Monday 14 March 2011

Some fresh ideas about opening the Dot Tel domain to mainstream

If the restrictions for .Tel Domains would be removed, then they would be the "better Dot Com's" for mobile telephone Internet usage.

Furthermore, if Dot Tel domains can offer something, that Dot Com domains can't offer on a mobile phone, than Dot Tel domains would be in more favorable position.

Extensions can`t change, but restrictions can be removed, anytime.

Hardly anybody would mind to pay the hosting for a Dot Tel domain, if they had the same freedom as with a Dot Com domain. At the end, they would have the better domain extension for mobile Internet on smart phones. As people would know, that a Dot Tel domain, is like any other domain, and that it offers the same navigation possibilities.

Users used to register a Dot Mobi, only because of its extension: Because they intended to use the domain for smart phones with Internet.

The .Tel registry is doing the same thing: Offering a domain for smart phones with Internet, but with restrictions.
However, the .Tel registry is providing a control panel, for populating the domain.
It was supposed to be a no-brainer, but the friending feature was too complecated, as well as few other things.

Why not deliver a mobile friendly template, without any restrictions? And leave the hosting to the registrars?

As soon as the only difference between domains, is the extension, Dot Tel will win over the other domain extensions, for smart phone usage.

The existing dot tel concept seems to be somewhat outdated. It might of worked well, eight or ten years ago, when it was created.

Dot Tel domains are lacking exitement. And users are used to Dot Com websites.
It is difficult to sell something that is less attractive.

The biggest advantage of the Dot Tel domain, is that it is "low cost" for the domain holder / owner. And users don't know, that using it, would be also "low cost" for them. And so, users other from the .Tel owners, don't care about the costs for Dot Tel domains. They just see a weird and boring page, with some contact information on it, and a penedrant and annoying Dot Tel logo. And say, that the design looks more like a domain parking page.

The easiest and more successful thing would be, to lift all restrictions, and tel(l) the world, that Dot Tel domains are for smart phone usage. Full stop.
And everyone would "get" that, and people would start registering .Tel's, and populating them by a webdesigner, or by themselfs.

Who would care, to have to pay hosting and a webdesigner, if they get a powerfull and efficient mobile website at the end, having a fantastic domain extension (.tel)?

The ten year old Dot Tel concept needs some rethinking and remodeling. Time for change. You can't expect a ten year old concept to be successful, ten years later.

If a Internet domain does not offer more than a landing page and a folder tree, and contact information, than it should be much less expensive... Somewhere around $03,00 (tree Dollars).

Provide a person with a Dot Com address, and he knows, what to do with it.
Provide a person with a Dot Tel address, and he does not know what to do with it.

If every new smart phone had a Dot Tel search engine as default, then everybody would know, what to do with Dot Tel domains.

If Dot Tel domains would be easyer to mobilize, and offer as much freedom as Dot Com domains, then that would be clearly an advantage for the Dot Tel domains.

Ok, I think I said enough, and now it is up to you, to "thinktank" and brainstorm.

The really biggest advantage of .Tel domains, is the fact, that one can set up a mobile friendly Internet domain within a few hours (ok, you say, within a few minutes..), and which is ideal for QR-Code usage (Quick Response Code usage). Because, if you want to sell something spontaniously, and fast, you can set up a mobile friendly .Tel domain, and encode it as a QR-Code (you generate a code from a website URL, for example), and print the code and display it, where smart phone owners can scann it (and click to decode it), and then interact with you and your offer.

Speed, is what matters, and you can act fast, with a .Tel domain, a QR-Code generator, and a QR-Code reader. This sort of interaction, one can only achieve with mobile websites. And Dot Tel is already "out of the box" mobile. No need for a webmaster and a webdesigner, there. And the "no need", would be a time saver and advantage, in connection with QR-Code usage. Again: Time saving matters.

Cheers.

Saturday 12 March 2011

Dot Tel domains: Review.

First of all, I heartily thank Bill, for his fantastic blog „DOT TEL DOMAINS BLOG“, at http://dottel.blogspot.com/.

I agree with many of his statements, especially, about the .tel domain registry Telnic. And I can hear a lot of disappointment within his comments.

How good is the communication between Telnic and the holders of .tel domains?: The call for a professional webdesigner for the Dot Tel interface and look, had never been realized.

Bill put the question, once again, if one should renew or drop the .tel domains, and he tends to not renew most of them, due to his „uncertain future for .tel“ vision. Bills comments are easy to follow and understand, according to common sense. However, investors should aim a long term strategy of about five years, and then make a decision to drop the .tel domains, or not. If you don't think in long terms, you are not investing. Neither are you investing, if you are not taking financial risks.

Besides all the improvements for the look and the promotion of .Tel that could have been done, but haven't been done, and after ca. two years, since online, .Tel is clearly underestimated, undervalued, and hardly, or not understood. The Dot Tel domain is a Internet landing page for contact and business information, and a lot more. The domain works partly „out of the box“, and can be, on the other part, configured, with a bit of nitty gritty work, to a efficient SEO booster, and a domain that gets found in Internet.

