Does anyone have any thoughts on the new .tel domains? I have been sucked in by the marketing and bought one, but have no idea if they will be worth anything.
For me .tel domains are OK, but just for some specific business... I notice big % of people simply knows and recognize only .com .net domains...
The best you can do is buy a .tel for your name or your company..thats all..normal dictionary words would not necessarily make sense incase of .tel since you would not be able to park them or display ads on them..
The only way you can make money on a .tel is if you sell directory listings.. So, if you own newyork.tel, you can create like 12 broad categories and sell links to someone who wants to list their business under your "Comptuers" section, or "Used Cars" section, or whatever. It's kind of hard to do as I honestly dont think people are going to take to the .tel extension unless you really go out of your way to market the hell out of your .tel site offline.
.com is king. I am sure there will be a few good .tel names out there but I think there will be a TON of losers. even showand.tel is junk IMHO it is missing an L.
I think yourcompanyname.tel is worth an investment..anyway its available for about USD 10..I personally have a .tel and have contact details put up..you can also use Google Maps on that..However cant upload pics..
Sorry, guys, but from the messages above I am deducing that some of the people who responded do not know what the characteristics of a .TEL domain are. First, it does not require a website, so there is no need to develop it if you don't want to, but you can add keywords. Second, it is specially intended to work as a directory to be accessed by all kinds of mobile devices (e.g., mobile phones, PDAs, etc.) For the moment the value is questionable, but it might become a hot thing in the next years. Check out telnic.org. However, as always, go for a "safe" name with a lot of potential. If you can sit on it for a certain time while the market develops, you might make lots of $$$. If you buy a crap name, you are throwing away the money. I've bought callcenter.tel, helpdesk.tel, servicecenter.tel and worldwide.tel, which IMHO are very specialized (niche but high-value) names. And then a couple of bets such as hardsex.tel or gals.tel. I have a couple of ideas for monetizing these domains (publicity & parking is here not a real option), but I consider these rather a long-term investment (I estimate 2 years before the market is mature). However, if the ideas that I am thinking of actually work, I would be crazy to sell the domains instead of developing them...
I like.tel. I've got my lastname. I like the simple layout plus a centralized location for my addresses. I'll make some private as well. I think people will like having their own .tel.
if you want Google traffic and good search results to your domain, stick with .com. When was the last time you did a search and found a .tel, .info. .biz on the first page of your results? Ya, thought so... WC
.tel does make some sense for business with trademark only, but it doesnt make much sense for individuals, there are thousands of johns and jerrys, 2nd an average uni guy wouldnt like to pay even $10 year and stay committed for paying it every year, he has msn, facebook and alot more to get in touch. 3rd If i was tom cruise I would especially stay out of it as I wouldnt want anyway to see my number n stuff. 4th for example Pizza.tel, there are thousands of pizza businesses in the world and only one would get to have it. 5th most of the people in most part of the world still dont use internet on their cell phones.