Posts Tagged ‘Domains Service’

Twitter Affirms the Value of .co Domains

Yesterday the micro-blogging/messaging service twitter announced that they would begin using t.co as their official domain for shortened URLs. While most of the media coverage around the move was focused on the twitter side of the deal – things like analytics, length of tweets, etc. – another side to the story is that twitter’s decision to use a .co domain will no doubt lead to greater awareness of .co amongst the general public.

With just over a month to go until .co officially launches with the General Availability phase, we’re continuing to see a lot of buzz building around the new domain extension.

We’re nearing the end of the Sunrise phases of the launch where trademark holders get first dibs on .co domains that match their existing trademarks. Later this month, things really begin to heat up as the Landrush phase starts on June 21.

For many, Landrush will be the first chance for many to get their hands on some great .co domains. And as exciting as Landrush will be, General Availability will really ramp things up with a first-come, first-served registration blitz when the .co Registry officially opens for business on July 20.

e.co Auction

While t.co is generating some significant buzz around the tech community, another .co domain is also grabbing headlines. Between June 7 and June 10, .co is auctioning off another single character .co domain – e.co.

With bidding set to close tomorrow, the current price for e.co is already up over $30,000 and continuing to climb.

Proceeds from the auction of e.co go to the winner’s charity of choice which makes the whole thing even more of a win for all involved.

Are you selling .co?

OpenSRS is fully supporting the launch of .co as one of ten .co accredited registrars. We’re continuing to take Global Sunrise orders at the moment and we’ll be switching on both Landrush and General Availability pre-orders in the coming weeks.

If you haven’t yet started marketing and selling .co domains, it’s not too late. Awareness amongst the general public continues to build and CO Internet SAS continues to do a great job building buzz around the new extension. With General Availability coming next month, demand for .co domains amongst the general public should continue to swell.

If you are looking for more information on the launch of .co, we have a special page setup for you. All the information around dates, phases and pricing is there. And you can download a full package of .co marketing materials including web copy, flash banners and other images and graphics you can use to highlight your participation in the launch of .co.

Our Reseller-Friendly Approach to Pricing

At OpenSRS, we’re proud to be an industry leader when it comes to ‘reseller friendly’ wholesale domain services. Features like free WHOIS privacy, a 5-day add grace period for domain deletions, true white label sub-reseller support, and our ‘cost-plus’ model for pricing have established us as a leading choice for wholesale domain name registrations.

Effective July 1, 2010, registry fees for .com and .net domains are increasing. These registry fee increases were announced by VeriSign (the operator of the .com and .net registries) in January, in accordance with their agreement with ICANN.

Here are the details:

.com increases by $0.48 to $7.34 beginning on July 1st, 2010
.net increases by $0.42 to $5.40 beginning on July 1st, 2010

Several years ago, OpenSRS transitioned to selling gTLDs, including .com and .net domains under a ‘cost-plus’ pricing model, meaning that the price you pay is broken down into three separate parts – the Registry cost, the ICANN fee (currently 18 cents), and an OpenSRS management fee. OpenSRS retains the management fee for providing the domain registration and management service. Changes to the Registry costs and the ICANN fee are passed through transparently.

The chart below shows the changes to our domain registration fees after the VeriSign fee increase on July 1st:

OpenSRS

gTLD	Registry Cost	ICANN Fee	OpenSRS Fee	Registry Increase	OpenSRS Increase	Total
.com	$7.34	$0.18	$3.00	$0.48	$0.00	$10.52
.net	$5.40	$0.18	$3.00	$0.42	$0.00	$8.58
.org	$6.75	$0.18	$3.00	$0.00	$0.00	$9.93
.info	$6.75	$0.18	$3.00	$0.00	$0.00	$9.93
.biz	$6.85	$0.18	$3.00	$0.00	$0.00	$10.03
.name	$6.00	$0.18	$3.00	$0.00	$0.00	$9.18

Our transparent, reseller friendly pricing model is in contrast to the approach taken by other registrars, where there is often a single price per gTLD. In the case of eNom, this was recently announced as an across-the-board 55 cent increase to domain registration fees for the six most popular gTLDs. Below is their Basic plan pricing, broken down into its component costs, with the new pricing effective July 1st:

eNom

gTLD	Registry Cost	ICANN Fee	eNom Fee	Registry Increase	eNom Increase	Total
.com	$7.34	$0.18	$2.98	$0.48	$0.07	$10.50
.net	$5.40	$0.18	$4.92	$0.42	$0.13	$10.50
.org	$6.75	$0.18	$3.57	$0.00	$0.55	$10.50
.info	$6.75	$0.18	$3.57	$0.00	$0.55	$10.50
.biz	$6.85	$0.18	$3.47	$0.00	$0.55	$10.50
.name	$6.00	$0.18	$4.32	$0.00	$0.55	$10.50

As an OpenSRS reseller, you have complete visibility to our costs; We won’t use one registry’s price increase as an opportunity to raise our prices on additional gTLDs. We believe that our transparent pricing model gives you comfort in clearly understanding how we approach pricing, and what you can expect in the future.

