Fourth annual .INFO Awards program will offer US$15,000 in prizes

DUBLIN, IRELAND – 10 August 2010 – Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services and registry for the .INFO top-level domain (TLD), today announced the opening of its fourth annual .INFO Awards program which recognizes the best .INFO websites around the world. From August 9th to September 10th any .INFO domain owner may submit their website to the .INFO Awards for a chance to win honors as the “Best .INFO website of 2010.”

“.INFO is an intuitive domain name choice for anyone looking to share their information with the world,” said Roland LaPlante, Chief Marketing Officer for Afilias. “.INFO has been the most successful new TLD ever launched, as evidenced by the millions of sites now operating worldwide. The .INFO Awards program not only gives us the opportunity to highlight the best .INFO sites from around the world, but also to allow Internet users to voice their support for their favorite ones.”

 Afilias first launched the .INFO Awards program in Germany in 2007 and expanded the awards internationally in 2009. 2010 will mark the fourth year of honoring the best .INFO websites and highlighting the usefulness that the .INFO domain has added to the Internet in the nine years since its debut.

Qualifying submissions will be evaluated by a panel of online and media experts based on five key criteria including: presentation of content, functionality of the website, design, usability, and originality. The panel of judges will be announced on August 17th and will consist of experts in the fields of websites, design, and media.

A shortlist of the 10 finalists based on the judges’ scores will be published on October 5, 2010. Members of the public will then be able to vote for their favorite of the top 10 sites until November 2 at 11:59 pm ET. The public votes will be combined with the judges’ scores to select the top 3 winners, with first place being named the “Best .INFO website of 2010.” Winners will receive cash prizes allocated as: US$7,500 for first place, US$5,000 for second place, and US$3,000 for third place.

 For details on entry requirements and restrictions please visit the Awards Rules. For more details on the .INFO Awards or to submit your site visit www.INFO-award.info.

About .INFO:

.INFO was the first generic, unrestricted TLD to be launched since .com and is the most successful new TLD launched in over 25 years. Registrations in .INFO first became available in 2001. Since then, .INFO has grown to become the fourth largest gTLD in the world with over 6 million domain names registered. .INFO Domains are currently available in ten Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) scripts. For more information on .INFO please visit www.info.info.

About Afilias:

Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias’ reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS, and services in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Services. For more information on Afilias please visit http://afilias.info.

Hosting companies face many challenges today, from differentiating their services in a crowded market with decreasing margins, to an increasing pressure to defend against growing sets of attacks against their infrastructure. As more and more services drift into the cloud, up-time is becoming one of the most critical factors for customers choosing a web host. A hosting company’s record of reliability can often be the deciding factor for a customer to choose one service over another. Recently at HostingCon, Afilias was able to talk to hosting companies about their current DNS problems and why they need to now look at advanced DNS solutions to improve reliability or to seek new revenue with premium DNS offerings.

What we’ve been saying for some time now was confirmed by many of the hosting companies visiting and exhibiting at HostingCon. Over the last year we’ve seen an increase in size and number of attacks against the DNS. Both continue to grow as criminals seek any way to exploit vulnerabilities in networks. DDoS attacks against DNS infrastructure as well as sophisticated DNS hijacking attacks are now top of mind for most hosting companies.

Recent research from Arbor Networks shows that the risk of DDoS attack is by far the most worrying problem facing companies today, with 35% of organizations classifying such attacks as their biggest fear. The same research shows that over a quarter of all DDoS attacks target application-layer protocols such as DNS, with the largest attacks amounting to almost 50 Gigabytes per second (Gbps).

Here are some suggestions we have for hosting companies to not only improve their DNS architecture, but also how they can utilize a more superior and reliable DNS network to expand the services they currently offer today:

Add a secondary DNS provider to shoulder the load

An attack against a single hosting customer can severely impact performance and availability for a hosting company’s entire network, especially when a DDoS flood is large and targets a shared network bottleneck such as DNS resolution. Every customer who puts content online, blogs, or shares links to your hosted sites in social media, creates a target that could put your entire customer base at risk.

The risk of taking out an entire set of customers based on the target of just one popular or controversial customer, presents a greater need for hosting companies to harden their DNS infrastructure from attack. Rather than bearing the added capital expense of building out a bigger DNS network, simply integrating a second DNS provider to serve part of your DNS traffic can alleviate bottlenecks in your current DNS infrastructure and give you an entire second network to rely on incase of a crippling DDoS attack.

