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?

 

[Tia Wood]

It took 10-12 years (from 1985) for .com to take off; at first, no one knew what to do with the internet or how to monetize it. In fact, if I recall correctly, there were purists out there who felt that the internet should not be commercial at all. It WILL take a while for .tel, and it WILL take a major investment by another company and lots of advertising. Or something very clever that will send .tel into going viral (perhaps a bit like winning the lottery).

You are comparing apples to oranges. Dot com was the beginning of a digital revolution. Comparing the two as a pro-tel argument is irrelevant.

I hope for the telsters that it isn't a bit like winning the lottery. .tel was puffed up as something that would change the way we communicate. Over a year later, I haven't noticed much happening for .tel nor hear a word of it breathed by regular users which is what it needs (what happened to the Myspace promo??). It took 10-12 years for .com to take off? That is so 1980s. Let's live in 2010 and see what .tel can do. Otherwise you guys are better off with a .mobi.

 

[Jeff]

Hello old fella, how's things?

:hi:

Good to see you, my old friend! :p

Don't want you to miss the opportunity and I hope nobody else sees this before you have time to act -but---- HighlyBrandable.tel IS available. :p

:lol:

PS. Hi Steven! :tu:

Best,
Jeff

 

[Ms Domainer]

You are comparing apples to oranges. Dot com was the beginning of a digital revolution. Comparing the two as a pro-tel argument is irrelevant.

I hope for the telsters that it isn't a bit like winning the lottery. .tel was puffed up as something that would change the way we communicate. Over a year later, I haven't noticed much happening for .tel nor hear a word of it breathed by regular users which is what it needs (what happened to the Myspace promo??). It took 10-12 years for .com to take off? That is so 1980s. Let's live in 2010 and see what .tel can do. Otherwise you guys are better off with a .mobi.

*

Or maybe like the wildfire .im TLD?




*

 

[Tia Wood]

Or maybe like the wildfire .im TLD?

I like .im because I have actually tested it and seen results with my own eyes (within months, not years). .Tel is so limited by what can be done with it. The only chance it has is to be accepted by normal users (non-domainers) and I haven't seen that yet. Didn't they start a campaign with Myspace about a year ago? What happened with that?

 

[WordWalker]

My $.02:

ShamWow® didn't reach critical mass on it's own.

Neither did any of THESE products.

I never thought, "If only someone would create a synthetic towel that can clean up huge spills and dry my car, my life will have been worth living!" Somebody willed ShamWow® into my awareness. As a result, I now have an open case in the garage (and this GRILL in my kitchen).

If the underlying DOT Tel business model was predicated on doing little or nothing and making as much money as possible, then Dub, you might have been correct in your assessment. But with determination and brute force marketing, it is possible to orchestrate the formation of a critical mass. Madison Avenue is replete with EXAMPLES.

In 2002 my wife decided to market a few pieces of jewelry she designed. The challenge was to find a way to distinguish her jewelry from the millions of other jewelry products available in retail stores and online. When Debra would talk about the possibility of celebrities wearing her designs as a means of promotion, there were plenty of doubters. That didn't stop her from moving forward with her plans:

DebraShepard.com

Telnic has certainly demonstrated it's willingness to get the job done. Give it time.

 

[Tia Wood]

In 2002 my wife decided to market a few pieces of jewelry she designed. The challenge was to find a way to distinguish her jewelry from the millions of other jewelry products available in retail stores and online. When Debra would talk about the possibility of celebrities wearing her designs as a means of promotion, there were plenty of doubters. That didn't stop her from moving forward with her plans:

DebraShepard.com

Awesome story! Congratulations to you guys.

Checking out the site now. Seeing stuff I like.

 

[siga]

Quick Update,

The new .tel Proxy is currently rolling out.

From what I noticed you can change colour schemes,
Add Gratars, or add your own seperately hosted image.

Example being Justin.tel with image and simple colour layout.

 

[spline]

I spoke yesterday with the marketing director of one of the biggest nordic fastfood chains about .tel they are really huge!

I acctually told him that I often want to call one of their fastfood places to prepare my order but I often have trouble finding the right phone nr and told him about .tel. after a while he got very excited and hinted that they might even use in coming TV commercials later this or the coming year.

I have the name of a music Tv show where people can call and wote, thats seen by 2-3 million people its swedens biggest TV program and next year and since I can get in touch with the producer of the show, I´m going to make sure they promote the .tel on their show this time next year

If these two things happen then everyone in Sweden will know what .tel is...

All it takes is that one big TVshows use .tel, one big company use it in their commercial for everyone to know about it. These things can change the popularity of .tel in a country overnight.

Telnic is constantly showing that they are very serious about the success of .tel I have a hard time seeing it fail in the coming years.

 

[Ms Domainer]

My $.02:

ShamWow® didn't reach critical mass on it's own.

Neither did any of THESE products.

I never thought, "If only someone would create a synthetic towel that can clean up huge spills and dry my car, my life will have been worth living!" Somebody willed ShamWow® into my awareness. As a result, I now have an open case in the garage (and this GRILL in my kitchen).

If the underlying DOT Tel business model was predicated on doing little or nothing and making as much money as possible, then Dub, you might have been correct in your assessment. But with determination and brute force marketing, it is possible to orchestrate the formation of a critical mass. Madison Avenue is replete with EXAMPLES.

In 2002 my wife decided to market a few pieces of jewelry she designed. The challenge was to find a way to distinguish her jewelry from the millions of other jewelry products available in retail stores and online. When Debra would talk about the possibility of celebrities wearing her designs as a means of promotion, there were plenty of doubters. That didn't stop her from moving forward with her plans:

DebraShepard.com

Telnic has certainly demonstrated it's willingness to get the job done. Give it time.

*

Wow! I have heard of this site.

I have to check it out.

Good for your wife--I love a great success story.

:bingo:

I'm a big jool fan and rockhound, and I'm going ape crazy here in Macedonia because lovely rocks in just about any color are everywhere in the city, now some adorning my flat. Can't wait to get into the mountains for some of the sparkly mica specimens...

tiawood, sorry that I was so snarky--I should never post when I'm tired. I even have a few .im domains, all having to do with instant messaging, but I just don't see a global future for it, unless some company like twitter, facebook, or myspace buys into it...sorry, I'm way off track here. Just saying that I shouldn't have dissed .im here.

From what I can gather from your site, you do a lot of SEO work--correct me if I'm wrong--which is helpful in getting a site ranked. For those of us who are, uh, SEO challenged, .tel is a great opportunity to own some premium names in a GLOBAL TLD.

Regarding the beginnings of .com: I was a young adult back then, and the news stories about what they called "The New Media" pretty much pooh-poohed the notion of ordinary people doing online searches. Anyone old enough to remember Dialog? What fun that was--all dial up! Our library offered Dialog searches for faculty, but you had to go through a gatekeeper who gave you grief (and sloppy searches) if she didn't like you (She was my boss and didn't like a lot of people lol).

Also, I used to teach journalism, and I recently ran across my old textbook, dated 1996. The New Media is mentioned, but not one peep about URLs and domain-based sites. The authors talked about interactive media, but it seemed to be the mileu of newspapers (dial-up service for reporters to submit stories and photos) and special beta TV technology for "shopping," which required a special wired controller). So from circa 1985 (First domain: Symbolics [dot] com), to, say about 1994 (given that textbooks seem to lose shelf life the minute they hit the market), there was not much action on the internet. Mosaic (1993-1997) slowly changed all that, of course, but it was a new technology that was the precursor for Netscape and Explorer and everything else. And you needed a Mac or Windows to access it, and most people I know still used MS-DOS back then. But before the browser, the net was the domain of serious tech heads who knew intricate codes and programming. I think I accessed Mosaic once, but through my library's computer--I was both awed and scared. I knew that this was huge, but I didn't know HOW it would fit into MY life and the way I would do research (in 1991-1992, I wrote a major article on an author--eventually published in a major reference series--and I did my research through Microfilm, books, and interlibrary loan. NO computers--one Dialog search because my then ex-boss still liked me :D ).