If you want to see more detail on the current registry costs and ICANN fee, you can see it here: http://opensrs.com/services/domains/domains-pricing

Up next, we’ll be writing about our more reseller friendly approach to sub-resellers. Stay tuned!

Lower price for .MOBI domains

Starting on June 1st, 2010, dotMobi is lowering the cost for new .mobi domains to $7.25USD. That’s good news for OpenSRS Resellers because like other generic top-level domain names (gTLDs), OpenSRS sells .mobi domains under our cost-plus pricing model. Thanks to that pricing model, you’ll see that registry price decrease passed down directly to you.

It’s pretty easy to figure out your new cost for new .mobi domains:

Take the new Registry cost of $7.25
add the ICANN fee of $0.18
then add your OpenSRS Management fee

Assuming list pricing, that totals out to $10.43.

The cost for renewals and transfers is unchanged ($12.00 plus ICANN fee and OpenSRS Management Fee).

As mentioned this all goes into effect on June 1st, 2010.

Celebrating 25 Years of .com

VeriSign is celebrating 25 years of the .com domain extension this year and OpenSRS is thrilled to be a part of it.

Way back in 1985, Coke became New Coke and Old Coke became an instant Classic, Live Aid raised money for famine relief in Ethiopia, and both the Commodore Amiga and the NeXT computers were launched. Amid all that, a Massachusetts company registered the first .com domain name — symbolics.com.

Here we are, 25 years later. New Coke is gone, Live Aid is ancient history, Amiga and NeXT computers are museum pieces, but .com is going strong. To celebrate the milestone, VeriSign has rolled out a campaign that looks back at some of the events and people that shaped the Internet over the last quarter century. The focal point is the 25yearsof.com website which provides a hub for all the different activities, events and celebrations taking place this year.

The .com 25

One of the most interesting elements is the .com 25. Later this year, a panel of Silicon Valley influencers will select “the ‘.com 25′; the 25 people and/or companies whose inspiring contributions were fundamental in shaping the Internet and, thereby, our worlds.”

Head over to the 25yearsof.com website and you can see a list of the 75 finalists from which the .com 25 honourees will be selected. From companies like Amazon, Netscape and Cisco, to people like Vint Cerf, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Case, the list reads like a who’s-who of Internet history. I wouldn’t want to be on the jury that has to select just 25 people to honour as the .com 25.

The .com25 will be announced at a .com Gala event in San Francisco on May 26, 2010. The event celebrates the impact that 25 years of Internet innovation have had on society and looks forward to the next 25 years as well.

Take part in the celebration

You’re invited to take part in the 25yearsof.com events. There’s going to be lots of media attention paid to the various events taking place over the course of the year. You may wish to be a part of it by leveraging some of the 25yearsof.com marketing assets, and maybe build your own promotion around the events.

VeriSign is going to kick off a contest shortly called, “How do you .com?” They’ll be asking people around the world to answer that question and share how they use the Internet, and the .com extension in their lives.

If you would like to get involved, check out the 25yearsof.com website, their Facebook page, follow @25yearsofdotcom on Twitter and subscribe to their YouTube channel.

.CO Local Sunrise Starts April 1, 2010

Tomorrow is the first day for .CO Local Sunrise applications and OpenSRS is ready to accept your orders.

Please note: this is the Local Sunrise phase and only holders of valid Colombian trademarks can apply for .CO domains at this time. Global Sunrise which is for all trademark holders doesn’t start until April 26th, 2010.

Each phase of the .CO launch is distinct. Make sure you put your orders in during the correct phase as application fees are non-refundable.

Keep in mind that there’s no real reason to rush for the sunrise or even the landrush phases of the launch. The domains in these phases aren’t given out on a first-come, first-serve basis. Instead, those domains with multiple, valid applications will go into an auctions process.

.CO Launch Page Has More Information

We’ve updated the .CO launch page here on OpenSRS.com with more information including details on the auctions process as well as some information about the different phases of the .CO launch. Additionally, documentation has been updated with everything you need to submit orders through OpenSRS

.CO Webinar – April 15th, 2010

We’re also happy to announce today that we’re going to offer a webinar for OpenSRS Resellers coming up on April 15th, 2010.

Crystal Peterson, Senior Marketing Manager, .CO Internet SAS, will be joining us to talk about the opportunity that .CO provides to you and will talk about how to market and sell .CO domains to your customers. Adam Eisner, Director, Domain Services for OpenSRS will also be on hand to answer any specific questions you might have about the .CO launch as it relates to OpenSRS.

We’ll hold two sessions to accomodate resellers around the world: