Forbes: "Why Defensive Domain Name Registrations Aren't a Good Deal for Small Businesses"

By: RH

Eric Goldman a contributor at Forbes did a piece on small business and defensive registrations.

From the article:

This conventional wisdom plays on the worst fears of small businesses: If you don’t buy lots of domain names right now, you will forever lose control of your brand, and then you will lose your customers. Your business will be destroyed because you were too cheap to spend a few extra bucks buying just one more low-cost domain name.

Don’t fall for these scare tactics. They are part of a cynical sales pitch from domain name vendors hoping to get your hard-earned money by manufacturing new opportunities for mischievous domain name registrations—and then making you pay to prevent that possibility.

You can read the whole article here.

Defensive registrations are going to be talked about a lot more with the new tld program coming in the future. How many registrations can a small business afford ? Even if they can afford them, should they register them ? This will prove to be another confusing ip dilemma for many small businesses. They will get consulted and read articles on both sides of the arguement. If you are a pizza business in New York at JoesPizzaNyc.com for example, do you register JoesPizza.Nyc ? What if there is a .pizza and a .nyc and throw in a .restaurant. I think if there are many strings that integrate with one another than the .com really comes out the winner. JoesPizzaNyc.com may want to have the .nyc and the .pizza but he would be foolish to use them in branding imo. They would be pure defensive regs to keep from another Joe in New York who make a the pizza. Again IMO.

Comments

[Orangelo]

Horrible, dumb article by Forbes. It shows how little this guy knows about domain names.

Did he even speak to domain investors when writing this?

He says, "Nobody guesses domains anymore by typing them in". WTF????? Talk about an assumption with no proof.

He's right about avoiding buying the new TLDs though.

[miguel]

let's keep in mind that a domain is a virtual land :)
it mean that you as a business owner will always be looking to own more land and the best land is great opportunity, and in this virtual land you got neighbors
the ones with better land are the ones with better business ,let put it this way a farmer own a good land but next to it's land there is more land and is forsale what should this farmer do buy the land next to it's land or buy land far from it's own land same think happen here if you own similar domains you got better ways to do business the more land you own the better you can do that's the way i think

[S Douglas]

Interesting article with legitimate concerns for the uninitiated. My recommendation to ANY company is to simply sign up for a short consultation with a professional domain investing company. Some are well-known for inexpensive education and factual investment choices for any size company. There is Domaining.com, Successclick.com, Protrada, and others, each top specialists depending on what you need to know. The cost can be as low as $499 for a complete course and understanding that will save you thousands in the long run. Hope this helps.