.XXX Launches in September at OpenSRS

The new .XXX Sponsored Top-level Domain extension launches on September 7, 2011, and OpenSRS will be fully participating in the launch from Sunrise through General Availability and beyond.

There are a couple of different elements to the launch and depending on your customer base, you’ll want to take note of the different requirements in each phase.

We’ve put together a launch information page for .XXX where you can get all the information you need – key dates, policies and pricing. You’ll also find useful marketing tools including messaging and graphic elements like the .XXX logo.

Our aim is to help you make the most of the introduction of this new domain extension whether you want to help your customers protect their brand, or whether you want to provide .XXX domains to members of the adult community.

We’ll have more information about the launch of .XXX in the next few months. Stay tuned!

Help Shape Canada’s Internet in the Upcoming CIRA Elections

Are you a professional Canadian with Board experience and an interest in technology and the Internet? The Canadian Internet Registry Association is looking for interested candidates with expertise in accounting, law, marketing and communications or technology to apply to become a member of the CIRA Board of Directors in the upcoming election.

What is the role of CIRA’s Board?

CIRA’s Board of Directors has a unique role to play in setting policy and strategy to help CIRA continue to be a leading-edge organization that strives for excellence as a registry and supports Canadians in building their presence in the global digital economy.
Why should this interest me or someone I nominate?

Becoming a CIRA Board Member is a unique opportunity to work with Canada’s Internet leaders as they develop strategy and policy that positions .CA for operational excellence. You will gain valuable insight and experience around technical innovation, Canadian and international Internet policy, and organizational governance.

How do I apply?

.CA Members can nominate themselves or another individual by completing the online Nomination Form from August 2 – 15.

Once nominated, Nominees will receive an email with a link to complete an online Nominee Application Form. The Nominee must complete and submit the form before 8 p.m. ET on August 15, 2011.

To be included on the Final Members’ Slate, Member Nominees must then receive the endorsement of at least 20 CIRA Members during the Show of Support stage.

About CIRA

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority is the member-driven organization that manages Canada’s .CA domain name registry, develops and implements policies that support Canada’s Internet community, and represents the .CA registry internationally.

To learn more, visit www.cira.ca.

OpenSRS Welcomes EPAG to the Family!

Over the past several years, we’ve watched many of our resellers branch out into new markets and regions very successfully. At the same time, we have also welcomed new resellers from a wide range of countries and industries. These trends have resulted in increased demand from our customers to offer more TLDs. Thus, we’re really pleased and excited to announce the acquisition of EPAG Domainservices GmbH, a registrar based in Bonn, Germany.

We were immediately drawn to EPAG not only because of their offerings (they currently offer more than 280 domain extensions), but because of their expertise and reputation as well. EPAG is known for its fantastic amount of international domain name experience, and we think their knowledge and skills will help greatly as we continue to grow our own domain name business here at OpenSRS.

So, what does this mean for OpenSRS resellers? Well, bringing EPAG on board with OpenSRS will allow us to offer many more domain extensions quickly, backed by a knowledgeable, experienced team with insight into all of them. Over the next several weeks, you’ll begin to see details of our plans to significantly expand the portfolio of domain names we make available through OpenSRS. While we can’t reveal specific details just yet, it’s safe to say you will see significant gTLD and ccTLD coverage improvements, with a particular focus on regions like Europe, South America and Asia. By the end of the year, we expect to have 200 extensions available to ensure your customers have the best chance of finding their perfect domain name.

We are also really excited to welcome EPAG customers to OpenSRS. Going forward, there will be little in the way of change; EPAG systems will continue to operate and EPAG customers and suppliers will continue to deal with the same people, systems and interfaces they are familiar with today. We look forward to working with you, and to providing additional features and services that can help you grow your business.

This is a very exciting day at OpenSRS, and we’re proud to welcome EPAG. Make sure to watch this space in the coming weeks as we announce plans to bolster our roster of domain names offered. You can read more about this acquisition on Tucows.com.

Holiday Hours: Civic Holiday, August 1st, 2011

This coming Monday our offices will be closed for a Canadian civic holiday. But to all of our non-Canadian friends around the world there’s no reason to be jealous.

The August long weekend is often the worst traffic day of the year for cottage goers as make their way out of the steamy city via congested highways, toward their comfy cold beer, Adirondack chairs and docks on the water.

Sure, eventually they’ll arrive and when they do the chairs are comfy and the lake water is a perfect 78 degrees Fahrenheit. But a short two days later, and they’re back on the road, battling traffic once again. Heck, there’s even some rain in the forecast. Lame.

See? Almost no reason to be jealous at all. In fact, they deserve our sympathy… wading through the biggest traffic jam of the year, only to enjoy a cold beer on a dock with some deer flies and mosquitos? No thank you.

Now, on to official business: Our Technical Support team continues to be available 24/7 to assist you. Please note that during this closure, there will be:

No orders or requests processed for the following TLD’s: .at, .fr, .ch, .li, .dk, .com.mx
No special processing for .ca (registrant transfers, conflicting and municipal registrations) or .eu/.be (redemptions).

Here are the hours by department:

Department	Dates and Hours
Technical Support	Regular hours
Payments	Email support: payments@opensrs.org
Compliance	Closed Aug 1st (Monday)
Service Bureau	Closed Aug 1st (Monday)

Help Your Customers Find the Perfect Domain

Are you missing out on sales by not helping your customers find the perfect domain name?

Offering Premium Domains from OpenSRS is one great way to help customer find the right name, and complete the sale. Implementing Premium Names is easier than you might think.

Here’s a couple of different ways to get started with Premium Domains:

Offer a “domain search consultancy” service to help customers find the right domain
Implement Premium Domains results into your search results using the OpenSRS API
Look through existing customer domains for domains with dashes and add-on words and cross-reference for better options from the Premium Domains database

Lots More Help to Get You Started

To help you out with both customer education pre-sale, and to help you or your staff when they are making the sale, we’ve put together some information about Premium Domains, including why you should consider offering them as part of your suite of services.

You’ll also find a new Premium Domains end-user FAQ in our Marketing Resource section that’s ready for you to grab and use to help make the case with your customers that they should be willing to pay a bit more for a Premium Domain rather than settling for something that isn’t quite as good.

We answer questions like “Why are these Premium Domains more expensive than ‘regular’ domains?” and “Why should I consider spending more on this Premium Domain vs. an available domain?”

Those new materials are in addition to the existing Premium Domains video (found on that same page).

Page 9 of 116« First «...5 6 7 8910 11 12 13 14...»Last »