Confusing Similarity & Domain Wars Options

[rhianna]

I've had a domain name created with two "regular" words separate by a hyphen since March 2005.
Someone has mooched my name by placing the two words together without the hyphen. Both sites end with a .com and both sites sell similar merchandise.

I looked up the "new competing domain name" and mine in whois.domaintools.com
Here's some data (without listing the exact url) to prove that I've held the dot com name longer.
I will refer to my site as "word-word.com" (apologies if that is a real site, I'm just using the word "word" for illustrative purposes).

My site:
domain: word-word.com [my name has a hyphen in between the two words]
created: 21-Mar-2005
last-changed: 22-Mar-2007
registration-expiration: 21-Mar-2008
Title Relevancy 60%
Description Relevancy: 100% relevant
Keywords Relevancy: 26% relevant
SEO Score: 87%
Plus there is a wiki article about my site that I didn't know about.

The competing site:
domain: wordword.com (no hyphen)
Created on: 23-Apr-07
Expires on: 23-Apr-08
Title Relevancy 0%
Description Relevancy: 0% relevant.

I am dismayed that someone else has registered a domain so similar to mine and I can see that these two sites could create confusion in the minds of Internet users/searchers/customers.
My site's domain name is not a registered trademark and I guess there could be a proliferation of these names just as many people can use the name "Websters." I'd like to send a "cease and desist letter" to the webmaster of the competing site that took my name after I've had it for two years, but that might take too much energy from me for naught.

What advice would you give a webmaster like me? Please give me some advice.

I know that the site needs work. I intend to develop this site and I hope to create a better site than the one who now is ahead of me in Google by one position. I think my site is already better than the competing site at the moment and I would really want to whip the pants off the other webmaster. I will not relinquish my beloved domain name with the hyphen in the middle. I created the domain name on the spot because it came in my hosting package and I could have had the same name without the hyphen at the time.
Some people buy up all options of a domain name upon registration but I didn't. Frankly I might very well drive some business to my competitor but the competition will see that it works both ways (I think people looking for that site will stumble upon mine).

I remember a merchant from my childhood days with a brick & mortar store whose name consisted of two words. Two other confusingly similar stores would open up each using one of the words of the original. The situation was so confusing that the mail would be delivered to the wrong store. I just thought of this as an example of "there's nothing new under the sun."

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

Rhi

This post has been edited by rhianna: Jul 15 2007, 04:20 AM

[bwelford]

Welcome to the Forums, rhianna.

I can only commiserate with your problem. The only way to go now is to do what you say and build a better ranking website. However by using the hyphenated form, word-word, you've given yourself a tough challenge.

My standard advice in thinking about a new domain name is to try to select a word that you can own on the Internet. That means you trademark it or you get it so far ahead of anything else in the SERPs that no other domain matters. I also strongly recommend that it have no funny symbols (accented letters) or punctuation (hyphens or underscores).

So for example if you're thinking of a domain related to zebra farms, then go after zebrafarms.com rather than zebra-farms.com. Putting the hyphen in means that you have to explain that it's there to humans. Much more important is that for the search engines, you've got to compete against all those web pages on zebras and farms. Google has 1,500,000 of those web pages but not a single one on zebrafarms.

[EGOL]

I have one of these situations... but the other person registered first. I developed my site they didn't. They have ads on a one page site. Now my site has the beginnings of a "brand" and I am sure that the other person is getting traffic who type in the domain thinking that they will reach my site. I can't trademark because the words are common usage. My option is to buy their domain but they don't want to sell it.

Phooey!

[bobbb]

So for example if you're thinking of a domain related to zebra farms, then go after zebrafarms.com rather than zebra-farms.com.

At 9 dollars a pop get both and if it is going to make money get both .net too.

Owning a trademark does not guarantee that the domain is yours unless the name is so well know like Coca-cola or Pepsi and such.

If I produce a line of sports wear called Zebra Farms and someone had a farm called Zebra Farms it might not be an automatic even it TM'd

You specify what products will be sold with a TM. Case in point Excel speadsheet program and Excell gum (in Canada).

Sorel Corporation v. Domaine Sales Ltd.
http://www.arb-forum.com/domains/decisions/96674.htm

Columbia sportswear now owns the domain but it was bought from the "squatter".

This post has been edited by bobbb: Jul 15 2007, 12:01 PM

[JohnMu]

Domain names are like real estate. Buy them like crazy when they're cheap (not registered). They will not get cheaper, they will not be worth any less. If you register a name, try to get all variations of the name while your site is still undeveloped. Always try to get the most natural, wordword.com.

The problem with word-word.com (yours) vs wordword.com (theirs) (and similarly with all sorts of top level domains (yours) vs .com (theirs)) is that their domain name (wordword.com) will be more natural no matter how much you put into marketing yours. This will automatically let any marketing activities for your site work for theirs as well. The more you market your domain, the more you will be promoting theirs as well. This can go so far as to make the other domain name more expensive when you do finally decide to try to get it (topix.net bought topix.com for $1 million)... Ironically, it will be worth more, because you spent more on your own site.

