BP Cares About BPCares.com

Elliot Silver
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27

BP CaresThere was a lot of commentary on Rick’s Blog when he mentioned that he bought and was successfully monetizing many BP-related domain names. It seems that whenever Rick writes something controversial, there are dozens of opinions voiced in the comment section of his blog, and this post was no different.

I received a Google News Alert today about an article appearing on Charlotte, North Carolina’s Fox affiliate website about the owner of BPCares.com. Apparently BP wants to acquire BPCares.com from the registrant, and he isn’t interested in selling it to the company. According to the article, the domain registrant purchased this and other companyCares.com domain names apparently after seeing NBACares.com used in action by the National Basketball Association.

The article mentioned that BP has tried to buy this domain name more than once and that the company keeps calling him about the name, but it didn’t mention whether BP threatened a UDRP or any other legal action. In my opinion, it wouldn’t be outside of the realm of possibility if it did threaten legal action, especially since the owner apparently confirmed that he registered other names related to other companies.

Smartly, the domain owner does not appear to have BPCares.com monetized (or even resolving to another website), and he didn’t mention a sales price, so perhaps his aim wasn’t to profit from the BP brand. However, it does appear to be listed for sale on Sedo without an asking price.

I don’t understand the motive for having this article written, as it only serves to show that he did register the domain name along with other corporate domain names that are similar. A quick search shows the registrant also appears to own GoogleCares.com and DisneyCares.com. If the registrant or someone he knows hadn’t mentioned the situation to the news station, it likely would have remained below the radar.

Let’s hope for his sake that BP doesn’t care enough about BPCares.com to take legal action because that could get quite expensive.

PeoplesBank.com Expires; Who Is to Blame?

Elliot Silver
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7

On July 30, 2010, PeoplesBank.com expired, and it now appears to be coming up for auction on NameJet. The previous registrant was Maine Bank and Trust, located at 6 Atlantis Way in Lewiston, Maine. According to some research I did, TDBank is (or was) located in that space, which jives up with the @banknorth.com email address used by the registrant, since Banknorth is now known as TD Bank (they were known as TD Banknorth for a while).

I’ve done some research, and it appears that the ownership of this domain name is about as confusing as the history of bank mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, and other activities that faced many local banks. Maine Bank and Trust owned this domain name (and is still listed as registrant). Similarly, Maine Bank and Trust also owned MaineBank.com back in 2001. If you visit MaineBank.com now, you’ll see a message that says Maine Bank & Trust is now People’s United Bank, and you are forwarded to Peoples.com.

The strange thing to me is that People’s United Bank and TD Bank do not appear to be related. Somehow, TD Bank ended up with PeoplesBank.com, while People’s United Bank ended up with Maine Bank & Trust, but not the PeoplesBank.com domain name that shows Maine Bank & Trust as its most recent registrant.

Making things even more confusing is the historical information on TD Bank’s website regarding the Peoples brand name: “The company first opened its doors as Portland Savings Bank in Portland, Maine, in 1852, and later grew through a series of mergers and became Peoples Heritage Bank in 1983. At the turn of the millennium, the opportunity for growth presented itself again as Peoples Heritage Bank, through several acquisitions, expanded deeper into New England and took the name Banknorth.”

Although this particular domain name has not had a website on it in quite some time, it’s an important domain name for security purposes.

Across the United States and throughout the world, there are a number of People’s Banks. Some of these banks include:

  • Peoples United Bank (Peoples.com)
  • The Peoples Bank (ThePeoples.com)
  • People’s Bank (PeoplesBank-WA.com)
  • Peoples Bank (PeoplesBancorp.com)
  • PeoplesBank (BankAtPeoples.com)
  • People’s Bank (PeoplesBankMTW.com)
  • Many more can be found by searching Google

Hopefully someone from TD Bank, People’s, or possibly one of the other banks known as Peoples will make sure this domain name doesn’t fall into the hands of someone who could potentially use it maliciously. Compete shows that over 6,000 people a month visit PeoplesBank.com.

Example of Smart Usage of a Generic Brand and Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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9

Walking through a farmers’ market a couple of days ago, I saw a shop with BBQ sauces, spices, supplies, and seasonings. One unique product I saw was seasoned skewers, which are grilling skewers that contain seasonings on the outside, allowing your chicken or beef to be seasoned from the inside while being grilled. Seems like an interesting concept.

I think the company did a great job choosing a name for its product. Had the company been called XYZ seasoned skewers or something brandable like Taste Skewers, I probably would have forgotten what they are called. Smartly, the company owns and brands its product as “SeasonedSkewers.com”

I think it’s smart because it’s branded as its product description. The company could have chosen a cutesy brand, but people probably would have referred to the product as seasoned skewers. Additionally, if they hadn’t called themselves the product name, it would have given a competitor an opportunity to enter the space, since the product is unique but not one of a kind.

If your company develops a new product, sometimes the smartest thing to call it is exactly what it should be called.

LenDale White Posts Tim Tebow Haircut Picture & Advertises Parked Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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0
Picture of Tim Tebow Haircut
Tim Tebow haircut photo from Twitpic: (http://twitpic.com/2ckyyv)

One of the funniest photos making the rounds on Twitter and the Internet during the past few days is a photo of the new Tim Tebow haircut, which was distributed by LenDale White, running back for the Denver Broncos. As many football fans know, NFL rookies are subject to minor hazing rituals (like carrying veterans’ pads, bringing water, and other ridicule) during football training camp.

Tim Tebow, popular former Florida Gators quarterback and Broncos’ rookie, is no different than any other rookie when it comes to pranks and hazing. Known for his deep religious beliefs, Tebow was given a hilarious Friar Tuck-esque haircut last week by his veteran teammates. LenDale White then posted the photo on his Twitter page using Twitpic, and it was seen by thousands of fans who follow White and others.

After checking out White’s Twitter page and seeing the picture, I went to visit the url being prominently advertised by White on his Twitter page. Surprisingly, the LenDaleWhite.com website resolves to a default parking page with PPC links rather than a Lendale White fan page. There’s also a link on the page that says “This domain may be for sale.”

From the looks of his Twitter presence, LenDale White does a pretty good job of marketing himself. However, he needs to do a better job of looking after his website.

IHG Fought to Control Domain Names But Parks Two of Their Own Generics

Elliot Silver
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5

A while back, I wrote about Intercontinental Hotel Group’s massive UDRP filing for 1,529 domain names that they believe infringed on some of their hotel brands. They ended up winning a large majority of the domain names in this filing, and the few domain names that I checked smartly forward to the proper IHG website (see staybridge-suites-reno.com and hotel-indigo-london-paddington.com as examples).

I was doing some domain intelligence today, and I came across something that was very surprising to me. Intercontinental Hotels Group owns at least a couple of fantastic generic domain names such as NashvilleHotels.com and SanAntonioHotels.com, yet they aren’t forwarding them to any of their own websites. Instead, they are parking them.

Sure, they are making money when a visitor clicks on one of their competitor’s links, but they are losing potential customers. According to the IHG website, there are 32 hotels within 30 miles from San Antonio and 18 hotels within 30 miles from Nashville. With all of these hotels, you’d think they would at least try to drive dollars instead of earning pennies (and even paying for their own traffic since Holiday Inn is a PPC advertiser and a IHG hotel).

I don’t understand why the company would park these names instead of forwarding them to the IHG main reservation website. It doesn’t seem to make sense that they would meticulously forward the UDRP-won names to the proper place, yet they haven’t done anything with these two great generic domain names.

PS, if someone from IHG reads this, I would love to buy these domain names. You know how to contact me.

GetAFreelancer.com Acquired Freelancer.com Saw Spike in Traffic

Elliot Silver
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7

Freelancer.com and GetAFreelancer.comSometime around early October of 2009, GetAFreelancer.com acquired the better domain name Freelancer.com for an undisclosed amount, although it was reportedly a “six figure sum.” The company then moved to the easy to remember Freelancer.com domain name, and according to Compete results, traffic numbers are greatly improved, despite the fact that Freelancer.com didn’t seem to receive much traffic prior to the changeover.

According to Comptete, in the last year, GetAFreelancer.com maxed out at around 289,000 unique visits per month in July 0f 2009. As of May of 2010, Freelancer.com received 364,000+ unique visits according to the same Compete chart. While this comparison doesn’t take into consideration additional advertising that may or may not be in place, the acquisition does show the value in a generic domain name for a company like this.

So what was the purchase price for Freelancer.com? Although I couldn’t find a published sales price, I looked through my email archives to find an exchange I had with the former owner of the domain name. In May of 2006, when times were arguably better than what they were towards the end of 2009, the owner was asking “$100k usd.” I didn’t reply back to negotiate since it was out of my budget at that time.

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