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?

 

[plaggypig]

I agree! See my previous post.

One thing I am trying to figure out right now is if there is a size limit?? Can't find info on this anywhere.... Is there a maximum # of entries per .tel site??

Saucey :music:

There are no limits. There's a good podcast interview with Justin from Telnic here in which he addresses this question.

This is also a good writeup of .tel - it's the most balanced analysis I've found anywhere.

One aspect to it that people have tended to miss is that information doesn't have to be static - you can push all sorts of dynamic information into the DNS records using the Telhosting API.

There are all sorts of other technical details, like reduced mobile network latency (since the platform uses DNS rather than HTTP) that give .tel every advantage of becoming a success - but ultimately it will come down to marketing - how much exposure will it receive through big media channels? Will it gain default integration on mobile devices (imagine if smart phones, blackberries and iphones shipped with a Telnic app).

I wonder which company will be the first to use their .tel in any significant marketing campaign - any guesses?

 

[steveteva]

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 I'm opened minded and curious about .tel but where is the genius in allowing people to produce a homogenous Contact Us page that looks like it was designed by somebody on a half day Dreamweaver course? Developed .tels look like a throwback to the early 90s, no intereractivity, no functionality, no video, no graphics. Apart from save myself $5 a month in hosting fees, what can I do with a.tel that I can't so with a .com or any other extension?

When I buy something like Surf.pro, I can develop a bells and whistles Surfing site and provided my design and SEO is better than the equivalent generic .com, I can achieve the same goals for a tiny fraction of the .com cost and have a more logical and brandable fit between keyword and extension. If you reg Surf.tel you can have a drill down directory structure to surfing web site links. Why would an end user want to drill down through various levels of a .tel directory when they can go to Google and have a site link relevant to them literally within a second?

 

[Shahid7]

I totally agree with you , i am new to domains started almost a yr ago but recently started selling them but i personally feel .tel will be a hit for people who knows its use rather then comparing it to any other TLD.

i have already started working on my .tel advertizment and trying to create a nice stregic plan on how to get 100+ visitors in with as minimum as possible charge /month or yr.

Shahid

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.

 

[akcampbell]

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.

 

[plaggypig]

Hmm... any ideas on that simple .Tel page supports multi launuages or not?

There doesn't appear to be a multilingual option in the beta version of the Telnic control panel yet, but I'm sure it's something they'll have to address sooner rather than later.

 

[beljf123]

Does anyone have been able to use the .tel whois ?

 

[Steven]

Personally, I haven't invested in any .tel domains, but I wish the best of luck for those that have done so or will.

Try to only invest in what you can afford to lose as this extension is highly speculative.

 

[gilescoley]

Any comments on this one??

TravelAgents.tel

 

[mulligan]

All available ... Knock yourselves out.

ccc.tel
ddd.tel
eee.tel
fff.tel
ggg.tel
hhh.tel
iii.tel
jjj.tel
kkk.tel
lll.tel
mmm.tel
nnn.tel
ooo.tel
ppp.tel
qqq.tel
rrr.tel
sss.tel
ttt.tel
uuu.tel
vvv.tel
yyy.tel
zzz.tel

ccc.tel -- Taken
mmm.tel -- Taken
sss.tel -- Taken

And so they start to disappear, come on guys, only a few left .. snap them up while you still can!!

 

[Coopey]

Just wanted to share a link that I really appreciated - The Sun in the UK is the voice of the people who don't understand the online world very much - look at how they've dealth with it.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/article2202158.ece

The first half of the article looked like someone just lazily paraphrased a telnic press release.
Did it make it in to the print version?
This is some excellent publicity Justin; For non-UK people who don't know, the Sun is a popular newspaper, I imagine particularly among small traders who are a reasonable target for a .tel registrant. (As I've said previously in another thread, IMHO the most used .tel domain are likely to be specific business names that people are looking for rather than the 'generics').

Interesting bit on the end of the article...

But Harvard University internet expert Ben Edelman isn’t so sure the idea will take off.

He warned: “To date, spammers and scammers have been the quickest to adopt new domains.

