In more than one UDRP proceeding, pages from the Wayback Machine (found on Archive.org) have been submitted as evidence against the domain owner. The Wayback Machine is an Internet archive that takes snapshots of a website at various points in time, and the pages are indexed on the site.

In the case of the Cleveland Browns UDRP for Browns.com in May of 2011, the team shared results from the Wayback Machine from 2005, which showed links to football related links and merchandise. This was one major factor that seems to have doomed the domain owner.

People might ask why someone would want to have their site removed from the Wayback Machine, if not for nefarious reasons. Let’s say you purchase a descriptive domain name today, and the name may also be considered part of another company’s trademark. Perhaps you love apples and bought AppleStore.com (only an example).

The fact that the registrant change might be considered by a UDRP panelist as a “new registration” could be one strike since it wouldn’t pre-date the trademark.  If there were previously links on the site that may have infringed on the technology company’s usage, it could be strike number two. If you are planning to utilize the name in a way that does not infringe on another company’s marks, you shouldn’t have to worry that the company will come after you with evidence of previous infringement.

As we all know, there aren’t necessarily three strikes in a UDRP proceeding, and these two facts might satisfy the three elements required in a UDRP. That being said, you should be able to remove those pages from the Wayback Machine to avoid future problems, and there’s an easy way to do it.

Full details can be found on Archive.org, but the  gist  of it is that you need to add a special command in your robots.txt file that most websites have. According to the removal guide:

To exclude the Internet Archive’s crawler (and remove documents from the Wayback Machine) while allowing all other robots to crawl your site, your robots.txt file should say:

User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /

It’s pretty easy to do, although I haven’t done it with any of my sites. I am not sure if there are downsides to this, and if so, what those downsides are, so you should look into this before undertaking this.

There is a definite draw for people to build up a personal brand around their names – either first or last name. Earning name recognition or associating a person’s recognition with a business, gaining personal merit/achievement, and the hope for having ones’ name associated with a successful enterprise are very attractive motivations for naming a business after oneself.

When deciding on how to brand your business or website, it is important to take some things into account before you jump into a personal branding strategy (similar to what I did with my blog and what several others have done as well).  If you wish to start a blog and decide to use a personally branded domain name, your readers will likely come to expect regular input from you. While there are definite upsides to building a personal relationship with readers, there are some catches.

For one, it leaves very little room for breaks. Since most people will have grown accustomed to your regular input, there is a chance that they may not stick around if you decide to take some time off. Some readers may only be going to your blog to read what you have to say, so even hiring a “guest blogger” to take over for a bit would still drive them away. If you aren’t writing your own posts, the content could reflect poorly upon you.

Another big consideration is if you decide to sell off your business to move on to bigger and better things. Imagine selling a blog with your name on it to someone who will produce content you can’t control. Furthermore, visitors may know that you aren’t running the site any longer, and they may not be interested in returning. This is something a buyer would consider when making an acquisition, and the offer may be less than if it were on a descriptive or branded domain name.

Investing in a less personal branding approach may work better in the long run for some people. By creating a slightly less intimate connection to a person or family, you are making your domain name more versatile for future growth and use, whether that is by you or by another entity who acquires it.

A friend of a friend emailed me a press release announcing that 99Designs, a popular  logo and web design company, just received a $35 million investment from Accel Partners and other angel investment firms. Wow… that’s a lot of money, especially when it didn’t seem to me like they had funding needs.

So what will 99Designs do with this very large investment? I would imagine they will spend some of the money on marketing the brand. Another suggestion from the TechCrunch article covering the news was that the company might be interested in acquiring a smaller competitor. The logo design space is crowded, and acquiring another company might be a smart way to grow.

My personal suggestion would be to reach out to the team at Logo.com and see if there’s any chance of an acquisition. Since this is a very recently launched website that will likely become a thorn in the side of 99Designs, the revenue is probably light and it will be cheaper now than if the site is a big success. Not only would this type of acquisition eliminate a potential competitor, but it would also allow them to grab a great domain name that is memorable and likely good for SEO.

Of course 99Designs doesn’t need to buy Logo.com, but now is the time that this company is obtainable at its cheapest (in my opinion).

I have no idea what it would take to buy Logo.com, and I can’t speculate on whether Logo.com would be interested in selling at this early stage in their history, but now seems like a good time to get a deal done.

** Disclaimer: One of the principals of Logo.com is a good friend, although I don’t know if the company would be for sale. However, if the company is anything like mine, everything is for sale for a price.

In my opinion, there are a number of factors that make a blog successful, but I think the most important thing is the amount of discussion in the comment section of each post. Some might argue that this is a sign of the health of a blog (I agree), but I also believe it’s what keeps a blog successful and popular.

I primarily buy and sell domain names for a living, in addition to managing a few of my company’s websites. Even with that being said, there are a lot of things I don’t know and/or are not doing as best as I could be doing. My knowledge on many topics is limited. When I write a blog post, it’s the comments and dialog that often add more to the topic than the original blog post.

I appreciate the contributions of those who comment on my blog. Your insights and ideas enhance what I write, and those thoughts are beneficial to me and to others who read this blog.

When you start a blog – or you start a website that has a blog-like feel/concept, it’s important to keep this in mind. The more you encourage discussion and participate in the discussion, the more successful your website will be. It’s one reason why I don’t recommend building a website on a random domain name that covers a topic you have no personal interest in covering.

When a website owner is engaged with its readers, it will increase the “stickiness” and help make a blog successful. Keep this in mind when you are working on your next site. Encourage discussion and sharing, and be willing to participate. Sure, it’s not as easy as a one way communication stream, but it will pay dividends.