 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. |  | In this issue: A new direction for Telnic  | Ian Bowen-Morris is Telnic's new Chief Marketing Officer at Telnic Limited. Since joining the company in July 2010 Ian has been busy devising a new marketing strategy that will develop the .tel name and brand, and bring .tel to businesses and professionals worldwide. This month, Ian is sharing his ideas with the global .tel community. Read on for more. |
 | "We find maintaining and making changes to our .tel page extremely easy. No specialist knowledge is required. If you can make entries in an email address book you can set up a .tel page. We have also found the free "my.tel" iPhone app is particularly useful for making changes while on the move." Read the full story of Marprof.tel |  |
Innovation and .tel in China At Telnic over the past few months we've been working hard helping our newest partner Tong Ji Ming Lian (Beijing) Technology Ltd (TJML) get ready to launch their .tel services in China. China is a quietly innovative country, building on centuries of ground-breaking invention. Culturally, China is on a fast-track to being the largest economy in the world, and naturally, international organizations are becoming increasingly focused on working to develop in this market. For more information about .tel in China, please visit our official blog.
A new direction for Telnic - continued Biography Ian was Head of Marketing of Yell.com 2000-2008. He led the commercial marketing team and was responsible for the development of Yell.com's advertiser propositions and usage growth. After Yell Ian has been consulting to directory publishers and local search businesses seeking accelerated online growth before joining Telnic in July this year. Ian has been a Committee member of the European Association of Directory Publishers (EADP) since 2001 and has an extensive network of contacts across the US and Europe. Getting started at Telnic It's been a busy few weeks settling in to Telnic and getting my head around the .tel customer propositions, technology, and routes to market. My first impressions are that Telnic has solid, reliable and scalable technology, great people, growing global distribution and a huge market opportunity! I'm personally really excited by the road map of new features and enhancements that Telnic's product development team have planned, in order to continue to improve what I believe is already a compelling tool for small businesses and individual professionals. I've also been really pleased to see some of the innovations that have already been developed within our growing .tel ecosystem, and I'm sure there's a lot more to come. Marketing strategy My initial marketing focus is on growing the number of unique registrants using their .tel names for business and professional reasons. I see two large audiences that can benefit from registering a .tel presence - Individual Professionals and Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). Within these huge segments, there is the "known" market, typically sole practitioners and businesses that are established, have premises with landlines, have a free listing basic in online directories, and whom may pay for online advertising or a web site presence. These prospects will really benefit from a .tel as it's an entirely complementary digital asset when populated with all their contact details and back linked to their existing website or directory listings. They can benefit from enhanced search engine optimisation with another window to generate sales leads as well as being in control of their contact information. There is however also a large and growing "unknown" market; typically new business start-ups, micro/home-based businesses, second-jobbers, often using email and mobile for contact details. These are often not listed on directories and typically do not spend on advertising given their size and stage of development, but they do need a professional internet presence that they are in control of. Latest activities Telnic is working hard with its existing and new Registrar partners and, through them, their resellers, to develop these volume target sectors. Our marketing plans are focused strongly on this in the short term to fully support this growth. Therefore, our number one focus is communicating to Professionals and SMEs the relevant features and tangible benefits of owning a .tel and the outstanding value for money it offers, whether they are just starting out in businesses or well established. Last week, I attended the European Association of Directory Publishers (EADP) Congress in Venice, where directory publishers (e.g. yellow pages directories) across Europe came together to review market opportunities. There was great interest in .tel as a value added offering as they transition their customers and revenues from print to online marketing propositions. These are the kind of relationships that we're focusing on currently to broaden the reach and take the .tel message deeper into the marketplace. I look forward to updating you more about our market development activity in the coming months.
New 2011 .tel Collection  | As Telnic's development team is busy with the improved .tel control panel and related services, we're sharing the official .tel roadmap for the coming months. This is a list of high-level aspects of your management interface that Telnic will be focusing on into 2011. Closer to final development stages, we will be able to share with you a preview of some of these new and exciting features. Meanwhile, you can follow our progress online on our roadmap. | - Wizard — Streamlined user journey for novice .tel owners.
- Control panel redesign — More intuitive control panel with easier access to frequently used tasks.
- Folder management — Easier navigation and management of folders within the control panel.
- TelAds and vouchers — Managing advertisements within the control panel.
- Privacy and friending — Much simplified model for private data sharing.
- Profiles — Improved management of profiles for quickly switching between preset views of your .tel.
- .tel on smartphones — Updated look and feel for smartphones and larger-screen mobile devices.
- Visitor stats — Improved statistics for .tel domains.