I doubt that any .tel domain with an good name is a waste of money, if used and kept up to date.

Dot Tel domains are here to stay. The key is public education, but which hasn't taken place on a grand scale.

The monitary system is not favorable for long term investments: It depends strongly on short term profits. Every one thinking, they could make short term profits with .tel domains, must give up those expectations. The value of a domain, is not the value in form of money, that you can cash in, at a given time. With time, certain domains get sought after, by a few people, who know what they could do with them. Offer them, where there is competition from other bidders: At an live auction.

If we drop a .tel domain, or sell it under value, we lose in the long term, but save expenses in the short term: So what do you prefer, and what can you afford?

Even Dot Biz and Dot Mobi will become established and accepted by a wider audience. The are late comers, same as Dot Tel.

Now, imagine, you could just buy a domain, without having to renenew it every year...: No droped domains, would be the result.

Now imagine, Dot Tel's would cost only $5 instead of $10 (http://www.name.com/ price): The result would be....: Less droped domains. Both szenarios sound like fair deals.

For a reseller, or for a domainer with a large portfolio, the domain prices are probably too high, for uncertain long term investments: Why don't the domain registries take such a fact into account, with non-established domain creations?

The decisions are always based on financial thoughts and related to current market prices.
Basically, a good domain name and ranking, has nothing to do with money. And money shouldn't spoil the success, potential and fun.

As I once pointet out: The domain extension ".tel", is probably the best of all existing domain extension, by just looking at the extension itself. And no other existing domain name extension suits better for mobile phone computing.

People have never asked, what sense the domain name extension ".com" makes: But ".com" just got accepted and established with time, by the masses. ".com" could either mean "communication", "commerce", "company", "computing", whatever.

With ".tel", I think, people can't easily make the bridge from Internet domain to telephone, respectively, why should a website URL have a extension, that reminds you of "tel-ephone"?

As soon as Internet and the smart phone become a natural related thing, there might be a run after anything, that eases mobile communication. Inclusive "Dot Tel" domains.

If the couple "Internet" and "smart phone" is no no-brainer yet to mainstream, why should the Dot Tel registry Telnic make much effort to educate mainstream about Dot Tel?
Looking at it that way, and in that aspect, you couldn't blame Telnic, for beeing as passive, as it has been, up and till now. Telnic is not bigh enough, to take such a finacial risk, as such promotion would not just cost one million Dollars, but at least five or ten million Dollars.

By just having a lot of "drops" (droped .tel domains), the financial losses, are still kept at the smallest possible. And financial recovery is possible, anytime, within reasonable time.

Therefore, Telnic is far, from "missing the boat". And all chances are fully intact.

Dot Tel, will pick up, with time. And it will be the overall development in the world of mobile communication, that will decide about the success of the Dot Tel domain.

Of course, and nevertheless, Telnic should change a few things now, at present, and not postpone those. You might be able to say, what that should be. But I am not quite sure.

I think the registry, as well as the domain holders, are a bit overextended. And decisions and actions taken, on both sides, are either taken too carefully, or too hastily, but neither appropriate.

So, who is to blame?: I think, the basic problem are high costs for calling and surfing on a smart mobile phone, which hinders mainstream owners of mobile phones, to access the Internet from their mobile phones, or access Internet, more often. Roaming costs, or still far too expensive.
And people don't know, that .Tel pages the sites that can be viewed at the lowest cost.

When mobile Internet gets generally more mainstream, then that is when Telnic should start making some serious efforts with promoting .Tel, and spending some important amount of money for promotion. I assume, that Telnic does have a successful strategy, even if it doesn't really look that way.

All in all, domaining with heavyweight in the mobile telecommunicaion field, and expecting to make some tidy earnings, and some serious money, is nothing more than a poker game.

Dot Tel domains, are usefull, now, but for for getting tidy earnings through advertising or selling, it is far too early. But you should nevertheless learn all about .Tel, and how to improve and populate a .Tel domain. Because when things take off, you should be ready, and even better: Already established with your .Tel's.

Think twice, befor your intend to drop your Dot Tel domain(s). Act fast, to get a Dot Tel name, as long as it is still available.

Don't forget, that the future of Internet, is in mobile computing, mobile Internet, mobile phones, and mobile websites. Desktop PC's are being replaced by mobile laptops with an aditional bigger external monitor, so that they can be used at home, as well as away from home. And soon, you will be able to interact (more) between your stored data on your smart phone, and your laptop. Let us say, you scan info on the go, with your smart phone, and download it to your laptop.

And so, why will you wan't to give up a good mobile Internet address, if things are developing so promissing?


