What is Shared Use?
Toll free numbers have several unique capabilities that local
numbers don't. And one of the most important of those is the
ability to route calls to multiple terminating locations. Calls
can be routed to different locations based on almost anything
from the time of day, day of the week, location of the caller,
or even random or regular distribution. Large organizations
often route the call to the nearest or local office or branch of
a large organization. And although it's important to remember
that each toll free number can only have one end user, that
official end user can arrange for the calls from one area to be
routed to one location while calls from other areas go to
another location.
This routing capability means an "end user" of a
good toll free vanity number can arrange for a specific area to
be routed to a particular local end user in that area, which is
often called "Shared Use." There are some difficulties
with Shared Use, many of which come from number owners
neglecting the licensee's point of view, but it is clearly a
very valuable and appropriate thing to do with a good number
that's geared toward localized services. A caterer in New York,
for example, can't deliver food to a party in Los Angeles. The
food gets too cold. There are some issues which have to be
considered and shared use isn't the get rich quick plan that it
might appear at first glance. But shared use is definitely an
inherently better use of a number than blocking the rest of the
country which you can't service.
There are several issues which need to be considered
including territories, advertising types and coverage, trademark
issues, domain names and web sites, terms and agreements,
customer service and your sales approach. I'll be addressing
several of these issues as we put together a comprehensive
system for marketing shared use numbers and then for servicing
them as well. Shared use isn't usually as easy or profitable as
it seems at first, but it can be a very viable business with a
good number, especially if you have contacts within the
industry. But don't forget, it's still more profitable to use a
good number to build your business than it is to market the
number to other people.
We're getting thousands of visitors per day looking for good
toll free vanity numbers. If you have a good number and would
like to offer it to other people that are actively looking for
something, get in touch with me right away, so we can include
you in our database.
Misc Notes:
There was an interesting article in Telephony
Magazine by Chris Sewell, about wrong numbers. And if you
get a lot of wrong numbers or use them in your marketing, please
email me.
The 800 Classified section is being discontinued because of
our new Active Number Database. And if you have any good vanity
phone numbers available, email me if you'd like them to be
listed and promoted from our site. (There's no charge - more on
this coming soon!)
I am going to be promoting shared use, but I'd also like to
hear about any difficulties or problems that people have had
with shared use. I'd like to address them and help improve the
industry.
Attention Website Designers:
I have a couple good vanity #s for help with some intenet
projects.
Wrong Numbers?
If you get many wrong numbers/misdials or market to them, or
even just have any funny stories about them, let me know. I'm
writing an article about this next.
Also coming next issue, "Creative Advertising Ideas for
Vanity # Businesses" and "What to look for in a vanity
number."
I hope the information in this newsletter has been helpful. I
write every article to try to help you, and I am sharing this
information with you because I want you to think of me a YOUR
personal toll free consultant.
Thanks to everyone who wrote about my wedding. And I wish
everyone a very happy and healthy holiday and a prosperous new
year.
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Dear
Bill,
First of all, Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays.
Things definitely sneak up on me. I know I'm pretty late
with this newsletter but I've got some good stuff for
you and really hope it's helpful.
First I've improved and added some cool new things to
my vanity number lookup. I've also got some valuable new
services and helpful ideas for you. My goal as always,
is to be your toll free consultant and help you with
everything toll free.
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We've added several very exciting new features to our
vanity number lookup tool. We've added two new search
tools to our lookup as well as some real aesthetic
improvements. My goal is to create a place that anyone
can go to find ALL the possible vanity numbers available
that relate to their business. This will also give
vanity number owners red hot leads of prospective
customers that recognize the value of, and are actively
looking for a good number!
Our vanity number lookup still searches the SMS 800
database, but now it also searches our Active Number
Database and suggests potential active vanity numbers,
not just exact matches but any searches containing
relevant keywords. This means anyone searching for
anything related to your number will be told that your
number may be available along with a way to send their
name and contact information to you.
Another exciting new feature is our Mandi number
search that locates local vanity numbers to match the
search string. Mandi is a speech recognition based
service that will answer your phone, try you at multiple
numbers, allow you to screen your calls, read your
emails and even answer them. There's more about Mandi
below but these local numbers forward your calls to any
local number in the country and have portability like
toll free numbers.
We've also made a few aesthetic changes and added
some rotating tips. Check it out and try a few searches
for yourself. Try a few searches for yourself or just click
here to see a sample that shows both the Active
Number results along with a Mandi number.
A
sample of the new lookup results.
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- Toll Free News: Transitions in Telecom
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These are tubulent times in the Telecom Industry.
Even the biggest industry leaders all seem to be
stumbling. We've all heard names like Worldcom, Global
Crossing and Cable and Wireless not to mention dozens of
smaller companies that don't make the main stream news.
Visitors sometimes ask how long a company's been in
business, but what they're really asking is can I count
on you?... Unfortunately the answer is that today, the
only thing you can count on is CHANGE. And if you don't
want to get run over by this change it pays to
understand the mechanics of the system and how to
protect yourself
The only real security you have with toll free
numbers revolves around their unique portability. Toll
free numbers first came out in the 60s, but their real
popularity didn't explode until the introduction of a
concept called portability. Toll free numbers are
portable two ways. End users can change the ring to
number, and they can also change the carrier. And
therein lies the ultimate security of the end user,
because even if a carrier just disappears completely,
you can always change carriers.
