Archive for April, 2010

There are a growing number of tools, applications and services for .TEL names, but one of the latest, TELimg.com, stands out because it addresses two of the most topical issues from business users:

• How to add an image to a .TEL name; and
• Tracking how many visits your .TEL has received.

In March 2010 Telnic introduced the ability to add an image to a .TEL name. When viewed through a web browser, the image shows up in the header of the page. This was a welcome feature, but for many it wasn’t as easy as it might have been because you couldn’t just upload your image. Because Telnic doesn’t host images, you have to find somewhere to upload the image, then reference the image location from your .TEL name.

While this isn’t too difficult, especially if you know a bit about the web, TELimg makes it very simple and allows you to manage multiple images for different folders within your .TEL or for multiple .TEL names. At the same time it offers an added bonus of a counter that reports the number of views and visitors to your .TEL name.

To get started, visit www.TELImg.com. You create an account when you upload your first image. Simply enter your email address; your.tel name; browse for the image on your computer to upload; enter the verification code and click Create an Account. Your account username and password will be emailed to you.

The next page allows you to crop your image and adjust the settings for the counter. On the left of the page, the cropping tool allows you to define the part of the image that will be shown on the .TEL. The image will be scaled to 78×78 pixels.

On the right of the page is the Preview Panel that lets you see how the final image will appear and set up the counter. If you don’t want the public to see the counter, change the Counter option to “Hide”. Click “Update TELimg Image” to save your changes.

TELimg displays your list of saved images in distinct rows. Towards the left of each row you’ll see the image as it will be displayed on your .TEL domain name together with a special URL that must be pasted into your .TEL information through your TelHosting account.

Open a new browser tab or window and login to your TelHosting account. Once logged in click the Add button beside in the Logo tile on the right of the page to display the Add New Logo popup.

Copy the TELimg URL and paste it into the Image Location textbox. Clicking Preview will result in a warning about using secure images, but click the Preview button anyway and ignore the warning – on a couple of occasions we’ve noticed that not clicking the Preview button causes the image not to display. Click the Save button to save the image.

You should now see the icon displayed in the Logo tile. Open a new browser tab or window and enter your .TEL domain name – in this case http://soccer.tel. If you don’t see the new image immediately, wait a few minutes and refresh the page. Remember .TEL information can take a few minutes to propagate.

Now return to the TELimg screen and refresh the page. Towards the right of the row, you will see a report of the number of Page Views and Unique visitors an on the far right. This allows you to know how often your .TEL has been viewed in a web browser. Further to the right, a set of action links allow you to Reset the Counter, Change Image or Remove the image.

You can add a new image for every folder (subdomain) of your .TEL. Instead of entering .TEL name as in the example of http://soccer.tel above, click the Add TELimg button and include the subdomain as well. For example http://world-cup-2010.soccer.tel

TELimg is still very new and continues to improve almost daily – in fact we’ve seen several improvements since the first draft of this article! TELimg is has proved very robust and easy to use and within minutes you’ll be uploading all your .TEL images.

The TELimg team, led by founder, Jay Paudyal (JayPaudyal.tel) is highly responsive and appreciates all feedback. They’ve come up with a very handy application that we predict will be very popular with users and we’re certainly very appreciative of the time and energy they’ve invested in building it for the .TEL community. Visit www.TELimg.com for more information and to start adding images to your .TEL domain name.