Domain Name Questions

Writing Good Content is Time Consuming, But Here’s a Tip to Get It (Cheap)

People always ask me how I find time to write articles on my blog as well as articles on my various websites to keep them up to date and driving traffic. For my blog, it’s pretty easy. When I was in an office with co-workers, if I saw or did something interesting, I would jump over to their office to discuss. Since I don’t have co-workers any longer, I use my blog as an outlet. Writing content for my blog is pretty easy.

However, writing good content for my other websites is not as easy. Although I enjoy some things related to the topics at hand, I am not familiar enough about all of them to write good content. On my geodomain names, I frequently publish press releases or articles that were submitted by readers. This is easy enough, but it doesn’t happen enough to keep the website updated with a variety of interesting information.

One thing I’ve been doing successfully on DogWalker.com would be easy enough for others to do and I want to share this (not unique, but good) idea. When people sign up for listings, I thank them and offer them the opportunity to do an interview or submit an article on any dog-related topic. This has been a big hit and is greatly appreciated. The articles are posted on the DogWalker.com Blog.

Surprisingly, many people have articles they’ve written but haven’t published online yet, and they are very happy to share them.  I have articles on a range of topics either published or scheduled to be published in the coming weeks. There are exercise articles, tips for training dogs, an article about how to help dogs who are afraid of fireworks…etc.

I have been posing the articles and linking to them on Digg and Facebook, which helps drive more traffic and awareness. In addition, a couple of submitters have posted links to the articles on their websites. It’s really a win win for all parties. Since I am using WordPress for my platform, publishing the articles takes under 5 minutes each, and the benefits are considerable.

If you operate a website where you have advertisers – especially small businesses, you should consider offering to feature your advertisers in a guest article or interview. It adds good content (for free) and can help build your relationship with the advertiser while bringing more traffic to your site.


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gTLD Management

Why It’s Bad Not to Respond to UDRP

A few days ago, Mike Berkens reported on the UDRP decision for 7Days.com, a decision that went in favor of the complainant. The owner of the domain name did not file a response to the UDRP, so he couldn’t present his case for ownership. I think not responding to a UDRP is bad for a couple of reasons (unless you are advised by a legal professional that not responding would be in your best interest).

First, you don’t have an opportunity to defend your ownership of the domain name. You’re letting the complainant make its case and aren’t able to rebut its complaint. If the submitted evidence is enough for a panelist to make a decision in favor of the complainant, you could lose the case pretty easily.

The second reason may be less obvious but could pose a future threat to your business. Not even considering that a UDRP loss can be used by a future complainant to show bad faith on other domain names, it could also show others that you are a sitting duck. A non-response could encourage other companies to file UDRP cases for other names you own, believing you may not defend your rights to own other domain names, possibly making their chance better.

Whether you decide to hire a lawyer or not is your decision to make based on the strength of your case, value of your domain names, and/or financial situation, but I don’t think not responding is for the best (unless under the advice of an attorney, which I’ve heard about). If you don’t care enough about your domain name to defend it, perhaps you can just give the name to the company to get them to withdraw the UDRP.


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gTLD Management