Since the release of .Tel last year, many people have asked "what can I do with my .Tel name"? There are many great ways you can use it, but here's a new development that got me excited.

Telnic recently released a string of code to easily integrate .Tel on your website using iFrames.

An iFrame tag (eg. <iframe> ) defines an inline frame that contains another document.

The code is EXTREMELY easy to incorporate and took me less than 2 minutes to setup (no joke) on my personal website which uses a modified WordPress blog template. 

Take a look: http://ramifilms.com/contact

By integrating your .Tel name into your website you can effectively change your contact information simply by updating your .TEL. Once it is setup, you just login to your .TEL interface and make changes to your contact information and you are done.

Picture a company with 100 employees who each use a .Tel name. By integrating all their Tel names on one website, you can easily build an online directory that is independently updated by a 100 different individuals.

Can't picture it? Here's an example of a small .Tel directory embedded into a Webnames.ca WebBuilder site.

To embed your .TEL into your website, just follow Telnic's easy integration instructions:http://telnic.org/tools-website-integration.html.
 

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

Imagine anyone on the planet being able to find and contact you with a single click.

Give your contacts the ability to connect with you through one easy to remember name and make a donation to a worthy cause at the same time.

........................................................................................................................................

Webnames.ca has partnered with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society in an effort to raise money for their deserving initiatives.

Register YourName.tel name through the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society's .TEL Page and $5.00 of your $19.99 registration fee will go directly to the foodbank! 

Better yet, because 25% of the registration fee is donated, the longer your registration term the larger the donation to the Food Bank.

For example, if you register for 5 years, $25.00 will be donated  ... if your register for 10 years, $50 will be donated!

Visit the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society's .TEL Page and REGISTER TODAY!

Learn more about the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society by visiting their website.  

Santa gave us the gift of .TEL last year ... but there are still plenty of fantastic .TEL names left that you can register for yourself or for a loved one (or for someone who is kooky for Christmas).

Scrooge.tel

Tidings.tel

Wassail.tel

Yuletide.tel

Eggnog.tel

Candycane.tel

Mince.tel

Pumpkinpie.tel

Sweetpotato.tel

Mistletoe.tel

Alleluia.tel

Frankincence.tel

Myrrh.tel

Wisemen.tel

Icicles.tel

Tinsel.tel

Sled.tel

Sleigh.tel

Selighbells.tel

Kriskringle.tel

Dasher.tel

Donner.tel

Prancer.tel

Blitzen.tel

So stuff those stockings with cheery, christmasy .tel names!

There is a lot of hand wringing in the domainer community about when .tel will really take off. The future is now people.  If not one other person ever purchased a .tel name, it would not matter.  You have and it's a fabulous utility. You just have to start using it.

I have my personal .tel name as my signature in my home email.  Recently I was apartment hunting.  I emailed out to prospective landlords asking to see their apartments.
I went to see one apartment and the landlord asked me about my .tel name and I told him all about it.  He thought .tel was very interesting.  I was filling out the reference form and he wanted my boss's phone number.  I had no clue what it was so I wrote down his .tel name!

In response to "how can I reach you" I'm giving out my .tel name.  It's a totally cool name and saves me from having to give out my home number and my cell number and then droning on about why I refuse to pay the $8 for voicemail on my cell phone.

.Tel - good for you, good for landlords, good for me! Search for yours here.

I was invited to speak at a really great event last week "Leadership Lessons from Influential Women in Business". It was put on by Business in Vancouver, Professional Women's Network, and Young Women in Business. The event was sold out!

I was honoured to be part of a group of women that included Tamara Vrooman CEO of Vancity, Sarah Morgan-Silvester Chancellor of UBC, Karen flavelle of Purdy's Chocolates and many other successful women in Vancouver. Here is a complete list of all the women who spoke.

The room was a constant buzz of energy. The topic I spoke about was "The Power of Networking".  The 3 groups of women who joined me, in true networking form, traded business cards as soon as they arrived at the table. We discussed everything from the fear of networking, networking outside of your comfort zone, how to turn networking into sales, some of the great networking groups in Vancouver and of course, the big topic of social media & networking.

1. Recognize your fear - Most people who don't network a lot have a fear of it. When you're talking to someone, they are probably more nervous than you are. Recognizing that fear is normal and common is a great first step to overcoming it.

