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.Tel sold thru a directory service such as YP If telnic could team up with online directory services such as Yellowpages and get them to offer .tel to their customers using their salesforce to market .tel it could become a great success. For example contact the swedish Eniro who is the directory service of Sweden and Denmark. They are in trouble and need to earn more money. Perhaps offer them one or half year exclusive .tel registering rights in Sweden or a better ROI per name. This would also mean that they would take in .tel into their directory search. Since they do not earn money from "normal" people this could be a way for them earn money from even non business people. .Tel has to be sold from more than domain registrars to tap into the market. When I have spoken to friends etc about .tel most are intimidated just by the word "register a domain name" it sounds very difficult and technical to them and they dont want to surf to an international site to get a domain name. It has to be simple to get a .tel name and it has to be represented by local companies like the chinese company. However getting adoption in china wont make it big in west since it wont get that much notice from west. |
Exactly. Most small businesses, especially those in the service sector, need a cheap and simple web presence. I just set up a .tel for a relative and she asked how much and I said 10 bucks per year. She couldn't believe it. She spends lots on a YP listing and gets no results. YP should be giving Tels away with each listing instead of their simpleton "web site", sometimes just a scanned image of the paper listing. This is the angle that Telnic needs to exploit in a very big way. Mark |
This is an important new direction for Telnic which I'm spearheading given my background and knowledge in the directory sector (previously SVP Yell.com). Last week, I attended the European Association of Directory Publishers (EADP) Congress in Venice, where directory publishers (including yellow pages directories) across Europe and beyond came together to review market opportunities. There was great interest in .tel as a value added offering as they transition their customers and revenues from print to online marketing propositions. These are the kind of relationships that we're focusing on currently to broaden the reach and take the .tel message deeper into the marketplace. We were also present at the BIA Kelsey DMS 10 yellow pages conference in Dallas which is a similar event for North American directory publishers. We will be actively pursuing opportunities in this sector for the remainder of this year and present in all other relevant events. I look forward to updating you more about our market development activity in the coming months. |
Inclusion in 'directory' with search results. That is simply the basis for what the technology should be. Including this result / partnering with search. That seems to be the tricky part. What does google think of a 'directory' that has search? Or yahoo! or bing? A nice 'sponsored results' type inclusion on google like: http://static.ow.ly/photos/normal/41go.jpg |
Ian, excellent informative post. I'm sure everyone here appreciates the effort and the thought that you and the team have put into into marketing .tel. Speaking for myself if there are any premium .tel names that would help showcase dottel to YP directories or help in any direction feel free to let me know. Spline/Mark/Jay good posts as well. Look forward to success with all of you. Regards- |
One other quick thought to mention, it was pointed out to me in another forum post: Telpages should emulate the look and feel of some other YP directories- NOT A COPY - but a display of the address phone number etc similar to YP.com would be fantastic and a sell to consumers. I'm sure this is already in the works, but I felt it was worth mentioning. |
Have you lot got shares in Yellow Pages? Why are you suggesting that .tels should be given away with a listing to directory services that are failing? We should be shouting about TelPages (even if Telnic are not). If the Policy, and marketing strategy is now to get into bed with the old guard, what does that say about confidence in the product? Or was rapid buy-out always the strategy? |
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YP give them away not Telnic. For every YP listing to a SMB, YP provides the .tel site, certainly free for first year. Then we capitalize on this by offering listings in localized tel directories. This creates huge buzz. Everybody wins. Mark[/size] |
Blunderer, it is not about a rapid buy-out strategy, it is about a natural fit with organisations with significant reach and sales teams into the SMB market and who are rapidly evolving into organisations that are the go-to advertising representatives for that market. This is certainly not the sole marketing tactic nor the overriding marketing strategy. It is about the ability for customers to buy in to .tel with the least amount of friction and benefit from them in the easiest way possible. This way, we can reach those SMBs who don't want a traditional domain space but do want to be found (and pay to be found) online. |
Justin, If you made it easier for me to populate my geo and keyword directories by providing an official upload tool, including the open authority facility, and provided a facility to sell individual .tel names off .tel sites, instead of giving a boost to .tel domain sales by the publishers of the OLD directories and, also, did more to promote TelPages, I might think you were supporting those that have been working towards the objective stated in your final sentence - using the .tel medium. What can you do with a geographic, or keyword .tel domain, other than build a directory on it? How will that compete with an established old-style directory that is now giving away the essence of the domain (comprehensive communication links and searchable keywords) free? For the past eighteen months I have been posting to this forum stating that I don't care what .tel looks like, and that I would rather have inherent functionality, and now, in the same newsletter, you crow about simplification of the control panel, and announce that the company strategy is to give away the crown jewells! Mark, I thought your business was facilitating the construction of directories on keyword .tel domains? Oh well, maybe I will just wait until yellow page directories are comprised of links to .tel domains and then just copy them. It seems to be a popular way to fill a site. |
Blunderer, there is a very big difference between giving away and bundling as a channel strategy. Additionally, there are now several third party tools available for free that enable bulk upload of information enabling you to populate your geo and regional .tel domains without providing your username and password. If we provided an official tool to do this, it would prevent the ecosystem around .tel from growing further. Mark's point is a valid one. It should afford individual businesses to get their .tel domain and then provide further the ability for them to network them under your geo and local domains, further enhancing their ability to be discovered, and reducing your need to maintain current contact information when it changes. I do not see the two business models as conflicting. Regards, Justin |
So, instead of trying to sell my local restaurant a listing on a geo .tel directory, I should suggest that they subsribe to yellow pages (for more than I would charge), obtain a free/buy a .tel domain from them, and then pay to link to my directory, which will contain the same info as the yellow page directory, and will have to compete with it on the major search engines, whilst being disadvantaged in terms of brand recognition? I thought we were going to outpace other directories, by promoting the .tel brand, not exist at their indulgence. |
You've actually just outlined why both business models don't compete there as there is still a market to address that don't work with IYPs already nor will they ever. There is room in the market for all sizes of players. Your locally-focused service and price point will be appealing because you are local. |
This is exactly what I predicted a year or more ago. The small niche directories will exist to serve their own purpose, however they are what they are. Small niche service. The real significance here, moving forward, is what Ian has in store. It's going to dramatically improve the playing field of .Tel by becoming ingrained with already existing directories as a technology service. This is the best news I've heard in months, and is perhaps a gateway toward being integrated with phone service providers directly if that's a goal. As for you niche players, I'll encourage you by saying that your ultimate survival depends entirely on the success of the big picture. Support it and focus on your niche interests. |
Very glad to hear you are working on this among other things! I believe that would be a win win situation for .tel and directory services since it would help spread the word about .tel to the masses much quicker than most of us here can and help gain mass adaption of .tels. Gaining mass adaption is one way to get .tel to be supported by phone manufacturers google call etc. |
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Ian, any chance of an update since it's been over 12 months since your post of 22 September 2010 above.. Thanks in anticipation. Mike Seaton[/size] |
YP and paper directories I commented on the YP Talk blog this week and unbeknownst to me, the publisher, Ken Clark, also has his very own .tel domain! Very good to see. Mark |
