Have any forum members used this massively-trafficked forum...

at http://www.WarriorForum.com ?

Haven't signed up personally yet - I can't afford the time for the next couple of weeks or so - but it does eeem very informative and if you look at the "Viewing" figures after each category heading they show WF has MASSIVE TRAFFIC !

Be interested to know if anyone has used http://www.WarriorForum.com and if so what you think of it ?

http://MikeSeaton.tel

PS. Anyone fancy starting some .tel threads at WF to help generate much-needed publicity for the .tel project ?

mikeseaton wrote:at http://www.WarriorForum.com ?

PS. Anyone fancy starting some .tel threads at WF to help generate much-needed publicity for the .tel project ?

If you do, don't forget to link to any relevant thread or post at TelTalk !

I find that when I tweet at http://twitter.com/mikeseaton with a link to TelTalk the number of Guests viewing this forum increases by between 20 and 50 - click and scroll to the bottom of http://www.teltalk.org to view visitor stats before and after any social media post to monitor the effect for yourself !

http://MikeSeaton.tel

Yes, I know WF well. But it's a pretty much no-holds barred commentary. Like Namepros it would result in some very negative statements about this extension. They will attack .tel because of the inability to add content and therefore be found in search.

Perhaps they would have some suggestions though on how to improve things. But Namepros was a complete disaster for .tel and it was also one of their most active ever threads. Nearly every experienced domainer was negative on .tel even before Landrush. I was a newbie at that time and fell for the slick marketing of .tel and ignored the advice of more experienced people to my everlasting regret.

In fact the only thing that has ever been done well in the life of .tel was the exceptional marketing effort before Landrush where they suckered so many newbies such as myself into investing in the extension. Brilliant marketing absolutely.

TelBlogger wrote:In fact the only thing that has ever been done well in the life of .tel was the exceptional marketing effort before Landrush where they suckered so many newbies such as myself into investing in the extension. Brilliant marketing absolutely.

This is happening again with Telnames.
Telnic did great marketing until after landrush and sold .tel only to newbies, because these have been the only customers able to convince.
After not enough newbies could be found anymore, Telnic stopped all activity in 2011.
Instead of developing the product to satisfy experienced user, Telnic started with Telnames a new product to attract more newbies through different channels (e.g. at the Business Startup expo).
But the problem with newbies is that these customers don’t stay newbies forever and will stop paying after 2 or 3 years after they have noticed if the bought product offers real value or not.
Take a look at the new blog entry from Telnames today:
Why it pays to be .tel ready!
After reading this I would seriously consider to buy a .tel as a newbie, because a newbie can’t find any indication that it’s impossible that a .tel from Telnames will ever get a visitor.
It’s nice to have a mobile website, but it’s completely useless as long nobody can find it.
A newbie will find out if he’s using Google Analytics for his .tel:
After one year he will start wondering why his .tel has no traffic.
After two years he will see this doesn’t change and hope things will improve.
Latest after three years he comes to the conclusion that he needs a website that can be found and will drop his .tel.

@TelBlogger, @Sunrise - interesting posts !

It's difficult to disagree with the argument that businesses need to have a mobile website to capitalise on the change in buying habits from desktop/laptop to smartphone, but there is one point that is being missed in all of this.

.TEL IS NOT A MOBILE WEBSITE (EVEN FROM TELNAMES) IN THE SENSE OF BEING A FULLY-FLEDGED SHOPPING EXPERIENCE.

A .tel domain does of course act as a Single Point Of Contact that links you to a .com etc which if coded to be device-respondent can perform the Shop & Pay functions from a smartphone.

http://MikeSeaton.tel

PS. By "fully-fledged shopping experience" I mean the ability to search for products, read detailed product information, add multiple products to a shopping trolley, and make payment. In other words, what customers are already used to doing.

mikeseaton wrote:A .tel domain does act as a Single Point Of Contact that links you to a .com etc which if coded to be device-respondent can perform the shop and pay function.

For the .com it's helpful if another domain links to it, but: Who or what links to a .tel?
What is a .tel good for if nobody can find it?

TelBlogger wrote:Nearly every experienced domainer was negative on .tel even before Landrush. I was a newbie at that time and fell for the slick marketing of .tel and ignored the advice of more experienced people to my everlasting regret.

@TelBlogger - we all make mistakes - some are more costly then others - but I wonder how many wish they had read this prophetic article back in 2008 before putting their hands in their pockets for .tel ?

http://MikeSeaton.tel