2. Develop your networking style - Do men and women have different networking styles? Some thought that men were more aggressive and women had softer styles. Personally, I don't like to generalize. The point is, be true to who you are and be genuine, honest and natural in your interactions in order to develop valuable connections and relationships.

3. Use Social Networking tools - from LinkedIn to Facebook to Twitter, there are great ways to connect with people these days. Everyone who used LinkedIn found great value in it as it allows you to keep up-to-date on the activities of your network without actively having to talk to each person regularly. You can also keep your network abreast of your updates. Many people didn't understand the value of Twitter although more people are starting to try it out. Twitter is a very fast way to get your message out to a lot of people.

The key point to remember is to make sure you use these tools appropriately and manage your reputation carefully. Maintain work-related content and avoid posting anything too personal and certainly avoid anything inappropriate. Your reputation is out there for anyone to see whether it be future employers, future clients or business partners or future acquirers of your business.

4. Recommended networking groups - There are many industry specific groups.

I'm on the Board of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and can attest to the amazingly high quality of programs and networking events. The next FWE 2010 Gala on January 18, 2010 will celebrate the people who invest in entrepreneurs. Keynote speakers will include stars of the popular shows Dragon's Den and Fortune Hunters.

One group I joined recently is the High Output Business Network They combine the power of social networking and weekly chapter meetings in a no non-sense "this is what I need" and "how can I help you" format, that I find surprisingly refreshing.

The Vancouver Board of Trade has some great events as well and at the beginning of each event, people are invited to exchange cards and ask "how can I help you". This format really helps those who are typically too shy to approach others at a networking event and I highly recommend it to those who are just starting to network.

The Women's Enterprise Centre has a comprehensive list of the various networking groups for women in BC.

5. Start your own group!  - There are a number of less formal groups in your local area called "Meetups". These are formed with specific topic areas like entrepreneurs, sales, social media, real estate. I joined the dotTel meetup recently. Go to www.meetup.com to find one that suits your interest. If you don't find a group that fits your interests, you can even start your own.

6. Importance of Followup - Many people go to a networking event and come back to the office with a stack of business cards and they sit on a desk for a while before they get tossed in the garbage -- wasted time and some trees sacrificed in the meantime. When you meet someone, write on the card where you met them and a few notes about them. Write a followup to the people you met the next day to continue the conversation you had and to build on the connection you made.

.TEL - Making Networking More Successful

To facilitate easier networking and life-long connections, Webnames.ca gave away three .TEL names as prizes at the event. .TEL is like a virtual business card. You give out your easy to remember .TEL name rather than a business card.

The information in a .TEL is much richer than what fits on a small card and can include email, phone, fax, Skype, SMS, Google map, links to blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more. The true beauty is you can update your contact information as often as you like without having to reprint business cards and whoever has your .TEL name will have your up-to-date contact information for life.

Photo:
L to R. Cheryl Carter-Business in Vancouver, Laurel Douglas-Women's Enterprise Centre, Paulina Lipska-Young Women in Business

We love dot tel and we want everyone to learn about it.  To that end we made a short, 15 second commercial that is now airing on the Shaw TV Listings channel (2) in Vancouver.

For those of you who don't live in Vancouver or have chucked your TV because there is nothing on, (why do you think we are advertising on the most popular station  - TV Listings)  you can watch it here or on You Tube.

Enjoy! 

Never ones to let the grass grow under their feet, Telnic have once again improved the Telhosting interface. 

On Thursday October 22nd they are releasing two new great features: Backup/Import and 255 character labels.

I did a test of the Backup and Import and it worked really well.  The backup file gets exported as an .xml file.  I made some changes and saved them and then I imported the backed up file.  It replaced all of my new data and set it back to my old data.The descriptions for things like a web address and a phone number are now 255 characters.  I entered a whole paragraph!

Login to your .TEL hosting tomorrow and try it for yourself.

Earlier in the month we randomly drew a winner in our .TEL -Blackberry Strom contest.

Webnames.ca customer Nancy Hamilton is the recipient of a fancy new Blackberry Storm smartphone courtesy of our friends over at Telus.

In fact, Nancy's own .TEL is great example of how to use .TEL for business - check it out at http://nancyhamilton.tel/

Thank you again to Marcy, Corporate Account Manager at Telus Wireless Enterprise Solutions, for the amazing prize.

Stay tuned for our next contest coming soon!