“If many .tel domains spring up containing misleading information, perhaps with the intention of soliciting email addresses or other personal data, individuals and businesses with more honourable intentions will be deterred from signing up.

“That problem has afflicted other new domains. From everything known about .tel so far, I think there remains a serious risk of a similar outcome.”

 

[plaggypig]

I don't really understand Ben Edelman's concern - .tel sites cannot be used to mount phishing attacks directly. Perhaps he means that scammers could use a .tel as part of a more elaborate scam operation? In any case, I don't see why this concern is addressed at .tel specifically - it's a much broader problem.

The issue of spam is redundant too - I already receive spam, dozens every day, but my spam filter eats them all.

 

[justinhayward]

A couple of things:

1) Multi-lingual support: the .tel will support 10 languages on launch, including the management console and keywords.

2) The guy from Harvard. I've extended an invitation for him to chat - unfortunately he hadn't experienced the product, read the Acceptable Use Policy or tried the free beta product. In this instance, he's now looking at the information and we're going to chat soon. My position on this is clear. The contact information will quickly expose fraudsters and in that instance we can address this quickly. Fraud is a crime. Having fun isn't. We will be vigilant in protecting the .tel community and the use of the .tel and will take action appropriately against any misuse of the .tel.

As always, comments welcome,

Justin Hayward
Telnic
justin.tel

 

[Kate]

If you have a high-paying premium keyword, you could make some good income.

If you say so. Show me the money :music:

If your premium .tel ranks high, your actual websites could have so-so domain names and still do well. But HOW .tel ranks is still unknown.

The question remains: how do you rank with NO contents... no certainty those dull looking .tel pages will even be present in the google index.

 

[plaggypig]

A couple of things:

1) Multi-lingual support: the .tel will support 10 languages on launch, including the management console and keywords.

2) The guy from Harvard. I've extended an invitation for him to chat - unfortunately he hadn't experienced the product, read the Acceptable Use Policy or tried the free beta product. In this instance, he's now looking at the information and we're going to chat soon. My position on this is clear. The contact information will quickly expose fraudsters and in that instance we can address this quickly. Fraud is a crime. Having fun isn't. We will be vigilant in protecting the .tel community and the use of the .tel and will take action appropriately against any misuse of the .tel.

As always, comments welcome,

Justin Hayward
Telnic
justin.tel

Well said. Good on you for getting involved in these discussions too.

 

[justinhayward]

Sorry for the delay regarding multi-language support. .tel will support 10 languages on launch - for an idea of which ones, please visit http://www.telnic.org/brochures and see which languages we have translated into. Multi-lingual keywords can also be used (although not at present in the beta version which will be fixed for launch) at every level and sub-folder of the .tel, providing local search optimization within a global or local .tel domain

Justin Hayward
Telnic Limited
justin.tel

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

The question remains: how do you rank with NO contents... no certainty those dull looking .tel pages will even be present in the google index.​

But you can add content, a profile or description of yourself or company. It may be compact, but a good writer will be able to boil down his/her essence in 25 words or less.

Also, you can add relevant keywords. I would imagine that Google would treat this TLD like any other: that if you try to stuff it with irrelevant keywords, Google will boot your domain off.

IMHO, in this case, thinking "small" is thinking "big."

*

 

[plaggypig]

If you say so. Show me the money :music:

The question remains: how do you rank with NO contents... no certainty those dull looking .tel pages will even be present in the google index.

1. Google loves information.. it munches through it like a.. rabbit through lettuce. It's stated mission is, "to organise the world's information".

2. .Tel will provide lots of valuable information, in a beautifully organised way. Currently Google can't get that from anywhere else.

3. What will happen, do you suppose? I don't dare say it myself. *cough*

 

[justinhayward]

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

 

[Kate]

But you can add content, a profile or description of yourself or company. It may be compact, but a good writer will be able to boil down his/her essence in 25 words or less.

'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.

 

[onlinelife]

Stick to this topic I got 5 planed so far.
Link (dot) tel
cards (dot) tel
Visit.tel
Public.tel
Supply.tel