Author: admin

Announcements, Industry News, Registries

.XXX now LIVE on OrderBox

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The .XXX domain extension is now fully LIVE on OrderBox. After a minor delay, the Registry went live with General Availability of .XXX a few hours ago. Domains will now be available on a First-Come, First-Serve basis.

Registrars: Please contact your respective Account Managers if you have any queries about .XXX domains. We’ve got ready-made collaterals for you to use in your marketing activities.

In their latest Press Release, Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry commented:

“While adult entertainment is enjoyable to many adults, it is not appropriate for all audiences. We created .XXX to address the unique needs of the online adult entertainment industry. The public response has been overwhelming as consumers and the adult entertainment providers are excited about the benefits and infinite possibilities of .XXX.”

Announcements

Is B2B Social Media Marketing Useful?

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Social Media initiatives handled on a business front are spread across different avenues in the organization itself. Not that long ago, a survey was conducted by Gartner and a pretty simple question was asked: Who is leading your social media initiatives? The answer: 30% answered Marketing, 18% said IT, 10% answered PR team but nobody mentioned ‘Sales’ or the ‘CRM’ teams to be a part of this initiative. This shows us how some businesses are still lacking in driving Social Media through their day-to-day activities, mainly because most of the businesses ‘don’t get the point’ to use Social Media for B2Bs.

The usage of Social Media in Businesses can be huge with a great potential of getting a business what they need in a quick and timely manner. The awareness and engagement that is derived via B2B Social Media Marketing is not as much as that of B2Cs, but the output can help a lot in the long run. The content that you create and spread across is not just something that will be interesting to your customers, but can also help in sharing knowledge for a wider audience within the industry and related avenues.

A few quick facts about Social Media in the B2B focus:

  • Almost US$716 million was spent on Social media last year
  • A negative customer review on YouTube, Twitter or Facebook can cost a company about 30 customers
  • Global Fortune 100 companies with Social profiles and their focus can be distributed as
    • Twitter – 65%
    • Facebook – 54%
    • YouTube – 50%
    • RSS Feeds – 33%
  • Average Social Media Activity of Fortune 100 Companies are:
    • 27 tweets per week
    • 3.6 Facebook posts per week
    • 7 Blog Posts per month
    • 10 videos/month

More details on the facts and figures on the Social Media aspect in B2Bs can be found here.

“Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.”
– Brian Solis

Businesses can leverage Social Media to showcase their expertise and top notch achievements. A constant touch and social conversational relationship can be maintained with existing customers with the help of Social Networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN etc. As a matter of fact, the usage of Social Media outclasses the personal touch that is created by one’s business’ brochure or catalogue.

So if you haven’t started yet, the first steps into the Social Media space for your company should be to start building company profiles on the most popular social networks. Accordingly, you should have a section on your website promoting your social identities. Thereafter, you can start following clients and customers and get them to reciprocate!

References for Stats and graphics: Gartner & InsideView

Announcements, Current Promos, Press Releases

LogicBoxes Crosses 6 Million Domains

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We’ve now crossed the 6 Million mark for Domains registered through our platform – OrderBox.

It took us a little under a year to grow from 4 Million to 5 Million Domains, a milestone we crossed at the start of this year. Comparatively, the latest Million was achieved in just over 9 months!

We owe this achievement to our extensive channel partner network that includes 90+ ICANN Accredited Domain Name Registrars and over 60,000+ Resellers. Every partner has access to a basket of 50+ Domain Name extensions and Web Service products like Web Hosting, Email Hosting, Website Builders and Digital Certificates. This has allowed each partner to quickly setup successful online businesses and play a first-hand role in increasing the online penetration of their local region.

“We’ve been consistently introducing newer TLDs and products into the system to ensure that our Registrars have all the tools they need to capture their target markets,” said Sandeep Ramchandani, Director, LogicBoxes. “We’ve also been working closely with various Domain Registries to garner the best domain rates for our Registrars and plan on further boosting these activities in the coming months.”

Over 20% of the world’s ICANN Accredited Registrars have been accredited through our consultancy service. LogicBoxes’ product portfolio includes a comprehensive provisioning & management platform for various web products and services such as Domain Registration, Windows/Linux Web Hosting, Email Hosting, SSL, Website Builder etc. LogicBoxes recently launched their FREE DNS Service and other products such as Domain and Mail Forwarding and Chat (IM) are expected to go free shortly.

ICANN Announcements

ICANN Strengthens Registrar Accreditation Applications

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As per their latest announcement, ICANN has recently introduced an enhanced set of terms and conditions for Registrar Accreditation Applications.

The company says that this step is a result of community input that called for the strengthening of the requirements for registrar accreditation, and to address changes that have arisen in the registrar marketplace.

While they haven’t mentioned the specific enhancements, they’ve publicized a partial list of changes. This incudes:

  • Stronger terms governing the accuracy of the information provided by the applicant and an ongoing obligation to maintain accurate information during the course of the application process
  • Granting ICANN permission and indemnification for conducting additional due diligence checks
  • Sets forth in greater detail the application process and obligations

These terms and conditions will be applicable on all applications received on or after October 5, 2011.

UPDATE: 10th October, 2011

We’ve done an analysis of the exact changes and have enlisted them here for everyone’s reference:

1. Individual & Sole proprietorships are ineligible for accreditation

2. The applicant can withdraw a submitted application and the one-time application fee will remain valid for one year. However, if before the application is resubmitted, the one-time application fee is increased, the applicant will have to pay the difference.

3. ICANN reserves the right
a. to use the name and logo of the applicant wrt the application
b. Share the info rmation in the application with relevant third parties for the purpose of due-diligence
c. Disclose / share / publish any info rmation from the application including any personal, technical and financial info rmation

4. ICANN indemnifies itself from any damages / loss caused to the applicant, by way of the review process or if the application is rejected

5. If the applicant wishes to keep any part of the application confidential, he can do so according to a set of guidelines laid out by ICANN

6. ICANN explicitly mentions that it must comply with all U.S. laws, rules, and regulations and the fact that it cannot work with any country/company/individual on which US has imposed sanctions

7. ICANN also mentions that any additional information / documents that it requests, must be provided within 72 hours

Key take-aways:
Make sure your application is complete, accurate, consistent and thorough right from the start. This is even more important than before, and can hardly be stressed upon enough. Ensuring so, will avoid unnecessary delays and iterations. Since there will be third part investigating agencies involved, we expect the delays due to iterations to be longer than usual.

Found this post useful? Need help with ICANN Accreditation? You know who to contact 😉