Herer are some useful links:

Create, print or display a .TEL business card
http://www.nametag.me/dot-tel-business-cards.php

Create, print or display a .TEL business card with QR Code.
http://nametag.me/qr-code-dot-tel-business-cards.php

Promote Your Dot Tel Domain: Generate A QR-Code, And Display It, Where It Can Be Scanned.
http://www.qrstuff.com/

Advertise On Dot Tel Domains
http://www.teldomaintel.com/tel-domain-services/tel-domain-advertising/

Hide Your Dot Tel Email Address
http://www.teldomaintel.com/tel-domain-services/hide-your-tel-email-tel2form/index.html

Daily Growing Dot Tel Community / New Registrations
http://www.dottel.net/daily-dot-tel-registrations#regs

Select A Dropped Dot Tel Domain Name For Registering
http://www.dottel.net/daily-dot-tel-drops#drops

Articles About Dot Tel Domains
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Bill_Rutherfurd

Register A Dot Tel Domain Name
http://www.blacknight.com/telnic.html

Share Your Dot Tel Domain
http://tel2social.com/

Sell Or Buy A Dot Tel Name
http://teltheworld.co.uk/teltheworldmarketplace.html

Dot Tel Monthly Meetup Group
Join us to learn the advantages for PR and marketing in the dotTel space: The Vancouver dotTel Meetup Group Monthly Meetup.
http://www.meetup.com/dotTel/

Dot Tel News
http://www.dottelfinder.com/news/

Dot Tel Forum For Naysayers and Supporters
http://www.namepros.com/561820-the-official-tel-discussion-thread-279.html

Dot Tel And QR-Codes
http://qr-code.dot-tel-domain.tel/

Dot Tel Info Center
http://dot-tel-domain.tel/

Dot Tel Self Learning Center And Tutorials
http://tutorials.dot-tel-domain.tel/

Dot Tel Design Support
http://teldesign.tel/

Search Dot Tel Contact Info
http://d0.telpages.com/search.action


Dot Tel Business Services
http://thetabiz-services.dot-tel-domain.tel/

Email Addressbook (Hidden Email)
http://wikiworldbook.tel/

Dot Tel Support
http://aled.tel/

Tuesday 1 February 2011

The Dot Tel Look

The January 2011 .Telegraph arrived and the key point for me was the design competition hot on the tail of the dog promotion (seriously :-)) We all know that Telnic are Cheap Charlies, but if they went into the street and talked to potential customers, they would find that the display is the worst feature of the Dot Tel Domain.

I have showed lots of people the cellphone and desk top versions of the Dot Tel, and the comments are always that the displays look bad.

So rather than having one of the competitions to try and get people to do the design work for free, may I suggest that they employ some good designers to do a proper job, and save us all a lot of time. Because frankly, the current displays look like a child with a set of crayons did them.

The current displays are not something that can be shown to potential customers as they look like some kind of joke. This should be Priority No. 1 for Telnic withstanding their obvious desire to build a participative community.

But I had to laugh reading about 'Telnic relishing a [design] challenge' when all they are doing is running a competition for other people to do the design. Hilarious!
POSTED BY BILL

Monday 24 January 2011

QR-Codes must provide mobile content only


Providing a Dot Tel domain, is a bit problematic, with the random web links. And because most provided web links on a Dot Tel domain, are no mobile web links.

I advise, to always ask the question, if your „content for QR-Codes“ is mobile phone friendly.

You can generate codes from text, phone numbers, email addresses, email messages, Google Maps Location, V Card, the most known social media links, iTunes, youTube, and so on.

But you must distinguish within website URL's.

Especially, when providing Dot Tel domains for QR-Codes, because mobile friendly URL's should be visible and selectable, as such. As mobile URL's.

You don't want to be annoying to the visitor of your Dot Tel page: Which is why it is smart, to create a separate subfolder, named, for example „mobile content“, and „non-mobile content“.

So that using the „mobile content“ folder will be „100% go“.
And the „non-mobile content“ folder data could be transfered to your desktop computer or laptop.

At present, you are able to mark mobile URL's within Dot Tel domains, with „web mobile“, or similar.

But as mobile web links, and non-mobile web links, are scattered all over the contact page, it would be differnt to select the right one, when being „on the go“.

The user experience, could be so much better for a user getting pointet to a Dot Tel domain, by a QR-Code. Otherwhise, if we don't make any difference between the URL's, the visit to your .Tel will end up in frustration and annoyance, having wasted precious time.

So, please keep an eye on those URL's you provide on your Dot Tel domain, when it comes to creating, displaying QR-Codes, and providing mobile web content for people who are offline, on the go, with their mobile phone, ready to snap QR-Codes.

The user won't read all this snapped web content, while he is on the go, but will bookmark many of the codes, until he is at home / home office, or in his office away from home, or in a public transportation, or caffee, restaurant, etc., when he can settle a bit, and use his attention for reading info from his smart phone.

Friday 21 January 2011

Scan my Dot Tel











Link to www.annunci.tel:
http://annunci.tel/





.

Tuesday 18 January 2011


Custom design codes,
for your mobile marketing

Monday 17 January 2011