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?

 

[DubDubDubDot]

Don't think that directories are useless, that's what people though when entrepreneur like realestatedirectory.com bought all real estate dot com as he can for developping DIRECTORIES on it, just with these he make big earnings with listing from real estate agents and companies and ads.
This can be applied to .tel for pizza, hotels, taxis or any other generic .tel

Take a closer look at what RealEstateDirectory.com is doing. This is actually a parking operation. He is using hubs to funnel traffic into parked domains. I don't see any homes for sale, paid listings, agents or ads.

 

[mjbenterprises]

This weekends .tel reg: Johnstown.tel

I'm from PA, Johnstown is a fairly large city...

I figure the GEO tels have the most promise...I think .tel will be big at some point, but not in the very near future....

 

[igo]

What came first, the phone number or the phone book?

I think a lot of criticism of dot tel directories not being hugely successful is really missing the point. The purpose of dot tel is to provide a single point of contact. What is easier to remember - myname.tel or a 10-digit number?

 

[DubDubDubDot]

What is easier to remember - myname.tel or a 10-digit number?

How much of .tel's upside is riding on it becoming a phone number alternative?

IMO that is pretty much everything for .tel from a domaining standpoint, and the payoff in a best case scenario is at least 10-15 years away.

Some people in this thread say 1 year, others say 5 years. It's going to take longer than 5 years for "Call us at Attorney.tel" to appear in ads (and that is the level of usage that domainers will need for a big payoff).

The primary condition that will have to be met for this to even have a chance at happening will be the vast, vast, vast majority of phones supporting .tel "numbers". That includes landline phones and even payphones.

 

[tvdotcoms]

How much of .tel's upside is riding on it becoming a phone number alternative?

IMO that is pretty much everything for .tel from a domaining standpoint, and the payoff in a best case scenario is at least 10-15 years away.

Some people in this thread say 1 year, others say 5 years. It's going to take longer than 5 years for "Call us at Attorney.tel" to appear in ads (and that is the level of usage that domainers will need for a big payoff).

The primary condition that will have to be met for this to even have a chance at happening will be the vast, vast, vast majority of phones supporting .tel "numbers". That includes landline phones and even payphones.

AGREED!!

Great message posted by you. I hope some new investors will think of your advice before throwing the money down the Drain!

imo .tel was huge failure so far, dont know about the future.

 

[Steven]

What came first, the phone number or the phone book?

I think a lot of criticism of dot tel directories not being hugely successful is really missing the point. The purpose of dot tel is to provide a single point of contact. What is easier to remember - myname.tel or a 10-digit number?

I usually don't remember the phone number.

That's why I save the information to my cell phone.
(ex: Let's say that the number is 000-000-0000, I save it to my phone as "company1")

hmmm, I've done this since... more than a decade ago using my cell phone.

 

[cyberonyx]

hmmm, I've done this since... more than a decade ago using my cell phone.

dont lose THAT cell phone

 

[Steven]

dont lose THAT cell phone

The decade old nokia cell phone?
I threw that one away long time ago.

I buy a new cell phone every year.

 

[dotker]

Ive been using myname.tel for a while now and i find it better for my clients since i dont have a site up yet lol nor will i have the time to setup one right now.

 

[jacpar]

With or without my first name ?

If I have only one dot tel to buy between the 2 following, wich one is the best :
albertlastname.tel or lastname.tel ?
Please, comment.

 

[FrenchTel]

Lastname.tel

If I have only one dot tel to buy between the 2 following, wich one is the best :
albertlastname.tel or lastname.tel ?
Please, comment.

lastname.tel, no hesitation IMHO. Once you'll have lastname.tel, you will be able to create up to 3,000 subdomains, including albert.lastname.tel ...

 

[morganga]

If I have only one dot tel to buy between the 2 following, wich one is the best :
albertlastname.tel or lastname.tel ?
Please, comment.

I'd say lastname.tel was more versatile. You can use subdomains to store contact info for your whole family: albert.lastname.tel, john.lastname.tel, etc

I played it safe and regged both.

One downside of using lastname.tel is that currently, john.lastname.tel is not a fully independent entity; you cannot grant John admin rights to john.lastname.tel and only this subdomain.

In the same way that I don't think you can use john.lastname.tel as a username to login to the .tel apps. Superbook etc. (I don't have an iphone to check this out yet)

 

[igo]

Adoption in 5 - 10 years is a projection made with the same skeptical viewpoint of .tel that is the norm on this board. I agree that more devices need to support the .tel click to connect feature, but that is certainly not going to take that long to happen.