My first browser was Netscape. My point is, no matter how earth-shaking and game-changing, a technology like the internet still took years to catch on. I was doing research for a book and stumbled across a 1969 NYT article about some tech guy from Bell Labs who predicted the internet and how fiber optics would play a major role in delivering packets of data through phone lines to linked computers. I'm sure that all the naysayers in 1969 were lol over that one.

I do think there is a future for .tel. It may not be what it is now--I think it could evolve into something spectacular, perhaps a telecommunications technology we have yet to hear about. "Tel" is a universal abbreviation and just too good and too intuitive to fizzle out. Just about everyone in the world understands what tel means. Here in Macedonia, tel is the same word in Macedonian (in cyrillic: ТЕЛ).

.com, on the other, was, at first, a hard sell. What did it mean? Communications? At the time "commercial" seemed a stretch. Actually, I think .net came very close to becoming the gold standard, but, of course, it didn't. Of course, .com is still king and will remain king for a long time to come, but I do think that there is a good, solid future for .tel.

Sooner or later, large investors and users will take notice.

For the record, I am NOT a pumper and dumper. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm in this for the long haul.

Peace to all!

*

 

[DubDubDubDot]

If the underlying DOT Tel business model was predicated on doing little or nothing and making as much money as possible, then Dub, you might have been correct in your assessment.

Isn't that the case for all registries? Historically they have done very minimal end user marketing. It's always been up to the registrars to sell the domains, and .tel isn't even available at the dominant registrar.

But with determination and brute force marketing, it is possible to orchestrate the formation of a critical mass.

Care to give a dollar cost estimate of accomplishing this brute force acceptance? Does .tel have that kind of money?

 

[gilescoley]

Bev.tel is for sale in the auction section if anyone is looking for nice short first name .tel

 

[dobidder]

Yes, you can personalize your .tel. Very nice!!

Quick Update,

The new .tel Proxy is currently rolling out.

From what I noticed you can change colour schemes,
Add Gratars, or add your own seperately hosted image.

Example being Justin.tel with image and simple colour layout.

 

[jagdotme]

@dobidder your sig don't work...


anyone using Adsence yet?? on a .tel site

 

[Kate]

Didn't they start a campaign with Myspace about a year ago? What happened with that?

Good question.

 

[tkstark]

Quick Update,

The new .tel Proxy is currently rolling out.

From what I noticed you can change colour schemes,
Add Gratars, or add your own seperately hosted image.

Example being Justin.tel with image and simple colour layout.

Thanks for the heads up. I just customized the colors on one of mine and added a photo.

Doesn't look like all of the customizable features are in evidence yet, which I suppose is why there aren't horns blaring and flags waving to attract everyone's attention to the changes.

 

[JLouisBiz]

Search Box and "Learn More" Links Are Unapproved Advertising

I would like to inform people here, that I have sent TELNIC a notice for removal of SEARCH BOX and "LEARN MORE" links, as those are unapproved and illegal advertising methods.

Since 4th March 2010, TELNIC, has published their unapproved advertising on our domains:

* Search Box, leads to telpages.com - was not bought nor ever agreed upon when we have purchased TEL domains. The search is misleading and takes our clients away from our page. We don't need ANY search on our TEL domains. TELNIC shall give option to domain owner to REMOVE COMPLETELY THE SEARCH BOX. And we don't wanna be your beta testers. It is removed as of now, but don't want it in future.

* The link "LEARN MORE" is misleading and was placed on our TEL domains without approval, consent, nor agreement upon purchase of TEL domains from registrar. TELNIC is third party for me in regards to advertising on our TEL domains. We have bought domains with their logo, and we agreed on display of the logo, but not on display of any link leading to third party companies.

TELNIC LTD is British. British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing, clearly says following:

Denigration and unfair advantage
...
Marketers should not take unfair advantage of the reputation of trade marks, trade names or other distinguishing marks of organisations or of the designation of origin of competing products.

By placing their links, decided unilaterally by TELNIC, they mess with our search engine ranking, as Google and other search engines value the favoring of third party links, and TELNIC is forcing favoring through US to TELNIC.ORG domain, which is not true.