Sure - we can all get fergusjones.tel or maryp.tel and people will remember them but you might want to consider being unforgettable.

Keep Fergus and Mary as your professional .tel name.  For your personal name, you want to dazzle the person you are giving it do.  Maryp.tel versus tornado.tel - there really is no competition.

The following list has cool names on it.  Then I got a bit desperate and moved onto somewhat cool. Then I moved on to 4 letter names that I can't believe are still available. 

Frostbite is THE coolest name available - Oxen is much less cool but it's short and snappy. 

Frostbite
Tinfoil
Brainiac
Vapour
Icicle
Meltdown
Scarab
Tarantula
Nighthawk
Firebird
Gremlin
Veyron
Pale
Mixy
Oodles
Mump
Wonk
Curb
Glum
Oxen
Hilt

Now go register yourself an unforgettable, enigmatic, dot TEL identity already!  

We loved our dot tel 411 and Locksmith videos and now we have 3 more videos to love.

Telregistrations.com is laying down the dot tel video gauntlet with these fantastic, animated advertisements. The videos illustrate the usefulness of a dot tel for everyone.  The music is great as is the "Charlie Brown's teacher" voiceovers. A co-worker liked the "Pear" logo on the phone.  Very cute and clever indeed.

Go telregistration.com, go!

Instant Website http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww6i-ZTkEgY
How to be cool http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKoLO_mKSlI
Dial your name http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYGgGvo4KoE

The amazing illustrator Scot Ritchie  gave us a fantastic cartoon to use to advertise .tel to realtors.  It shows one realtor with lots of information on his lawn sign and one realtor just using her .tel name on her sign.

We are looking for clever captions to use in the advert and are hoping that our regular blog readers will be up to the task of coming up with some great lines. For those of you who have been off the grid since spring, .TEL is a service that stores all of your contact information under one easy to remember name - yourname.tel.

Submit your line today to marketing@webnames.ca and if we like it you will get a free .tel name of your choice, the cartoon with your line published for two weeks in Realty Link Magazine, gushing blog posts and tweets about how great you are.

You can submit more than one caption - if we like them we'll use them and you get more free .tels, and more gushing blogs and tweets.

Be sure to check out more of Scot Ritchie's work at www.scotritchie.com, his illustrations will be the highlight of your day.
 

It's "back to school" time again. But this year there is something new: .TEL.

Only a dunce would pass up the opportunity to buy these great "back to school" inspired .TEL names. I can't believe these are still available:

Physed.tel
Bleachers.tel
Teacherspet.tel
Semester.tel
Bully.tel
Woodshop.tel
Gymclass.tel
Spiral.tel
Viceprincipal.tel
Hazing.tel
Metalshop.tel
Pledge.tel
Kickball.tel
Popquiz.tel
Clipboard.tel
Frosh.tel
Oath.tel
Lineup.tel
Bookbag.tel
Prepschool.tel
Freshman.tel
Rounders.tel
Socialstudies.tel
Rushing.tel
Haze.tel

Start the school year off right and begin to build a domain portfolio that will pay for your university education.

Register/Search for a .TEL name today!

(Image from imdb.com) 

As of last week, .TEL reached 200,000 registrations. This milestone was achieved less than two months after general registration started on March 26. For a TLD that isn't particularly easy to explain, or easy to grasp, .TEL is doing phenomenally well. The concept and potential utility of  .TEL resonates with businesses and individuals more than other recently released domain extensions because it provides a simple, lifelong point of connection. 

With 200,000 .TEL names registered, it's probably safe to assume that:

• Most common dictionary words and place names are gone
• All 3 letter combinations are registered
• Numbers have been snapped up
• Trademarks are safeguarded

So what does that leave?  Lot's of great names apparently!

Popular phrases and word combinations come to mind. Family names.  And surprisingly, lot's of good, single dictionary words are also still available. This leads me to believe that tonnes of great word combinations must be left too.

With 171,476 words currently in use according to the Oxford English Dictionary, we decided to do a little expiriment to see what was still available in the land of .TEL. A colleague and I rambled off 25 words each in rapid succession, then entered them into a .TEL domain search.

