 Welcome to .telegraph, the monthly .tel community newsletter covering the latest news on .tel features, software and services, as well as useful tips and advice from .tel owners. Why not share this with someone you think may also be interested? More resources are at http://telnic.org/community-landing.html. |  Printer-Friendly |
decappeal.tel
haitiearthquake.tel
.tel merchandise in
online shops*:
*Note: these
are community services;
no proceeds go to Telnic
In this issue:
Hot News: search on .tel with TelPages
Telnic has provided to the .tel community a Beta version of TelPages, a global .tel search directory. When released, this search will have a new design and more exciting features, but you can preview and test its speed and quality today at http://beta.telpages.com.
In its current version, TelPages searches through all active .tel domains, can sort them into individuals and businesses, and perform advanced searches for Who, What and Where. We hope you will find this facility useful. Please email us your feedback at community@telnic.org.
New Year—New Look: telnic.org
Telnic has launched an updated and improved version of its main website, telnic.org. Among the new useful features and materials:
- See if a.tel name is available and buy it from a shortlist of registrars
- Browse.tel for you for industry-specific tips on organizing your .tel page
- Take the Quick Tour to learn about .tel benefits and monetization options
- Manage your .tel by going straight to your .tel control panel
- Get the most of your .tel with Tools and Services by Telnic and the community
Industry News: .tel at MacWorld
Join Justin Hayward, Telnic's Director of Communications, and Henri Asseily, the CTO, at the MacWorld exhibition this year and be among the first to try out My.tel 2.0, the powerful iPhone app for managing your .tel domains. Come round to Booth 1366 to ask questions, share ideas and discuss the latest news in the .tel world.
A new year's message from Telnic
 | "At the beginning of this New Year, I wanted to first offer our best wishes for the future and thank you for your support over the past year. 2009 has seen us embark on a new adventure on the internet with .tel, and your support has helped us become the seventh most popular domain registry regulated by ICANN, with over 275,000 .tel domains registered, in a very short space of time. Khashayar Mahdavi, |  |
What you see when you manage or visit a .tel is just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the control panel and applications, there is a significant and complex technical architecture that has taken time to be refined. Now that we have secured this infrastructure, we are focused on four key priorities for 2010. These will deliver a refreshed look and feel, easier management for individuals and portfolio owners, increasing the awareness through extended marketing and new distributors that can target customers outside of the traditional domain-buying audience.
1. Increased customization
We're very aware of the popularity of Web 2.0 services and their look and feel, and elements of this will be built into the look and feel of the .tel proxy pages in 2010. The ability to have more customization, to add a logo or a photo, to bring a more friendly presentation to the .tel data, will be a major priority in the first quarter of 2010.
2. Increased value and monetization
While it is possible to generate revenue from non-traditional sources such as premium rate telephone numbers and SMS, links to downloads and sponsored links, we are aware of the need to simplify the ability for traditional web advertising methods to be incorporated into .tel. As such, we will be developing a more simple way of implementing services into .tel, either directly through the control panel, or via easy-to-integrate third party solutions from partners.
3. Better discoverability
In 2010, Telnic will be launching Telpages, its web-based search directory for .tel domains. While .tel domains are dis-coverable through most leading search engines, many customers have been requesting an official, .tel-only search engine created by Telnic, for their global listings. This has launched in beta this month, and will be constantly improved over time as .tel domains become populated with more meaningful data.
4. Integration with other services
The .tel is an excellent platform from which individuals and businesses can better integrate their web experience and manage their interaction with other services. For that, we will be building connectors to easily integrate with other services, using technologies like Open Authentication, as well as providing added-value options such as identity verification with OpenID.
We will also be providing additional space on our platform for other software and services that will integrate with .tel in 2010. As .tel becomes better connected with more services, more people will become aware of the essential requirement of owning their own contact information and sharing it in a more controlled fashion.
We welcome your input
As the Sponsoring Organization for .tel, Telnic is committed to listening and responding to the views of the entire .tel community and we hope we have demonstrated openness and responsiveness to new ideas. While it is inevitable that people have dreams and desires for .tel to become an overnight sensation, the reality is that this takes hard work, strong partnerships and the support of .tel owners to develop their .tel names to the best of their ability. We continue to hear extremely valuable feedback from early adopters in our forums, on social media and social networking sites, as well as their desires for better visibility, ease of use and stronger marketing efforts.
I wish you all a successful and prosperous 2010.
Current 2010 Roadmap at a Glance
On your .tel page
| In your control panel
| More Services
|
.tel Cities around the world
Many .tel domains are used as directory services, with city directories working as tourist guides and as YP-style listings promoting local businesses. A .tel city directory is fast, optimized for mobiles, and has a very low carbon footprint. Unlike a paper directory, a .tel city can be updated in real time, doesn't get lost in the post, and is instantly available wherever you are.
A .tel city directory can help local businesses find clients and partners in their local community, be discovered online and get promoted in online media. Equally, local residents can find it really easy to navigate a .tel city from their mobile device to make purchases, place bookings and find their way around.
Some directories also include reference information about public transport, information centres, emergency services, medical facilities, and other resources that both residents and visitors can benefit from. We've started collecting .tel city directories, see the Google Map with our progress. To get your directory on the map, write to us at at community@telnic.org.
| Some tips for .tel city directories:
|  |
| Whatever you do with your city.tel, don't leave it empty. Even with basic information about the city and your directory, the domain will start working, getting traffic and building up interest in your resource. As you start adding businesses to your directory, also populate generic information to make the resource useful for all visitors. |
Margaret's Folly: .tel by a website designer
I am a website designer and online marketer. I help my clients with SEO and social media marketing. I strive to create websites that come up on the first page of Google. When I create each site, I build in all of the SEO tactics that I can and then teach my clients how to change their websites often using my strategies and between us, we watch their websites climb higher and higher in Google.
 | How important is being discoverable on the internet or contactable by your clients to you?It's vital. Because I help my clients in getting found easily on the web, it's very important to me that I am found as easily as well. I have to practice what I preach in order to sell my services. Additionally, it sure helps in getting new projects. When potential clients can find me online easily, they know that I can help them get found as well. Because I'm found easily online, I never have to cold call. I get all of my work just from people finding me in search and visiting my website - or from word of mouth from happy customers. |
How do you enable your clients to reach you?I feel - and I hope my customers agree - that part of my brand is stellar customer service. As such, I am available night and day, seven days a week. My clients can reach me via cell phone, email and through the contact form on my website. I carry an iPhone with me at all times and will take my clients' calls or answer their emails as I receive them. I have added my .tel to my website, to my business card, and to my email signature. My clients have all of my contact information available to them through these avenues. When did you hear about .tel domains and what were your thoughts?I first heard about .tel domain names during the Landrush in early 2009. One of my clients has a very popular domain name and I wanted to secure that .tel for him before anyone else bought it. We bought his domain name in March and I didn't set up his .tel until a few months ago. Once I learned more about .tels and saw their incredible value, I set up two of my own .tels and I've been selling the setup of .tels as yet another service provided by Margaret's Folly. Who might benefit from a .tel?Everyone. I own two .tel domain names, one for professional use (margaretsfolly.tel) and one for personal use (margarettehan.tel). I use these .tels not only so that people can find me easily, but also as examples for others to view so that I can sell the .tel setup to businesses and individuals alike. It's just so easy to tell people to find me at margaretsfolly.tel that I truly think everyone should have one - even if they don't want to use it for business purposes. But for businesses, it's a no-brainer. Of course every business should have a .tel to list their employees and their employees' contact info, to show where their business is located - or to show all of their locations, and to have one more inexpensive and easily maintained website that sells their products and services. What's your experience been having used it for a while?I'm thrilled with it. If I'm out running errands and I don't have business cards on me - or if I give out my last card - I can always tell people to go to margaretsfolly.tel. If I'm on the phone and I need to tell people several ways to reach me, I always tell them to bookmark margaretsfolly.tel or to download my vCard. I don't have a way to set up an email signature on my iPhone so adding "margaretsfolly.tel" at the end of an email takes a lot less time than adding my website, my phone number and my several email addresses. I like the fact that I have my Facebook page, my Twitter account and my LinkedIn pages all listed in one place. I haven't made any of my contact info private yet, but it's nice to know that feature is available. How does having a .tel help your business specifically?I love the fact that I can be found via every search engine possible. I can be found via conventional search methods - in Google, Yahoo!, etc. But I can also be found in Jepaa.com - proving my point to my clients - that they, too, can be found easily on the web if they follow my strategies. Additionally, one can only fit just so much information on a business card. Rather than overcrowd my business card, I list the essentials on it... my phone number, my main email address, my business website and my .tel. When people visit my .tel, they see so much more about me than what I can fit on my business card. How would you explain to a layperson what a .tel is?I would tell them it's an online business card but it's a thousand times better. I like to use this story as an example. One day, I was driving from one appointment to the next when I received an email from a vendor who was getting some quotes for me. The woman emailed me with, "Call me right away!" But she didn't include her phone number in the email. I had not added her phone number to my contacts yet so I did not have her phone number on me. I had to drive back to my office between appointments to get her phone number off of her business card. If only she had a .tel. I could have just looked up her phone number on her .tel on my iPhone and called her while I was driving to my next appointment. I would also explain to them that print is permanent. Change your phone number and you now need to get new business cards printed. Better yet, change your job and how do you notify everyone that you have a new job with a new phone number? But if you have a .tel, you can make changes to your phone number or your business contact info at any time of the day or night... with no cost to make those changes. You can be found easily at all times. Or - should you want to keep some info private, that's OK, too. | |
.telebritiesWith the festive season and vacations, we've decided to skip this month's .telebrity roll and will restart the awards in February. We have had some very interesting submissions over the holiday period, and they will participate in the competition in the next run. The competition is still rolling, so don't miss a chance to win one of the Flip HD cameras this winter, submit your story today at http://telnic.org/community-telebrity.html. |  |
Copyright © 2010, Telnic Ltd.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario