Posts Tagged ‘.CO’

.CO Renewal Season is Here

It’s been almost a year since the launch of the .CO domain extension. That means registrants who bought their .CO domains in those first few weeks and months are starting to see renewal notices and the earliest .CO registrants are already renewing their domains.

As with other domain extensions, getting over that first year renewal hump is hugely important in keeping that domain for the long term. Renewal rates on domains more than one year old (in other words, domains that have been renewed once already) are considerably higher than the renewal rate for first year domains.

Boost your Renewal Rates

There are some simple steps you can take to boost your renewal rates for .CO domains as we move into this period of high activity:

Make sure your renewal messages are setup: OpenSRS sends out renewal messages to registrants automatically. Double check to make sure that you are sending renewal emails out at 90, 60 and 30 days in addition to the notices that go out closer to expiry. And take the time to customize those templates with contact information so your customer knows where and how to renew their domain. Those templates and settings can be found in the “Renewal Management” section of the Reseller Web Interface.
Consider adding renewal reminders to your homepage or interface: A simple banner ad or notice inside your control panel might be all it takes to convince or remind a customer to renew their domain. Don’t overlook any opportunity to remind your customers to renew for another year, or more.
Send out a renewal email campaign: We have some great .CO marketing materials you can use to create a quick email reminding customers to renew their names. Point out the increasing value of .CO domains and make sure you build the case for them to hold on to their domain for another year. And don’t forget to encourage customers without a .CO domain to visit your website and search for a .CO domain that might be an even better fit for their business.

.CO Facts and Figures

CO Internet, the .CO registry operator, passed along some interesting stats about the first year of offering .CO domains worldwide.

.CO sites are being used: .CO domain growth is very similar to the growth seen in active sites under .CO domains. This is a very good trend and shows that registrants are getting .CO domains to use them. A key factor in renewal rates is whether the domain resolves to an active site, so seeing a high rate of usage for .CO domains indicates that renewal rates and customer retention amongst .CO registrants will be good.
.CO registrants are spread around the world: While about 48% of the .CO domains were registered in the US, countries like the UK, Canada, Australia and Germany are all in the top ten for countries where .CO domains are registered. .CO resonates with domain buyers around the world, in many langauges.
.CO is one million domains strong: As of last month, there were more than one million .CO domains registered and that number continues to grow. The launch of .CO domains has been one of the most successful domain extension launches in recent memory.

One Million .CO Domains

Congratulations to .CO Internet on reaching 1 million .CO domains under management!

It was less than a year ago, on July 20th, 2010, that .CO launched globally and OpenSRS was on board as one of 10 .CO-accredited registrars.

Thanks to our resellers, who saw the opportunity that .CO provided, we’ve played an important role in the .CO success story and are now the number one wholesale .CO registrar.

It was then, and continues to be our firm belief that .CO would be a huge success. Seeing one million domains registered in under a year speaks volumes about how our resellers and the public has reacted to .CO.

Still Growing!

In the past year we’ve seen widespread adoption of .CO right across our reseller channel and the growth in .CO registrations continues. Our resellers, from the largest hosting companies to web designers and other Internet service providers, heard the message about the opportunity that .CO offered and brought the .CO story to their customers.

Tucows’ President and CEO, Elliot Noss notes that one reason behind the success of .CO is that people saw the obvious value in what .CO offered.

“The incredible success of .CO demonstrates without a doubt that there continues to be a need amongst Internet users around the world for highly brandable and intrinsically valuable domain names.”
- Elliot Noss, President and CEO, Tucows

As Juan Diego Calle, CEO of .CO Internet noted today, getting to one million domains in less than a year is an impressive achievement for .CO that speaks to the strength of the .CO domain, the team they assembled at .CO Internet, as well as to the work of the registrars and reseller partners who made it happen.

“To hit this milestone in less than a year is a great testament to the hard work and dedication of our team. From our retail and business partners; to the trademark and domain communities; to all the people, businesses and brands who are building their futures on .CO – we owe you a million thanks!”
- Juan Diego Calle, CEO of .CO Internet

The whole team at .CO really showed the industry that there was an alternative to existing domain extensions and that a long-term marketing and awareness plan coupled with excellent technology and a great brand, a new entrant to the domain name space could be wildly successful.

Congratulations to .CO Internet and thanks to all of our resellers for making our first year offering .CO domains one to remember.

More about Selling .CO Domains

If you aren’t already taking advantage of .CO in your business, it’s not too late. Visit our .CO marketing page in our marketing resource centre. You’ll find .CO banner ads, email and web copy, videos and more to get you started.

And for those already offering .CO domains, don’t forget we have a great .CO promotion going on right now – in fact, it was just extended through the end of June! Do some marketing around .CO domains and we’ll knock the wholesale price down to just $15 (from $25). Read the details and sign up here.

OpenSRS Domain Promotions

Are you taking advantage of our domain price promotions? These limited time offers are a great way to drive sales either within your existing customer base, or as a way to attract new customers to the fold.

Right now we have three price promotions going on, including great promos on .TV, .MOBI and .CO domains.

Our .TV promotion has been running since late last year, while the .MOBI promo was just recently extended through to the end of June! We’re just rolling out the .CO promo; it’s similar to the very successful Superbowl-related promotion we ran with .CO back in February. Check it out and signup to get a big discount on .CO domains this month.

How Our Domain Promos Work

Our promotions are usually done in conjunction with the registry operator for the domain extension in question. They extend special pricing to us, and we pass the savings along to you. Generally the registries are looking to lift sales of the extension and as a result, they usually require that you do some active promotion of their extension to your customer base.

That promotion can take the form of an email campaign, banner ads on your homepage, or even something like a Google Adwords campaign to drive traffic to your site, and to the specific domain extension that is on sale.

We try to make this as easy as possible for you by providing marketing materials like logos and banner ads when we can. For example, for the .TV promotion, we’ve provided a pretty complete package of marketing assets for you to use, including some videos that explain the unique value of .TV domains.

Signup Now

If you haven’t yet signed up for any of the ongoing promotions, head over to our promos page. As mentioned we have a trio of promos on right now:

Thanks to Flickr user “The Justified Sinner” for the pic.

WHOIS Privacy Now Available for .CO Domains

Effective today, it’s now possible to add WHOIS privacy to .CO domains.

At launch WHOIS privacy was not permitted on .CO domain names. Recently that policy was amended to permit the use of WHOIS privacy for .CO registrations.

Included Free

As with all other domain extensions that support the use of WHOIS privacy, there’s no cost to enable our Contact Privacy service on .CO domains through OpenSRS.

Adding Contact Privacy to a .CO domain is done in the same way as all other domain extensions that support it, including via the Reseller Web Interface and using the OpenSRS API. Support for WHOIS Privacy in OpenSRS Storefront will be added shortly.

Are you ready for some .CO?

Update: We’re offering a .CO price promotion! The wholesale cost for new one-year .CO domains will be USD $13.00 beginning on Sunday, February 6 and continuing through until Saturday, February 12, 2011. Full details on the terms of the promotion are available on the promo signup page. You must signup by Friday, February 4, 2011 at 8:00AM EST to get in on the special pricing.

Superbowl Service Guy On February 6, Go Daddy will promote .CO in their Superbowl commercial.

We will no doubt be left pondering the connection between .CO, car racing and cleavage. But one thing is certain. Demand for .CO will go up.

Tens of millions of Internet users and publishers will become aware of .CO for the first time. Millions who were already aware of it will now regard it as more credible. Many will come to your front doors looking for it or at least more willing to consider it than they were before.

This is the upside of having a competitor like Go Daddy. There are times when they will subsidize our marketing efforts and help drive our businesses.

So, what can you do to capitalize on this opportunity?

First, just make sure it is clear that you offer .CO. Put a .CO banner on your domains page. Move .CO results up in your search results. Maybe flag them with a NEW banner. (“As seen on TV” is probably a bit cheesy.) Reach out to your base with the message that the domain name they couldn’t get in .COM is likely available in .CO. Check out some of our marketing suggestions from when .CO first launched.

Offer your own “what” and “why” around .CO. The Go Daddy spot will likely leave consumers titillated but slightly confused. Explain in the most honest, helpful way that .CO is simply a great alternative to .COM. Internet users are getting more comfortable with it. Google acknowledges it as a global (generic) domain. And, most importantly, it offers millions of great available domain names.

Consider taking advantage of our promotion to offer a small limited-time discount. I am not encouraging you to try to compete with GoDaddy on price. You already know not to do that. A price promotion just creates a bit of “do this now”. And, with the promotion, you can achieve this without even eating into your margins.

Every once in a while, external forces push some business in your direction. I think this will be one of those situations. (By the way, I also think Pittsburgh will top Green Bay 24-7, propelled by a defense that returns two turnovers for touchdowns.) Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you make the most of it.