We also tend to overlook the fact that's it's not simply phone numbers listed there: it's every point of contact you want to give out. So, you might not have that much difficulty giving someone your phone number only, but what about fax number, skype, email, personal web sites or social sites, etc. etc. etc.

Most people here gloss over the fact that .tel is the first domain dedicated to communication. This will have an enormous adoption in the near future.

I personally don't feel the domain was meant for 'domainers' anyway. It's for every person, business, or organization to have an easy to remember, personal point of contact.

If posters on this forum don't like the domain, don't get one! The bashing is just another form of the silly negativity that pervades every aspect of business or social life today.

 

[davidwest]

Most people here gloss over the fact that .tel is the first domain dedicated to communication. This will have an enormous adoption in the near future.

I personally don't feel the domain was meant for 'domainers' anyway. It's for every person, business, or organization to have an easy to remember, personal point of contact.

If posters on this forum don't like the domain, don't get one! The bashing is just another form of the silly negativity that pervades every aspect of business or social life today.

i turned over all of my .tels to my wife and i am concentrating on developing our .com and other developable (not a word) domians.

dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices

many of those who have posted somewhat negative comments seem to have one thing in common... most of them have feedback points. ie--> they have been around for some time. they have seen, or more likely have invested in mobi. mobi was everthing that .tel is trying to be and more. i personally invested thousands. ( and lost thousands). there are some mobi's that are making money and returning their investment, but most are not.

HOWEVER-

.tel has ONE big advantage over mobi. people bought mobis and never developed them because they didnt know how. dot tel is simple to "populate" (vs/ develop) and this reason alone may help it to become accepted where mobi failed.

the second biggest cause of death for mobi was the iphone. not so much because iphone was able to browse the web but more because one button placed ".com" at the end of the domain name that you were typing.

imho- if you want .tel to get accepted and succeed-
populate your .tel
and
develop an ap or get apple to include a one button ".tel" on their iphone browser.

now i will go back to my dark dusty corner and try and get back to development before my wife sees that i posted in "her" area of our domains...

peace out-
:wave:

 

[Jawed]

i turned over all of my .tels to my wife ....................

Should we congratulate you on that or feel pity? :P

 

[Keith]

Any descent .tel aftermarket sales lately? I want to unload Missouri.tel ASAP
and need to price this right.

 

[bmugford]

Similar State.tel sales -

Ohio.tel - $1,000 4/24
Alaska.tel - $1,050 - 8/11

Missouri is certainly not as good as Ohio.

If you want to sell it you are looking at a price around $1,000 more than likely.

Brad

Any descent .tel aftermarket sales lately? I want to unload Missouri.tel ASAP
and need to price this right.

 

[plaggypig]

mobi was everthing that .tel is trying to be and more.

The comparison is a fairly superficial one; while both address issues of mobility, they are completely different problem spaces - .tel is about disseminating contact information, .mobi is for resolving websites designed for mobile devices.

.tel has ONE big advantage over mobi. people bought mobis and never developed them because they didnt know how. dot tel is simple to "populate" (vs/ develop) and this reason alone may help it to become accepted where mobi failed.

Good point. As adoption amongst individuals/businesses grows, the proportion of unpopulated .tel's will be reduced to a fraction of the namespace.

the second biggest cause of death for mobi was the iphone. not so much because iphone was able to browse the web but more because one button placed ".com" at the end of the domain name that you were typing.

The points you raise are not an issue for .tel, since you should only really be accessing .tel's via the web as a last resort There are two apps available on the iPhone already; Superbook (for looking up .tel contacts), and My .tel (for managing your .tel records).

 

[mjbenterprises]

IMO, now is not the time to be selling such GREAT geo .tels, but I don't know your financial situation...However, if .tel takes off in any way, Missouri.tel could be a gold mine....

I personally plan to renew my 20 or so .tels for 3-5 years, with no intention of selling any...For buyers of .tel, this is definitely the time to buy, I can't see US State GEOs getting any lower than this....

Any descent .tel aftermarket sales lately? I want to unload Missouri.tel ASAP
and need to price this right.

 

[Kate]

We also tend to overlook the fact that's it's not simply phone numbers listed there: it's every point of contact you want to give out. So, you might not have that much difficulty giving someone your phone number only, but what about fax number, skype, email, personal web sites or social sites, etc. etc. etc.

Problem is that .tel does just one thing: deliver contact information in a static, non-interactive way.
Customers can still find you if you don't have a .tel - you are simply consolidating your contact information in a single place.
Sorry, but I just don't believe in the lame monetization attempts, because there is no real added value service. For that reason I find it difficult to justify heavy investments into that TLD but good luck with your endeavors :imho: