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]

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Repped!


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If you want, you can post that link directly on promoting.tel, under Informative Sites - it's a brand new domain where any one can add information related to dot.tel. Kind of a self-promotion domain. It uses the TEL SOAP interface to write links directly under a variety of folders. You can help test it :wave:

 

[jagdotme]

Has anyone here made even 1 cent off their .tel's besides flipping them?

Well I have flipped a domain (via sedo, but still waiting on payment ) and also got paid £xxx to set up a .Tel for a .com business and I have full control of the .Tel and I charge £xx - £99 if they add a new page (depends on how much time I use) if he needs to add more pages.

 

[aliencafe]

How can you compare Yellow Pages to .tel ?
.tel is less than one month old.
In a longer (not even long) run Yellow Pages have no chance to compete.
This is the reason they try to discredit .tel

I have an idea how to promote .tel and get a million dollar worth of publicity for about $10
First list relevant businesses on your site free for a few months.
Don't worry about monetization, it will come.
Second, if you live in a large or larger city register your most popular
talk show radiostation .tel
After registering it contact the station and tell them that you would like to
give it to them free providing that every time they mention the telephone number to call the host they will also mention that people can contact the station by going to their cell phones and type in XXXXX.tel
You could also ask them to go live on the radio with the most popular host for a few minutes to explain what this service is and how to use it

Good post: good marketing strategy, may I add to that if the Telpages.com directory is well built and well promoted in national media, people will search for their favorite radio station/dj or supermarket or discounts, or everything else under the sun..

maybe my Nailsalon.tel will get quite a bit of traffic from Telpages?

regards.

 

[P-C]

Thank you kprobe for nice site repped added .

 

[bmugford]

I think your example is on the right track but I think this makes more sense.

Example A -

Carpet cleaner A buys a yellow pages ad for $2,000/year which displays a phone number and an address.

Example B -

Carpet cleaner B buys a yellow pages ad and a real domain, for $2,010/year + about $5/month hosting. The yellow pages ad displays a phone number, an address, and a web link to his fully developed website with actual content.

Brad

May I suggest a slightly more real-life example?

Carpet cleaner B buys a yellow pages ad for $2,000/year which displays a phone number and an address.

Carpet cleaner A buys a yellow pages ad and a .tel, for $2,010/year. The yellow pages ad displays a phone number, an address, and a web link to his .tel that gives a lot more info. Furthermore, A's .tel is indexed in search engines and can be referenced in all sorts of places. A can also buy google ads that reference his .tel, for real cheap click-based cost, and not pie-in-the-sky yellow page eyeballs.

Now, what would you do?

Speaking of companies, .tel domains are for the 50% of small and medium companies that today do not own their website, and who never will. A plumber doesn't need a website to show a picture of himself smiling and holding a pipe. He just needs to be contacted.

 

[phase111]

Phase 111, there is not even a question here as to what business owners prefer. Let me see: pay 15/ year for a .tel and controlling their own information being able to put all the useful information that is needed to promote a business in the .tel vs paying what I pay now ($233/ month) for a shitty style yellowpages ad that took us 10 phones and significant aggravation to get fixed and published (and I chose the cheapest paid version). Are you guys telling me that I would be paying 233/mos for yellowpages if they would actually list any of my useful information there for free? If they list me for free they include my name and a phone number- they will not say anything about the services or products that we offer and don't offer, basic credentials, etc. That free service has extremely limited value for the public and business owners. So these are my real options as a business owner trying to properly promote my business in the real world: 15/month with a .tel vs 230/month for a shorter, more expensive, limited add with a poorly run and designed business directory. What would any of you do?

Most business owners don't yet know about .tel, but when they find out they love it, because they know the basic realities of doing business in the real world! My friends are asking me why I was such an idiot and didn't get them more than one .tel domain- meanwhile 2 months ago they were too busy with their work to look into .tel and listen to me. Remember that .tel just came out. It will not take more than 2 years for .tels to become significantly more popular than any phonebooks or yellowpages out there- mark my words!