We are advertising our business, pay for advertising and TELNIC is using unfair advantage of the reputation of our trade marks, such as THETABIZ™.

The rule I am referring to is clearly shown here:
CAP - CAP Code Item

Placement of a link on our TEL domain is US $100 per page, for 30 days block, that is current price for the link, and we expect that links "LEARN MORE" and SEARCH boxes are removed from our 150+ domains -- or that option is given that users may decide themselves to show that or not to show, and by DEFAULT not to be shown on our domains. We are not spending time to remove your advertising from our domains. Any such time spent will be counted toward our hourly rate of work and billed to TELNIC LTD.

From the Code of Advertising:

Unfair marketing communications

Marketing communications are unfair if they

• are contrary to the requirements of professional diligence and

• are likely to materially distort the economic behaviour of consumers in relation to the advertised goods or services.
“Professional diligence” is the standard of special skill and care which a trader may reasonably be expected to exercise towards consumers, commensurate with honest market practice and/or the general principle of good faith in the trader’s field of activity.

"LEARN MORE" -- and SEARCH BOX are distorting the economic behaviour of our consumers.

And:

Misleading marketing communications

Marketing communications are misleading if they
• are likely to deceive consumers and

• are likely to cause consumers to take transactional decisions that they would not otherwise have taken.

A “transactional decision” is any decision taken by a consumer, whether it is to act or to refrain from acting, concerning whether, how and on what terms to purchase, make payment in whole or in part for, retain or dispose of a product or whether, how and on what terms to exercise a contractual right in relation to a product.

Marketing communications can deceive consumers by ambiguity, through presentation or by omitting important information that consumers need to make an informed transactional decision, as well as by including false information.

And by placing "SEARCH BOX" and "LEARN MORE" links, unilaterally decided by TELNIC LTD, without our consent, without our permission, TELNIC LTD is making misleading communication, and we ask for BOTH options to be removed permanently from all of our TEL domains.

If anyone comes to our company, they come to THETABIZ S.A. and I certainly don't want any clients to "SEARCH" and get wrong, none, or misleading results, ending up on the TELPAGES.COM domain belonging to third party. Further, I don't wish any of clients by mistake or by misunderstanding to "LEARN MORE" about our company THETABIZ S.A. on the TELNIC.ORG domain, which is misleading, and diverting possible decisions of our clients.

Reference to the code:
CAP - CAP Code Item

I request removal from our TEL domains, forever, the SEARCH BOX, and "LEARN MORE", and we prohibit placement of any third party links on our TEL domains without our approval, without our consent, without a contract in place, and without implied approval, consent or contract, and without payment subject to such approval, consent or contract.
--------------

We have complained to Advertising Standards Authority in UK, ICANN and will complain until that matter is solved.

If you feel you are affected by the above advertising, complain and ask for removal of TELNIC links from the own, private TEL domain.

Source: Search Box and "Learn More" Links Are Unapproved Advertising, REQUEST TO TELNIC LTD AS OF 5TH MARCH 2010 TO REMOVE "SEARCH BOX" AND "LEARN MORE" LINK FROM OUR TEL DOMAINS
And: Search Box and "Learn More" Links Are Unapproved Advertising - .tel Community Forum

 

[hullswingerscom]

i think telnic are doing a good job they are listening to feedback and my tels work for me very well.
i have little time to build website and always changing my mobile numbers but with dot tel its easy.
i like the new changes ,but what i like the most is the fact they do listen.

 

[mis_chiff]

Other than .tel itself, who else is making money with their .tel?

 

[tel-buy.com]

.TEL Will Rule The World !

The More You See, The More You've Got To LOVE .tel !!!

telpurchase.tel

:hearts:


Who ISN'T making, and going to make, money with .tel ?

 

[DubDubDubDot]

I would like to inform people here, that I have sent TELNIC a notice for removal of SEARCH BOX and "LEARN MORE" links, as those are unapproved and illegal advertising methods.

If you don't like what's on a hosted template, then use something else. Just because you are paying for a service doesn't mean links related to the service won't still be there. You knew going into this that they have control over the template.