The quality of .tel!

I assume most participants on this forum are players in the domain industry.
Let’s think hard before answering this question:
If you wouldn’t know the internet much and if you don’t have a website yet, what would you buy after some market research?
First you will find out your desirable .com is taken, but you want to keep the budget small.
What are your options now?
Perhaps .net and .org are available if you are lucky.
You will have the choice between thousands of new gTLD soon.
Creating a website under the known TLDs is so easy nowadays.
And then there is a very small TLD called .tel which offers you a complicated installing routine for pictures / videos and limitations en masse.
Seriously would you register a .tel?

Toptel wrote:Seriously would you register a .tel?

you can always find some inexperienced newbies falling for your product
but what will they do after the first year when they found out it brings them nothing?

Mad Max wrote:

Toptel wrote:Seriously would you register a .tel?

you can always find some inexperienced newbies falling for your product
but what will they do after the first year when they found out it brings them nothing?

What if Telnic was always only targeting those customers?

Most are no offence probably minor entrants in the domain industry, with a few mid range ones like mike seems to be, but I very much doubt high ranking domain industry resellers and flippers are here hiding under alternate names, and tel was never about camping and flipping domains though it was expected to happen as its become the template for every tld.

I'm not and never have been a player I've owned domains but they've been for a purpose other than flipping, extortion or auction, and the ones I've kept as I've moved on to another project hold history for me not in back links but in dreams of what I should have achieved.

.tel was only supposed to be a contact card, or a directory of contact information but it changed purpose by the people using it wanting to utilise it's database type structure to make listings of pretty much anything they think of, so tel (main proxy) is for people who have a driven purpose and know what they're doing to a degree, unless you understand who your target market is and information layouts and databases then you'll have a hard time knowing what links to put where, what data to get etc and you can't generalize tel to telnames simplicity so you're really referring to telnames which is one nice page and one simple app which has been sorted and now has 7,600+ domains and growing, so discussing about making tel for "simple people" is redundant to a degree.

But you're right the main control panel of the telnic proxy is an insult, but I did see where they were going at the time trying to include devs by not adding stuff so they could make cool things, but It didn't work out as only a few actually made anything of use so the control panel needs updating asap, as they've all ready upset developers and run off everything else I don't see a problem with adding functions people expect to use out of the box.

In fact I feel they promised us this new one they made which is now at telnames, that it would be the new version or at least it was implied and never delivered to us and from what i can see it seems they folded their development time that we paid for and waited for into telnames, which is kind of an insult to a degree however if the plan was to use telnames to as you've put above then I think it's in everyone's favor that the time spent on it was folded into a functional product for the end user.

And just like telnic not knowing what they were getting into the same goes for some people who buy regular old tel proxy domains which is why you see weird groupings of multiple domains, they don't understand the networking involved in order to get the information legally aka permission for the listings if you're listing GEO or anything you don't own, they don't know what they really want to a degree, they don't realise its time consuming without developing a system to use the API, they don't understand it takes effort and marketing, you cant just put up a directory and expect it to get thousands of hits without doing anything to promote it, so all in all the general tel needs its marketing changed to appeal to people who understand such data entry requirements, aka the admins of existing sites who have to manage information presentation on a daily basis.

So yes I would buy and have bought more normal proxy tels, but I know what I know because I've been here and tried almost everything, someone else may still buy a tel and know what they're doing but more than a few don't know what they're getting into, but that's always depent on their intent.

No matter what we imagine that telnic doesn't listen to us I think if you see what I said above about these things being time consuming, the issues over legal acquisition of data as per the TLDs rules of ownership and operation.

Telnames is a great step forward because it provides hope and a frame work for legal data acquisition, look forward into Telnames possible future and you should be able to see it solves some of these issues those of us making directories have, and with further development's that link the proxies through the control panels with automated procedures we can essentially request data from global businesses and individuals without lifting a finger to contact them.

The Telnames control panel is geared to people who don't want to pull their hair out and don't have the time or the deep understanding of data collection etc, this leaves those of us still making directories a life line in that we can move forward in the same way without pulling our hair out to populate them with permission as started above without doing anything.

All it takes is a simple point of view, we need their data to build directories and Telnames allows them to deliver it to us and many other global services by using the most simple system developed. And it's my long term hope that when they come to roll out updates on the telnic control panel it will be based on the telnames control panel but provide directory builders with a linked architecture, so requesting automatic insertions of correct data is as simple as adding the map location, a category and picking from layout options, GEO etc. so we simply need to manage marketing and building our own apps or blogging or how ever it is we promote our directories to the correct bracket of customers that Telnames customers are looking for.

