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]

Hi All,
I think it comes down to, if I had phonebook.tel (which I do not)then could I sell listings in that directory to people. Like the Yellow Pages, there are categories (which would be the sub-domains) and then businesses listed in those categories. The Yellow Pages charges for these listings. Do the restrictions limit a .tel owner from doing this?

I do. :kickass:

Just to confirm that there are no restrictions on how you can monetise .tel except that you cannot delegate control over folders (sub-domains) to third parties.

 

[Spade]

The only people making money from .tel work at Telnic.

Not true.... I imagine some registrars will make a few dollars here and there!

 

[Jingles]

Brokers.tel


So far my biggest sales have all come from the type of domains alot turn their nose up to (alt. ext., no traffic, or fresh reg's, etc.) So I'm ok with taking a chance every now and then

 

[saucey]

I got 4.... All beauties in my opinion...

Edited...

Cheers! :kickass:

 

[saucey]

Sorry, but the very idea that some people are actually treating .tel as an investment just beats me.
Even a crappy .tk will get you a better return.


Thinking outside the box or wishful thinking ?

As a rule, I think the supporters of new TLDs tend to overestimate their capacity to influence the ingrained browsing habits of consumers on a significant scale.

I am ready to bet that you will be bitterly disappointed with your .tel experience.

It is certainly possible! I am not trying to be a cheerleader. I do however consider myself to be realistic when making my business decisions. I try to remove myself from any hype...I weigh both sides...good and bad...and then I make my decision. I know this extension could fall flat on its face, but I am definitely willing to gamble on a new extension like this... The upside potential here is ENORMOUS in my opinion...but, that is all that it has for now... "potential"...and potential means squat if you don't grab it by the balls and make it happen. Maybe I will lose my money, but at least I tried.

 

[lzy]

My rule for investing in gTLDs is fairly simple: The more GoDaddy -- a $138M company -- appears to be embracing it, the more likely it will succeed.

I envision the domaining industry's GDP as a gigantic pool with a fat pipe leading in and another trailing out. Liquidity can travel along one of three trajectories:
(a) Out of the pool: This generally occurs when winning domains at NameJet/SnapNames auctions, with purchasing of speculative TLDs like .tel, with backorders, and with hand-registrations.
(b) Within the pool: Mainly comprised of domain-to-domainer transactions.
(c) Into the pool: This occurs primarily with end-user sales.

New gTLDs will naturally crash unless the amount of cash they cause streaming through the IN pipe, in form of end-user sales, equals or exceeds the cashflow domainers pour through the OUT pipe.

GoDaddy has perpetuated the lion's share of public awareness regarding the significance of domain ownership. By spreading this awareness to the masses through their sexy and bountiful advertising campaigns, GoDaddy is indirectly responsible for many, if not most, of end-users sales that have gone down; and those end-user sales represent the injection of liquid capital through the IN pipe that lends life support to the domain industry -- all our decisions, good and bad. Sitting in GoDaddy's back room is a pack of marketing geniuses. No parallel to these geniuses exists on any other registrar's board. Therefore, when GoDaddy embraces a gTLD, I take heed. When they choose not to, I eye that gTLD with cautious scrunity.

On running a given domain through GoDaddy's name checker, the first five gTLDs listed are .com, .net, .org, .info, and .me (I consider .me a gTLD for a slew of reasons) . The first four have firm taken root in public consciousness, and .me is quickly doing so as well. Why? Not because there's anything extraodinary about .me, but because GoDaddy -- our most powerful suction force through the IN pipe -- has chosen to spread a conflagration of public awareness about .me, more so than the have with any gTLD since .info (which GoDaddy helped popularize through its 99-cent registrations).

Armed with this logic, I am 100% certain .me is the only recently-introduced gTLD that MAY attain broad global awareness over time. The same cannot be said about .pro, .asia, or .tel unless GoDaddy re-examines its attitude towards these gTLDs, but I doubt they will.