Im with you on this point... Im not sure what yellow pages cost in the states, what I was referring to as free is the physical and online version, at least in new zealand, where last time I checked you could get a free listing if you are a business but this is just your business name and telephone number pretty much.. anything else is at a larger cost (but what i probably incorrectly called a premium listing- I really mean something with a little more info or in a display type ad). I know over here the physical book version is a phenomenal price for advertising. I remember spending $5000 (nzd) on a small colour ad quite a few years back for a business I had. Not only did the final colour (they suggested) on the yellow look terrible (vastly different than on the sample finished copy i was shown on white) making it hard to read, but I hardly got any calls either, after they had assured me I would get so many calls per week on average for that type of business and size ad. In my view I was ripped off and YP didnt want to give me any compensation because of the colour difference either.. I was so over advertising with them after that fiasco.
.tel is one of those products for sure that you can tell someone about, they get it and then they buy it. In terms of a directory, this has potential it's all about how you market it. But I can see it really taking off properly once a larger community gravitate to tel pages to look for things (at least that's what Im hoping for).

 

[TargetNames]

"Speaking of companies, .tel domains are for the 50% of small and medium companies that today do not own their website, and who never will. A plumber doesn't need a website to show a picture of himself smiling and holding a pipe. He just needs to be contacted."


I think this is an excellent point. Many small companies pay to be in some giant online directory where the search terms for their product/business will NOT lead anyone to their listing unless it is a very small niche. To them, the cost of development, hosting, updating, seo and other costs associated with a website are too steep to justify competing for keyword phrases against larger rivals. I think .tel has the potential to promote small business much more cheaply and efficiently. And, in my opinion, super-generic keywords and geos will be the portals of choice.

 

[Traveler]

Just thought I would share a recent experience of mine. Yesterday I got a call from a family member that has been a self-employed entrepreneur for more than 2 decades. I sent her the links to the .tel videos (the ben.tel and real estate videos) to see what her reaction would be, one way or the other.

I explained that you can't develop a .tel in a "traditional sense" and its primary purpose was for maintaining contact information. I didn't try and "sell" the extension, because to be honest I'm not as fired up about it as a lot of people here and I really just wanted to see what the response would be from a business woman that I respect and who's opinion I value. The first response, "this could be the yellow pages of the future". She then went on to purchase 10 .tel names. Some for brand protection and some for business/personal use. She even bought a "City"Realty.tel name for her daughter who is a Realtor. Unfortunately when she did a search, she saw that all of the best keyword .tel names relating to her primary business were taken. Lucky for her though I pre-ordered the category killer dot tel for her business. It was one of the 2 of 10 pre orders that I landed. She was extremely happy about that one

This is completely anecdotal of course, but if the extension "clicks" with other business people/entrepreneurs the same way, .tel could have a future.

 

[TargetNames]

Three geos currently in active auction on Sedo:

Sabadell: 200 EUR
Ohio: $1000 US
Maderas: 100 EUR


Note: None are mine

 

[phase111]

Carpet cleaner A buys a .tel and fills out the profile.

Carpet cleaner B buys a yellow pages ad.

Some company needs their office's carpets cleaned. Who is most likely to get a phone call from them, cleaner A or cleaner B?

IMPORTANT POINTS:

Dub Alot...The potential for .tel to become a phone book killer and to produce a lot of traffic for .tel domains primarily comes from the tel pages that Telnic will release later this year. I think the success of this will to some extent be decided on how well the tel pages is set up. One of the main drawbacks many naysayers see with .tel's being used as a bunch of paid directories, is that you might be looking for a carpet cleaner in New York, so you go to www.carpetcleaning.tel only to find that you get only carpet cleaners in Boston. This is where tel pages could be a great directory finder... hopefully they will have countries and cities specified and all .tel's that are specific to that locality would be displayed. If you ran say carpetcleaning.tel as a directory and listed both New York and Boston, then you should be able to display the same .tel domain in both regions within tel pages.
The question dub alot asks... how can you charge for a directory listing if there is no traffic, could be laid to rest because I can definitely see tel pages as being the yellow pages and white pages of the internet, that would bring in scores of visitors looking for everything you can imagine. As I perceive it, tel pages will be extremely well laid out as a search directory and this would return accurate information.
Although I haven't appreciated the tel pages potential fully, although I should have, this was actually my reason for registering carpetcleaning.tel when I did. I had the vision at that point of tel pages being the central hub for people to go to, I wasnt even thinking about google and seo. Truth is, we wont need to worry much about google rankings with tel pages in the future.
If I could rep myself for this hugely important post, I would, lol. It's just something that hasn't been discussed much before in depth that I can remember, probably because it's not available just yet, but I hope the telnic guys put a lot of effort into making tel pages a very well thought out geo based directory for all our .tels.
JKust as people go to one place (ebay for example) for everything to buy at auction, so they will go to tel pages for everything retail, business and service related... it's a no-brainer folks. I love Telnic for this invention, bring it on baby!

:imho:

 

[Steven]

IMPORTANT POINTS:

Dub Alot...The potential for .tel to become a phone book killer and to produce a lot of traffic for .tel domains primarily comes from the tel pages that Telnic will release later this year. I think the success of this will to some extent be decided on how well the tel pages is set up. One of the main drawbacks many naysayers see with .tel's being used as a bunch of paid directories, is that you might be looking for a carpet cleaner in New York, so you go to www.carpetcleaning.tel only to find that you get only carpet cleaners in Boston. This is where tel pages could be a great directory finder... hopefully they will have countries and cities specified and all .tel's that are specific to that locality would be displayed. If you ran say carpetcleaning.tel as a directory and listed both New York and Boston, then you should be able to display the same .tel domain in both regions within tel pages.
The question dub alot asks... how can you charge for a directory listing if there is no traffic, could be laid to rest because I can definitely see tel pages as being the yellow pages and white pages of the internet, that would bring in scores of visitors looking for everything you can imagine. As I perceive it, tel pages will be extremely well laid out as a search directory and this would return accurate information.
Although I haven't appreciated the tel pages potential fully, although I should have, this was actually my reason for registering carpetcleaning.tel when I did. I had the vision at that point of tel pages being the central hub for people to go to, I wasnt even thinking about google and seo. Truth is, we wont need to worry much about google rankings with tel pages in the future.
If I could rep myself for this hugely important post, I would, lol. It's just something that hasn't been discussed much before in depth that I can remember, probably because it's not available just yet, but I hope the telnic guys put a lot of effort into making tel pages a very well thought out geo based directory for all our .tels.
JKust as people go to one place (ebay for example) for everything to buy at auction, so they will go to tel pages for everything retail, business and service related... it's a no-brainer folks. I love Telnic for this invention, bring it on baby!

:imho:

I think Google Voice is way ahead of the game in terms of all the features you've listed and the market.

 

[phase111]

I think Google Voice is way ahead of the game in terms of all the features you've listed and the market.

Hahaha, are you serious?
:lol:
Actually google voice might make a nice addition as a communication point within a .tel soon.

 

[RicoShay]

Just thought I would share a recent experience of mine. Yesterday I got a call from a family member that has been a self-employed entrepreneur for more than 2 decades. I sent her the links to the .tel videos (the ben.tel and real estate videos) to see what her reaction would be, one way or the other.

I explained that you can't develop a .tel in a "traditional sense" and its primary purpose was for maintaining contact information. I didn't try and "sell" the extension, because to be honest I'm not as fired up about it as a lot of people here and I really just wanted to see what the response would be from a business woman that I respect and who's opinion I value. The first response, "this could be the yellow pages of the future". She then went on to purchase 10 .tel names. Some for brand protection and some for business/personal use. She even bought a "City"Realty.tel name for her daughter who is a Realtor. Unfortunately when she did a search, she saw that all of the best keyword .tel names relating to her primary business were taken. Lucky for her though I pre-ordered the category killer dot tel for her business. It was one of the 2 of 10 pre orders that I landed. She was extremely happy about that one

This is completely anecdotal of course, but if the extension "clicks" with other business people/entrepreneurs the same way, .tel could have a future.