Here are our results (as of 2:21 pm PST on Friday, May 22nd):

Crows.tel  Available   
Punch.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Cardboard.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Fixate.tel  Available
Impressive.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Rationale.tel  Available   
Vitality.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Operational.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Glamorous.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Impossibility.tel  Available   
Fabricate.tel  Available   
Sleuth.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Sneakers.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Ciao.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Arriba.tel  Available   
Bonbons.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Folksong.tel  Available
Immediacy.tel  Available   
Cuddles.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Template.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Tackle.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Wandering.tel  Available   
Stinger.tel  Available   
Reaction.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Swollen.tel  Available   
Irritant.tel  Available   
Refreshing.tel  Whois | Make Offer
Breezy.tel  Available   
Tender.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Touching.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Engaging.tel  Available   
Decisive.tel  Available
Burnt.tel  Available   
Limerick.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Siamese.tel  Available   
Ocean.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Trapeze.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Parachute.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Olivertwist.tel  Available   
Artisan.tel  Taken   Whois | Make Offer
Ample.tel  Available
Taxonomy.tel Available

We thought the results were pretty encouraging. Now go search for your .TEL name (fingers crossed it's still available!).   

  I'm kinda, sorta, maybe in the market to buy a house.  As I walk through the neighbourhood admiring other people's gardens, I stumble upon a house for sale that appeals to me.

Sadly, by the time I have arrived home, I have forgotten the address of the house for sale. I could not give you the name of the realtor on penalty of death and don't get me started on what the phone number was.

Attention realtors - if you all would break down and get yourname.tel and plop it on your "for sale" signs, I would be forever grateful.

I could go to the library and the grocery store and still remember amyjones.tel by the time I got home.

Now there is no guarantee that this handy dandy name will induce me to purchase the house - I am quite adamant about a window over the kitchen sink and no, not everyone wants granite counters, black (dust collecting) or silver (smudge collecting) appliances.  

But at least I'll come and look around.  And I'll remember your name.  And I'll refer you to my friends. 

And you can open up your own agency and I'll still find you 5 years later.  That's the great thing about tel - the game may have changed but the name remains the same.

More Information for Realtors

To register your .tel name, click here.

To watch a short video about how .TEL works and its befefits to realtors, click here.

.TEL is at an exciting stage with new enhancements, applications and compatible services becoming available to end users.

This week saw the launch of a .TEL specific search engine, applications for both BlackBerry and iPhone, as well as domain based email.

Here's a summary of what's new in .TEL-land:

.TEL Search Engines

Jepaa - Delivering Contact Information Fast

A .TEL search engine launched this week. It's called Jepaa and it's TEL specific, searching only .TEL sites. When somebody searches for contact information on Google they typically have to (A) sort through pages of search results that don't relate to what they are looking for; or (B) dig through multiple pages to find contact information. Jepaa simplifies things by delivering you contact information in the form of .TEL sites. Jepaa's other cool features include mobile compatibility, support of multiple languages and the ability to provide results that take both keywords and locations into consideration. Another nice-to-have:  it's compatible with Adsense.

Read more about Jepaa, or test it out.  

Dot TEL Finder - A Gateway to .TEL Information

The DotTelFinder search engine is a new gateway to .TEL names and related information. The search engine returns .TEL domains  and .TEL related information from carefully hand-picked websites (BETA).

Try a search using Dot TEL Finder

.TEL Blackberry Application

Telnic announced yesterday that the final release of its free BlackBerry(TM) plug-in is available for download. The application enables BlackBerry users to do the following things:

• Lookup a .TEL domain inside the address book, including private information from friends
• Search for a .TEL domain inside the address book
• Add any .TEL domain as a new contact or associate it with an existing contact
• Send 'friending' requests and accept or decline them depending on your TelFriends status
• Quickly change your .TEL profile to make sure your contacts reach you the way you want

Navigating by BlackBerry, the app is available at http://telnic.org/community-applications.html or http://bb.apps.telnic.tel

My.tel - New .TEL App for iPhone 

Telnic just announced the availability of My.tel ealier today. The free, open source iPhone application allows .TEL owners to manage .TEL domains off of their iPhone. The app allows iPhone users to do the following while remaining mobile:

• Publish a location through an embedded map linked with the iPhone's GPS
• Update their statususing profiles to show how they want to be contacted at a given time
• Add new, remove, hide or show items of contact information
• Manage, add or remove folders and profiles which group contact information together
• Manage privacy settings for friends and colleagues
• Add or remove keywords that help people searching for .TEL  owners contact information.

