The .TEL Discussion Thread

[brendan52190]

Hi

For this, let's assume that .tel will not be a total flop.

What type of keywords will be most valuable for this extension? Will it be geographical keywords, like newyork.tel, losangeles.tel, etc, or what else?

 

[Ms Domainer]

To see how a .tel can rank in a Google search, trying looking for Henri Asseily in Google.com. In the search I just did below, his .tel was second.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Henri+Asseily&btnG=Search

Thanks

Justin Hayward
Telnic
justin.tel

*

When do you expect the .tel Whois to go live?

I'm still not sure of the status of two domains I pre-booked at Dotster. I was billed (payment was authorized), but my domain account still shows "pending."

I received a "successful order" email.

Thanks!

*

 

[justinhayward]

The WHOIS is likely to go live around the same time that domains will, which we are anticipating will be 25th February. You should expect to hear from your registrar regarding the management tools and log in details in the next few weeks. In advance of that, please feel free to sign up to our trial beta accounts from http://www.telnic.org/vip to familiarize yourselves with the functionality and management console example, which will be similar to the one your registrar will provide.

Regards,

Justin Hayward
Telnic
justin.tel

 

[Ms Domainer]

'25 words or less' is not considered sufficient contents for conventional SEO purposes.
You are going to rank for your contact information only and that's it.
The whole purpose of SEO is to capture consumers who don't know you YET.
.tel is only useful when you already know who you're looking for.

Anyway, I will watch your business plan unfold with interest.

*

Then how do you explain this site:

http://www.isobamapresident.com/

On page one. The search term (w/o quotes) is: obama president

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GWYA_enUS311US311&q=obama+president

Very little text.

*

 

[onlinelife]

The WHOIS is likely to go live around the same time that domains will, which we are anticipating will be 25th February. You should expect to hear from your registrar regarding the management tools and log in details in the next few weeks. In advance of that, please feel free to sign up to our trial beta accounts from http://www.telnic.org/vip to familiarize yourselves with the functionality and management console example, which will be similar to the one your registrar will provide.

Regards,

Justin Hayward
Telnic
justin.tel

Will .tel provide more templates/skins for custom look?

 

[ginggang]

To see how a .tel can rank in a Google search, trying looking for Henri Asseily in Google.com. In the search I just did below, his .tel was second.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Henri+Asseily&btnG=Search

Thanks

Justin Hayward
Telnic
justin.tel

Would it be a fair assement then that the more "unique" your registered .tel the higher ranking will be ?

 

[kukgle]

Here we go. I also grab

american.tel
and.tel
hit.tel
tech.tel
...

 

[kukgle]

Would it be a fair assement then that the more "unique" your registered .tel the higher ranking will be ?

You may prove it by register vip.tel at demo.vip.tel

After 3 days passed, let's try to search.

Actually, I just prove by myself too.

 

[justinhayward]

RE: skins, that's down to the .tel community to request; as we are a sponsored top level domain, we will look to modify the .tel to the benefit and request of the community and the service. There is an argument that the skins being simple makes the service almost no cost to access over a mobile device.

RE - search engine optimization - see http://dev.telnic.org/docs/SEO.pdf for guidance. Who knows really how SEO works? The rules are fluid. But one reason why Henri's .tel domain is prominent is the frequent use of the domain to change keywords, move contact information around, etc, requiring Google to continuously re-index it. Don't forget .tel domains aren't live yet and we are still having conversations with Google et al regarding the unique content of the .tel.

Again, any questions, please shout.

Justin Hayward
Telnic
justin.tel

 

[saucey]

JUSTIN HAYWARD (Telnic)

Justin,

Thanx for keeping everyone updated. Obviously, at this point everybody is going with their gut feelings on how this extension will be received by planet Earth.

I personally feel that it is a great extension for personal and business purposes but, as with everything, time will .tel.

Keeping this forum updated is a smart move, and greatly appreciated by us "Telsters".

Thanx again.

Saucey

 

[justinhayward]

No problem saucey. And if you see questions being raised here which you want answers to and you don't see me commenting, please email me at j hayward at telnic dot org to prompt me to come back - lots of plates being kept in motion at the moment as you can imagine!