A perfect example is Groupon that provides businesses a way to get customers but it costs them money, Telnames has coupons for free which can be collected on an instant basis and placed in a GEO or specific directory tailored to a market segment for free, those can essentially be the best and cheapest way witout going through Groupon and other services to reviatalise our high streets at ground level.

The problem with small stores on the high street is they have to compete with larger chains and online offers etc, and sometimes cant be found but if you run a GEO directory or other of Telnames businesses you can essentially market it as a way to revitalise and support your local town, as browsing can refer people to offers they might not otherwise have found like Groupon does but local which is important for our economy and future but not just offers products they need.

If telnames was to provide behind the scenes sub domains that could be only accessed via api or internal to internal proxy transfer for listing products, that could be imported via XML or another text file or manually by the owner, then essentially its a simple frame work that direct people to more local stores for things they need rather than taking long journeys, using more fuel and adding more pollution to the environment plus they could get a better deal, all it takes is for a search for an item in a sub domain proxy to show via nearest location and cheapest price.

The same is true for market stalls that use coupons and offers it's a potential framework that could save our high streets and small businesses from ruin if you take a look at the potential larger picture.

And for people who are interested in selling them? this would be the perfect reason for a local council to spend money to acquire their GEO directory as I believe there was a 10million donation to I think the government that was to be spent on promoting local high street businesses and all they could come up with was pig costumes and something else, they only spent 9k or something I can't remember the full details but would it not be better to buy a directory and have all local business own a Telname? to automate the listings and have local towns and large councils promote it normally?

But all this is dependant on Telnic reading this and deciding to go for it, because if they don't tel maybe a success but directories will still be hard to build and time consuming for who ever wishes to try and we'll just be in the same situation where its an endless cycle of drops at least until word gets out .tel is too hard to build up.

You may have read this and thought I must be incompetent it's only links, well there's a lot more to it as it depends on what you want to do and who your market is, but I still have hope they'll simplify the old control panel to automate proxies to relieve and speed up the population and promotion of local businesses via directories of Telnames data.

Toptel wrote:Seriously would you register a .tel?

Threе yеars аgo I rеgistеrеd twо TELs fоr twо my friеnds - аnd gаvе thеm fоr frее, аs а gift.

Thе first friеnd, smаll businеssmаn, whо mаkеs tоmbstоnеs didn't usеd it аnd dislikеd it bеcаusе оf its glооmy lооk аnd аbsеncе оf picturеs. Aftеr twо yеаrs (I rеnеwеd thаt TEL) hе still nоt wаntеd it аnd I drоppеd it.

Thе sеcоnd friеnd, whо mаkеs mеtаl dооrs, sаid thаt hе did nоt nееd it.

Whеn prеsеnting my TEL tо thе third friеnd, whо is smаll businеssmаn аnd mаkеs аdvеrtising gооds likе visit cаrds еtc., sаid аlsо thаt hе dоn't likе hоw TEL lооks. аnd hе sаid thаt nоw .COM is gооd fоr lооking оn nеw smаll PC.

So, newbies and small businessmen whom I knew, didn't wanted TEL.

P.S.

TEL (with lоt оf subdоmаins) is gооd nоt fоr nеwbiеs, but fоr аdvаncеd intеrnеt usеrs whо аlrеаdy оwn thеir COM-sitе. Fоr thеm TEL (in thе fоrm оf а dеvеlоpеd dirеctоry) cоuld bе usеd аs а kind оf "bаnnеr", which brings аdditiоnаl trаffic tо thаt yоur COM-sitе.

Tеn dоllаrs fоr such "bаnnеr", which brings yоu sоmе аdditiоnаl trаffic аnd bеlоngs tо yоu (diffеrеntly frоm а bаnnеr plаcеd оn sоmеbоdy’s wеbsitе), is а gооd pricе.

As I аm cоnvincеd by my еxperience of fеw yеars with TЕL, thе "bаnnеr" аnd its usе fоr Adsеnsе аrе thе оnly prаcticаl аpplicаtiоns оf TEL.

All оthеr thеоrеticаl thоughts аnd idеаs аbоut it, likе "Wоrld dirеctоry", "singlе pоint оf cоntаcts", "rеplаcеmеnt оf numеric phоnе numbеrs" and еtc., аrе оnly the sales hooks - the nicе stоriеs, оf thе sаmе kind аs stоriеs, which аrе tоld in shоps, bаzааrs аnd mаrkеts by аll sеllеrs whо wаnt tо sеll thеir gооds.