Is this a dumb idea?

13 years ago

You haven't given us enough info to tell you what we think. Buying a domain name for the sake of it is silly. If your domain is too close to that of a large company, you could get into legal problems too.

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maso7

13 years ago

Okay, sorry. For example, if you wanted to sell electricals and one of the best known retailers of electrical's was called "ZAP" and owned the domain "zap.com" should names like zapit.com, zaptvs.com, zappy.com, zapshouseofelectricals.com, and so on, be considered at all?

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c.t.coburn

13 years ago

Originally Posted by maso7

Okay, sorry. For example, if you wanted to sell electricals and one of the best known retailers of electrical's was called "ZAP" and owned the domain "zap.com" should names like zapit.com, zaptvs.com, zappy.com, zapshouseofelectricals.com, and so on, be considered at all?

the long and short of it is, you'll probably get a cease and desist order if you get too close to a company's name and/or trademarks.

could cost you time and money.

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Nail Yener

13 years ago

If I wanted to go big with a site I am building, I wouldn't go with an "almost identical" domain. I would come up with MY unique domain and build my brand around it. But it depends on what type of site you are talking about.

In the example you gave, if you choose to use an "almost identical" domain name, make sure that there is no trademarks for that term before registering. Even if there is no active trademark right now, I wouldn't register such a name because when that business registers that as a trademark they may be able to claim your domain.

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maso7 13 years ago

I am interested because I often see sites mimicking each other, sometime's with a play on words, sometimes as blatant as only substituting .com for .org, .net etc. Is this just a tactic to have a percentage of the traffic heading to the more popular site land on their own?

I agree completely as to how and why this is not a good idea for anyone building a web presence there brand and online reputation.
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kellyyarnsbro

13 years ago

Not really a dumb one but it's a bad idea if you have your domain look like others. Lack of originality sometimes leads the customers to doubt and have second thought.

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Felix Andrian

13 years ago

Agree with laurencewins, in legal point of view similar domain name will cause you some problems. It happened in my country. The company ask a blogger to forfeit his domain for using part of their brand for domain name.

There 3 things to consider about domain name:
1. Confusing similarity
2. Right
3. Bad interest

In business point of view it's different, you could own the domain and take advantage of other's brand name. But, in the other hand you won't have your own brand name.

Regards,
Felix Andrian

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Tomwood 13 years ago

Several years ago I had a site called gocomparediets.com after a few months gocompare.com threat legal action so I took it down.
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- jimbo13 13 years ago
  
  You can't do this.
  
  It would be like selling Kornflakes on your site Cellogs.
  
  Dan
  
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damasgate

13 years ago

What you're doing might have worked 2 years ago but now that's done.

Start off small and start with your own unique brand.

You can use big names to get yourself in the door but domain name matching is not the right way to do it.

For example:

If I want to position myself as an expert in I.M, I don't make a site called warriorInternetMarketing.com

I would rather have IMwithHussin.com and then come to the warriorforum, provide some value to other members and get my foot in the niche that way.

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swilliams09

13 years ago

Has anyone ever typed in the wrong name or found the wrong site they were looking for and just said to themselves "oh this is the wrong site, but it's close enough" and spent their money?

Or have they thought, this site seem scammy and bailed?

I would think it would be the latter except for the dim bulbs out there who would buy anything. Of course there always enough dim bulbs to light up a room, I'd just rather not deal with them.

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John Durham

13 years ago

A hint of familiarity can go a long way as long as you dont go overboard.

If you are in "knoxville" tn, there is a reason 100 business have the word knoxville in their name. They are capitalizing on peoples familiarity with the name of the town.

ie;

Knoxville antiques
Knoxville heating and air
Knoxville auto body

A hint of familiarity gives people the feeling that they should know you already, or trust you, on a subconscious level... just dont take it overboard into copyright infringement.

How many people naturally assume, initially, that Warrior Plus is part of the Warrior forum, and so they should immediately trust it?

Answer: "Alot of them".

-John

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Rus Sells

13 years ago

You'll probably end up getting traffic from visitors looking for the other site which will end up being completely un-targeted and wasted traffic.

Originally Posted by maso7

I'm new to all this and wanted to know what people thought about the pro's (If any) and con's of having a domain name almost identical to the domain of a moderately well known site and business that covers, though not necessarily, your niche?

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Steve1776

13 years ago

Bad idea. There was a barbershop named "Scissors". Caesars Palace in Las Vegas decided that the name sounded too close to theirs. Even tho the barbershop was in a different part of the country and in an entirely different niche they took the barber to court and won. Its not worth the potential legal expense.

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telters

13 years ago

Not a great idea. It might prove successful in generating traffic, but not so much on the conversions side. Just leads to confusion. Big companies aren't usually too fond of that type of thing, either. Just my $0.02

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nawza22

13 years ago

hi, everyone, i also newbie in warrior forum..
last time i thought by having a long name and identical is better..
but then i realize that short domain name is much more better as
people can easily remember. Try grab short domain name so that it will create new brand.. working on my own website using my name.. :-) nawza

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zk46

13 years ago

Its not a good idea.If you use that technique a lot of people that have visited the original website of the company before and then visit your website will think that your website is a scam page. Its better if you think for a unique domain .

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pmarketing

13 years ago

Don't build a website under this domain, just forward domain to your website.