It’s no secret that there is a perception amongst the domain name buying public that all domain names are the same, that they all come with the same basic policies and conditions and that the only way to differentiate between them is price.

We know that simply is not true. Issues like privacy, ownership disputes, and censorship are all important considerations for domain registrants, and we want to make sure the domain buying public understands what their chosen domain provider stands for.

As a company, Tucows has a number of values we strive to maintain. We also recognize that you, our Resellers, share many of these same values and that many of you chose to partner with Tucows not merely because of the platform, or the services we offer, but also because you wanted to work with a company that shared your beliefs and values.

The simple fact that you sell domains managed by Tucows affords your customers a number of benefits and protections. It speaks to your commitment to customer service, and to making sure that your customers have the best domain ownership experience possible.

That raises an important question: Do your customers and prospects know and understand the advantages available to them as a result of your decision to offer domains managed by Tucows?

Tucows Domains Badges

To that end, we have put together a new badge program that you can use to tell your site visitors that you sell domain names managed by Tucows. Of course, this is an optional program. Like everything we do, it’s reseller friendly. If you don’t want to expose our involvement, that’s up to you and it’s absolutely fine with us.

The badges link  to our Tucows Promise, which highlights for Registrants some of the key benefits of having domain names managed by Tucows, and by extension, of working with companies like yours that sell Tucows domains. The Tucows Promise lives within our shiny new Tucows Domains Help Site, which offers answers to common Registrant questions (and mostly refers them back to their provider).

Click here to visit the Tucows Domains Badges page to get started.

You can visit the badge program page to get started. It’s a simple process – grab the badge size and language you wish to use, agree to the terms and conditions, and then install the badge on your website. We have developed badges in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese and translated the Domain Promise into each of these languages.

For those using the older “Tucows Authorized Reseller” badges, please make the switch over to these new badges.

Why Tucows, not OpenSRS?

We get a lot of understandable questions about our use of the OpenSRS and Tucows brands. OpenSRS is our reseller services group. Yet we are offering resellers icons that announce “Domains managed by Tucows” and drive end users to a Tucows-branded site. What’s up with that?

It is actually another attempt at reseller friendliness. The idea is to create a clean distinction between messages to end users and messages to resellers.  Tucows is the registrar.  (It is the name of our company.) It is the brand that end users inevitably discover when they look at their Whois record. It is also a brand that many end users know and love from our software libraries. By avoiding any mention of OpenSRS in end user-facing messages, we avoid end users wandering into places (like the OpenSRS site) where we talk about control panels, TLD releases, wholesale prices and other stuff that will confuse them. We also reduce the chance that your users will try to buy anything from us directly.

The Tucows Domain Promise is a rare convergence of the two brands.  But it’s still clean. OpenSRS resellers can boast to end users that you offer domains managed by Tucows. It’s no different than using OpenSRS as your platform and boasting VeriSign SSL products to your end users. Tucows Domain becomes a product that embodies integrity and honesty, thus differentiating the domain name product you offer from those offered by less principled providers.

We’d love to hear your feedback about the program. Drop us a line in the comments here or in the OpenSRS Forums.