Domain Name Selling: Why it Shouldn`t Work - The dark side of common name domains
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Another situation is one that arises when buyers buy a domain name hoping to cash in on another site's popularity. For example, buying a domain name such as www.my_yahoofinance.net to cash in on a successful brands name, is probably copyright infringement. It's mostly phishers, scammers and also some MFA sites, who participate in this particular type of domain name buying.
Others buy names which closely approximate popular brands to take advantage of misspellings by users (like the user won't notice). There is a massive difference between the services of www.technorati.com and www.technocrati.com. Of course if you just want a Made For AdSense site (or worse, if you are actually a scammer) these names are all well and good. But if you are serious about building a serious long term Internet presence, you may as well forget it.
A recent high profile case occurred between Google and adult search engine Booble. Google sued the adult search engine for "aiming to deceive" with its lookalike domain name. Google's case ultimately failed, but other situations may not end up the same way. Companies are not afraid to defend their copyrights, and the results may not always be pleasant for the infringing company depending on how that jury interprets the situation.
Some sad history
Here are some ridiculous fees that were paid for "hot" domain names that ended up as spectacular failures (note that at purchase most of these domain names were just that, "domain names"). The name www.business.com was bought for 7.5 million dollars, www.wine.com was bought $3 million, and www.wallstreet.com was bought for $1.3 million. All failed as websites (unimaginable, huh?). Fortunately, those times have ended. Now such domain names are "reasonably" priced to tempt the average webmaster. I mean $1500 is a measly amount to pay for http://www.quickloans.com/ right? Wrong, it will probably fail in as spectacular a manner as those in the first dot com boom.
The facts speak for themselves
Over and over again, the most successful brands on and off the net have been proper names. AOL and Yahoo! were the first Internet brands to break into Interbrand's top hundred list. The most successful Internet brands created their domain names using basic rules of naming which work for every naming situation.
Yes, some people are much better at naming things (and websites) than others. over time we will look at these situations and see how best to come up with a domain name that should work, and not cost you anything more than $15 (at the most). Before then, next time you see that "must have" domain name for sale, take a deep breath and consider finding an alternative.
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