A glimmer of hope from old school media, but a painful reminder of how lost they are.
The Austin American-Statesman, a Cox-owned newspaper, has done a decent job with its online presence. Just two days ago it made a bold move — registering a separate domain name for a portal about swine flu. It even picked up a pretty good keyword swineflucare…
.Net.
Seriously? Yes, it created a web site at SwineFluCare.NET. SwineFluCare.com was registered on April 25, so when the Austin American-Statesman decided to register a domain on April 27 it went with the .net version.
They would have been better off registering a longer domain in .com than going with this name in .net.
Oh well.
Meanwhile, the media continues to pull off as much “freak out” as it can about the virus. Schools are closing in Texas and after school activities are canceled. I think this is overkill. Send the sick kids home, but there’s no reason to cancel school right now. One school in Austin had a “probable” case of swine flu, so it decided to shut down until May 11. Another school had some kids who just got back from a trip to Mexico, so it canceled school. I guess it’s an excuse for some time off.
For a reality check, here’s what a story in the Los Angeles Times today has to say:
As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — isn’t shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.
In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
The World Health Organisation now says we are on the verge of a pandemic, which suggests a sustained epidemic around the world until vaccines are available according to the BBC today.
The funny thing Andrew, it’s the Internet that will ultimately benefit when all this plays out. I don’t anticipate a spanish influenza that killed millions, however the potential severity will mean that movement may have to be heavily restricted for everyone until fully eradicated. Therefore I believe the media will begin to focus attention on how to run your business online, education, commerce etc..
I believe this potential pandemic catalyses the significant importance of online business, work and play and therefore domains!
For anyone in need of swift interim flu help, kindly refer to my new sites: http://www.swineflu.tel and http://www.facemask.tel
Cheers!
Johnny says
Kill the pigs before the kill us, I say! 🙂
jp says
Yesterday the whois for SwineFlu.com said “Pending Sale” today it appears to be sold. It was parked at fabulous yesterday.
Andrew Allemann says
jp – it was sold previously, too. Jared Cohen owned it.
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
The WHO have today issued a report that it should now be referred to H1N1 Flu and no longer Swine Flu. So there goes Swineflu.com .
Oh well, I’m still developing Swineflu.tel and have reg’d H1N1Flu.tel for development. All the other top level domains for H1N1 Flu have been taken!
Andrew Allemann says
@ Robert – that won’t stop people from referring to it as “swine flu”. But .tel…don’t get me started 🙂
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
” @ Robert – that won’t stop people from referring to it as “swine flu”. But .tel…don’t get me started”
Ha ha… I really new you’d say that Andrew! Y’know since your last article on .Tel, I’ve actually collected quite a few .Tel’s. Well, lets just say I’m using this crisis as impetus to test how effective .Tel can be and will have to see. Check out:
http://www.swineflue.tel . The point is Andrew, can a call to action .Tel be utilized to capture sales? e.g FaceMask.tel that I’m also testing.
We should be careful not to get cynical. I’m quite impressed on how so so easy it is to navigate on my iPhone…seamless! Plus, I’m impressed on how within just an hour or so, I’ve been able to have a web presence with no further html development or hosting.
I’ll be working on AutoSupply.tel soon, as I have identified a major drop shipper. This .Tel tld could work! especially for consumers who know what they want and are using mobile or cell phones.
If I’m right Andy over the long run, then you can eat my hat!
Cheers!
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
By the way, I spelt the site name “link” in my last thread wrong fro swineflu.tel . But notice when it takes you to google, those keywords already come up on google. Not bad for 3 days!
jp says
so you can’t put ads on a .tel, so your only hope of making money on swineflu.tel would be to sell links on it or sell the domain right?
Also, does anyone have an example of a .tel domain showing up in google search results other than searching for domainname.tel?
Andrew Allemann says
“Also, does anyone have an example of a .tel domain showing up in google search results other than searching for domainname.tel?”
I just searched for ‘allemann’ and my allemann.tel domain showed up on the first page. Now, if only that were a competitive keyword… 🙂
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
Actually you can put ads on a dot tel JP, it just depends on how you do it if you’re clever. Check out how I’ve inserted my amazon store on FaceMask.tel :
http://www.facemask.tel
I’ve also done the same on Swineflu.tel.
Yes you are right by saying listings is one way of making money, but there are other ways to make money! Like I mentioned, I have identified a major drop shipper for AutoSupply.tel that I plan to develop. I will put my own 0800 call center number on it, or a white/private label link and sales will be delivered drop ship.
There are so many ways I can personally monetize .tel. E.g I plan to take hotel bookings on HotelAccommodation.tel and Restaurant bookings on MiamiRestaurants.tel , it’s really a no brainer if you know what you are doing. Plus, I’m so suprised at how easy it has been to launch a .tel so quickly. If you actually enter ” swine flu tel ” in google, swineflu.tel actually comes up on the first page. I believe it will start coming up for other keywords as we move on. Its only been 2 days!
