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publicity, publishing & becoming a media mogul because the future of your business is on the internet |
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: Squatters wait to snatch your good ones : 5 Tips for picking the right one
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Being the Master of Your Domain (Name)
Like a modern-day gold rush, the move to stake a claim on potentially valuable internet real estate has become the Beanie Babies investment model of the new millennium. As a decade ago, when financial geniuses snapped up the small bean-filled toys thinking their increase in value would one day pay for the kids' college, today's fool's gold are generic domain names.
Convinced that someone somewhere will want them bad enough to pay a bundle, squatters are scooping up expired names. A few generic names have fetched a handsome sum but most will go unused until the investor tires of paying the annual fee and finally lets them go. Nevertheless, for now the race is on and may not let up for a while as more and more people wade into internetting.
If you're thinking of getting your feet wet or may have been a little casual about renewing your expiring domains in the past, beware the circling sharks.
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Squatters demand ransom for expired domain names
Squatters wait for your domain name to expire, then hold it hostage. It happened to uvswimsuit.com. A squatter moved in and demanded a $200 minimum ransom to get it back. Reluctantly, the money was offered - after all, the company had built up a clientele, but after a week of waiting, when the name was said to be the subject of an auction, the offer was turned down, not because of a higher bid, but because the name squatter failed to respond.
An intermediary, Afternic.com, conducts these messy shams. They pose as the seller's representative. Only after you're hip deep into the process do you learn that Afternic.com doesn't have a prior arrangement with the squatter to sell, they're just fishing. Miraculously for Dawn Maise, owner of UV Swimsuit & Swimware, the plural of her stolen domain was available, and we were able to secure it through the normal acquisition process and at the going rate. Now, the company can be found at uvswimsuits.com.
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Name squatters have been around since the internet, but instead of grabbing well-known corporate identities as back in the early days, they’re now going for generic names deemed valuable by some crystal-ball appraisal method. Well-targeted generic domains are valuable, and the best way to avoid these parasites, who profit from common slip-ups, is to not let your company's internet name expire.
Unfortunately, we didn’t manage UV Swimsuit & Swimware’s original domain, but we’re managing their new name and can guarantee it won’t accidently expire. If we're managing your domain names now or if you wish to transfer to us to manage your existing domain names or buy new ones, you have our same guarantee.
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Our message for the squatters and Afternic.com?
Jacob in the UV swimsuit expresses it perfectly. |
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The Name Game: 5 Tips for Picking the right domain name
1. Always buy your company name. It’s likely to be of secondary importance to a good generic domain name that best describes what you do, but if a competitor buys your company name, they may use it to draw traffic away from your business, while you fret over filing an infringement suit.
2. Buy a generous amount of logical generic domain names. If customers do a web search for your products or services, what words and phrases will they use? A list of these become your starting point for deciding generic domain names to buy. If you already have a site, you should have developed a list of words and phrases designed to help search engines categorize your site’s content. Coded into your pages, these search engine helpers are called META tags and are the generic, descriptive terms that become the best source for powerful generic domain names. To find your site’s META tags, go to its main web page on the internet. Across the top of your computer screen, find “View” in your web browser’s pull-down menus. Click on “View” and select “Source” or “View Source” from the pull-down list. META tags will be listed near the top of the page. Even among the coding gobbledegook, words and phrases specific to your business will be easy to spot.
3. Choose simple names that are easy to say, spelled correctly, and as they sound. Prospective customers may first hear about your web site over the phone. Don’t choose names that become a long, complicated affair to relay verbally, which is the case with dashes or hyphens. If competition is particularly intense, consider buying plurals, misspellings, and other subtle variations. For instance, if your name is Example.com, aggressive competitors may buy Examples.com or Example*.com if you don’t.
4. Be careful of names with double meanings or that conjure up negative mental images or ones that more readily bring an entirely different industry to mind.
5. Is your slogan short and catchy? Would a prospective customer think to enter it when searching for what you can do for them? If so, It may be a very valuable generic domain name.
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