Making the most of your .tel! There are lots of different and exciting ways you can use your .tel - this template has been put together from our research into how a .tel domain can benefit any sports club. By becoming a central point of communication, a .tel domain can provide benefits to all who are a part of the club or are interesting in joining. Here's an example of a sports club using .tel for your reference:http://londongaa.tel. So what do we recommend?  | - Easy to remember name
Your .tel is all anyone needs to connect with you. Your members, committee, players and anyone interested can get contact details and latest news at home, or using their mobile phone while on the move. Make sure the name you use is the one which is easily associated with your club. - Use your Header
Your Header information will be the first item anyone sees. This is also what will be displayed in search engine results. This could highlight your next fixture or meeting, or provide some additional details on your club as it may not be obvious from your name alone. - Put the most important information first
We recommend putting the main contact telephone number for the club at the top of the list. Alternatively, if there is no central number, maybe an email address so that anyone can reach you easily. Many .tel providers also let you use your .tel as your email address, so why not get a club email account set up. | - Share and Share alike
With all of the organization that is required, communication is the key to running a successful club. Contact details of key members can be shared through the .tel so that everyone can keep in touch. This can be using a separate folder and, if members wish their details to be hidden, the privacy features of .tel can be used so only permitted members can access the information. - Lead the way
Organise information into folders for different types of users that visit your .tel. There may be a section for young people and activities of interest to them, or different sections within your club. If you have multiple locations it makes sense to have a folder for each location, with contact and address details in each. - Get on the map
Add a location record to ensure new members and visitors don't get lost. This gives them a map of the area, especially useful when viewing your .tel from their mobile phone. Your postal address can be included in the Keywords area together with parking space info or public transport details - Paint a Picture
Your .tel domain's main function is for sharing information, but that doesn't mean it can't also look attractive. You can add a photo or logo to every folder as well as update the colours within your .tel to match your club's colours and make it more interesting to view. - More information for visitors and SEO
Use the space at the bottom of your .tel page to provide more information about your club, such as session times, pricing and other relevant information. Also use the Name and Business profile keywords to help search engines index your page correctly. - Team up
If your team belongs to a league or organization you can link to their main site for additional information. You can also request that they provide a link back to your .tel so visiting teams can access all of the information they need to contact and find you. If you own a .tel which is being used in the way described please let us know as we'd love to do a story on it. As always you can contact us on community@telnic.org.
Talfen.tel - the first country-wide .tel directory | Talfen.tel is the first country-wide .tel directory run by a group of 5 professionals specialized in IT, Business, Mass Communication, and Hotel Management. When we heard of .tel technology, we started buying our personal .tel domains, but then we thought of creating a directory for the active streets in Beirut such as gemayzeh.tel, monot.tel, and hamra.tel, which are crowded with restaurants and pubs and nightclubs. From there it came to us expand this idea and transform it to a directory for Lebanon. |  | Talfen has now more than 50 business categories, ranging from Airlines, Banks, Travel Agencies, Beaches, Cinemas, Restaurants, Pubs, Night Clubs, Diet Center, Jewellery Designers, Wedding Services; moreover, we also cover Cities in Lebanon, such as Aley, Broumana, Antelias, Zahleh, Jbeil, Hamra. How long has the project been running for? We started working on Talfen on October 2009 and officially launched the directory with a country-wide campaign in July 2010. Do you know how many businesses are currently part of talfen.tel and its associated properties? We have around 7500 unique businesses. Your Cinemas directory offers real-time information on movie screenings, with easy navigation paths by film or cinema house. Is this an automated solution? Do you use other automated services to support your project? The process of updating the weekly movie schedule is semi automated. We receive the schedules from three cinema houses, with three different formats. We have designed wrappers that compile these files to generate a uniform code that is executed to update the schedules directly on LebanonCinemas.tel.  | What is your marketing strategy behind this project? Our logo is compatible with the corporation name, easy to recognize, familiar, elicits a consensual meaning among those in the firm's target market and evokes positive feelings, and consequently the logo identifies the company and its brand helping to convey the overall corporate image. Talfen name reflects connectivity and can be expanded to more online services. The promotional strategy is divided into seven stages over a period of one year in an attempt to create public awareness and business confidence. The first stage was implemented in July 2010. | What has been your biggest selling point when trying to bring companies on board to advertise on your .tel? Optimised for mobiles, greater reach and easier and much faster access to contact information, indexing. | What kind of response have you had from the businesses listed on your .tel? We had personal contact with businesses during the month July at our booth in a mall, the responses were more than encouraging, businesses expressed a lot of enthusiasm toward Talfen. How successful would say this project has been? We launched officially Talfen.tel on July 1, 2010. During the first month, the response we received when introducing Talfen was astonishing as Lebanon lacks a comprehensive and up-to-date directory for contact information. They expressed interest in knowing which categories are available online, and suggested several others that they wish to find on Talfen. Your directory offers a downloadable app for browsing on mobiles – why have you created it? Talfen mobile application is a redirector to Talfen.tel which relieves users from going to the browser and typing in the URL "www.talfen.tel". So by clicking on the application icon, Talfen is automatically loaded on their browsers. What are your future plans for talfen.tel? Do you have any other .tel projects planned? We are in a continuous race to add new business categories to Talfen and to cover more areas in Lebanon. Currently we have around 50 business categories and 10 cities / streets in Lebanon. |  |
Sheena Khanna, living the .tel life | Hello everyone, I'm Sheena Khanna, I've been working for Telnic in London since December last year. You can find me at Sheenak.tel. Over the coming months I am going to be using TelPages.com to see whether I can find goods, services and activities that my family and I can use, only by using the TelPages search directory. |  | Today is Friday and I really fancy watching a movie tonight at the cinema with one of my friends. We are both based in London so central London is the perfect location. I visit TelPages.com where there are 3 search boxes available to me: Who, what and where. I type in central London under the 'where' field and cinema under the 'what' field and click search… The second link on my results page is called Cinema in Mayfair (Cinema.mayfair.tel) showing mainly Art House films. Perfect! As we both love watching the non-commercial films, I click on the link. The .tel page has the full address, the map as well as the website address. I click on the website address to check out the movies that are being shown as well as timings. The cinema is called Curzon Cinemas and was built in the 1930s so is one of London's oldest and most prestigious art-house cinemas. My friend will love this! So I send her the link and we decide on watching the movie Certified Copy at 9pm. So that's Friday night sorted. | The following day is Saturday and you may remember from last month's edition of the .telegraph that I was planning a short trip to Torquay. But before we set off I remember that I need to speak to a plumber so we can get our tap fixed at home (it's been leaking for a month now!). So I visit TelPages and type in "Plumbers" under Who and "London" under the Where field. There are 305 results! I click on the first link London-plumbers.tel - they have a phone number, email address, website address, map, description and all the relevant contact details all listed. So I click on their website and realize that they do 24 hour call outs and cover the London and M25 Counties, I then call the number provided and arrange a suitable time for them to visit next week. Easy! A few hours later, we're on our way to Torquay for and I hate to admit it but we're slightly lost! We've managed to reach Torquay but are unable to locate the exact whereabouts of the Hotel. This gives me a chance to use TelPages to look up the hotel and phone number. I type in "Torquay" under the Where field and "Barcelo Torquay Imperial hotel" under the What field and click search… I am then directed to a page featuring two links, so I click on the first Barcelo Torquay Imperial hotel link, this directs me to a page with the hotel phone number. I then call the hotel directly and ask for directions. Half an hour later I'm at the hotel ready to make the most of the rest of my trip. |  |
AHOY! The Marine Professionals Marine Professionals is a specialist marine consultancy based in the Lloyd's building, in the heart of London's marine insurance market. | We are 2 ex-shipmasters (Master Mariners) with legal backgrounds. We work primarily for insurers of ship owners, ships and cargoes. Much of our work involves investigating marine casualties and gathering evidence. We frequently need to travel to ports or coastal areas anywhere in the world at very short notice to attend collisions, groundings, capsizes, salvage, piracy, fraud, fires, cargo losses, etc. We do not have much in the way of support staff, which is partly because we prefer to develop individual relationships with our clients, not least so that they feel comfortable about picking up the phone to call us. And, because we are often traveling abroad, our clients need the fullest range of options to get in touch and maintain contact. | We first heard about .tel domains during the pre-launch publicity on the web. We were intrigued by the potential a .tel domain could offer so as soon as they were available we signed up for one. We purchasedMarprof.tel and we use our .tel page to set out all our various contact details as well as our current whereabouts and availability. There are 3 main areas that our .tel domain assists us: | First, it is a more reliable method of ensuring our clients always have access to up-to-date contact details. Business cards are fine but we don't expect our clients to carry ours around in their wallets! Second, we can post our current availability on our .tel domain so that they can check if either of us is in a position to accept a new assignment before giving us a call. This saves clients time and effort. We also know that, like us, they don't necessarily have correct or comprehensive contact details for us in their mobile phones or on their work or home computers. |  | Third, we also have the ability to post our current whereabouts as well as our availability. This carries the added advantage of letting clients know if we are already within easy striking range of a new casualty, so making a saving on travel costs that would otherwise be incurred. We find maintaining and making changes to our .tel page extremely easy. No specialist knowledge is required. If you can make entries in an email address book you can set up a .tel page. We have also found the free "my.tel" iPhone app is particularly useful for making changes while on the move. Visit our Stories online for more testimonials
 
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