Improve your .tel

To get your .tel domain picked up by search engines, you can submit it on official websites, such as:

• Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html
• Bing http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx
• Yahoo! http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

Indexation will take time (up to 8 weeks sometimes) depending on the search engine and other external factors, but it's expected to help search engines pick up your .tel quicker.

The language in which you see a .tel page relates to the language settings within your browser. Currently, .tel pages support 13 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
To change these settings, go the Options menu in your browser, as shown below for popular browsers Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer.

In Mozilla Firefox:

1. Go to Tools > Options.
2. In the Options dialogue, select the Contact icon.
3. At the bottom of the dialogue, click "choose..." for a list of languages.
4. Select the required language and click Add.
5. Use the "Move Up" button to move the newly added language to the top of the list.
6. Click Ok.

In Internet Explorer:

1. Go to Tools > Options.
2. In the Options dialogue, select the "General" tab.
3. Click the "Languages" button at the bottom of the tab.
4. Click "Add.." and select the desired language.
5. Use the "Move Up" button to move the newly added language to the top of the list.
6. Click Ok.

Refresh the page in the browser and language should now change

Setting up AdSense in your .tel name control panel is easy. You will firstly need to create an AdSense account at Google.

Once Google have confirmed your account has been created simply click on the Settings link at the top of your control panel and then type in your Publisher ID and Advert ID then click save. Each Advert ID will display a block of up to 3 adverts to the right of your contact information on all PC browsers. If you wish to display more than three units, include a second Advert ID. The .tel page will then display 2 advertising blocks, one after the other, in a random order.

If you need to know how many people use the phone numbers that you publish on your .tel, you can subscribe to a service called "remote call forwarded phone number" or "market extension line".

Most phone companies offer this service, which gives you a tracking phone number that you put into .tel. When somebody uses that number, the call is forwarded to your actual line, but call duration and the total number of calls is tracked by the phone company. You then get a report with all the data to demonstrate how your .tel phone line is working.

Some companies offer free phone numbers, such as www.0870-free.co.uk in the United Kingdom.

If your phone company does not provide the service you need, setup a tracking line forwarded to a toll-free number, which will provide you with similar statistics. Most phone companies charge for the tracking number service, but it's usually a relatively small investment that can give you a lot of useful information. Take a look at www.ringrevenue.com for an idea of phone-based services you may wish to use.

Your .tel allows you to store your location as geographic coordinates: latitude plus longitude. Clicking the Location link on your .tel shows a Google map with your position.

In the .tel control panel Dashboard, you can enter your location as a post code, address, or exact co-ordinates separated by a comma. In the former cases, you may need to adjust your location because your postcode may not exactly correspond to your actual location. Follow these simple steps to store your location:

1. Enter your location and click the magnifying glass search button to go to that location.
2. Use the zooming controls to see where the marker is, and drag-and-drop the marker as needed for greater accuracy.
3. Click Save to store this location. Your new location is shown as coordinates beneath the map.
4. To change your location, move the marker or input another location, and repeat steps 1 - 3 above. Click Save to replace your old location with the new one.

Depending on the device you're using, getting the precise geographic coordinates may be easier. You can use the decimal format "51.518117, -0.13425" or the standard "N 51 31.090' W 0 8.050'".

Method 1 - Google Maps

1. Open yourname.tel in a browser window or tab.
2. Click on your Location link to view in Google Maps.
3. Click the Satellite tab in the upper right corner to switch to that mode.
4. Compare the location of the marker to where you want it to be.
5. If needed, further adjust the position of the marker by changing the values for N (northbound movement) and W (westbound movement) in the Search Maps address bar until you get the perfect position.

For areas that are not identifiable on Google Maps, such as a factory location in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, you may need to use the Google Earth application instead. A free version is downloadable at http://earth.google.com/.

Suggested by a .tel owner, Richard Laughton laughton.tel.

Method 2 - iPhone

1. Install the free My.tel application to edit your .tel domain, iphone.apps.telnic.tel.
2. Click on the map.
3. Click the move icon, select move to GPS, and then click the Set .tel marker button.

Method 3 - BlackBerry

1. Go to Options -> Advanced Options -> GPS.
2. Click the BlackBerry button and select Refresh GPS. The latitude and longitude, and accuracy will display on screen.
3. Copy or input these to the Location in your .tel control panel.

Other devices may offer similar services.

A .tel domain does not include email hosting by default, but provides the necessary support for a .tel email address. Please check with your .tel service provider whether a mail hosting service is available, or setup your own mailbox on independent mail servers.

To have a .tel email address, you need to setup mail servers to host your mailbox, and add MX records pointing to those servers from your .tel domain. You can add MX records from the Settings link in the .tel control panel, or programmatically using the SOAP/AJAX APIs. Again, your .tel provider might offer to do this for you.
If you do not see the Setup .tel email tab in Settings, please check with your provider if email is supported.

Below are simple instructions on setting up a free .tel mailbox using Google Mail or Windows Live Mail, or configure Hostgator hosting for .tel domains.

Google Mail

1. Sign up for a Google Apps account and add your .tel domain name:
   1. Select the option Administrator: I own or control this domain from the sign up page and enter your .tel domain name.
   2. Enter all your personal information.
   3. Enter the email address you want setup at your .tel domain and finish the sign up process.
2. Get Google mail server names to setup MX records in your .tel domain.
   1. Verify domain ownership as described in Tip 11 below.
   2. Go to your Admin Panel
      Verifying Domain Ownership > Configuring MX Records.
3. In the control panel, setup .tel to point to Google mail servers, such as
   ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 10
ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 20
4. Wait for Google to validate ownership of your domain. This can take up to 48 hours.