I have a client who I've been working with developing a site. She is the head of an international property management company - her company name is very obscure yet in the past she registered quite a few top tld's for brand protection...

I thought I'd mention .tel and also sent her those links. Her response was exactly the same - although shes not exactly "internet/domain savvy" - she also thinks this could be the next yellow pages. And just like your aunt, this business lady went ahead and registered about 5-6 names relating to her business.

Personally, I only have 8 names in total. Just testing the waters so to speak. I do see some potential in it and if everything works out like how people are imagining it would - then there is a big future for this extension. However, I'd still like to see how things pan out before I invest any further.

Lots of interesting topics / discussions in here btw.
Good to see.

 

[phase111]

I have a client who I've been working with developing a site. She is the head of an international property management company - her company name is very obscure yet in the past she registered quite a few top tld's for brand protection...

I thought I'd mention .tel and also sent her those links. Her response was exactly the same - although shes not exactly "internet/domain savvy" - she also thinks this could be the next yellow pages. And just like your aunt, this business lady went ahead and registered about 5-6 names relating to her business.

Personally, I only have 8 names in total. Just testing the waters so to speak. I do see some potential in it and if everything works out like how people are imagining it would - then there is a big future for this extension. However, I'd still like to see how things pan out before I invest any further.

Lots of interesting topics / discussions in here btw.
Good to see.

Yep, I just spoke to another acquaintance the other day via email and just briefly mentioned he should check out this cool sexy vid and sent him to the telnic website to see the video. He is starting a hypnosis business and has already bought a .tel related to his business name, I didn't even know he'd registered anything until a couple days later... again, without much effort or words spoken, he could see how this would be a great idea. :sold:

 

[Ms Domainer]

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Work in Progress,

I don't mind responding to your concerns because you do raise some good issues and you discuss them in an intelligent manner.



It's good to be able to "debate" (is that the right word?) with people who don't come on this thread with the attitude that they want .tel to fail.

You just seem to want telsters (and future telsters) to consider the pros and cons of .tel, which (IMO) is valid and appreciated.

Anyway, here's my take:

Keep in mind that GA has been in effect for only about a month, so it's unrealistic to expect everything to be up and running. All my sites are live, but some just barely as I work to populate them. I will get to them, though. It does not help the TLD to have a bunch of dead or lame sites with Domainmonster's contact info.

The good news: 162,000 .tel sites have been indexed by Google, which I think is amazing at this early date.

It's also unrealistic to expect .tels, even generic premiums, to rank high, at least at the beginning. Google doesn't work that way; search engines overall reward longevity.

I do think Google (and other search engines) will handle .tel a little bit differently and recognize that .tel isn't a rich content platform and reward sites based on reliability (as a direct landing spot), given that a lander does not have to worry about dowloaders, malware, Trojan Horses, etc. (links within tel are another matter, and I would not be surprised if the search engines eventually develop algorithms to sniff these out).

Also, Telnic is going to roll out Telpages later this year, which will make a huge impact on indexing.

I'm not saying that .tel will be the Goliath who will slay the Yellow Pages, but I do believe the potential is there to compete with it. I've been around long enough to see the demise or diminishment of businesses that were long considered to be "untouchable," such as Montgomery Wards (gone) and the pwerhouse Sears (a shadow of its former self). Even IBM has never fully recovered from the PC/dot-com revolution. And Apple has had to change course when they missed out (in the early years) on creating software fast enough for their computers, and Bill Gates swooped in (albeit with buggy programs ).

Typically, a company's downfall begins with complacency and looking elsewhere while someone else quietly builds a better mouse trap. I'm not saying that Yellow Pages is complacent or looking the other way because I don't know. In any case, YP should keep an eye on .tel and other directory companies, even if they look pipsqueaky today.

