Your digital business card which changes when you want it.
Save money on stationery.
Maximize your investment in Yellow Pages listings.
Save money by using new communications methods that your customers are using (Twitter, VoIP, SIP numbers) on your .tel
A simple online presence without the need to program a website.
It can be up and running in 5 minutes simply by choosing a piece of contact information, typing in what it is and pressing the save button.
As you may have seen on the homepage, we've recently created a partnership with Telnic www.telnic.org and www.domainmonster.com/seed to provide discounted .tel domains to our members and at the same time enable some of the charities that Seed Network supports to benefit from a donation.
You may have heard me talking about .tel on the radio in February of this year as well as at the One Life Live Show. Well, I now have my .tel up and running as well as some for Seed Network, and I have some positive things to report.
I'm the first to admit that technology isn't my strong point, so I was interested to hear about .tel. Being able to publish to the internet without having to build a website is an interesting concept. Added to this, it has a very simple focus - to enable people to find the ways YOU want them to contact you, simply and quickly, from any device connected to the internet. That's from a PC or computer, or a mobile with a browser, a BlackBerry or an iPhone.
It took me a little while to get to grips with the control panel, but then if you'd asked me to build my own website the traditional way, I would have run a mile! But watch the information videos on the telnic site and if you have any problems, email the support team at community@telnic.org who are very responsive (I'm told!). With my .tel, I can share all of my contact information and make some private which I can share with my friends and colleagues who only need one username and password to log in to my .tel, a bit like Facebook. In fact, .tel is a lot like Facebook, but without all of the fluff around it. It's under your control, your private contact information is encrypted until you share it with someone. This is a very safe way of sharing information whilst it being accessible from the internet.
What's also great about it is that you can change it in seconds, either from a computer or, even more easily, with some of the applications that Telnic has developed. If you start to use the profiles, when you leave the office to go out on the road, you can quickly change your office number to your mobile and it's published in seconds. A great tool if you're not in one place for any length of time.
The thing that surprised me the most however is that within a couple of days of setting it up, I was readily found in Google. In fact, many people use the abbreviation 'tel' to search for telephone numbers. If you type in Google 'tel Lynne Franks' or 'Lynne Franks tel' (without the quote marks), you'll see my .tel site comes up first! So a .tel domain, on its own, is a great way of being discovered online, but keeping the information you want private hidden. And if you pair one with an existing website, you'll get great results for that too.
A GREAT DEAL FOR SEED MEMBERS
We've got a great deal on at the moment. If you purchase one from www.domainmonster.com/seed you'll not only get a £2 discount, you'll also be benefitting V-Day and Unicef's STOP RAPING OUR GREATEST RESOURCE: POWER TO THE WOMEN AND GIRLS OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, a global campaign which began two years ago and is already beginning to make serious strides by educating, advocating and taking action. The campaign is raising funds to build the City of Joy, a leadership and healing centre for a hundred women survivors, where they will turn pain to power, rebuild their lives, reclaim their dignity and further develop their leadership skills to become the new leaders of the DRC. The money will be donated by SEEDGives Ltd through the British Registered charity 'Until The Violence Stops' to go towards the City of Joy.
Please do send this on to your friends and colleagues, encourage them to join both the SEED Network and get a .tel domain from http://www.domainmonster.com/seed - you can buy one for yourself as well as your business - every penny counts!
As you may have seen on the homepage, we've recently created a partnership with Telnic