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?

 

[MicroGuy]

No more criticism of .TEL from those that "don't like" the extension? This is a 180 degree turn from what was discussed when this thread was merged with the 'showcase' thread.

If critical discussion of .TEL and its numerous & glaring weaknesses are excluded and forbidden, this thread will become nothing more than a breeding ground for .TEL hype-meisters™ (:santa spinning their incoherent web of rubbish to enhance their own 'investment' in the extension.

With all due respect, I think if people "who don't like .TEL" or now excluded, the title of the thread should be changed to something like "The Official .TEL Showcase and PumpFest™ Thread. IMHO. :gl:

 

[Acroplex]

Now let me ask a few questions that have been put to you many times without being addressed; how many .tel domains do you currently own, how many other extensions did you secure acro-related names in, and how many .tel domains did you try (and fail) to buy at landrush?

I own less than 10 .tel domains, of which 2 were secured for others. As I said at my blog, I registered these 2 as gimmick gifts for associates; including my CPA. And I explained also, that despite doing so in order for them to have a shorthand for their obscure .com/.net web sites, the .tel's failed to rank anywhere near the top in Google. That is proof that .tel fails to compete with other TLDs for a major expected function of a domain: search engine ranking.

I register my name and trademark in every non-ccTLD. My domain investment in .tel stopped at the point that it was made clear - and not openly so - by TelNic, that .tel cannot be hosted or developed. Other than that, I registered a handful of .tel domains to experiment with.

For more reference, visit my blog at Acro.net - Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex® and do a search for ".tel" to locate the 5-7 detailed posts I've made since before .tel went live.

 

[DubDubDubDot]

Are you serious? A couple hundred thousand plus names acquired by 'lower end users “This is an insightful fact that certainly was thoroughly investigated. When you get a chance please post where you found this information. I am certain many here besides me would also like to know.

There is no way of knowing this, but my gut feeling tells me that an extremely high percentage are owned by domainers. This is based on my observation that a surprising number of domainers in this thread alone each own hundreds of them. I have seen at least two portfolios with 1,000+, one of which was mostly TM violations. Also factor in that massive .tel showcase thread that was closed months ago.

---------- Post added at 03:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:44 PM ----------

First of all .ws has nothing on .Tel

That comment of mine was about landing pages. Nobody in their right mind directs traffic to a .tel if they have the ability to design a decent landing page.

 

[Acroplex]

Exactly. Unfortunately, a lot of these investors were not aware of the pitfalls of .tel - others simply rode the wave registering every keyword under the sun. This *might* work with any TLD that you can develop or at least, park for revenue.

Tell me, what do you do with banana.tel or http://coconut.tel

Answer: you wait for them to expire.

At least this guy did something fun: http://frisbee.tel

But not making money out of domains, isn't fun.

Oh look, it's http://sausage.tel - http://lettuce.tel sure looks green.

I wanted my local police department number so I went to http://police.tel and found some French merde!

 

[DubDubDubDot]

Once the Official Telpages Directory is launched, and promoted, the SUB-directories will see traffic.

...

This is of course no different than the "Internet" as it started.

Search Engines caused a BOOM of Domain Name Purchases and Websites. Most were "crappy" to say the least in the beginning, but over time, the BOOK known as "Google or Yahoo!" was a major hit.

The difference is that search engines and directories in the 90's provided access to information that was otherwise extremely difficult to find. Altavista, Lycos, HotBot, Excite, Dogpile, etc... not only opened things up for website operators, they were also game changers for the transfer of information for users.

Is Telpages going to be a game changer for contact information? No, it's not. Because 100% of the information on .tel profiles can already be easily found elsewhere should the contact choose to make it available.

Individuals and tiny businesses may fall outside of that, but they mean little to domainers. The people who matter to us do not have the same need for Telpages that they did for search engines in the 90's.

So don't expect a contact method game changer.

 

[MicroGuy]

Tell me, what do you do with banana.tel or coconut.tel

my favorite is develop.tel

 

[Acroplex]

my favorite is develop.tel

It's sad that's representative of the majority of the 250k (?) .tel registrations.

shampoo.tel looks flaky from here.

As for pizza.tel if I call that number in the UK do they deliver in Florida?

 

[WordWalker]

Do you know who I am, what I've done, how many domains I've sold?

Actually, no, I don't.

Who are you?

What have you done?

How many domains have you sold?

You opened the door on this one, so the stealth strategy is not really applicable here. Your activity in this thread has been anything but stealth like.:hehe:

Also, I'd be interested in knowing what would you consider to be the top 25 domain names from your portfolio? If you'd contribute to this thread by answering the very questions you raised, I might actually learn something. Thanks.

 

[Acroplex]

Actually, no, I don't.

Who are you?

What have you done?

How many domains have you sold?