Finally, it took the internet itself years to gain traction; businesses were slow to embrace their internet presence, and business people debated whether money could even be made on the internet. If .tel becomes an overnight success, I'll be surprised. But I like the indications so far: open source development of apps for mobiles and sites like promoting.tel. And it's still EARLY in .tel's live life. We are already seeing some possibilities for monetization. They may not be the traditional way of monetizing, but it will evolve.

I'm in this for the long haul--I see exciting times ahead.



Thanks for your thoughts.


*

No problem...


I still haven't seen what I believe to be a practical way to monetize a domain that can't be developed. This is still the main factor I have chosen to stay away from the speculation. You can't develop it nor can you park it, nor can you stick ads on it. That leaves little else than relying on selling links, IMHO.

The water's way too murky and shallow for this guy.

To me, if I want to go to a directory (such as yellowpages), I'd expect to be able to find info regarding anything at a one stop place. That is something I might bookmark and revisit.

Having to visit separate, particular, sites designated to a specific area to get this same information just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If .tel were a well recognized brand, I might visit towtruck.tel should I break down. What would that get me? No contact info, but a link to a full blown website that wouldn't show up very well on my "Joe Lunchbucket" mobile. If I were to be fortunate enough to have a smartphone and could read the phone number, how would a local towing company in California help me in Florida? How much time and effort will someone put into trying to sell this unknown concept to businesses and how long will it take before potential market breakthrough?

I see this as possibly many years or renewals, again, with no good way to even break even on fee's.

Now, on the other hand, had I visited the mobile version of yellowpages.com and entered "tow truck" with my zip code, I'd get &id=single_search_result&c=5866]this (link is not fully functional due to brackets within). As a consumer, which would I be more likely to revisit or bookmark?

Are the Yellowpage listings pricey? Sure can be. But businesses pay for them because they work. They have worked for decades. They bring TRAFFIC and results. Any "new kid on the block" would have a hard time going up against established, well anchored brands such as this.

If .tel has any chance to succeed, it has to rely on everyone building out their little site to it's fullest extent, which is limiting in itself, IMHO. Some .tel's are set up pretty nicely, but many are not. But, again, even the ones that have the effort behind them are likely to find themselves in the hole due to lack of monetization choices. I'd say you'd pretty much have to just about offer free listings at first. You'll most likely have to prove your delivering the goods (traffic) before you can charge fee's. Once you prove yourself (see yellowpages), you can charge for your efforts.

Again, not trying to rain on the .tel parade. Just throwing out my observations and thoughts. I hope I'm wrong and you all prosper, as I always root for the underdog (well known long time Bengals fan).

 

[Steven]

Hahaha, are you serious?
:lol:
Actually google voice might make a nice addition as a communication point within a .tel soon.

Hahaha, yes

Google 411:
http://www.google.com/goog411/

Call Goog411, say the business that you're looking for and the location where it's at, and you're connected

Google Voice:

Check out GOOG-411 where you just "say" the name of the business on the phone and the location of it and you get connected to that business for free.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whc9...ogle.com/voice/about#&feature=player_embedded

Also, Mobile Site link where you can do pretty much everything that a .tel does.
Update your contact information online and view other people's contact information through your phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tw5...ogle.com/voice/about#&feature=player_embedded

Also phone transcription
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/here-comes-google-voice.html

More features at
http://www.google.com/voice/about

Google latitude:
http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html

Kind of like GPS tracking of where you are and where your friends are at as long as they have Google latitude on their phone.

 

[lexisdomains]

Where's the money?

"Have you heard about the benefits of snakeoil.tel yet? For my low price of $600 you can..."

Thanks. I'm sure everyone here really appreciates your euphemism !

I've always wanted to own SnakeOil.tel?.......

Has anyone here made even 1 cent off their .tel's besides flipping them?

I must give you credit for at least keeping .Tel enthusiast honest & realistic in their views.

What's is the potential of (.Tel) Mobile Marketing?

Mobile Marketing is one of the most promising media markets advancing among progressive businesses.

Consider, for example, what the Nielsen-Online stated in regards to SMS trends: “There are currently 75 billion text messages sent per month just in the United States. That’s more texts than phone calls.”

