NOTE: If you missed the live webinar, we now have a recording available for viewing at any time. Click here to view.

Staying on top of where the hosting industry is headed is key in ensuring that you are able to react quickly and be successful.

Arming you with great information about the current state of the industry and where it’s going int he future is all part of what we do. If you’ve attended events like HostingCon, WorldHostingDays or Parallels Summit, you’ll know that we often offer sessions designed to share that knowledge we’ve gained with you.

Free Exclusive Webinar!

Coming up on February 2, 2012, we’re hosting a free webinar that we know you won’t want to miss.

We’ve arranged for Phil Shih, founder and managing director of Structure Research to provide a one-hour session titled, “A Look Ahead – Trends in Hosting for 2012.”

Phil Shih, Founder and Managing Director, Structure Research

Phil is a well-known speaker in the hosting industry. He has in-depth knowledge of where things are, and where they are headed based on his over ten years of looking at the hosting space. Phil was a long-time senior staff writer for The WHIR, and an analyst for Tier1 Research.

This webinar is just a start – we’re very excited to announce that we’ve partnered with Phil to bring you exclusive content like this throughout the year.

More to Come

As mentioned, the webinar is just the first of a number of many initiatives we have planned, some with Phil and some with other great partners – watch for blog posts and more great webinars coming up to help you stay current.

From day one, back in 1999, we’re always been very much focused on making sure that you have the products and services you need to succeed. That means having things like a huge range of ccTLDs and gTLDs, or partnering with multiple trust providers so you can always offer the right SSL or trust product for every customer.

Further extending and broadening that focus to include information and intelligence is just one more thing that makes us the best choice for companies looking for a wholesale Internet services partner.

Watch On Demand

Click here to view the recording. Like all of our webinars, it’s free.

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.

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

Some of the key things Dan pointed out during his presentation:

• SSL isn’t just for banks and big business: there’s a real need for SSL to provide encryption right across the spectrum of Internet users. End-user confidence in Internet data security is not good right now thanks to some recent high-profile hacks. Whether your customers are mid-sized businesses with an e-commerce website, or just a small business that has a small mailing list and collects a little customer data, the transmission of that data needs to be encrypted in order to instill a sense of confidence in customers.
• Higher-end SSL products like Extended Validation (EV) certificates aren’t just for the big guys anymore: Extended Validation certificates provided end-users with peace of mind. Not only is their data encrypted, but they know who they are sending it to. Again, that’s key in providing confidence to end-users and customers that they can trust who they choose to deal with online.

Customer Education is Key When Offering SSL

When it comes to offering SSL to your customers, Dan pointed out that it’s important to ensure they know what is involved in the process. Whether it’s an Easy Trust domain validated certificate, a Premium SSL organization validated certificate, or a Premium EV extended validation certificate, you need to make sure your customer knows what to expect during the validation process and what documentation is required of them.

Dan did a great job explaining the process from start to finish for each certificate type so you can be sure to not only make the initial sale, but also make sure that your customer gets that certificate validated and issued as quickly as possible.

To help you understand the buying and provisioning process, I showed you how easy the new Trust Manager in the OpenSRS Control Panel makes it to provision a new SSL certificate. I went step-by-step through the process of ordering, validating and receiving an Easy Trust domain-validated SSL certificate and showed you the emails that go out, and explained the process that your customers will go through to have an SSL certificate ordered and in their inbox in minutes.

On-demand Recording Available

If you missed the presentation, we’ve archived the session for you on OpenSRS.com. Click here and you’ll be able to view that recording on-demand, at any time.

For more information on Trustwave and the full line up of Trustwave SSL products available through OpenSRS, including the lowest cost DV certificate we offer, visit the Trustwave SSL product page.

Congratulations to Our Winners

We also want to pass along our congratulations to three lucky attendees. Thanks to Trustwave, we gave away an iPad 2, an iPod Touch and a $25 iTunes gift card to three attendees in a random drawing following the webinar.

• Jason Klien was the winner of the iPad
• Doug McIntyre won the iPod Touch
• Arvind Parmar will receive the iTunes gift card.

We’re pretty excited about the Control Panel and what it can do, but a lot of the really neat stuff is behind the scenes. We know there’s a bunch of you who are keen on hearing about some of the neat kit that powers things like the search and filtering features. So we’re offering a webinar to bring some of that information to you.

The webinar will be hosted by yours truly and Paul Tichonczuk who is a Senior Web Application Developer here at OpenSRS. Paul T. is going to talk about some of this new tech and geek out a bit on how things fit together to provide the fast, intuitive interface that you now have in the Control Panel. I’ll take you through some of the neat things you can do with Control Panel – like filtering your domains lists, and how to setup DNS templates. Think of it as a bit of a power-users demo.