Many people are more familiar with domain names, and
toll free numbers actually have some similar mechanics.
Domain names have a registrar that maintains the end
user information and a host which provides the actual
web space. Toll free numbers have a RespOrg (which is
short for Responsible Organization, the term for
companies that have access into the SMS800 database)
which maintains the end user information and they also
have a carrier or phone company which carries the
traffic to the end user's designated number or trunk.
This may sound complicated but it helps to understand
this when you have to move your toll free service or if
you have any problems.
To transfer a toll free number, you just contact the
company you're transferring it to. They will give you a
RespOrg Change form, which should be faxed back to your
new carrier. Some carriers also want a LOA (Letter of
Authorization) and a bill copy. They will then send it
by way of their RespOrg department to the releasing
company's RespOrg, which should within a couple days
usually release or reject the RespOrg change.
You often have to follow up and push them to process
the paperwork because RespOrg departments are
notoriously out of touch and claim that it's been
rejected out of habit even if it wasn't even sent yet.
There are also a couple 3rd party resporgs that don't
carry the traffic but maintain your ownership. This is
important because phone companies DO make mistakes even
with valuable numbers. If you have a really valuable
number you might want to consider protecting it with one
of these services. Anyway, knowing this process or at
least having someone available that does, is your best
security for your toll free number.
If
you need help, or have questions, just ask
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- 2.9 ¢/min 800 with NO fees!
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While working on my new site 800Numbers.com<
/a>, I found a great reseller and we worked out a
special deal for my preferred clients to get toll free
service and long distance for only 2.9 ¢ per minute
with NO setup, NO monthly fee, and NO minimums or
requirements at all!
I'm not allowed to advertise or promote this rate
anywhere because it under cuts all their of their agents
and nobody makes any money at that rate. Actually
somebody does make a little because we're donating 2% of
the bill to Easter Seals. I'm doing this because my goal
with this newsletter is to be your toll free consultant
and bring anyone marketing with toll free numbers the
absolute best news, advice and deals possible.
In some areas it's 3.9 ¢ per minute and in some
areas it's not available at all, because of the charges
and tariffs of the local phone companies. Enter your
area code and exchange below to check your area and
compare it to whatever you're using because no other
switched service can touch this. It's easy to set up and
you can even transfer an existing toll free number too.
Also take a moment and send this to anyone you know
that has a toll free number or even anyone that just
makes a lot of long distance calls. This really is a
great deal and I hope it helps a lot of people!
or
sign up online here!
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Anyone on the internet today knows how oppressive the
onslaught of junk email is today. It feels like we're
all drowning in email most days. Anyone with a website
knows that there are spiders out there crawling the
internet just looking for your email address. They suck
it up and sell it a hundred ways to Sunday before you
can blink. And you get an avalanche of porn, viagra, get
rich quick schemes and million other equally useless
junk. There's probably no way to really avoid it, but
there are some simple things you can do to avoid it. I
recently learned a new trick to hide from web crawling
spiders that I wanted to share with you.
A friend that does email marketing (proper email
marketing!) Shared this trick with me and I wanted to
share it with you. To understand how it works you have
to understand just a little of what web crawlers do.
They jump from page to page around the internet
searching for email addresses by downloading the html
page and then just searching for @ signs. They take the
text immediately in front of and after the @ sign and
bingo they've got you. But now you can fight back with
this simple java script that hides your email from the
web crawlers.
This is the java script I use on my page.
<script language=javascript>
<!--
var x1 = "NAME";
var x2 = "DOMAIN.COM";
document.write("<a href="
+ "ma" + "ilto:" + x1 +
"@" + x2 + ">LINK TEXT OR
IMAGE</a>")
//-->
</script>
You'll want to put your switch the capitalized parts
(the parts in red) with your email and either use your
own image or just replace the red text with your own
link text.
That's all you need to disguise your email from those
nasty spam-spiders while letting your visitors see and
use it as easily as ever. Many people use submission
forms to try and hide their email but it's still
embedded in the action. So this works even better and
it's really not hard to do. If you have a website with
your email address on it today, you're crazy to leave
your email address unprotected.
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 I
always look for and try to bring you the best toll free
related service. Mandi (My Automated Natural Dialog
Interface) is definitely one of the best but it's not a
toll free service at all. It's a very professional
speech recognition based virtual assistant service that
can answer your calls, screen your calls, trying you at
multiple numbers and telling you who's calling and
taking messages for you. She can call anyone in your
contact manager for you, return phone calls and even
read and answer your email for you.
She'll let you change the ring to number over the
phone or the web. She'll protect your privacy and
forward calls to you anywhere in the country for as low
as 5 cents per minute (less than most toll free
services). Mandi is available in a dozen area codes in
California and will be coming to several dozen other
states soon. But for a phone number geek like myself,
the coolest part is that you can get great local vanity
numbers from them. That's why I'm so excited to announce
that our lookup tool now searches Mandi numbers too. Try
our new lookup and see if you can find that number you
always wanted in your own Mandi number and you'll not
only get a cool number, but a great new virtual
assistant too.
Contact
Speech Phone
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This
email was sent to billquimby@billquimby.net, by TollFreeNumbers.com.