But, like you, I believe that the 'real money' to be made in .Tel will be in the mobile market and not online. But, in principal, these two networks will work together instead as separate.

Where' the money?

Monetization of .Tel will more than likely happen through map based/location aware API's similar to Google Latitude.

With this type of API, .Tel PPC Ads could be implemented in the Maps section, only showing relevant, GEO based business results, key to your location.

Let's test how this feature may work:


1. Please go to Google Maps
2. Type in a business keyword: Pizza, Insurance, Loans, Cars, etc.
3. Look at the bottom tab of the Map and tell me what you see?


Yep, you will see an Ad of a business, relevant to your keyword search & location (GEO) Perhaps,



Please post your results(no urls please),

I typed in the keyword, Pizza and Google Maps returned an Ad for "Pizza Hut".



Lend us your participation,
LexisDomains

 

[Traveler]

I'm going to have a little fun here, the .tel is the Susan Boyle of domain name extensions. It is not pretty at first but once it starts to sing, everyone falls in love.

 

[Ms Domainer]

Thanks. I'm sure everyone here really appreciates your euphemism !

I've always wanted to own SnakeOil.tel?.......





I must give you credit for at least keeping .Tel enthusiast honest & realistic in their views.

What's is the potential of (.Tel) Mobile Marketing?

Mobile Marketing is one of the most promising media markets advancing among progressive businesses.

Consider, for example, what the Nielsen-Online stated in regards to SMS trends: “There are currently 75 billion text messages sent per month just in the United States. That’s more texts than phone calls.”

But, like you, I believe that the 'real money' to be made in .Tel will be in the mobile market and not online. But, in principal, these two networks will work together instead as separate.

Where' the money?

Monetization of .Tel will more than likely happen through map based/location aware API's similar to Google Latitude.

With this type of API, .Tel PPC Ads could be implemented in the Maps section, only showing relevant, GEO based business results, key to your location.

Let's test how this feature may work:


1. Please go to Google Maps
2. Type in a business keyword: Pizza, Insurance, Loans, Cars, etc.
3. Look at the bottom tab of the Map and tell me what you see?


Yep, you will see an Ad of a business, relevant to your keyword search & location (GEO) Perhaps,



Please post your results(no urls please),

I typed in the keyword, Pizza and Google Maps returned an Ad for "Pizza Hut".



Lend us your participation,
LexisDomains

*

With Skype, Net2Phone, and, yes, Google Voice, the merging of the mobile and web has already begun.

Most new mobile phones are now internet-enabled, and given the short life of mobile phones, it won't be long until non-net phones will be obsolete and not even supported anymore.

For the transitional crowd (mostly those who are afraid and leery of computers and mobile phones and still want the comfort of a landline phone), about ages 45 - ???, you will soon see internet-enabled landline phones, complete with easy-interface screens, virtual Qwerty keyboards, and voice recognition features (while retaining the familiar handset numeric keypad). In fact, Verizon is already offering such a device.

Yep. The landline phone, as we know it, will soon leave the building.

Eventually, the LL phone will leave the building altogether.

I would say that .tel has come along at just the right moment.


*

 

[phase111]

Hahaha, yes

Google 411:
http://www.google.com/goog411/

Call Goog411, say the business that you're looking for and the location where it's at, and you're connected

Google Voice:

Check out GOOG-411 where you just "say" the name of the business on the phone and the location of it and you get connected to that business for free.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whc9...ogle.com/voice/about#&feature=player_embedded

Also, Mobile Site link where you can do pretty much everything that a .tel does.
Update your contact information online and view other people's contact information through your phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tw5...ogle.com/voice/about#&feature=player_embedded

Also phone transcription
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/here-comes-google-voice.html

More features at
http://www.google.com/voice/about

Google latitude:
http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html

Kind of like GPS tracking of where you are and where your friends are at as long as they have Google latitude on their phone.

You sound like you work for google, lol. It might turn out to have great advantages for sure, but as I said, it might make a good contact within a .tel domain.