My.tel can be downloaded for free from the App Store or via the iPhone using the App Store application. More info about the application can be found at http://telnic.org/community-applications.html.  

Now what are you waiting for, start playing and let us know what you think!

For those of you who plan to use .TEL as your primary web presence, or even a secondary one to your business website, consider adding an email account with your .TEL name. We've received a lot of great feedback from customers who are actively using their .TEL names to share contact details with friends and business associates. Adding an email account will make your .TEL more useful and memorable.

Webnames.ca is the first domain registrar to provide email for .TEL names. Getting an email with your .TEL name is simple way to drive traffic to your .TEL site. Custom email is also a  cost effective way of increasing brand awareness and projecting a professional image. Let's face it, using an email address like mybusinessname@hotmail or mybusiness@telus.ca is smacks of 2001.

Webnames.ca email for .TEL names is hosted on robust, redundant servers and so you can rest assured it's always available when you need it. It's also jam packed with features such as shared calendars, shared contacts and other productivity and communication tools typically found in expensive email solutions.

Follow the following steps to add email to your .TEL name:

• Login to your Webnames.ca account
• Go to your Domain List. Click on .TEL name you want to add email to. 
• Open the Telhosting and Email Tab
• Go to "Click Here to Purchase Email"
• Select the number of email accounts you want
• Proceed to checkout

For new .TEL registrations, simply add the desired number of email accounts to your shopping cart.

Once you receive your email set-up instructions it won't take long to be up and running. Alternatively, you can always contact our Customer Support department to set your new .TEL email account(s) up for you. 

Last week, The Coast Reporter, a BC community newspaper published the first known print ad to prominently feature the dot-TEL name of a local small business.

John Mckenzie, a Sunshine Coast realtor, published his dot-TEL name - JohnMcKenzie.tel - alongside colour photos of his current listings. Specializing in home sales on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, the ad is a perfect example of how dot-TEL will increasingly be used by small businesses.

Easy to remember and simple to share, a dot-TEL name is the perfect solution for passing layered contact information.  In sharp contrast to a traditional 1-800 number, JohnMcKenzie.tel funnels potential customers directly to the information they want - Mr. McKenzie's multiple phone numbers, email address, website and most importantly, his complete property listings.

A dot-TEL can help independent professionals  - such as real estate agents, consultants, trades people and small business owners - to create long lasting relationships with customers because the information contained in a dot-TEL name is always current. All a customer ever needs to remember is your name, or business name, to be able to find and contact you in an instant.  

While we regard industry estimates of a billion dot-TEL identities over the next half decade as optimistic, we expect dot-TEL to quickly become commonplace and eventually overtake telephone numbers, email and website addresses in everyday promotion and advertising.

Being only a couple weeks into general registration, we think JohnMcKenzie.tel is a sign of things to come for print ads, signage, directory listings and more. Drop us a line if you have seen other instances of dot-TEL's used in advertising.

Many of you have already registered or pre-booked your .TEL domains. Others have heard by now that .TEL is different but are not sure their business needs another domain name. With .TEL General Registration on the horizon, we thought it was important to recap how .TEL is not your average domain.

.TEL is not for hosting a website and is more than another extension you'll forward to your primary website or blog to funnel traffic. .TEL was designed to facilitate rapid connection. It stores your business's contact data directly in the DNS instead of returning an IP address. Because .TEL does not map you to another location on the Internet, it is incredibly fast at pulling information. Think of it as the ultimate business card.

When TelHosting launches on March 6th, yourbusiness.tel will function as a live, interactive communications hub where you can publish all your means of communication, for example: phone, mobile, fax, VoIP, IM handles, email addresses, critical links and more. TEL's ability to store structured information will give your customers more options for getting in touch and will connect them quickly to the right area of your company.

Some Key .TEL Business Benefits include:

- Makes your company easier to find, to reach and to remember
- Routes online customers directly to specific departments or branches
- Features click-to-connect functionality for phone, mobile, email, chat, etc
- Drives traffic to your web site without hosting or coding
- Can be updated or accessed from any internet enabled device
- Increase online discoverability in different markets through multi-lingual keywords

For those having a hard time picturing how .TEL will work, try entering your business name in the .TEL  Simulator or watch our short video for business users.

General Registration - $19.99 US for 1 year. .TEL pre-booking will take place until aprox. 7:00 AM PST March 24, 2008 when 'Go Live' kicks off.