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Will .tel eventually morph into a "normal" domain It pains me to write this post but I think it's a discussion worth having. In 2009 there was a large take up in .tel registrations, though usage and general interest simply wasn''t there. The marketing seems to be directed at people who buy domains rather than education people about their existence and benefits. I know Telnic hoped that the buzz would spread organically but hindsight has shown this not to be the case. Perhaps it's the restrictive nature of the domain, for good reason I know, but this has stopped people from spreading the word. Anyway, we are where we are. I know telnic will want to string this out for as long as possible, it's a good rev stream after all. I don't doubt that come next Jan / Feb telnic will reveal some new bells and whistles that give people the tiny bit of hope that 2011 will be the year of the .tel but I think this is morally wrong. I know some of the users of this forum have invested heavily, financially and in time spent, and are struggling to see any return for their investment. For telnic staff to repeat what they did this year and unveil the new look just before bulk of .tels come up for renewal, will be a little naughty to say the least. What difference has it actually made? Soooooo unless there's something completely radical coming up, like a massive marketing investment to the potential end user or a takeover by a major player, I can't see the point in renewing once again. I'm not blaming the telnic team, I'm just looking for some honesty going forward. Perhaps rather than crash and burn completely, maybe telnic work a plan that allows us to create a mini website in the .tel space. maybe restricted by size, but otherwise a fairly normal html site. I don't know. Maybe a bad idea, but drastic times require drastic measures. |
Thank you for your personal perspective Markbu but Telnic has no plans to morph .tel into a ‘normal’ domain. As you’re new to the forum, you may have missed the announcement a couple of weeks ago regarding changes to our marketing team. We are not in a position right now to articulate further our future plans but we can state that it is a key short- to mid-term priority to expand the awareness and adoption of .tel out into the market that will get most value from .tel due to its difference from, not similarity to, other TLDs. As this is a different type of domain, it doesn’t benefit from the existing awareness around traditional TLDs and as such we acknowledge that we have a significant task ahead of us to drive forward on awareness and usage. We do not however share your opinion regarding the situation as being desperate. Far from it. We’re sure that this debate will continue and that everyone is eager for .tel to be a success and we appreciate the frustration around the timescales to make this so. However, we remain committed to this objective and will inform the community as and when we can in terms of the realization of this. At the end of the day, no amount of money simply spent on awareness marketing by Telnic without the combined work of the community in populating and promoting their own domains will deliver this, so we appreciate the efforts from all of those .tel owners generating content. Regards, Justin |
Thank you Justin, It is always great to hear a little from Telnic. I am sure you can appreciate the emotions that we are all dealing with as it applies to our .tel plans. It was my first jump into domain development and I probably got caught up in the hype. I am pretty discouraged by the progress that we have seen but again, I have no history to go by. |
Hi Justin. Thanks for taking the time to reply. We invested in .tel because we also believed that the difference would make it successful, but this hasn't been the case and to be honest, we don't seem any closer to that success now than we were a year ago. My cynical head predicts your new marketing team making some announcements close to the big renewal period claiming that those will help turn the corner, but again come to nothing. You get domainmonster etc. claiming .co to be the latest greatest success story, just as .tel was 18 months ago. This may be lining the pockets of certain people but these things shouldn't be seen as a success until they're taken up by the mainstream. I know the future of the web is on mobile devices, but technology is moving on fast and before long the major networks will be offering more speed and data allowance than ever before, screens and interfaces are improving and the unique nature of .tel becomes less and less obvious. I know you've got a tough job on your hands and I'd love you guys to prove me wrong, but unless there's some strong indicators in the next few months, I can't see us renewing any of our .tels. |
For the dot tel, the most important thing is not what OAuth, dot tel poor function is the fatal, if dot tel would like to turn over, then it must focus on user experience, if the product is not good, what kind of promotion is also no effect, as a Yellow Pages product, you who know how it can be made of the Yellow Pages? 100 messages limit per page, all a domain can accommodate 3000 messages, a simple list style and can not customize the type of information,and the search function always show failure, I can not imagine how to promote such a product? I like the dot tel, and pay a lot of money and time for it, because his ideals are very good, but unfortunately, such a good idea, such a poor product and promotion. if anybody do not agree with me ,please show me a real success case. |
