Are Domain Names Stolen?
My business partner Paul Wilson and I have noticed a trend that is disturbing. We search to see if a domain name is taken. It’s open. We don’t reserve it and go back and search for it again. Almost without fail, a while later, it is reserved. We became suspicious. We think registrars track searches and reserve any domain name with interest.
Paul decided to do an experiment to test his theory. He is asking people to search GoDaddy and the like for absurd domain names. Then he’ll see if they get reserved. Read about it and join the effort.
Here’s my confession: I’m annoyed that someone bought Newspapergirl with the “i”. I made up the word newspapergrl. I never thought it would be popular or I would’ve spelled girl out instead of the 80s version – grl. If you own www.newspapergirl.com, my birthday is in January. It would make a nice present.
Tip: If you have a common name make up a unique version of your name just for the search engines. For example, Phil Burns. He distinguishes himself online by his area code. He is known as Phil801. If you do a Google search on Phil 801, you’ll see what I mean. If your name is really common, like Paul Wilson, maybe you should be Paul801.
Whatever you do, don’t search on your idea for a domain name several times before you decide to buy it.
9 Responses to “Are Domain Names Stolen?”
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May 8th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I haven’t seen this happen. I have noticed lately that there are “premium domain names”. For all I know, they’ve been there for a long time but I think it’s pretty interesting that the moral and ethical GoDaddy is charging an extra few HUNDRED or THOUSAND of dollars for the better domain names. I’ll be watching for what you talked about – the stealing or “reserving” of domain names. Good luck with the quest for newspapergirl.com.
May 9th, 2007 at 3:35 am
I have a very common name. So common that it’s also my Dad’s. The way I’ve opted to disambiguate myself from everyone else is to use my full name, excluding my middle initial.
I’m having to get used to being called Daniel – most people I know call me Dan. If you grew up with me, I might let you call me Danny; but don’t push it.
I’ve found this has been a pretty good way to brand myself online. Googling “daniel johnson, jr.” I see that, aside from a couple of listings for a Canadian politician, the front page of results are related to me.
May 9th, 2007 at 6:12 am
Thanks Janet! If you would llke to be a part of our case study go here:
http://mymarketer.net/case-study-how-your-domain-name-gets-stolen-part-2/
~Paul W.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I’ve wondered about that as I’ve searched for names and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it were happening.
Consider registering a domain name for $9.95 and then selling it for $10,000- happens thousands of times/day- these guys are making so much profit- they’ll do anything to get new names to sell.
May 9th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
this happened to one of our start up princesses recently, she searched, “mywisemom.com” and it was available, before she could buy it 3 hours later it was taken. ouch.
May 10th, 2007 at 8:05 am
I’ve heard stories of this happening. Here’s an article I found on eweek about this issue:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1991365,00.asp
The best way to avoid it is to purchase the domain name if you find one that you like that’s available. Don’t wait around, or you might lose an opportunity.
May 10th, 2007 at 9:01 am
[...] I blogged how I wish I owned the domain name http://www.newspapergirl.com. I really hate telling people it’s like girl but without the “i”. The very next day I got an email from my friend Jeff Barr (you should check out what he’s working on in Second Life – he’s a pioneer!). [...]
May 15th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
This happens all the time with allot of domain registrars. Cnet has several articles on the subject. I always use Network Solutions to do searches for available domains, and when I am ready to purchase I use godaddy. I have never lost a domain this way.
May 24th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Funny I should come across this post as I have been researching domain names. Most of the names I wanted were taken and so I decided to add odd words on to the end of the domain names that were already taken. I thought I was just entertaining myself but the weird thing was a lot of them were taken. And then it dawned on me that everything you enter into one of the domain searches is trackable and they were buying up names.