You opened the door on this one, so the stealth strategy is not really applicable here. Your activity in this thread has been anything but stealth like.:hehe:

Also, I'd be interested in knowing what would you consider to be the top 25 domain names from your portfolio? If you'd contribute to this thread by answering the very questions you raised, I might actually learn something. Thanks.

I'm not going to answer every question simply to satisfy your curiosity, when you can't admit that .tel registrations are a waste of money.

Here's a little taste though.

I've sold more than 1,250 domains since 2000. My portfolio contains roughly the same number of domains, mainly single word dictionary com/net/org domains & two word compound .coms

Have had several $xx,xxx sales of domains since 2005, including the highest price ever paid for a NNN .org earlier this year - that was 360.org. My specialty is locating domains with end-user potential. Several of my sales took the ROI from a cost of $xx to a $x,xxx sale.

When I talk about something, I know what I'm talking about - not out of spite, but because that's the way it is.

 

[plaggypig]

I own less than 10 .tel domains, of which 2 were secured for others. As I said at my blog, I registered these 2 as gimmick gifts for associates; including my CPA. And I explained also, that despite doing so in order for them to have a shorthand for their obscure .com/.net web sites, the .tel's failed to rank anywhere near the top in Google. That is proof that .tel fails to compete with other TLDs for a major expected function of a domain: search engine ranking.

Okay, but you skipped the million dollar question. How many names did you apply for but fail to win at landrush?

Unless Google decides to treat .tel differently then why wouldn't you expect to have to work at your rankings in exactly the same way you would for any other TLD, i.e. target your keywords carefully, get decent backlinks, etc.?

I register my name and trademark in every non-ccTLD.

Your excuse about defending your trademark doesn't make much sense in light of the fact acroplex.name and acroplex.jobs are both still available, so too are acroplex.me and acroplex.tv - not strictly gTLDs but it's fair to say they're widely regarded as such. Most people don't even make a distinction.

For more reference, visit my blog at Acro.net - Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex® and do a search for ".tel" to locate the 5-7 detailed posts I've made since before .tel went live.

I've read them all.

--

I don't understand how you can keep a straight face and be so persistent arguing about all the things .tel is explicitly not designed for, and yet buy 10 of them, blog half a dozen rants, set up the telsucks.com forum (for which you even bought paid advertising on ChefPatrick.com, right?), and keep up with this forum thread discussion.

There are many, many things that I think are rubbish, but I don't waste my time or money on them. I can't think of any other way to say it, but you need to get a life.

 

[CDM]

personally, i'd like to hear more discussion about .tel from the mobile standpoint, not from what you will do with it typing in a .tel into your browser right now from your pc. imo this is was never what it was meant for anyway. anyone care to take the discussion in this direction? please disregard what you do on your laptop and pc for the moment, and talk about .tel strengths and weaknesses on mobile devices like your blackberry, iphone, gphone, etc. and anything to do with .tel apps. I would enjoy that :D :peace:

 

[Kate]

Unless Google decides to treat .tel differently then why wouldn't you expect to have to work at your rankings in exactly the same way you would for any other TLD, i.e. target your keywords carefully, get decent backlinks, etc.?

First off, you have very limited control over the contents and the overall structure (look at the HTML source code and maybe you will understand what I mean). Don't tell me .tel is an asset or even compares with *any* other TLD for SEO purposes.
Your line of thinking is like .tel was designed for the WWW.
I can't believe we are even discussing this

 

[Acroplex]

plaggypig - by landrush time I knew .tel is useless. What are you trying to demonstrate by the "landrush" phase?

.jobs, .name & .tv are so low in the domain food chain that makes no sense for me to register. Same for .travel. This applies to .tel also, for general use. I guess I will keep my 2-3 .tel domains as "business" cards. I hope this gives me plenty of reason to visit this thread often :D As for .me it's Montenegro. I have a couple of .me domains that are "hacks" and that's it.

So, you're attempting to make this all personal when the focus is on .tel - as sdsinc said, check out the source of any .tel for the complete lack of any meta tags that'd help a "developed" .tel rank in Google.

---------- Post added at 06:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:37 PM ----------

There are many, many things that I think are rubbish, but I don't waste my time or money on them. I can't think of any other way to say it, but you need to get a life.

No, you need to grow a pair of gonads and face the facts of life. What I do with my time is my business. Your arrogance can easily be matched by my wit.

 

[plaggypig]

First off, you have very limited control over the contents and the overall structure (look at the HTML source code and maybe you will understand what I mean). Don't tell me .tel is an asset or even compares with *any* other TLD for SEO purposes.
Your line of thinking is like .tel was designed for the WWW.
I can't believe we are even discussing this

The TelProxy spits out valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional documents. The only SEO issue I'm aware of would be that anchor tags don't include the context, but so far as I'm aware this would only have implications for the page you're linking out to.

I don't claim to be an SEO expert so just give me an example of how .tel domains are being improperly indexed by Google or anybody else and we'll see if there's a solution.

