Variant Spellings

V

Vineyard

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Do you think it's wise to have a domain name that is a variation of another? For example, having a domain name of colone as opposed to Cologne.
 
What GCSolutions said. I hate when I spell a site wrong and get a totally different site then what I wanted. Specially when it pulls up a porn site.
That is so annoying. Like the other day I spelled join.me wrong and a different site came up.
 
As mentioned already, they have a name for this... Cybersquatting.

And, it is pretty frowned upon and can have serious legal ramifications for you and your business. :agree:
 
Not so much CyberSquatting in the true sense as usually that means you're purchasing a name, and then trying to sell it back to someone else. The TypoSquatting is probably more like it.

That being said, when our clients register a name, if a variant that sounds like it is available, we tell them to snag it too.

For example, one of our clients is a company called Weber Construction - but in the course of conversation we found many people would type Webber Construction. As a result, we advised them to register both domains associated with their company.

Purposely going after another name is frowned upon, but buying the name yourself, that's just smart business.
 
While sometimes I can see where that could be considered 'squatting' - what if your name or business name IS that? For example, there's a Qwest Communications that is a huge business... but what if a little business names theirs Quest Company? Shouldn't they be able to register quest__ without having qwest__ come after them?
 
handsonhosting said:
Not so much CyberSquatting in the true sense as usually that means you're purchasing a name, and then trying to sell it back to someone else. The TypoSquatting is probably more like it.

That being said, when our clients register a name, if a variant that sounds like it is available, we tell them to snag it too.

For example, one of our clients is a company called Weber Construction - but in the course of conversation we found many people would type Webber Construction. As a result, we advised them to register both domains associated with their company.

Purposely going after another name is frowned upon, but buying the name yourself, that's just smart business.
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I agree with that.
 
It's a good idea to register common misspellings of *your* domain. Especially if your name is commonly misspelled. That's traffic you don't want to lose.

I think this is the question you have to ask.. would people who might visit the domain be expecting to reach my site? If the answer is no, probably better to leave it be.
 
Silk said:
While sometimes I can see where that could be considered 'squatting' - what if your name or business name IS that? For example, there's a Qwest Communications that is a huge business... but what if a little business names theirs Quest Company? Shouldn't they be able to register quest__ without having qwest__ come after them?
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This touches into the LEGAL realm, so you need to be careful on that. "Quest" is very different from "Qwest", but if you registered "Quest Communications", now you're infringing on the name based on how it's said. "Quest Company" is probably still OK, but "Quest Communications" is definitely out of the question. When you attempt to file your Corporation or Business Registration, you'll likely raise a red flag.

Koke and Coke are two different companies, but they're also in two different industries - as a result, there's no infringement. If for some reason KokeInc decides to change from manufacturing equipment into soft drinks, you better believe there's going to be a fight on their hands.
 
SenseiSteve said:
What are your thoughts if it's not exactly a typo, like registering apts and apartments?
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From an SEO point of view - it's good business to get both.

From a business point of view, if they're not in the same competing area - lets say more than 30 miles, then I'd not see a problem with it. If you have Forrest Apartments and Forrest Apts and they're within a few miles of each other, you'll see all sorts of problems.

It's almost as bad as my address being 122nd Ave, and the next street over is 122nd St. Take a guess at how much mail we receive for the other house (and vice versa). Oh yeah, and the city gave the houses the exact same numbers too!
 
handsonhosting said:
From an SEO point of view - it's good business to get both.

From a business point of view, if they're not in the same competing area - lets say more than 30 miles, then I'd not see a problem with it. If you have Forrest Apartments and Forrest Apts and they're within a few miles of each other, you'll see all sorts of problems.

It's almost as bad as my address being 122nd Ave, and the next street over is 122nd St. Take a guess at how much mail we receive for the other house (and vice versa). Oh yeah, and the city gave the houses the exact same numbers too!
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That sounds like a nightmare.. :(
 
handsonhosting said:
It's almost as bad as my address being 122nd Ave, and the next street over is 122nd St. Take a guess at how much mail we receive for the other house (and vice versa). Oh yeah, and the city gave the houses the exact same numbers too!
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The name of my street is completely different than the next (literally, apple and orange kind of names), yet we consistently receive mail from the same number of the house on THAT street and they receive ours. So I can only imagine what kind of nightmare you are going through.

As far as on-topic suggestion, as other mentioned, it all depends on the usage of the word you are going for. If it is to protect your brand name, you'd want to register names that protect your domain name (plural forms, common potential misspelling). However, going after a name like Mikerowsoft would most likely land you in the hot seat.
 
That would be really bad for bills to go to the wrong address. Good thing you do not have bad people living at the other address.
 
handsonhosting said:
This touches into the LEGAL realm, so you need to be careful on that. "Quest" is very different from "Qwest", but if you registered "Quest Communications", now you're infringing on the name based on how it's said. "Quest Company" is probably still OK, but "Quest Communications" is definitely out of the question. When you attempt to file your Corporation or Business Registration, you'll likely raise a red flag.

Koke and Coke are two different companies, but they're also in two different industries - as a result, there's no infringement. If for some reason KokeInc decides to change from manufacturing equipment into soft drinks, you better believe there's going to be a fight on their hands.
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Yes when i started i had an issue when i reg the domain the-ink-shop.co.uk which i called my business and this is what the logo stated. 2 years down the line (just after i renewed the domain) i got a letter from a company calling themselves The Ink Shop, they sold industrial inks and ink printing machines - the type for banners/signs etc. telling me to stop using the domains and using their business name, well i was called the-ink-shop.co.uk the same as my domain and was selling domestic inks only and they were called THE INK SHOP selling industrial inks and ink printing machines, which is technically a different field. I told then get their solicitor to tell me to stop, then never did.
 
handsonhosting said:
Happens quite a bit. Idle threats are very common on the web. I'd love to see your situation go to court and be thrown out before you even have to appear! :)
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thats why if i get anything like this i will simply tell them to send a solicitors letter, then i can get my solicitor (family friend) to reply back basically telling them to 'Get a Court Order', which will all cost them.
 
Yes, it is bad practise, but if you can find some mixture of domain letters and add something to prefix, postfix you can turnaround brand orginating ideas.

Colone, doesn't something sound generic to your market. I would avoid that.
 
Its all a matter of how you want your business to look to users.
If you catch users misspelling they wont buy just because they arrived at your site. They wanted someone else and will usually re-enter or give up.
Its looks bad.
It can cause legal issues.
Do you want to promote someone else's brand id?
 
Well whether the person is cybersquatting or not is basically based on whether or not they are actually using the domain.

For instance, Google... they have numerous variations of their domain, but they all point back to Google.com... that's ok, and Same for redirecting WebberConstruction to WeberConstruction...

But if they are just buying them to sell them for profit, or other methods, then that is wrong.. and shouldn't be done.
 
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