Justin Hayward
Telnic
justin.tel

 

[qO_Op]

Will I be able to dial e.g. PizzaHut.tel (or just PizzaHut) on my mobile/voip phone in the future and be connected to the nearest Pizza Hut takeaway service to order a pizza so that I don't need to remember any telephone numbers only PizzaHut.tel?

 

[steveteva]

akcampbell, I don't want to talk more about making money on dot tel because it can take many hours and this thread is not intend to do it so.

Just want to answer to your questions:
1. You wrote: if I wanted a surfboard shaped I would either look in a Yellow Pages or go online and visit surf shop web sites and directories. I would see photos of boards, get views from other customers on review sites.....

Well, you are right but dot tel is like a yellow page directory with all in one place (contact, map locationlink to online shop where you can find photos, how long it takes to shape...)
Can you imagine having your surfboards.tel in a surfing magazine? If you were a surfer you'll have this magazine and sure you'll type in www.surfboards.tel rather than spending time online seeking for surfboards.

2. You wrote: I genuinely think any board shapers you rang up in the Yellow Pages would laugh at you if you asked them for $100 to list in Surfboard.tel. The Yellow Pages gets distributed to millions of households, Surfboard.tel will get a handful of visits every month just like a .info, .pro, or any other alternative extension.

I'm not sure they will laugh at you if you asked them for $100 to list in Surfboard.tel, if they do so it's because you're not a good marketer and seller. $100/year is nothing compare to advertising campains it's less than $10.00/month or a lunch at a restaurant. If you don't have any marketing knowledge, it can be painful to sell a $100.00 listing otherwise it's totally achiveable.


3. You wrote: try to charge them $100 for an ad for any domain extension, without proven traffic you are not going to have much luck, and without content and function .tel will get no traffic.

Marketing, marketing marketing. (ex: go to a surfboard trade show and you'll find potential customers)
There is no miraculous money making like money tree. It's all about marketing, meeting people and hard work.
If I tell you that just register a .tel, and follow my steps you'll be rich, it will be dishonest from me and I can be see as a scammer. So NO there aren't any easy money making but was just an example of what you can do and finally make profits if hard work, marketing and some luck.

Here are benefits I see in a .tel:
No hosting fees
No Webdesign fees
No Maintenance fees
No Upgrades and security issues to hassle
and more....

akcampbell, please don't ask me anymore on how to make profits from it because it's not the purpose of this forum.

If you don't believe of the future of a .tel it's your vision and I won't go against it.

steveteva if I wanted a surfboard shaped I would either look in a Yellow Pages or go online and visit surf shop web sites and directories. I would see photos of boards, get views from other customers on review sites, find out about special offers, how long it would take to shape the board, find out about opening hours, and how to get there.

I would either go to the Yellow Pages or online, I would not want to go to a template extract of the Yellow Pages, then go on line, that's a completely unnecessary extra step. I genuinely think any board shapers you rang up in the Yellow Pages would laugh at you if you asked them for $100 to list in Surfboard.tel. The Yellow Pages gets distributed to millions of households, Surfboard.tel will get a handful of visits every month just like a .info, .pro, or any other alternative extension.

To get site visitors, you need content and functionality, a .tel template is no more useful than any other alternative extension parked with adverts. You could ring round 100 surfboard shapers in California and try to charge them $100 for an ad for any domain extension, without proven traffic you are not going to have much luck, and without content and function .tel will get no traffic.

 

[Robbie185]

@ Justin:

How about a better search function? The current doesn't seem to work at all? This would be particular interesting for .tel directories to give users the ability to search them like they can do with other yellow pages directories instead of just letting them browse through the entries.

 

[Work In Progress]

Akcambell, I'm not a dot tel marketer neither benn paid by their company but simply a domainer since 2001. I've seen all kind od TLd's, have registered, sold, developped... and with my knowledge, I can tell you that it's really a great idea. The first thing most people misunderstand about .tel is why, can't you build a custom website with nice design, animation... and host were you want just like all available Tld's? Well this is where you should see how important is a dot tel, it's because it's uniform (template like) that gives its uniqueness and make it valuable.