Markbu, you're perfectly entitled to your opinions. No one is arguing that .tel is mainstream - I don't believe anyone has. It takes time for things to become mainstream, as well as hard work, investment and a little luck. We've stated we're in this for the long term; it's up to you to decide whether that's something that you want to commit to and as I said we'll keep the community informed of our plans as and when we can. Lewisrx - When you say messages, are you talking about records? If so, yes it's 100 per page not including text records, but no, it's 300,000 records per domain, not 3,000, so there's a lot of room for information and another .tel listed underneath the first expands the storage exponentially (and helps with cross-indexation which leads to inbound and outbound link benefits). If you read the newsletters, you'll also see organisations with successful, revenue-generating business models from a modest investment. Generic and general statements are easily made, but look at talfen.tel, murman.tel or dialaroom.tel for success stories. Thanks Justin |
Justin,thanks for your answer. Although I think your products have some disadvantages, but I have to admit that your company has been very hard, and your team's attitude to customers are always enthusiastic, as a dot tel fans, I really hope you can Improve the product and have a good promotion, do not let those fans down. |
Thanks Lewisrx. We will continue to work for the success of the .tel community as a whole and appreciate the time taken to provide constructive feedback as always. |
The way I see it... .Tel is a new global standard by Icaan. .tel could be used by IP phones, mobile phones and soon the new dect standard without them first having to read a webpage! Since its the only domain that has this it will get implemented in cellphones, though this will probably take a couple of years. Because the information is direct in the DNS. The other big thing is that there are millions of small local companies and private firm who dont need a "full webpage". All they need is a way for people to remember their contact info. Such as the local bicycle repair firm, local pizza, local haircut etc. By getting a .tel they get this need fullfilled very cheap and they become part of both google and the global telpages. Now its also very simple to login and change your information such as opening hours etc. But because it is very useful for many I´m 99.9% sure .tel will sooner or later become a huge success! |
It's hard to communicate all that needs to be said to each individual. Tha'ts one of the challenges of being a marketing director, saying what needs to be said and getting that into the public awareness. I've stated what I am about to say in other areas of this forum, so I will say it again here very briefly. New technology often takes new people to mature. Perhaps it will be true to say that the next generation, in say about 20 years, will have .Tel awareness. It took that long for .com and it has first advantage. However, In order to combat this relatively long time to saturation there are things that can be done, but there must be a driving need. The purpose of .Tel is needed by the world, and there is first advantage in .Tel's niche while benefiting from an already established Internet. So to utter words of optimism to those nay sayers with patience measured in months and not years, another truism of technology is that progress accelerates itself. The steps forward often compound to make leaps, especially when you are building on existing infrastructure and not recreating the wheel. We're only 16 months from launch, check back in 3-5 years. |
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It's only been 16 months? :eek: .tel was never a "normal" domain to truly get the best use out of it we should calibrate and pool last names, in order to offer them to the end user get their details up firstname.lastname.tel or we will stagnate and nothing will happen because people will just sit on them. I would like to see the new control panel have a built in chat or simple message service so we can calibrate with other .tel owners to build a strong directory. Or a Telnic developer/directory IRC room, where we can chat and ask for help in real time, which reminds me we need IRC links for .tel I emailed tiger.tel I know 2 people who would like profiles under that .tel, and after 2 emails I figure I won't ever hear from who ever owns it. I'm not checking whois because if they won't reply to emails on their .tel then I'm not stalking him/her like a tiger :p But I would like if I have data or contacts who would like profiles under "other" .tel domains to move & pass on the responsibility to that .tel owner, if the owner is willing to play ball and allow it in return for rich traffic and adsence, plus I can still host the pls files and mp3s e.t.c. That's why I asked for oath management to be added to the new control panel so I can and others can manage domains others don't have time too, but want to make adsence money on until people are ready to pay perhaps even just $1 which would bring in more than $1500 for 1500+ sub domain profiles. Like here http://bucktown-tiger.furry.tel I want to move to http://bucktown.tiger.tel as well as Holmfirth Tiger whos a forum member going by the name http://holmfirth.tiger.tel Then cross linking from mine to theirs and theirs like http://holmfirth.tel to her mascot http://holmfirth.tiger.tel which brings extra traffic, also helps give out PR rank. I don't mind giving up some adsence in return for buck getting a nicer name, In the end it's beneficial for us all to collaborate to build a cross link structure. :rolleyes:[/size] |
