The Truth About Internet Real Estate

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For those who have are not familiar with online business models, there is a lot of confusion regarding what belongs to whom, and in a small and somewhat “blind to internet practices” community such as the Kern River Valley often things turn into baseless accusations.

For instance, I use a lot of the terms “Kern Valley”, “Kern River Valley” and or “KV/KRV” in selecting a domain name when I am building a website related to our region. I have had word come to me that in the community another webmaster has accused me of “stealing” his name because he has used similar terms in his productions.

This entry serves to eliminate some of the myths regarding internet real estate.

MYTH # 1

There is no such thing as stealing when purchasing a domain name. All domain names are one of a kind, and if you relate it to a retail shopping experience, there is only one of each sitting on a shelf waiting for someone to come along and purchase it. If  a person is looking at an item on a shelf, saying to themselves “I want that” and they don’t buy it and a second person comes along and says “I want that” and then purchases it, then who does the item belong to?

Just because there are similarities between 2 domain names, does not imply one was stolen from the other. Go to google, and do a search on “pets” and see how many websites employ the use of the word “pets” in their domain. If that is what a site is about, then why not use pets in the name just like my use of the term Kern Valley when I am building a tourism website about the valley.

RULE OF THUMB: As soon as you have an idea you wish to pursue online, you should always purchase the domain name. You should also purchase variations of the domain name to ensure someone does not develop a website to capitalize on misspells and typos. I personally own 100’s of domains based on this premise. Purchase the domain names even if you are months or years away from developing the idea so it is available when you are ready. For  cheap source of  domain names try Go Daddy.

MYTH # 2

Just because you may have thought of it, means it belongs to you. Say for instance you were looking at a piece of real estate for sale that had a great view, and thought it would make an excellent location for a hotel, but you never went to the Realtor to inquire about purchasing it.  Then another savvy developer eyeballed the same piece of property, bought it and built a hotel on it. Would you accuse him of stealing “your” piece of property and “your” idea? There are lots of great ideas for websites out there, and often more than one person is thinking the same as you. Heck, they  might even get the idea from you, but until you take action and claim it as your own, it belongs to the first bidder.

I have had people come to me and suggest domain names to purchase, whether for me to build a site for them, or to keep someone else from buying it to exploit it.  Then when it comes time to pay for my services, they back out of the deal whether for personal or financial reasons and make an accusation of theft or unscrupulous behavior.  This is completely inaccurate and uncalled for. It is practically laughable except for the fact that the accusers like to spread rumors.

As a professional I have never purchased a business owners domain name for my own use with one exception, and that was when the said business owner was personally speaking publicly about going out of business. As they decided not to close their doors, I have since offered that business to purchase their business domain name from me at my cost. After 6 months they still have not acted on this offer. I have purchased domains based on the name of events that occur for the purpose of promoting tourism in our region and selling souvenirs, I see nothing unscrupulous about this just as I would see nothing unscrupulous about purchasing a domain about the 4th of July in effort to sell American Flags.

Everyone has a right to compete to earn a living. My business venue is the internet and business services, and I am expanding into selling promotional products on a retail basis as well as on the internet. This is my right. I had another business in town sell me a product then announce he was building a website in competition with one of my own that was under slow development. I took offense to the prospect of the vendor announcing he would compete with his client and rapidly finished development of the site. Now he spreads rumors as his project is not going so well.  So be it.

Speculative domain purchases. It is  a very common practice to purchase domains based on an upcoming event or project. If I knew that a developer was going to build a theme park in Kern County, you would be sure that I and other web professionals would swoop on domains such as KernCountyThemePark.com, BakersfieldThemePark.com and related domains for attracting search engines to their pages. As public knowledge would come about, people would be searching online for news about the theme park and this would be an opportunity for the webmaster to make money off of google clicks, advertising hotels and motels etc.  From a business perspective and being restricted regionally, I have made speculative domain purchases for the Kern River Valley.  I live here and have inside access to upcoming events so it is easiest to receive such information and make such purchases. Keep in mind I do not always have the opportunity to develop such sites as I am working on a number of projects, and I would always love to be paid to develop sites for people rather than build them for slow income through clicks or sales of merchandise.

So with all that is said, keep in mind rights to ownership in domain purchasing. Also keep in mind what rumors you might hear on the street about my activities are just that. Rumors on the street, and I don’t care how “esteemed” the person may “appear” to be in our community.  If you wish to know facts on a situation, feel free to contact me for enlightenment.

If you are looking to purchase your own domain, try using Go Daddy, they are by far the easiest and least expensive option. If you get lost or confused, I am available to help you with the process. Don’t let them make you feel empowered by their site building tools, your site will look just like a home made template site. Hire a professional!

February 2010


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