You wrote surf.pro is more interesting, it could but if you get the right domain name in .tel like surfboards.tel (not taken yet) and have a marketing plan, it will be really profitable for you.
Here is an example of what could you do:
I live in California where there is a hundred of surfboard shapers, I take the yellow page and visit each of them with all marketing materials (explain why they must have their contact in surfboards.tel
If you sell 1 listing (full contact page of company) for min$100.00/year you'll earn $10 000 if you get 100 customers.
I'm sure they want to list their domains on .tel because it's the tld for "contact information" as telnic will promote it and their marketing plan is good.

Compare to the same domain surfboards.pro it's not sure they will jump on your top design... because other dot pro domains can be what so ever.

But if you have surfboards.pro you can suggest them to have a mini website as advertisement with subdomains (manta.surfboards.pro) where a link from the .tel will be add it to. and cost an extra $50.00/year. So $10 000 + the extra $50.00 per customer can make you

The fact that it's a dot tel, it targets Contact information and nothing else than that without fancy design for fast display and compatible with mobile devices.

When you wrote that end user can search in Google and have a site link relevant to them literally within a second so it's not useful, well this have nothing to do with Google, in general any Tld other than .com, .net, .org don't get high results in Search engine (.mobi, .info, .pro...and probably .tel) but this is not the real purpose of .mobi, .pro, .tel.... as search engines sees, they most likely push .com on top, this is true. So what's the deal? well it's all about marketing, someone that will promote .moby will probably have a established .com and want to have visitors with mobile devices be able to visit their webpages that was designed for mobi so they will print in their ad campain the mobi url for example. Same for .tel, you can target yellow pages by having an ad with surfboards.tel in the surfboards listing category of your local area or on surfers magazines. You see it's all about marketing.


I hope you did understand now why it's better than a dot pro in some way.

steveteva,

First off, as with any TLD, it's success or failure will not lie in domainers hands, but general public adoption.

I predict that .tel will be facing the same issues that have plagued .mobi PLUS the addition hurdle of huge limitations of monetizing.

The main issue? When do you market this? Before the domains are utilized and run the risk of the masses going to un-resolving (or empty) template sites? Or, do you try to market it after, which may take several years, assuming there are enough sold and built out?

That's been an ongoing issue with mobi. You can't spend millions to let people know mobi is around when, in fact, the majority are still parked / reserved / or ???. You can only market a domain when there's enough content, and developers / end users have to hop on board for this to happen.

Second, regarding your statement I bolded above, you might want to retract it. SE's don't seem to favor extension. They DO favor content. I have had several mobi sites on page one of Google, with many in the top 2 (at times). They do go up and down, but the content (yes, even with mobi), is the key. Google [dating help] for an example.

Bottom line is, I truly wish all tel investors the best of luck. Just be sure to look into the facts. :wave:

 

[steveteva]

I agree with you TLD is success or failure and dot com will always be the number one TLD.

I can't answer to the prediction question I'm not a crystal ball teller. To compare to dot mobi on how long it will take to get people used to .... well you must ask Justin he maybe have an answer, I don't have any information on their marketing budget and campain (telnic).

No I don't want to retract my comment about SE extension with Google search results. I'm in Seo industry for several years and have many SEO professional friends with whom we already talk about that and I can tell you that dot com will always be best for SE's, you can be on top with other extension but will be really specific to your niche or keyword (dating help) not generic. There are few TLds other than .com on top compare to .com.

steveteva,

First off, as with any TLD, it's success or failure will not lie in domainers hands, but general public adoption.

I predict that .tel will be facing the same issues that have plagued .mobi PLUS the addition hurdle of huge limitations of monetizing.

The main issue? When do you market this? Before the domains are utilized and run the risk of the masses going to un-resolving (or empty) template sites? Or, do you try to market it after, which may take several years, assuming there are enough sold and built out?