Indeed, we’ve even seen some customers reap additional positive outcomes of integrating a secondary DNS provider. This approach allows them to seamlessly take out any or all of their own DNS nodes for planned or unplanned maintenance or even deploying critical patches.

Strengthening your network with Anycast

Of course, the DDoS problem is not confined to DNS alone. DNS is just one piece in the overall architecture of a hosting company. However, DNS is one area that is often not provisioned as well as other, more obvious, pieces of potentially vulnerable infrastructure. The risk of attacks taking down DNS for all hosting customers can be substantially mitigated by building out a robust DNS infrastructure that uses a diverse selection of technology providers and is globally distributed using IP Anycast.

Anycast enables companies to advertise the same IP address from multiple nodes, deployed on different parts of the Internet, simultaneously. In the DNS context, this allows companies to present a more localized way to resolve domain names, reducing latency and increasing performance for end users, while mitigating the impact of one node going down for maintenance or due to attack.

Don’t run a monoculture – integrate diversity

The number of vulnerabilities found in ubiquitous data center hardware and software platforms is forever increasing, and is expected to double this year compared to 2009. Companies that have adopted software monocultures, or failed to incorporate enough vendor diversity in their DNS architectures, could find themselves more at risk from exploitation. By also introducing some of Afilias’ principles of DNS Diversity, where each node is provisioned by more than one connectivity provider, and uses more than one vendor for each of its operating system, name server, server hardware and network infrastructure needs, single points of failure in your DNS are virtually eliminated.

Premium DNS is a selling feature

Advanced DNS not only does not need to be a cost center, it should also be viewed as an opportunity to increase revenues. As your customers’ businesses depends more on their Web services, they are aware of just how critical the availability of their website actually is. Customers that want to safeguard their e-commerce revenue will pay for Service Level Agreements (SLA) and guarantees on their DNS resolution. Even a marginal increase in your per month hosting fee could be just enough to differentiate a premium DNS package, and collectively across your customer base can present an easy added revenue stream to help your bottom line this year.

How can better DNS be easy for hosting companies?

DNS shouldn't have to be a choke-point or vulnerability in a hosting architecture. Nor should it be a headache for network administrators to provision, manage and secure. With Afilias’ new FlexDNS Platform, we're offering hosting companies or other resellers three easy ways (Web portal, AXFR, or an API) to integrate with a massively diverse, flexible and distributed DNS network that guarantees 100% availability. Using Anycast, the Afilias network provides bulletproof DNS resolution from widely dispersed nodes on multiple continents, using multiple backbone providers and a diverse array of technology providers, creating a level of robustness and redundancy that would be prohibitively expensive for many hosting companies to deploy themselves in-house.

Almost exactly nine years ago, the .INFO domain first started accepting registrations.  This was an historic event as it was the first time a new generic top-level domain (TLD) was launched to an existing domain marketplace and, in fact, was the first new TLD to be added since .com.  We’ve seen (and provided technology to power) many other TLD launches since then, with many business models.  As you seek to introduce your own new TLD however, you should carefully evaluate the different launch models that have been tried before and determine which one will work best for your specific TLD.

Trademark Protection
All new TLDs will require some form of trademark protection to ensure that Intellectual Property (IP) holders’ rights can be protected prior to live, public registrations.  Afilias has implemented a number of different types of trademark protection plans from pre-registration without trademark verification, to those with extensive application and verification processes.  We’ve seen the best success with a very focused trademark pre-registration period that has clear trademark parameters and works with a known trademark verification agent to weed through all of the submissions.  We also recommend that all registries lock pre-registered trademark domains for up to 60 days following their registration award to allow for any potential UDRP claims that IP owners may wish to file.  

Landrush
Landrush will be the most critical time for your TLD as it places the heaviest load on the technical registry system.  We’ve seen in excess of 300,000 names coming in through initial landrush opening minutes, so you want to be very careful about who you select as your registry partner.  You should make sure that their registry has been tested to withstand a significant landrush load.

In addition, you will have to make some policy decisions about how you want landrush to work. In almost all cases you should avoid pre-registration fees with a “chance” at getting your name. These can be viewed as lottery-based systems that can subject your organization to new legal restrictions.  We highly recommend that clients not charge for applications, but only for awarded names.

Regardless, you need to decide if you will open the floodgates all at once, or if you want to have multiple, specialized application periods (see below) in advance of the “public” opening.