Like how it promoted .TV like crazy last year and demolished the extension with his recent video blog? :tri:

 

[GF]

I think that very few .TELs make sense to register. Keywords that would be registered in other extensions don't make sense in .TEL.

For example -
Poker.tel ? Poker.ag would be great. Poker.cr also, but .TEL? Who are you going to sell listings to? Poker rooms? Kind of a stretch to me.

BuyGold / SellGold / Forex / etc., these terms are nonsense in the .TEL extension.

The only .TEL that remotely make sense to me are geographic locations.

 

[Terrains]

I had NewYork and Food preordered for landrush on DM. Didn't get either and didn't bother registering any other names, all the premium Geos were taken and that was all I was looking for.

 

[steveteva]

Really good point.
Poker.tel..... will more be like an investment hopping Big casino name will buy from it, but GEO ones can be developped and be much more valuable.

I see many people on this thread bashing .tel and saying that it's crazy to pay high for it. Well for me I did register a GEO one and the $295 I spent is really a bargain. If someone else did registered before me I will feel very bad. Now all other people guessing register yes or no are really feeling bad because they miss it but it's too late for them.

I think that very few .TELs make sense to register. Keywords that would be registered in other extensions don't make sense in .TEL.

For example -
Poker.tel ? Poker.ag would be great. Poker.cr also, but .TEL? Who are you going to sell listings to? Poker rooms? Kind of a stretch to me.

BuyGold / SellGold / Forex / etc., these terms are nonsense in the .TEL extension.

The only .TEL that remotely make sense to me are geographic locations.

 

[kukgle]

My one is American.tel, German.tel and Asian.tel, any thought?

 

[GF]

Question for those who have regged .TEL -

What is your plan to monetize?

-Galel

 

[saucey]

Question for those who have regged .TEL -

What is your plan to monetize?

-Galel

As some other Telster's have mentioned, my plans are to set up a directory. This may take time to catch on, but I think it will eventually take grip.

Another possibility is selling to end users. For instance, a large multi-national company may want to set up a directory strictly for the staff, or maybe for customers too...allowing them to access the staff easier. Using Bicycle(s).tel as an example (not the best example, but bare with me), perhaps a large bike manufacturer would want to buy it to use as a company directory..much like the live example... www.justin.tel But obviously, instead of just having one persons info, it could be broken down into regions --> factory's/stores --> departments --> names --> contact info. This would help the company function better, as access to people and getting messages to people would be much easier.

After reviewing the above paragraph, I suppose a company would just register their company name for an internal directory... However, the public directory may benefit from being a more generic term..

Also, if the company name is super long or difficult to spell, a more generic word(s) would probably benefit the company.

Again, just my opinion...

Saucey

 

[FreakySteve]

I do. :kickass:

Nice score! Sounds like your monetization strategy is already determined

Not a .tel, but definitely related, I picked up telsters.com :D

I did grab a .tel during landrush but I don't want to reveal it until I see my name on the whois.

 

[phase111]

If you compare the ".tel showcase" with this thread, you'll find all the senior and experienced members are correct in saying that .tel will fail. Its only the less experienced members who are bumming up this extension. We've seen it all before with .mobi

The "older more experienced members" obviously have little forsight into how the internet will naturally evolve, they want to keep it the same because it's comfortable for them perhaps...it certainly won't stay the same as it has been that's for sure, sorry to disappoint the "older" and "wiser" domainers like sdsinc, but whilst they are toddling off to the retirement home, new technology like .tel will be taking off.
By teh way... even the best .mobi's are worth good money even now... more than $350 a piece. Don't write it off just yet, but do remember that .tel is not just another website extension.
Hope you don't get dissapointed that you missed the landrush in years to come dude.

 

[GF]

*Housekeeping Note*​

It looks like all the .TEL threads were merged into this one.