So here's an idea we have a sales sub forum, why not a sub broker forum? So we can post lists of what we need or know people we know want, but aren't fully ready to commit that $1 get them using it for a year then you start charging. Paypal |
Oh and I asked buck personally, I have rights to host the play lists and samples just saying in case your thinking something... lol |
I have faith in the domains .tel I´ll wait. I think .tel, it's the only different domain, and the difference will make it stronger. 12 thousand years ago the aliens built the pyramids to monitor the state of habitability of the planet earth and send the measurement of magnetic fields, temperature, ... to the space ( valdeandeamagico ) The annunakis 7,000 years ago we created in Eridu (Edem) by genetic modification 10 years ago was write the idea of domain .tel. 5 years ago the spanish Villalonga was the president of telnic. 1 year ago I created my first domain .tel ( caminodelcid ), 1 day ago I have created my first mail with .tel, info@arte.tel in 20 years all communications will be VoIP I'm patient I am different valdeandemagico |
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It's safe to say more users is good for .Tel, but I don't think a grass roots approach alone is going to engrain it into the civilization at large. I believe it's Telnic's move. I also believe the user base will respond as a totality to these "moves" Telnic makes. .Tel is a mobile based technology without a Telco to sponsor it, or even acknowledge it to my knowledge. Perhaps that's the wrong specific issue I just stated, but this is the kind of thing that's holding it's use back from my perspective. For example, if we saw a .Tel offered to every cell phone subscriber free of charge (fee built into the account) we'd have some serious traction.[/size] |
Markbu,,, tend to agree with you .tel cannot be viewed as mainstream just yet (even if technically it is). 240,000 registered domains with the majority sitting blank as an investment is by no means an eye catcher,, think the only other TLD that's worse off is .asia, and that's geographically bound too while .tel isn't. .mobi took off with 450,000 domains in the first month and grew consistently to double that amount over a 3 year period even though they ought to have a more limited market in my view than .tel. I still see the biggest issue and hurdle for .tel & Telnic is getting GODADDY.com to sell .tel names You simply CANNOT allow the largest domain registrar in the world (with a 30% market share !!), to be completely dis-interested in the domain and hope to be classified as a main stream domain (let alone a top level domain). I've had a conversation with some of their staff the other day asking whether its in their pipeline to introduce .tel at some point, and the few of them who knew what I was on about, simply said "not really as they don't believe there's much customer demand for it / and they cannot host on it" STRIKING COMMENTS from the most successful registrar in the world !! I'm not a big fan of the "it takes time" story though,, even if it applied to .com earlier, as we are living in exceptional times, where technology evolves so fast you cannot just sit and wait for the next brilliant idea to take you out. A good idea always manages to maintain the buzz around it and GROW, and I hope a quick turnaround is achieved with .tel so we're not all doomed. In my view, three things will help .tel get back on track strongly - GoDaddy.com selling .tel domains - A price drop for registering / renewing names (should definately cost less than a .com) - Visible usage of .tel by the large organisations. - All of us (including Telnic) forgetting about the "its a unique domain" story and focus on how to practically use it / make money from it, like all domains (unique or not) are meant to do. Think Telnic can do something about the first two, so I hope somebody is reading this,,,, |
Smart post Smart. I'd add something to your list. We all agree that .tel is a sensible idea. But sensible doesn't sell. Sexy sells. Maybe .tel's problem is that it's just too sensible. I was in town today and needed to find out two things. 1/ The address of the o2 store. For this it typed in "o2 *town name* into the google search box, top right of safari. Within about 5 seconds I had was looking at a map of the town centre. 2/ The time the post office closed. For this I typed in the post office location and "opening hours" and again, the results in a few seconds. You see, I didn't feel I was lacking any tools. People don't buy Apple products because they're sensible. In almost all uses, there's something out there better, where you can get more bang for your buck. Soooo.... >>> Make .tel more "sexy" And how about giving a .tel for free to every xbox gamer, paypal user, apple id holder, or some other group of people where it's easy to pretty much make sure they only get one each. |
Not sure why this thread was moved. Isn't it better as a general discussion piece rather than feedback? I think there was some good discussion coming through. I don't think it will be seen so much in the feedback area. |
