when they buy them from GoDaddy. Consider that the Registry cost on .NET is going up to $4.98, and .ORG is going up to $6.75 in a few months time, then contrast that with what Go Daddy is now charging. Do the math – take that registry fee, add the ICANN fee, then the OpenSRS Management Fee to see what your wholesale cost is. When I add that up, I get $8.18 for .NET domains and $9.95 for .ORG domains – considerably less than GoDaddy even when you add a healthy margin.

Still convinced that GoDaddy is a low-cost domain seller? Let’s look at .COM from GoDaddy. Yes, they will give you the first year for $1.99 (plus ICANN fee) or the first year of a transfer in for $6.99, but after that, a .COM renewal is $10.19 when you include the ICANN fee of 20 cents. Reality doesn’t match the perception.

That’s where you need to focus – on perception. The public has a perception about GoDaddy thanks to some incredibly expensive and thorough marketing. The goal of those Superbowl ads was to convince the public that GoDaddy had the cheapest domains. And it worked.

How to take on GoDaddy

Use a multi-pronged approach: address the price perception, focus on service, and provide an alternative.

1. The price perception. Be up-front about your pricing and show where you beat GoDaddy on price. Take advantage of our domain promotions to run promotions of your own. Consider that it might make sense to offer certain domains as a loss leader for other services if it makes sense. Get the word out – GoDaddy is not cheaper than everyone else.

2. Focus on service. Offer top-notch customer service and brag about it on your homepage. Customers look for more than price and service is one way you can win them over.

3. Provide an alternative. NASCAR and babes in bikinis might be appealing to some, but not everyone wants to be associated with a company like GoDaddy. Target the types of customers that would be offended, or put off by the GoDaddy style of marketing.

It can be easy to throw up your hands and throw in the towel when faced with a competitor like GoDaddy. But everyone loves an underdog. Be the independent coffee shop that opens up down the street from Starbucks, or the rookie ball player facing off against the veteran pitcher in a clutch situation.

GoDaddy has provided the opening with these recent price hikes. Take advantage and take back customers.

We’ll have more on this next week – specifically on making sure you are doing everything to help your new customers transfer out of GoDaddy.

By: Adam Eisner on September 3rd, 2008
Posted in: OpenSRS Services
Tags:
Comments: 0

Fall is in the air, and while the leaves will soon be dropping from the trees around these parts, the fees charged by the various top-level domain Registries are set to rise in October and November.

Here’s how it shakes out:

• .COM will rise to $6.86 on October 1st, 2008 – an increase of 44 cents.
• .NET will rise to $4.98 on October 1st, 2008 – an increase of 38 cents.
• .INFO will rise to $6.75 on November 1st, 2008 – an increase of 60 cents.
• .ORG will rise to $6.75 on November 9th, 2008 – an increase of 60 cents.

Of note, the .BIZ registry is bucking the trend and will hold steady at $6.42.

Our registry fees will increase accordingly on those dates. Remember that you’ll have to add both the ICANN fee of $0.20, and your OpenSRS Management Fee to those registry fees.

While we’re on the subject, early indications are that the ICANN fee will likely stay at $0.20 through 2009, pending approval of the 2009 ICANN budget.

As a result of these upcoming registry fee increases, I wanted to point out that you can now see some of your retail competitors bumping up prices (in some cases, significantly more than the registry increase):

• Go Daddy has increased the retail price of .NET and .ORG to a whopping 13 bucks. Domain Name Wire has more.
• Yahoo upped their prices earlier this year: DomainNews.com has more.

While some are taking advantage of these registry increases to tack on price increases of their own, we’re committed to holding the line and are only increasing our wholesale price directly in line with the increase in the fee we pay to the registries.

As in the past, these increases do provide you with an opportunity. Actively encourage your customers to renew early (and for multi-year terms) to beat the coming increases.

Our current pricing chart is available here and as a reminder, you can view a listing of our ongoing pricing promotions here.

By: OpenSRS Team on August 29th, 2008
Posted in: Announcements
Tags: Holiday Hours
Comments: 0

Monday, September 1, 2008 is Labor Day in Canada and the United States. As a result, we’ll be operating with reduced hours.

• OpenSRS Technical Support will operate as usual, with regular hours.
• Compliance, Payments, Service Bureau and Special Processing departments will all be closed Monday.

Labor Day is widely regarded as a day of rest so we hope you all kick back, relax and enjoy the last few days of summer.

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday!