An Illustrated Guide to Setting up AdSense for your .TEL

If like many of us, you invested in a few .TEL names that you hope to sell one day, you might have been interested in Telnic's announcement that from the beginning of April, they would be supporting Google AdSense.

Google AdSense is the program that pays you to put mini-ads on your web site. While AdSense has several models, AdSense for Content examines the content of your web site (or .TEL) and matches applicable ads to the content.

For our trial, we took one of our .TEL names, soccer.tel and hooked in AdSense for Content in three easy steps:

• Create an AdSense account
• Create an "AdSense for Content" ad unit
• Setup the .TEL to display the ads

I'm going to skip over the creating an AdSense account section as it's a simple process of visiting www.google.com/adsense and following the sign up process. Instead, I'm going to insert a small but important step, which is getting your .TEL content-ready.

AdSense for Content works on the content of your .TEL, so you need to ensure there's some content there. Fortunately my son and his friend are avid soccer fans and agreed to take over the management and population of content for the .TEL.

Over the past few days they've put together a great resource, tying in: 

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/SoccerDotTel
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/soccer.tel
• A blog: http://soccerdottel.blogspot.com/

All are promoting soccer.tel and are driving traffic to it.

So with some content in our .TEL and an AdSense account created, we're ready to create some ads.

Create an AdSense for Content Ad Unit

Login to your AdSense Account and with the AdSense Setup tab selected, click AdSense for content to start the wizard.

For the first ad, leave the default Ad Type set to "Ad unit: Text and image ads (default)". Click the Continue button.

 
The 'Choose Ad Format and Colors' step requires a change. In the Format section, select 250x250 Square from the drop down. The Colors, Fonts, Corner Styles and More options sections can be left as default. Click the Continue button.

 
The 'Choose Ad Channels' step can be skipped over by clicking the Continue button. Channels allow more detailed tracking of your ad performance but this is an advanced topic and not required to get up and running.

On the 'Save and Get Ad Code' you can name your AdSense unit name. You can leave the default name and click the Submit and Get Code button to create your ad. 

The final screen of the wizard confirms creation of the AdSense unit. A notice advices that Changes may not appear for up to 10 minutes. The screen also provides an area that contains a code snippet, but this is not needed when you are going to use AdSense with a .TEL. Click the Manage Ads link below the AdSense Setup tab.

 
The Manage Ads screen displays a list of active AdSense units. You can use this screen to edit the ad but for the moment we are interested in two references; the Ad Code and Publisher ID.

• The Ad Code is the grey text number in parenthesis immediately below the AdSense unit name in the list of ad units.
• The Publisher ID can always be found in the top right of the screen below your login details.
  

 
Copy these two numbers or open a new web browser window for TelHosting, so that you can easily copy the codes from AdSense to TelHosting. 

Setup a .TEL to Display AdSense Ads

Waiting a few moments before you start setting up the .TEL is a good idea to give Google the 10 minutes it needs to process the ad. If the ad isn't set up by the time you add it to the .TEL, you will see a Page Cannot be Displayed error in the space where you would expect to see the ad. You don't need to do anything, and the ad will start to be displayed once its ready.

Log into your TelHosting account where you manage your .TEL name. If you have more than one .TEL name, remember to select the correct one from the dropdown list in the top right corner.

Click the "Settings" link at the top of the TelHosting screen and then select "Google AdSense Setup" from the left hand menu. If the AdSense link isn't visible in the Edit Settings popup you will need to contact your provider to activate it.

Copy and paste the Publisher ID and Avert ID - 1 into the appropriate boxes and click the Save button.
 
That's it. You have now added an AdSense ad to your .TEL name. Enter the .TEL name in a browser to see the results. As an example, see http://soccer.tel. If the ad doesn't show up immediately, don't worry. Remember it can take a few minutes for your .TEL to update and Google AdSense needs up to 10 minutes to process the ad request.

Depending on the content of your .TEL, you should notice that the ads are closely matched. Sometimes the ads don't appear to be directly related to the nature of your content, but if you examine the words in your content, you should be able to determine why an ad is showing up. The more unambiguous your content, the more closely the ads will match your .TEL. AdSense also takes into account your browsing history and the ads it has served to you on other sites, so this can be a factor too.

Once you've added your first ad you can go back and create a second AdSense for Content unit. http://soccer.tel has two units. The first is a "Text and images ads" like the one created above. The second is an "Images ads" unit which only displays image ads. No matter what type you choose, you must always select the size 250x250, otherwise the content will not fit properly on your .TEL.

Try refreshing the page at http://soccer.tel a few times. You'll notice that sometimes it displays a set of text ads together with an image ad and sometimes it displays two image ads. Clicking an AdSense ad opens the destination site in the same window, so visitors will navigate away from your site, but you make a few cents every time someone clicks an ad.

You can test out your .TEL ad, but don't be expect to make money every time you click. Google monitors and tracks where the clicks are coming from to determine what is a real clickthough and what isn't.

Note that depending on how much information you provided when you created your AdSense account, you may be required to provide additional information, including tax details before Google can release payment for your account.

We were delighted to see that within the first hour of setting up the ad we were already starting to make money and in the hours that followed, the Total Estimated Earnings continued to rise.

If you've registered a .TEL name, whatever you do, don't just let it sit there. AdSense is a great way to pay for the renewal and make a little profit or pay for a few more .TEL names for your portfolio. Developing the .TEL and submitting it to the search engines, gets you on the path to better page ranking and traffic. Over the past year, we've continually seen .TEL names make the first page of the major search engines and in a number of cases, the Google Pagerank of .TEL names out performs their .COM and .CA counterparts.  

Remember to tie your .TEL into Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, as well as your blog and web site. It can be a valuable and integral part of your social media and search engine marketing strategies, driving traffic, providing a mobile presence and improving your overall online visibility.

P.S. As a quick postscript to this article, I'd like to extend my gratitude and tip my hat to the editors of soccer.tel. What started off as a weekend exercise to illustrate AdSense for .TEL has for them turned into a labour of love and what can only be described as a remarkable resource for anyone interested in the game of soccer (and yes, that means football). Billy Walker-Lane and Ashley Perry, two lifelong Chelsea supporters with a passion for the game have continued to build out soccer.tel and will be continuing to develop it in the months and possibly years ahead. If you'd like to give them some feedback or have suggestions for soccer.tel, you can reach them at billywalkerlane.tel and ashleyperry.tel.

Here's a quick summary of some of the new features in .TEL:

1. Logo/Picture - you can now upload a logo or picture by referencing the website location (URL) of the image you want to use.

The easiest way I found to achieve this is by referencing my twitter avatar. (right click on your Twitter avatar, click on properties and copy the URL). Paste it into your .TEL where it asks for the "URL".

You can do this with any image on the internet including your logo on your website.

Other way is to click on the option to set up a Gravatar and you put your image of choice up associated with your email and it will automatically be associated with your email on any future blog sites, etc.

Give these a try and any problems, feel free to call the Webnames.ca team at 1-866-221-7878 or locally at 604-633-1142.

2. Better Looking Icons - you will notice that the icons for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn are now showing up rather than in the past, they all showed as "web". This makes for a much nicer look and feel to the page.

3. Colour Themes - You can go and change the colours on your .TEL page. Changing the colours isn't as intuitive as picking a template but experiment a little bit and have some fun to make a more customized look and feel for your .TEL!

4. V-Card - the mapping seems to be improved and seems to be working well.

5. Search Function - at the top right hand corner of every .TEL you can do a search within the specific .tel you are looking for or across all .TEL's in the world. Put in a search term like "webnames" for instance and you will get all the .TEL's with references to "webnames"

6. Print - there is now a quick print button so you can print out the digital business card if you want to kill more trees ;)

For those who think green is in, don't forget to download Hornet.tel for Blackberry or "Superbook" for iPhone if you want to take .TEL names with you and be fully mobile. I have tested Hornet and all works fine with the new changes. iPhone should be working well too.

Hope this helps! Come join us at our next local Dot-TEL Meetup: http://meetup.com/dottel

With any new technology, people need proof of concept and to see real life examples working. I decided a few months ago to track what I was doing with my own .TEL updates for http://cybele.tel and see what effect they would have on how my rank in Google.

My .TEL is now in 5th (see screenshot below) on page 1 of Google (out of 24 pages and 240 true references and 47,800 results to search term "Cybele Negris"). Perhaps more impressive is that it is also in 9th position on page 1 of Google for the search term "Cybele".

Here's How I Did It:

1. Enter Keywords, Description, Map - When I first updated my .TEL name cybele.tel I put very little information on it. I had my website, email address, phone number, a few key words and a map of my location. Since my .TEL name was quite new as well, I found my .TEL on page 7 a few weeks later using my name "cybele negris" as a search term. Not bad. It was a start given how new the name was.

2. Submit your Name to Search Engines:

Google - Add URL page
Yahoo - Add URL page

And to .TEL directories:

Dot TEL Central
Dot TEL Finder

And to have your .TEL featured in the following forums (other locations to come):

One Vancouver
One San Francisco

I submitted to all of the above.  

3. Add Social Media Links and Link Back - A few weeks later, I added a link from my .TEL to my Twitter account and my LinkedIn profile.

I then tweeted about my .TEL and added cybele.tel in my LinkedIn profile thereby referencing back to my .TEL.

4. Add Keywords to the Text Header - Besides using the keywords section at the bottom of the page to add directory information or "Free Text" as it is called in .TEL, make sure you put key words in the text header at the top of the page. When I expanded the description in the text header to include my name my .TEL jumped up in rankings.

5. Use, Promote and Publicize your .TEL! - I started to use my .TEL in my email signature in every email I sent. I gave it out to people at events and functions rather than a business card. I had a new batch of business cards printed to feature my .TEL. I started using my .TEL for what it was intended for. Within another few weeks, I saw my .TEL name jump to page 3 of Google.

6. Folders and Subdomains - The biggest and most significant difference that I saw was when I added "folders" or "subdomains" within my .TEL. I set up separate folders for the various board positions I held with a description that included my name (in your case it may be your key word of choice) within each description.

On my .TEL I set up the following folders:

http://forum-for-women-entrepreneurs.cybele.tel/

http://vancouver-economic-development-commission.cybele.tel/

http://small-business-bc.cybele.tel/

http://small-business-roundtable.cybele.tel/

When I did this, my .TEL shot  to the first page of Google in 7th spot within a couple weeks.

7. Build Up your Link Backs (Especially from other .TEL's) - Recently I started writing for a collaborative blog, Metro Blenz News Squad (see also http://metroblenznewssquad.tel) and I used "cybele.tel" in each post and the metroblenznewssquad.tel had numerous links pointing back to my .TEL.

Having the other .TEL linking to my name managed to bump me up another 2 spots and now I'm sitting at #5 on page one after 2 weeks.

8. Use the New .TEL Features - I have just added a picture which is a brand new feature launched hours ago.

9. Build out Another .TEL - I will now go build out "cybelenegris.tel" and see what happens. Currently, I've added very little data to this domain and I'm just referring people to cybele.tel.

Follow as many of the above steps as you can and your hard work will pay off!

Even if your .TEL is more  "generic" than a personal name, these tips will still help to boost your ranking significantly. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen.

Webnames.ca has collaborated with Telnic, the organization behind the award-winning .TEL name, to create the first-ever domain retail card so that .TEL names can be sold by brick and mortar retailers across North America.

The new retail card lets customers purchase .TEL names, which act as a 'live' digital business card, from stores and shops. The cards can then be activated online at a later date using unique codes printed on the back of the card, making them ideal retails.

The .TEL retail card is a first for the domain industry. A perfect add-on to a mobile phone or accessory purchase, the first batch of cards can be purchased from CanTalk Wireless stores now.

Nick Ellery, General Manager at CanTalk Wireless Solutions, said: "These retail cards make it easier than ever to promote .tel.  The card and packaging are very appealing and do a great job at expressing the .TEL concept and value to shoppers. Our sales people find it easier to explain and promote .TEL by having the cards available in-store and the registration system provided to retail card users appears to be very easy to follow."

"The .TEL retail card is not only a natural fit for wireless and technology retailers," said Smith, "it also makes sense for retail outlets that offer products to small businesses or business people."

A .TEL name directs people to targeted information such as phone numbers, email addresses, websites, social media profiles and more. It keeps people and businesses connected when their contact details change and it simplifies referrals by allowing its owner to share only one point of contact, for example "you can reach me at SteveSmith.tel".

The program is ramping up with more retailers, including locations of the national coffee franchise Blenz Coffee.

To learn more about Webnames.ca's .TEL retail card program, contact:

Matt Lane, Webnames.ca
http://lane.tel 

Lisa Wills, Webnames.ca
http://lisaw.tel

Read Telnic's .TEL Names Hit Main Street press release.