D says
[8]
JP – google “nationwide limited specialize” and you get .tel as result
jp says
I’m glad that .tel is in fact showing up in search results. And @Robert, I’m impressed with the innovative thinking. I hope it pans out for you. You sure reg’d alot of .tels. It will be interesting to see if swineflu.tel makes the front page on “swine flu”.
So now the new challenge is can anyone find .tel in search results for a keyword with search volume?
Andrew Allemann says
The key would be that there must be links pointing to the .tel for a competitive keyword. And why would many people link to a .tel?
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
Andrew, I’m assuming that is an objective question and not a rhetorical one. There are so many reasons why people will link to a .tel.
The first being, it is probably the easiest way so far to exchange links with any website if that is waht you want to do. Think about this very carefully, I reg’d swineflu.tel for $12.00, no hosting fee and I already have a presence, even in google and just within a few days! Now if I want to go through all the trouble, I could exchange links with tons of doctors, medical centers, clinics etc… and it only takes a few minutes to link each website from my computer or cell phone anywhere 24/7!
Once users begin to realize the simplicity of navigation online or through their cell phones, any .tel site that focuses on a specific genre or market industry can win big! You can either charge a monthly or annual listing fee, or do deals like I will be trying to do with AutoSupply.tel for drop shipping with an exclusive Auto supplier.
Domainers should really wake up an smell the roses here. Swineflu.com still has to be developed, hosted, designed bla, bla, bla… swineflu.tel however just within a few minutes already provides some essential guide for those who may need that kind of help and can start taking listing immediately!
Andrew Allemann says
@ Robert – true. I was thinking more of one-way links instead of swaped links.
jp says
After seeing what people are doing with .tel’s I think my biggest concearn is are any of the end users going to take it seriously. So there are going to be all these generic.tel’s like doctors.tel, swineflu.tel, diseases.tel, and so on right? All populated with contact information and links that the domainer puts in. So when I am searching for contact info for some kind of doctor, which .tel has the right phone number and/or email address and links listed? The nice thing about a “real” web page is that a “real” webpage can try to persuade you that this Doctor is the best because his webpage is most professional. If I search for a doctor and find nothing but rolodex cards all of which seem to be the right thing I might just ignore them all and look for a “real” webpage. In other words are .tel pages going to be recieved by the end users in the same manner as a parked page? I find parked pages can be a bit more colorful and convincing. Perhaps .tel will evolve in the same manner that parked pages are.
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
“After seeing what people are doing with .tel’s I think my biggest concearn is are any of the end users going to take it seriously.”
JP, I think you may be taking the wrong perspective when analysing the significance of .tel. However, that is not at all suprising. I have made several comments before that a lot of domainers IMO are just speculators and not creative asset developers.
Domainers crucified .TV, yet a lot of people and businesses have developed excellent .TV web sites. Take a look at 2 simple .TV sites I have personally developed and now make thousands of pounds in revenue, only within a few months with a little creativity:
http://www.londonapartment.tv
http://www.londonhome.tv
So what is the potential for .Tel? Well, if you diagnose what we have here carefully, .tel provides “Vertical” Directories that can be developed to enhance ease of navigation, swift contact and a conduit to several niche industries.
Take a look at GreenSupplies.Tel, still very early days, but here again, my idea is to provide a vertical directory, focused on the massive “Green” Industry. I would only need a few businesses to pay a modest annual fee of say $250 to start making serious money! For the end user, he or she can ultimately relate to a focused directory for Green products and services, as the .tel site develops and evolves.
Try using a .tel site from your iPhone and you begin to realize, how easy it is to click to call or click to peruse a website that is listed with all the essential contact details in the .tel, with a brief description.
Let me say this, I started with the web at Macromedia when we first developed Dreamweaver 1.0 and I have watched this entire internet media evolve. It appears to me, that some domainers are like all the naysayers that totally ignored the potential of the internet itself when things first got started…where are those naysayers today? A lot of them have gone under from ignorance.
I strongly suggest you look beyond the parochiality of domaining itself and try to assess the full potential of the TLD and what it may evolve into.
Dot Tel looks like the first of its kind as a TLD, and may actually help so many businesses that are listed in the yellow pages but have no web presence at all. No wonder why British Telecom I understand is very interested in marketing .Tel. Infact, yellow pages and super pages, may now be in the final death rows just like newspapers, because .Tel allows anyone to create niche directories on the fly, that are focused and much easier to navigate on any device 24/7!
My advise, be patient, be creative and carefully consider what you can achieve with the right .tel. For my part, I only reg .tels that I feel I can personally develop, e.g HotelAccommodation.tel, here again I have found a major supplier and will cleverly lead users to bookings where I will get a decent piece of the action…trust me!
Big Hug!
Robert.