Premium Names and Auctions
In recent years TLDs like .info, .mobi, .asia and .me have seen good success by reserving premium names, which are highly desirable generic or category terms.  In .info’s case, we reserved a number of country domains and have awarded them for use by their respective governments (some great examples are spain.info and germany.info).  Other TLDs have used reserved name lists for auctions following landrush.

Premium or other reserved names can fit well into your new TLD’s strategy, particularly if you will be representing a certain category or key community where they will present more value.  An auction approach helps to raise the price, and therefore perceived value of these names, and can help put your registry on a sound financial footing more quickly.  

RFPs
If auctions are not to your taste, other domains have also seen success by simply launching a period where interested users can respond to a “request for proposal” with a business and launch plan for a highly desirable name.  As a registry, you can offer additional promotion, partnerships or advertising to help assist with the launch of these sites, which can also act as great brand ambassadors for your fledgling TLD.

Each new TLD will have its own priorities. However, at the end of the day, you need a plan that will get lots of names into your target market quickly, generate awareness of your TLD (so it will be viewed as a legitimate place to visit by Internet users), and demonstrate actual use in the market (i.e. real sites and e-mail).  Your launch plan is critical to establishing these building blocks quickly. If you are not a TLD expert, consider teaming up with someone who has been there before.

What were you doing this week back in 1985? Answer: Probably watching the debut of Back to the Future, a early Steven Spielberg movie which incorporated novel uses of technology to travel in time. During that same time in 1985, however, another innovative use of technology was also making its debut—one with much greater implications for improving our lives on a global scale.

On July 10, 1985 the first .ORG domain name – mitre.org – was registered, joining the initial registrations in .com and 5 other “generic top level domains” in the Internet’s Root zone. This date marks the starting point of the Internet revolution by allowing Internet users to locate online resources by easy-to-remember names instead of complex numbers. Making the Internet more accessible has spurred global economic development, improved freedoms and increased access to knowledge for the last 25 years.

Afilias is pleased to be a partner with .ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) in supporting the millions of .ORG domains now in use worldwide. We are proud to provide state of the art registry and DNS services which ensure that .ORG is a reliable and secure home for the millions of organizations worldwide who depend on their .ORG online identity to pursue their missions. We have worked closely for the past seven years with PIR and its parent organization, the Internet Society (ISOC), to continuously upgrade the critical infrastructure supporting .ORG to meet the needs of both current and future Internet users. The recent deployment of a significantly upgraded security technology, DNSSEC, across the .ORG domain is but one example of how PIR, ISOC and Afilias join together to ensure the .ORG domain is exemplary, safe and trusted.

Since 2003, when PIR became the steward of .ORG, .ORG has grown by almost 300% to over 8 million domains. This growth is a testament to the dedicated and focused team at PIR, the secure and reliable technology underpinning the registry, and to the engaged base of active registrars, who serve the expanding core of .ORG registrants and the larger universe of .ORG Internet users. The achievements of .ORG over the past twenty-five years in general and the seven years in particular point to a great renaissance and a period of extraordinary activity and success for .ORG, and bode well for the next twenty-five years.

The entire team at Afilias congratulates Alexa Raad, CEO of PIR, her team, ISOC and the Internet community on achieving this important and historic milestone. Happy Birthday .ORG!

The board resolved on Friday to dedicate its two-day retreat in September entirely to working on the issues that remain outstanding in the Draft Applicant Guidebook. The current version of the DAG, the fourth, is expected to be the final draft before applications become open to potentially hundreds of prospective new TLD registry operators.

ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush said the final Applicant Guidebook could be ready or almost ready for approval as early as December this year, when the ICANN community will meet in Cartagena, Colombia. Companies wishing to apply for their ".brand" TLD in the first round could find themselves able to do so in the first half of next year and should start their planning process now if they have not already.

However, because ICANN is a bottom-up policy-making organization, there are still issues that the community needs to resolve before the board can act. The procedures for providing intellectual property protection to trademark holders have almost been finalized, and the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee has been asked for further guidance on how to handle its concerns about "morality and public order" in new TLDs. Registries and registrars are also continuing to make progress towards a consensus view on cross-ownership and vertical integration.