That's been an ongoing issue with mobi. You can't spend millions to let people know mobi is around when, in fact, the majority are still parked / reserved / or ???. You can only market a domain when there's enough content, and developers / end users have to hop on board for this to happen.

Second, regarding your statement I bolded above, you might want to retract it. SE's don't seem to favor extension. They DO favor content. I have had several mobi sites on page one of Google, with many in the top 2 (at times). They do go up and down, but the content (yes, even with mobi), is the key. Google [dating help] for an example.

Bottom line is, I truly wish all tel investors the best of luck. Just be sure to look into the facts. :wave:

 

[Ms Domainer]

here.tel

*

Looking for something else (not even related to .tel), a word flashed into my head: "here."

So without much hope, I checked it.

Incredibly, here.tel was available!

So after agonizing about five minutes, I regged it (confirmed and in my account).

The old budget, you know, though I'm still within it.

Three billion Google; 7,000,000 - 11,000,000 keyword search volume per month.

At first, I thought, "This is way TOO broad, and probably too abstract."

Then I thought about subdomain ("folder") possibilities (add .tel, of course):

Go.here.tel

Click.here.tel

Find it.here

Buy.here

Sell.here

Pay.here

Ask.here

check.here

Shop.here

See it.here

start.here

welcome.here

Please.here (not really organic but directing to my Please? site)

Advice.here (directing to my Please? site)

FindAdvice.here (directing to my Please? site)

comment.here

iam.here

Youare.here

Weare.here

Loans.here

FindLoans.here

Mortgages.here

Ringtones.here

Artists.here

Writers.here

Money.here

Business.here

Businesses.here

FirstName.here

FullName.Here

food.here

shopping.here

Moms.here

videos.here

gps.here (or is that TM?)

Maps.here

Gas.here

hotels.here

dining.here

restaurants.here

Paris.here​

and so on.

It's like having multiple domains in one, and they didn't cost any extra. Some of those terms (even with "here") have high search results on their own.

Now I'm finished regging .tel domains--what else do I need?

My two pre-booked domains are still pending; they are good, but nothing like this.

I guess others' reticence is my gain.

%%-

This domain (IMO) is well worth the risk, more so than the whoppers I pre-booked and didn't get.

(Here's hoping my registration wasn't a glitch ...)

*

 

[Kate]

The .tel naysayer thread

OK since it is customary practice to bash the new extensions I though .tel would deserve a thread of its own :hehe:

Let me just say one thing: the monetization possibilities seem virtually nil here. IMO purchasing at landrush pricing is a waste of money. Very expensive for a virtual business card.

One critical aspect that investors in new TLDs seem to overlook is traffic.
To achieve success with your domains you need to build and sustain traffic.
Without traffic your names are dead.
Sadly, a certain proportion of telsters™ didn't do their homework prior to committing money into that particular extension.
To sum up you cannot really monetize and even early flipping will be prove to be difficult :imho:

Anyway... don't say you haven't been warned.
Good luck in your endeavors whatever you do

 

[FathomJH]

Traffic is an unknown quantity at this point. .tel was just created, there is guranteed to be no traffic at the beginning. .tel will be indexed like every other extension.

Remember, .com was in the same boat as was every other extension. Domainers do not make or break an extension.

Sorry, just playing devil's advocate . I'm really impartial to .tel.

 

[owntype]

Copy/Pasted from other thread to save me some time

Investing in any extension can be profitable, e.g. I turned around $30k profits from the crappy .mobi back to 2007 - earlier 2008.

I do research work on any extension, but .Tel is the worst IMO. Reason? Check sdsinc's comments, I second it 100%. It's not to say .Tel won't be profitable to you, maybe the owner of Toyota.me will reach you and close a decent deal. Who knows?

Again, I would strongly suggest you invest your money carefully, rethink about it before you putting serious $ to .Tel. Good luck!

(Hey, you even can't develop a .tel as free as crappy .mobi)

 

[FathomJH]

These names are still available for those looking:

professional
retail
cater
lunch
deliver
share
account
debit
tan
injury
contract
deal
pediatrician
system