If your domain name was trademarked, you could have gone after them (and almost certainly gotten the name). However, if it isn't, there's not much you can do -- other than to try to buy it from them, perhaps best through a proxy. This however requires that you do the math -- how much are you willing to invest into your site? How much do you plan to invest in the future? As well as: do you absolutely need to keep the domain name or could you still move to something else? The problem is - as mentioned above - the more you invest into your site, the more you'll be investing into their site. The longer you wait, the more expensive it would be to buy the name. If they're asking $1000 for it now, it might be cheaper than the $100'000 they'd want after a couple of years of your promoting their domain name.

Determining whether or not to buy the other name, to ignore it or to change to a completely different name also requires that you determine how many of your visitors come to your site through direct navigation (typing the URL into the browser bar). How many to do suppose are typing the wrong URL -- not just the non-dashed version, but all other misspellings? How much would it be worth to get them on their first try? How hard are they willing to try to reach your site? This is especially true for generic domain names, eg custom-wheels.com vs customwheels.com. Are they willing to search for your site if they don't remember the correct URL? What can you do to make sure that they remember the DASH, not just for themselves, but when referring friends to your site?

That last part is something that also matters on Google: imagine if a visitor were to like your site but accidentally link to the non-dashed version? This would not only send visitors of the link to the wrong site, but it would also push it in Google's results. Yikes!

If, as you say, the other site has almost no on-site factors that work for the keywords, then I assume that both sites do not have many links yet. While your site will gain links over time, provided it's good enough, the other one, provided it stays undeveloped, will not - at least not directly (eg non-dashed links to your site). Provided your site is good enough, of course. That is one item that you need to make sure of.

"SEO-scores" and "relevancy" factors are worthless -- ignore them. Google does not do third-party calculations based on keywords . Your numbers there do not impress them. What does impress them is how your site works, how happy visitors to your site are and how far they are willing to promote your site to their friends. In the end it's just a matter of marketing and customer satisfaction.

Just remember that sometimes people will ask for your products by the brand name and it would be a shame if they got "the other one" by accident .

John

[EGOL]

Nice reply John. Very good information and generous use of your time. Thanks!

[rhianna]

I'd like to thank you all for your replies
This is a great forum and you all show a high degree of intelligence.

@bwelford, I didn't know that the hyphen between the words would have a detrimental effect when I initially signed up for it. I thought the hyphen would make the words easier to read for the user.
Without the hyphen the domain reads similar to:
gobbledyword where as with the hyphen the user can either focus on gobbledy or word or the two together
Better luck next time as one learns from previous mistakes, right?
I was thinking along the lines of your advice "The only way to go now is to do what you say and build a better ranking website" but John has highlighted a number of factors to consider including the element that EGOL touches upon.

I appreciate bobb's post, the lawsuit mentioned is interesting but I knew I never had a trademark nor did I expect to create a tradename from this particular domain. I think bobb's advice "At 9 dollars a pop get both and if it is going to make money get both .net too" is great advice for anyone buying domain names.

John's advice is fantastic and so thorough -- thanks so much!
I'll comment on John's observation:

The problem is - as mentioned above - the more you invest into your site, the more you'll be investing into their site. The longer you wait, the more expensive it would be to buy the name.

I think I will continue to build the site but I'll go easy on the promotion.
If the owner of wordword.com is hoping to scalp me on the domain, I have no intention of buying.

Thanks again to all who responded

[bobbb]

Another way to make non-hyphenated names a bit more readable is like the first instead of the second.

TheBetterProject.COM

thebetterproject.com

[rhianna]

Bob, even if I write the domain as TheBetterProject.COM [on the web page], the url will appear as typed in the address bar as thebetterproject.com, right?

But yes, that would be a good method for "branding" in the future.

This post has been edited by rhianna: Jul 15 2007, 03:20 PM

[JohnMu]

Hi Rhi

If the owner of wordword.com is hoping to scalp me on the domain, I have no intention of buying.

You'll never know unless you ask . I would, however, find someone not related to your site who can ask (it will most likely help to keep the price lower). There are domain name professionals who could also handle it for you, depending on the expected price it might make sense to pay for their help. They will also be able to determine a realistic value of the domain name, perhaps giving you information about a good deal or helping you to push the price down.

If the domain was just registered, it is possible that it was registered as an investment and not with the desire to create a "normal site" on it. If this is the case, it will most likely be easier to find a realistic price.

Hope it helps!
John

[bobbb]

Bob, even if I write the domain as TheBetterProject.COM [on the web page], the url will appear as typed in the address bar as thebetterproject.com, right?

I did not mean it in that way. Domain names are case insensitive. I meant more like in print or on your own web site. It is only for visual impact.

There is now a delimiter for each word. It is not a space like we are used to in reading but a capital. A human can read TheBetterProject.COM a lot easier than thebetterproject.com

This post has been edited by bobbb: Jul 15 2007, 08:19 PM