One key element of the new TLD process is the requirement that all new TLDs incorporate DNSSEC at launch.  DNSSEC took another significant step forward at this meeting with the signing of http://www.isoc.org/ as the first second level .ORG to be secured by this new security protocol.  The .org TLD is the largest TLD to date to deploy DNSSEC at the zone level; and the http://www.isoc.org/ signing paves the way for EVERY .ORG to be secured via DNSSEC.

There was also good news in Brussels for the world's over one billion Chinese speakers, as the ICANN 

Board voted to approve three Chinese-script internationalized domain names for addition to the root. The country-code managers for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, who received standing ovations following the Board's decision, will soon be able to distribute addresses ending in their IDN scripts.  These TLDs will join several other country-specific strings that were applied for in the "fast -track" process approved at the Nairobi meeting.

Attendees at the public ICANN meeting in Brussels today heard from over two dozen companies that have implemented or are planning to support DNSSEC, the next-generation standard protocol for secured domain names. It is clearer than ever before that DNSSEC is becoming a reality.

The Public Interest Registry announced that as of this morning the .ORG top-level domain, for which Afilias provides the technical infrastructure, has finalized its deployment of DNSSEC.  Registrants of .ORG domains will now be able to generate keys and sign their zones via participating registrars. The Internet Society's ISOC.org address became the first to go live in production, signing their name with their sponsoring registrar NamesBeyond.  NamesBeyond also became the first registrar to offer complete DNSSEC deployment in production and presented an easy-to-use user interface design.

In her comments, Lynn St. Amour, the President and CEO of the Internet Society said that she was pleased to be the first organization in the .ORG  top level domain to deploy DNSSEC.  She said that implementing DNSSEC for the .ORG top-level domain was an important step in ensuring that the Internet serves as a trusted channel for communication and collaboration.

Indeed, the deployment of DNSSEC is one of the most important developments in .ORG's 25-year history and their visionary efforts have pushed an entire industry towards adoption.

GoDaddy publicized its commitment to DNSSEC at the ICANN meeting, telling a crowded meeting hall that it will offer a managed DNSSEC service to its customers later this year. An additional 11 registrars have completed operational testing to offer DNSSEC-signed .ORG domains to their customers.

With ICANN due to sign the DNS root next month, the chain of trust on the Internet is almost complete, all the way from the root to the ISP level. Comcast, which spent over two years testing its own DNSSEC validating resolvers prior to deploying earlier this year, announced today that it will also sign some 650 of its own .ORG domains.  Jason Livingood from Comcast encouraged other ISPs to begin their own DNSSEC trials and to rollout DNSSEC in their production resolvers.

While many at the ICANN meeting also heard about the technical challenges of implementing DNSSEC at the registrar and registry levels, and the competitive advantages that can come from being an early adopter, the general consensus emerged that DNSSEC is now something which every player in the domain name industry needs to address.

Paul Vixie, the Chairman of Internet Systems Consortium, which develops BIND software told the workshop that the community was near the tipping point with the root, .ORG, .COM and .NET all being signed or going to sign soon.

ISOC, PIR and Afilias team at the signing of isoc.org this morning at ICANN 38: Brussels.
(Left to right) Back row: Roland LaPlante & Dr. Jim Galvin from Afilias. Front row: Alexa Raad, PIR CEO, Leslie Daigle, ISOC CITO, and Lynn St.Amour, ISOC CEO.

The barriers to DNSSEC adoption are quickly disappearing. There are nearly 20 top-level domains that have already deployed DNSSEC including generic TLDs like .org and .gov. This July, the DNS root will also be signed, and will begin validating DNSSEC queries. At this point, the decision for remaining TLDs to deploy DNSSEC is really no longer a question. In fact, as it stands today, all new TLDs approved by ICANN will be required to have DNSSEC deployed at launch.

Afilias already supports .ORG’s deployment of DNSSEC and provides secondary DNSSEC service for other ccTLDs. Our experience in deploying DNSSEC demonstrates that you need to plan for an increase in strain on your DNS network if your ccTLD or gTLD plans to deploy DNSSEC.

Deploying DNSSEC will have three main effects on your DNS operations:

Larger Zone File Size

For every signed domain, your zone file will now have to store and provide not only the original DNS information such as Start of Authority (SOA) and other Resource Records, but also a digital signer record (DS) to point to the Public Key as well as the actual signature record (RRsig) for each RRset in your zone file for which you are authoritative.

On average, you should expect your zone file to increase 4-6 times its current size.

More than 50% of the DNS traffic Afilias serves today already requests DNSSEC information. When you sign your zone, you will be serving signature information immediately.

Delivering a larger zone file that is serving more records for every DNS query will increase the daily strain on your DNS servers, and could result in increased response times.

Greater Bandwidth Requirements

DNSSEC-enabled responses contain more information because they are now carrying an additional set of information (signatures and keys) that go along with every DNS query. On average, a DNSSEC response is about twice the size of a non-DNSSEC response.

You will need to factor in more bandwidth and processing power to handle larger responses for each DNSSEC query that you need to serve. Some of this is dependent on the DNSSEC configuration choices you make.

While our experience shows that the bandwidth increase associated with a signed zone is not orders of magnitude higher than an unsigned zone, we recommend that you plan for at least a 2-4 times increase in bandwidth required to respond to normal DNS query volume.

Increased DNS Traffic

There are a few reasons why you may see an overall bump in DNS traffic just because you enable DNSSEC.

DNS uses UDP, a lightweight protocol, to return responses for most DNS queries. BIND 9.4.x and earlier versions limit UDP responses to 512 bytes. Since DNSSEC information is larger, responses can be truncated, thereby forcing validating resolvers to ask for the DNSSEC information again using TCP. Most signed TLDs to date report a 1-2% TCP traffic increase overall.

Solving for these three significant operational impacts could cost you time, money and pull your resources away from other critical projects. And, it may even deter you from implementing DNSSEC even though it has become an essential part of TLD management.

We would like to suggest a simple solution that will lighten your load: back-up your DNS with a Secondary provider.

Why? It will reduce your overall risk by offloading part of your traffic onto someone else’s network that has already planned for higher peak capacities. It provides a more economical solution by minimizing the overall expense and capital requirements to expand your existing DNS network. And more importantly it provides a virtual insurance plan against unexpected traffic spikes not just for DNSSEC, but any DNS traffic spike or malfunction whether caused by network failure, DDoS, or a natural disaster affecting the geographic location of your existing nodes.

It’s easy, it’s economical and it makes your infrastructure more resilient.

Register now for a free Web Seminar “Lessons from the Trenches: Deploying DNSSEC” on June 9, 2010, featuring leaders from the .SE registry, .ORG The Public Interest Registry, Shinkuro, and Afilias. Register now.

DUBLIN, IRELAND - 1 June 2010 - Today Afilias, a leading provider of Internet infrastructure services, announced that its Chief Technology Officer, Ram Mohan, has been named to IDG's InfoWorld CTO 25 Awards for his work and innovation in deploying Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in the Internet's domain name system (DNS).

 "We congratulate Ram on this prestigious and well deserved recognition of his technology leadership which has improved DNS security across the Internet," said Hal Lubsen, CEO of Afilias. "The deployment of DNSSEC in our systems preceded a broader commitment to DNSSEC worldwide from other parts of the DNS ecosystem, including the Root zone operators, other domain registries, and major ISPs who are now deploying the technology to finally bring the security benefits of DNSSEC to end users."  

DNSSEC technology solves Internet security problems like the "Kaminsky bug" (also known as cache poisoning), a highly publicized critical flaw to the DNS which allows malicious third-parties to get control of the DNS communication channel between an end user and a Web site. DNSSEC is an Internet standard developed by the IETF over a decade ago that solves this vulnerability by attaching cryptographic signatures to each DNS query and response. However, large-scale DNSSEC implementation was stalled until .ORG, the Public Interest Registry began work on signing their top-level domain, with technical implementation carried out by Afilias (PIR's technical services provider).  Ram Mohan, CTO and Executive Vice President of Afilias, architected the deployment of DNSSEC for .ORG, one of the largest and most trusted domain name registries in the world, completing the signing of the top-level domain in June of 2009.

"This year's honorees reinvented untenable legacies, provided game-changing insight, and managed both their own teams and key organization stakeholders to make their businesses succeed through the use of technology. Our honorees did much more than implement technology well; they brought its use to a new level," said Galen Gruman, Executive Editor/News and Features, InfoWorld.   

"I am honored to receive this award and to be supported by an incredible team at Afilias. I'd also like to thank everyone at .ORG for their vision and commitment to DNSSEC," said Ram Mohan. "Much work has been done at the top of the DNS hierarchy, including ICANN, IANA and NTIA, to make DNSSEC a reality. Now is the time for the rest of the chain of trust, from registrars to application providers to enterprises, to embrace it and make DNS security a priority."

About the  InfoWorld CTO 25 Awards

Chief technology officers are often the unsung heroes of IT. They may drive new technology development for customer-facing and/or internal use. They may manage and improve the core technology that underpins the business operations. In any case, they translate the promise of technology into business benefit. Each year, the InfoWorld CTO 25 Awards honor senior IT executives who have demonstrated leadership within their companies and in the IT community.

Inclusion in the InfoWorld CTO 25 rankings does not imply endorsement of an organization's products or services.  Selection is based on the excellence and quality of the work environment, and not state or imply that your organization's product or service is being honored. The full list of 2010 winners is available at: http://www.infoworld.com/t/leadership/the-best-ctos-2010-618 

About InfoWorld Media Group

InfoWorld Media Group helps IT Decision Makers choose the right technology, within the context of a cohesive strategy for business impact at their organizations. InfoWorld identifies and promotes emerging technology segments that add unique value for the organizations that implement them, as well as the vendors that provide those solutions. Using an integrated communications approach including online, events, research, and a continued investment in an independent Test Center, InfoWorld analysts and editors provide hands-on analysis and evaluation, as well as expert commentary on issues surrounding emerging technologies and products. Visit InfoWorld at http://www.infoworld.com

About International Data Group

International Data Group (IDG) is the world's leading technology media, events, and research company. IDG's online network includes more than 450 web sites spanning business technology, consumer technology, digital entertainment and video games worldwide. IDG also publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers in 85 countries. IDG's media brands include CIO, CSO, Computerworld, GamePro, InfoWorld, Macworld, Network World, and PC World. IDG's lead-generation service, IDG Connect, matches technology companies with an audience of engaged, high-quality IT professionals, influencers, and decision makers. IDG is a leading producer of more than 750 technology-related events including Macworld Conference & Expo, LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, Entertainment for All Expo (E for All), DEMO, Storage Networking World, and IDC Directions. IDC, a subsidiary of IDG, is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events. Over 900 IDC analysts in more than 90 countries provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends.  Additional information about IDG, a privately held company, is available at http://www.idg.com.

About Afilias

Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data. Afilias' reliable, secure, scalable, and globally available technology supports a wide range of applications including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS, and services in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Services. 

If you are a new TLD applicant, one of the key pieces of your plan is how you intend to go to market. Many applicants will be required by ICANN to use registrars, and there are many good reasons for this. Registrars understand the domain business, they are experienced domain marketers and most importantly, they have existing business relationships with many of the same registrants you will need to make your TLD successful.

The question is: HOW do you get registrars to support YOUR new TLD? Afilias has more experience introducing new TLDs to registrars than anyone, and we’d like to suggest 3 principles for success:

1. First, choose an attractive string: The most important reason for a registrar to support you is if your TLD will sell. Make sure your string has a strong reason for being—that it adds value to the Internet and will serve a market that will buy it!
2. Second, Provide Support: Be sure to give registrars tools that will help them sell your TLD. For example you’ll need to ensure competitive pricing and provide marketing materials and promotional support. Plan to work as a TEAM with your registrars
3. Third, Keep it simple: Registrars are going to be swamped with new offerings. If YOUR TLD is simpler to implement, your chances for success are better.
   • Simplicity begins with the accreditation process—Study what new TLDs have done in the past and don’t re-invent the wheel.
   • Pricing should also be simple and sustainable. Look at how registrars sell domains today and try to replicate that model.
   • And last, Technical systems must be familiar and standards-compliant: Registrars don’t have time to learn a whole new system. They will support TLDs that use systems they are familiar with, as it saves them time and money.

Registrars are the key to distribution so you must learn how to succeed through them. How? Choose an attractive string, provide appropriate support for your registrars, and keep it simple for them.

Of course, it isn’t quite that simple. That’s why you should work with an expert who is already dealing with registrars and has done this for many new TLDs before. Afilias already has a group of accredited registrars that together support over 90% of the active domain name marketplace. This coupled with our registry technology which already supports 15 different TLDs, has the kind of experience you’ll need in gaining distribution to make your new TLD successful.

Afilias Managed DNS Services will be at Booth #622 at the 2010 Comptia Breakway Conference.  Join us in San Antonio to learn how to ensure 100% up-time reliabililty for your web presence with Afilias' DNS.  Afilias VP, John Kane will be speaking as part of the "Security in the Cloud" Panel to be held on August 12th at 11am.

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