Incidentally, microformats are somewhere on the roadmap.

---------- Post added 09-12-2009 at 12:13 AM ---------- Previous post was 09-11-2009 at 11:48 PM ----------

plaggypig - by landrush time I knew .tel is useless. What are you trying to demonstrate by the "landrush" phase?

Does that mean none? Trying to ascertain the source of your resentment, as illustrated by the sheer amount of time you've invested into scorning this.

.jobs, .name & .tv are so low in the domain food chain that makes no sense for me to register. Same for .travel. This applies to .tel also, for general use.

I guess I will keep my 2-3 .tel domains as "business" cards. I hope this gives me plenty of reason to visit this thread often :D

Then why not stick to talking about what .tel is, not what it isn't - if you make constructive criticisms and suggestions then we'll all be the better for it, including yourself.

as sdsinc said, check out the source of any .tel for the complete lack of any meta tags that'd help a "developed" .tel rank in Google.

I think META tags may be on the roadmap anyway, I'm not sure. But think for a moment what META tags are for - does .tel need them given that keywords are already listed in the page body, and the density of text should be considerably less than a typical web page anyway? If more knowledgeable people wish to offer up an argument then I'm more than happy to listen.

No, you need to grow a pair of gonads and face the facts of life. What I do with my time is my business. Your arrogance can easily be matched by my wit.

Merely highlighting the hypocrisy of railing so hard against something you could quite easily ignore, just as you presumably ignore everything else that you dislike.

 

[WordWalker]

I'm not going to answer every question simply to satisfy your curiosity, when you can't admit that .tel registrations are a waste of money.

Here's a little taste though.

I've sold more than 1,250 domains since 2000. My portfolio contains roughly the same number of domains, mainly single word dictionary com/net/org domains & two word compound .coms

Have had several $xx,xxx sales of domains since 2005, including the highest price ever paid for a NNN .org earlier this year - that was 360.org. My specialty is locating domains with end-user potential. Several of my sales took the ROI from a cost of $xx to a $x,xxx sale.

When I talk about something, I know what I'm talking about - not out of spite, but because that's the way it is.

I, too, have no intention of satisfying your idle curiousity.

Here's a little taste though.

As a fourth grader, I won first place in the John Enders Elementary School annual talent competition. Believe me, that was no slouch!

 

[DubDubDubDot]

personally, i'd like to hear more discussion about .tel from the mobile standpoint, not from what you will do with it typing in a .tel into your browser

The question is, does .tel fulfill a need that has not already been addressed by mobile .com's?

Maybe the .tel pumpers can answer this with specifics.

 

[Kate]

I don't claim to be an SEO expert so just give me an example of how .tel domains are being improperly indexed by Google or anybody else and we'll see if there's a solution.

Do I need to teach you SEO ?
By contents I mean text, relevant text. Articles with the right keyword density and other extras are one example of content.
.tel has not contents, just data.

As for the HTML structure:
Let's have a look at the source code of sex.tel for example.

<title>sex.tel</title>

The title tag says nothing meaningful about your .tel. Yet it's one of the most important tags for SEO purposes. META tags are missing as well. If you want to see how it shows up in search results just type this query in google: site:sex.tel
It's clearly unoptimized, untargeted code. It's definitely not SEO-friendly and that's a fact, not an opinion. You would really need a lot of quality backlinks to offset the lack of meaningful content. SEOing .tel just makes no sense.
Furthermore, branding of your domain is difficult since the .tel logo and the cookie-cutter layout takes over. The .tel branding is overwhelming.

Again, I perfectly understand that .tel was not designed for the web. So these are moot points in some way, but the fact remains that .tel is the absolute worst TLD you can get for SEO purposes. It's inferior to any other TLD, the only comparable extension being .arpa.

Just treat .tel for what it is - a data repository. Anything further is speculation.

 

[DubDubDubDot]

Then why not stick to talking about what .tel is, not what it isn't

That is a funny statement coming from a .tel pumper.

You guys are constantly talking about what .tel could be..... You could be able to dial a .tel "number", you could build a directory and sell listings, you could rank a .tel higher in Google than your .com, you could use .tel for polling, you could replace texting to numbers with .tel, etc... etc... etc...

What are the pumpers talking about that .tel can currently do?

 

[Kate]

I just notice that telnic are not targeting mobile devices properly.
Unfortunately, they think Opera 10 is a mobile phone browser
This is how sex.tel looks on Opera 10: http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/4024/sextel.gif
I can't even 'switch' to the regular version.

 

[CDM]

The question is, does .tel fulfill a need that has not already been addressed by mobile .com's?

Maybe the .tel pumpers can answer this with specifics.

sure, lets hear some views!

one thing to interject though, it doesnt necessarily have to fill a complete vaccuum, IF it can do something that's already been done, better.

take for example google. they dont necessarily do anything that hasn't been done before, they simply take good ideas and make them better, faster, easier, etc. imho.