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To help companies provide websites that customers can feel safe to browse and to buy from, VeriSign is having a one-day-only sale of its new VeriSign Trust seals, all day Wednesday, November 3, as part of a pre-holiday promotion campaign aimed at small business owners.

According to VeriSign, "The VeriSign Trust seal shows the world that VeriSign has confirmed your identity and your site has passed the VeriSign malware scan."

A year's worth of service for a VeriSign Trust seal normally sells for $299. During the "Dollar Day" sale, which will run from 12:01AM PST to 11:59PM -- "from midnight to midnight," said Tim Callan, head of marketing for VeriSign trust services at Symantec -- VeriSign is offering a $298 discount on one year's worth of Trust seal.

Available since April 2010, the VeriSign Trust seal is an alternative to the company's older seal. "The 'VeriSign Secured' circle-and-check VeriSign Seal has historically been yoked to our VeriSign SSL certificate, which meant that you had to be using VeriSign SSL Certificates to get a seal," said Callan.

"But many small businesses outsource their shopping cart to a third party like Yahoo or eBay, where they can't get SSL," said Callan. These third-party shopping carts are typically secured with SSL on their own, as indicated by the URL starting with HTTPS or SHTTP. "This means that credible businesses are penalized for being too small. So we are creating a standalone version of the seal. Businesses have to be secure, and have their identify confirmed... but they don't have to be using SSL."

The cost of a regular VeriSign Trust seal including the SSL Certificate is $399/year.

Types of businesses that a VeriSign Trust seal is appropriate for, according to the company, include small businesses, online retailers that outsource payment or shopping carts, publishers, and websites that collect or share personal information, such as for sign-ins or sales.