Do plan to check it out if you want to get some pro-tips and learn about some neat developer stuff. We promise to keep it understandable whether you are a developer or not!

To help out, we’re presenting a webinar on August 26th, 2010. Adam Eisner, who heads up our domains business here at OpenSRS will take you through six tangible strategies that you can use to differentiate yourself in a crowded environment. He’ll bring you real-world examples along with data from our Reseller base that will provide you with practical ways to fuel growth and attract new customers.

As with all of our webinars, it’s free to attend and everyone is welcome. We’ll hold a pair of sessions on August 26th at 9am and 2pm EDT (that’s 1300 and 1800 UTC) to accommodate attendees in different time zones. Register today so you don’t forget. And, keep in mind that registering ensures that you’ll automatically get an email with a link to the archive after the webinar ends, so even if you can’t make it to the live event, it does make sense to click the link below and signup.

Register Here

We recently made available a PHP API Toolkit that Claire Lam, our Manager of Implementation Services put together. This Toolkit is a PHP library that aims to make working with the OpenSRS easier. A Ruby version, put together by Keiji Suzuki, will be available very shortly.

Claire has been talking about the Toolkit in the Developer/API area of the OpenSRS Forums for the past month or two and based on feedback from developers that have tried out the code, we’re ready to make it a little more official. This webinar will serve as an introduction to the code and help explain how to use it, and why we’re releasing it.

By developers, for developers

This is going to be a developer webinar–if you don’t know code, you’ll probably won’t be interested. If you do like to dig in to API docs and write a few lines of code now and then, feel free to join us. And, by all means, pass this along to your in-house developers, or anyone else you think might be interested.

The PHP version of the API Toolkit is available for download today. A Ruby version is just about complete and we’ll be making it available very shortly as well. You can find those downloads and documentation for the API Toolkits here.

Webinar: Introducing the New OpenSRS API Toolkits
with Claire Lam, Manager of Implementation Services, OpenSRS
and Jonathan Clarke, Implementation Specialist, OpenSRS
on Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 9:00 A.M. EST and 2:00 P.M. EST

Register Now

One of the things we hear over and over again, is that it’s nearly impossible to sell SSL certificates in the face of companies like GoDaddy who seem to be more interested in moving as many units as possible, at the expense of the bottom line. But it’s simply not true–with the right information and techniques, you can effectively sell SSL by easily countering some common objections customers might have.

2010 is fast approaching and now is the time to start thinking about how to energize your SSL sales. And don’t forget that our GeoTrust $199 Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificate promo is coming to an end soon as well. End 2009 with a bang and kickstart your SSL sales activities heading into the new year.

Get the Sale!

Bob Angus, Product Marketing Manager, VeriSign, will present “Get the Sale! Overcoming four common objections when selling SSL.” Bob will address the four most common objections that you’ll face when selling SSL certificates, provide you with the information that you need to address each one head on, and help you make the sale.

He’ll cover everything from objections over price, to how to handle questions about technology from customers who may have bought into some common misconceptions about SSL. In short, Bob will arm you with information and tactics that you can use when selling SSL to even the most sceptical of customers.

This is a free event for OpenSRS Resellers.

Details:

REGISTRATION IS FREE
What: Get the Sale! Overcoming four common objections when selling SSL
When: Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 11:00 A.M. EST (16:00 UTC)

To help you out, we’ve arranged a free webinar with Jay Schiavo, Senior Manager, Product Management for VeriSign titled, “Understanding How to Effectively Sell SSL Certificates.” Jay has a very good understanding of the specific needs of OpenSRS resellers and during the session he’ll help you make sense of it all, explaining how to position and sell multiple brands and types to your customers.

We’ll see you there!

Details:

REGISTRATION IS FREE
What:Understanding How to Effectively Sell SSL Certificates
When: Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 11:00 A.M. EDT

And don’t forget about the other free webinar announced last week and coming up on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 – Web Hosting Solutions that Work for ISPs.

To help you out, we’ve arranged a free webinar with Jay Schiavo, Senior Manager, Product Management for VeriSign titled, “Understanding How to Effectively Sell SSL Certificates.” Jay has a very good understanding of the specific needs of OpenSRS resellers and during the session he’ll help you make sense of it all, explaining how to position and sell multiple brands and types to your customers.

We’ll see you there!

Details:

REGISTRATION IS FREE
What:Understanding How to Effectively Sell SSL Certificates
When: Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 11:00 A.M. EDT

And don’t forget about the other free webinar announced last week and coming up on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 – Web Hosting Solutions that Work for ISPs.