Windows Live

1. Add your .tel to Windows Live.
   1. Sign up for a Windows Live account or log in if you are returning user.
   2. Enter the domain you want to add as a Custom Domain.
   3. Accept the Terms and Conditions.
      You will be presented with the MX record for your email service.
2. Setup .tel to point to Windows Live server.
   1. On the Domain Settings page, get the details of the MX record that you need to set up. This is tied specifically to your domain name rather than being a generic address.
   2. Copy the MX server name into your .tel Settings in the control panel.
   3. Return to the Windows Live process and hit Refresh to validate the changes.
3. Create member account(s).
   1. In the Member Accounts area, click Add+ to create a new member.
   2. Fill in the form with the requested data (may not work on browsers other than Internet Explorer).
4. Activate your mail account.
   1. Sign up for the Windows Live Mail system by filling in the form.
   2. Sign in again entering the captcha when prompted.

Hostgator hosting

1. Add your .tel to Hostgator.
   1. In your browser, login to your Hostgator Control Panel.
   2. Click the Add-On domains icon
   3. Specify your domain and password and click Add Domain.
2. Get your MX settings from Hostgator. If you don't know your mail server, perform a DIG command to get those settings for the domain associated with your Hostgator mailbox. For example:
   
   http://digwebinterface.com/?hostnames=yourname.com&type=MX&ns=resolver&useresolver=69.65.17.101&nameservers=
   
   You will see something like this copy the values on the right:
   yourname.com. 60 IN MX 20 ns2041.hostgator.com.
yourname.com. 60 IN MX 10 ns2042.hostgator.com.
3. In the .tel control panel, setup your .tel to point to Hostgator's MX servers from the DIG result you copied, like "ns2042.hostgator.com." .

You can save a backup copy of your domain as an XML file on your computer. The backup includes all data, including contact information, profiles, groups, and friends. You can then use this file at any time to restore the domain data; for example, during a transfer.

To backup your domain(s), go to Settings, Backup / Restore data tab and select the domain to be exported, or choose All domains to backup all information in your account. Confirm the operation and save the file when offered by the browser. Please ensure that your browser allows saving files from your .tel control panel.

To restore information, again open the Backup / Restore data tab and click Browse to navigate to the backup file. The system will check the data format and list the domains contained in the file. Select one or more domains to be restored, and confirm the operation. Please be aware that this operation can take significant time depending on the amount of restored data.

Important: Restoring a domain erases any other data that you may have in your control panel for this domain.

All .tel domains can now link to images and display them at top left of your .tel page in a PC browser. The mobile view doesn't load graphics to save traffic.

You cannot upload an image from your computer but you can link to an existing online image in your social profile or your company logo. If you have many folders, you can have a different image in each one. You can also make your image private in Advanced Options, just like with contact items.

Adding an image is easy: simply click Add logo on your Dashboard and add a link to an existing image on the web. Click Preview to see how the image fits into the dimensions, and Save to confirm. The image dimensions are 78 by 78px, and larger images will be scaled to fit this size. Note: if you are using Internet Explorer and you opted not to display non-secure elements after logging into the control panel, the link to your image may not work.

If you don't have an image you want to link to on the web, you can sign up for Gravatar and upload your image there. The system automatically fetches any images associated with email addresses in your .tel, so you can simply pick one of them. You can use any other image hosting sevice, as long as you can get a direct link to your image file on the web.

Don't forget to add a description for your image. Search engines index those and help visitors find your site when searching images.

Any connection issues to the .tel for BlackBerry application are usually attributed to the APN settings of the device. If you experience connection issues when using the .tel application, check to see if the APN settings on your BlackBerry are enabled. These can usually be found in the Options menu section of your Blackberry in Options > Advanced Options > TCP/IP. If the APN setting is disable, please enable and retry connecting to the service.
If this is still not successful you may also need to specify the APN username and password for your carrier. These settings can be found at this third party site by selecting your country and phone supplier, http://www.modmyi.com/wiki/index.php/Carrier_APN_Settings.

Setup visitor statistics to easily see how many people and automatic indexing bots visit your .tel page through the web. The official Beta TelStats service provides a 2-month log of all web visits excluding traffic from iPhone Superbook, Outlook plugin and other apps. You can then try different promotion methods, link to your .tel from different places, and see how your traffic fluctuates.

To access visitor stats, you need to:

1. Activate TelFriends for your domain as you will need those login details.
2. Go to https://telstats.nic.tel/
3. Enter your TelFriends details: TelFriends username and password, and the answer to the security question.
4. Leave the "Domains" field blank to get stats for all domains in that TelFriends account, or list the .tel names you're interested in.
5. Change the dates you want the log for, if needed.
6. Hit Get Logs and save the data you see into a file: either go File > Save as in your browser, or Select All and copy to a file.

Now that you have the data, you need a parser to read it and make sense. There are several solutions out there. If you are a web developer, you can use a standard web log analyser. If you're new to web technology, you can choose to use tools setup by community members, such as DTSAnalyzer or TelMasters.

Domain owners can benefit from Google Apps and Google Webmaster Tools offering free email and file hosting, apps, and keyword research. To start using these services with your .tel domain, you need to sign up with Google, add your .tel to your account, and setup the service.

Different services may require different methods of domain ownership verification, including addition of CNAME or TXT records, creation of HTML pages, etc. Due to the specifics of .tel technology, not all of those verification methods are applicable to .tel. However, we've found that creation of a Free Text keyword holding the value of the CNAME or TXT record suggested by Google usually works. Wait for the record to appear on your .tel and confirm domain ownership on your Google dashboard. Usually, the whole process only takes a few minutes.