We just couldn’t come up with a way of marketing to them that didn’t sink us into tawdriness.

Well it looks like we are too late – they have discovered dot tel without our help.

Anyone who is on Twitter has a large number of “working girls” following them.   A review of the tweets that Dot Tel Finder aggregates http://www.dottelfinder.com/tweets/ shows two such ladies who believe .tel would be an asset to their business.

Some Googling on this particular demographic of  Twitter users shows that they are early adopters of all technologies as their job mandates the need for constant promotion and accessibility.

It seems that any sole proprietorship has the same needs – you have to constantly market yourself in different arenas and be available to clients through a myriad of channels.

So if  Twookers have discovered .tel ,  why  haven’t  you?

To search for your .TEL name, click here.

You see, first I lost Leanne and then I lost Suzi.  Now I am with Naomi.

You know what it’s like.  Someone says you look a bit cro magnum so off you dash to the salon for your first eyebrow shaping.  Of course you must go back to the person who did them.  After a year of fabulous brows, she leaves.

You ask where she has gone.  “We don’t know” says old salon.  Crap on a cracker – now you have to find someone new to give you the best brows in town.

Sure – Leanne is at some other salon but short of calling every shop how can you find her?

If she only had a dot tel, she would just update her leannesbrows.tel with her new salon information and you’d be back in business.  Fab brows forever.

But no, you’re back on the pavement hoping that your new browtitian will NOT give you brows like hers.

My god – are those penciled on??!!!

Three .TEL domains have been profiled so far:

• esb.tel  – ESB, business school in Germany  
• representative.tel  – US House of Representatives Directory  
• removals.tel  –  Nice example of a small business .tel 

Telnic is selecting examples submitted by the public. In terms of criteria, Telnic has stated it is primarily interested in “.TEL names that are helpful, well-populated and discover innovative ways to keep in touch.”

If you want to nominate your .TEL to be featured on Telnic’s website, send them an email at community@telnic.org.

I’m thinking of nominating bowser.tel. This dog has done a better job setting up his .TEL than I have  – it includes links to a Flickr album, various dog websites and even his email address (I’m thinking of emailing Bowser just for kicks).

Despite .TEL names being splashed all over the aftermarket already, many great .TEL names are still available. Search for your .TEL name today and join the growing global directory.

An important point to remember is that this period (along with .TEL Landrush and General Registration) is on a first come, first served basis. There may be multiple applications for a trademarked domain being submitted, but only the first  will be successful.

A few notes about Sunrise:

• Trademark application date must be prior to May 30, 2008.
• Trademark registration date must be prior to December 3, 2008.
• Applications are considered on a world-wide basis, independently assessed by Deloitte and are awarded on a first come, first served basis.
• Application fee of US$399 applies for all submitted applications whether successful or not. If the application is successful, Webnames.ca will provide a three year registration (minimum term specified by the registry) of the name at no extra charge.

Register/Prebook your .TEL domain name today with Webnames.ca, an official .TEL registrar.

My answer usually is, “it depends.” I typically come back with a number of questions to qualify whether someone actually needs a new domain: 

• Do you have a trademark to defend?
• What is your risk for a competitor to get the name?
• For a country specific domain, are you doing business in that country now or in the future?
• Do you care if someone in another geographical location gets the same name?
• What is your budget?

The launch of .TEL is imminent. Consequently, my business owning friends are emailing me again. They want to know, “should I get a .TEL?”  This time, my answer is simple. “Yes you should.”

How is .TEL different from other domain extensions? Well, for starters .TEL is technically different and serves a different purpose than all other domains names before it. With a .COM or a .CA, the domain is usually for a website or for forwarding to an existing website. .TEL on the other hand, functions as a business’ easy-to-remember single contact point.
 
Just like yourbusiness.com helps to direct customers to your website without them having to remember an IP address like 123.234.567.789, yourbusiness.tel enables customers to find you without having to remember your physical address, email address, various phone numbers or even your website.

Everyone has tried to go to a company’s “contact us” page using a mobile device to try to find phone numbers and emails, only to get frustrated because the webpage is not designed for easy mobile browsing. With.TEL, all the contact information is displayed in a simple format and the user scrolls over the phone number or email address and simply clicks for instant connection. It is fast because all the information is stored at the DNS level so no web page has to be served for you to get to the information.

 The most powerful part of this is that customers only need to remember yourbusiness.tel and can always find you even if your phone, email and other contact information change ever in the future. And the chances are, if your business grows, you will likely move or change a phone number at some point during the life of your business. All of this information as well as company blog, Skype, MSN, keywords, coordinates that generate a Google map and so much more can be stored to ensure that your customers will be able to find you quickly and easily.
 
For all the marketing dollars and effort sales businesses spend on visibility, .TEL is a simple and economical way to be found quickly and easily. The key point for all businesses is to gain a competitive advantage. When prospects can find you faster and more easily than your competition because of yourbusiness.tel, you can judge for yourself why my recommendation would be “Get your .TEL!”

Being found and protecting your maintaining your privacy used to be mutually exclusive. Now with the .TEL domain name it is possible to have your contact information in the public domain while maintaining full control of it.

Once you’ve registered your .TEL name, you’ll be able to configure and manage the information through the TelHosting interface.  It is possible to publish your contact details in a secure way and decide the level of privacy that you need.

Start by adding some contact information. For example:

• Work Website
• Work Telephone
• Cell Phone
• Work E-mail Address
• Home Telephone
• Gmail Address
• MSN Instant Message ID

You can then create security groups to which users may be added. For example:

• Coworkers
• Business Associates
• Friends
• Family

From there, it’s simply a question of mapping contact information to security groups to determine who can see what information.

In this case, the only thing that a member of the general public could see is your work website address.

How “Friending” words

To have access to some or all of your contact details, someone would have to send a “Friending” request. This is a request that includes their name, email address and a short message. You can manage your friending requests through the TelHosting interface and assign each requestor to the appropriate group. If you don’t know the friending requestor, simply decline the request.

Encryption

All private contact records (held as NAPTR records in the DNS) are encrypted with 1024 bit encryption, so unless you explicitly allow someone to see a record through the security groups you create and the friending requests you allow, there’s no way for them to see your information.

Public/Private Key Encryption

The friending process is built on a popular and well used security model based on public and private “key” pairs. When you allow someone you’ve ‘friended’ to see secured information, the system encrypts the data using their public key. No one other than the recipient can unlock the data, but when the recipient receives the information, they can unlock it using their private key.

This is all managed transparently by the TelHosting software so it’s not something you need to be knowledgeable about in order to use it.