The Dangers of Not Registering Similar Domain Names

When you’re trying to build a brand, make sure to grab similar domain names. Otherwise, someone with a similar domain name might tarnish your image. Case in point:

Dogged-by-allegations-of-racism German bookmarking startup Mr.Wong registered mister-wong.com to enter the US market. However, they neglected to register that same domain without the dash- resulting in this parody, which plays on their potentially racist image and is undoubtedly harmful to the brand.

18 Responses to “The Dangers of Not Registering Similar Domain Names”

  1. Steve says:

    Wow…what timing. I just grabbed my domain without the dashes no more than 1 week ago. To think someone could have snatched that up and not only stolen my traffic, but also tarnished my image.
    http://www.paid-survey-success.com

  2. Lisa says:

    You’re scaring me. I just noticed someone the other day who had a site with a name similar to mine. Guess I better get on that.

  3. Matt says:

    It’s always better to be safe than sorry. Great warning that we all should head.

  4. loldogs says:

    I’ve noticed others scooping up similar domains as mine as well. Thanks for the advice.

  5. John Kain says:

    Well I have seen many sites which do it and there are few tools to help you find and register these names with high traffic. Well in that case people should buy every domain like google or yahoo :)

  6. Suzanne says:

    Craiglist and Craigslist is a great example of this.

  7. I have seen this every so often. Someone got an alternate version of my site but then gave it up later. I assume they didnt get much traffic.

  8. TigerTom says:

    “I have seen this every so often. Someone got an alternate version of my site but then gave it up later. I assume they didnt get much traffic.”

    This is what’s likely to happen unless you have a very popular site that can be easily misspelled. It’s just not worth maintaining.

    If you _are_ doing well, you can sic a lawyer on him, and get the domain.

  9. This is a huge mistake, Youtube has make this mistake, also the people from porntube vs pornotube.

  10. Forrest says:

    And, unfortunately, the same advice needs to apply to TLDs. NASA.com was a porn site, probably still is.

  11. Alberghi says:

    You really loose visitors. It happened to me 2 years ago.

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  16. Monavie says:

    I think that is a great idea to pick up any domain name that could sound like yours. I can only imagine how bad it would be if someone made a copy-cat of your site!

  17. jintun says:

    great find, thanks mate

  18. Corig says:

    Very interesting

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