I have re-highlighted the thread and renamed it as "The Official .TEL Discussion Thread"

Positive and negative comments on the extension are welcome, just be nice to each other

Love and hugs,
Galel

 

[plaggypig]

One thing is for sure, it will take a lot of promotion work. You won't get a lot of natural traffic on a TLD that few people even know exists.
.tel like telephone ? The very name does not even make sense to me

Honestly, I do not see any appeal for the masses. As an investment it is probably the worst extension you could pick.
Since you cannot develop a conventional website on .tel (I always wonder if people truly realize that) your directory of law firms will be a sexy as gopher
I would rather use YP.com...

Make sure you don't invest more money than you can afford to lose. Or better yet, assume it will be money flushed down the toilet.
Good luck

I don't wish to sound rude, and my comment here is not directed specifically at you, but in general at the many detractors of .tel around here. I just chose to quote your comment because you mentioned the meaning of .tel. It stands for telecommunications, but that's beside the point.

Some people seem to be fixated on such cosmetic issues, such as the name of a TLD, as opposed to its nature and utility. .com is not more popular than .net because it reads or sounds any better, in fact the reverse is probably true for my taste. If your arguments rest solely upon these issues of vanity, then I'd urge you to rethink your position and to try and understand what .tel is and the space it is attempting to disrupt. Some aspects of .tel will require some technical acumen to grasp, but many of the surrounding social issues do not.

When I hear people dismissing .tel without giving a coherent argument I can't help but sense tinges of resentment, for they probably got burned in the past by basing investment decisions upon the way a TLD read or sounded without understanding what it actually was. I also suspect that the misinformed comparison to .mobi only heightens this.

I believe .tel's success rests upon the challenges of marketing and whether owners such as myself can demonstrate its strengths and potential sufficiently to keep the momentum of interest up. And if it does indeed enter the deadpool with other TLDs then it will certainly not be for lack or legitimacy of the enormous problem that it's attempting to solve, or that it was not implemented properly by Telnic.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[mulligan]

Did any of you 'investors' actually read up on names reserved by telnic for themselves and on behalf of ICANN and IANA? (names reserved by telnic are confidential and not available for viewing by the public.. why is that?)
How many of you even know where to find such information?
Were you hoping for a nice geo like brazil, belgium, hungary ... maybe india?


And as for the person trying to register toyota and paypal .. well the mind boggles.

 

[saucey]

Nicely said Plaggypig!

Here is an interesting thought for you all... I was speaking with a friend yesterday who is not at all involved in domaining,and doing my best to explain what I know about .Tel.

After digesting all the facts, and checking out www.celebrity.tel and www.justin.tel on his blackberry.... I asked him what he thought... He said that he felt this was a brilliant idea.... Everything loaded up onto his BlackBerry quickly and was easy to read... Then, he made a comment that stuck with me....

"The internet is reaching it's saturation point... So many extensions, so many names.... This .Tel thing is a breath of fresh air! Clean and easy to use with no rubbish and no useless graphics that take forever to download onto my BlackBerry"

My friend calls the shots the way he see them and would have NO problem telling me if he thought it was a bad idea.

I like the fact that these comments came from someone outside of the domain world.

Saucey. :p

 

[plaggypig]

Did any of you 'investors' actually read up on names reserved by telnic for themselves and on behalf of ICANN and IANA? (names reserved by telnic are confidential and not available for viewing by the public.. why is that?)
How many of you even know where to find such information?
Were you hoping for a nice geo like brazil, belgium, hungary ... maybe india?

And as for the person trying to register toyota and paypal .. well the mind boggles.

The list of reserved names is published on Telnic's website. There was also the sunrise database that one could check prior to submitting landrush orders.

 

[mulligan]

The list of reserved names is published on Telnic's website. There was also the sunrise database that one could check prior to submitting landrush orders.

.........

In addition, Telnic has a small list of names that it has reserved for itself. This list was compiled following consultation with Telnic's Interim Policy Advisory Group (iPAG). The names on this reserved list relate to the operation of the registry and the .tel system as a whole. Some are concerned with new features and components of the .tel system that are expected to be introduced following the launch of .tel. Therefore this list remains company confidential.