miss spelt domain name sharks

[BASILF]

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In this case I'd say yes as they are indirectly generating US sales ( have a look at the page they've set up).

It's easy enough with hindsight for a merchant to say "we could have done that", but the fact remains that they didn't, and letting affiliates come up with ingenious ideas , then nicking them is not a good way to progress a programme.

Ingenious my arse!!!

So I set up a burger place next door to Burger King but call it Bugger King and then when someone comes in charge Burger King 10% to send them next door - its blatent passing off and just short of theft. However if Burger King say I can do this then OK but if they don't then I have no option but to stop when they say stop!! If I stop but then start sending customers to McDonalds then lawyers and damages come to mind.

I have mistypo domains but they only have a value because they attract traffic wanting to go somewhere else and rely on the marketing and advertising of someone else. I will just right them off if the company involved starts complaining.

[John Jupp]

I thought Bugger King featured in the Gay Restaurants Guide.....I'll get my coat.

[gunneradt]

oh it's youuuuuuuuuuuuu

just twigged - hope the job's going well.

Hi all

Thanks for all your advice - As I am new to affiliate marketing it is very helpful to see what is considered acceptable and not acceptable.

As a novice it seemed to me that it was just plain dishonest as they are profiting from peoples honest mistakes on search keywords at Laura Ashley's cost- but as most of you pointed out, this is a missed opportunity by Laura Ashley so just accept the situation as it is.

Not too keen to hear what the guy will want for the domain name though.

Thanks again
Joel

[KieronD]

Hi there

I am in my first week at Laura Ashley and have been looking at the current affiliate marketing that we are running through CJ and Linkshare.

By coincidence I found that one of our key affiliates in CJ is earning a great deal of commission from us through a misspelt domain name that he obviously bought 'www.laurashley.com' note the missing 'a' on ashley.

As I am new to this arena i thought that it may be good to get some advice from some experts about the best way to deal with this as obviously we do not want to lose the income but we do not want to pay someone for traffic that should be ours anyway.

Any advice would be greatly received.

Many thanks
Joel

Welcome to the forum Joel, good to see you here representing Laura Ashley.

For what its worth I think its this type of behaviour that gives Affiliate Marketing a bad name. Any moron can register a mis-spell of a brand's domain and then cash in on type-ins. But in my opinion thats not what AM is about.

Yes of course Laura Ashley should have registered that domain years ago but they didn't, lesson learnt, now its time to move on.

If I were you I'd simply call the affiliate explain that you're not happy with them using a mis-spelling of a trademark name and ask that they hand it over. You don't need to pay them for the domain name. If they say no, kick them off the affiliate program immediately and take legal action.

[Hero]

However if Burger King say I can do this then OK but if they don't then I have no option but to stop when they say stop!!

It used to be that we didn't have to put "best practices" guidelines in place for programs... ah, the good old days. We are now adding a sentence: "if you want to do this, you need to get the merchant's consent first".

Yes, the merchant should have registered as many variations and misspellings of their name as they could (true, you can never nail them all, but there are some very obvious and basic ones you need to register from day 1), especially if they are serious about their brand name representation/protection, but the affiliate registering it without checking "because it wasn't forbidden" is not an answer good enough.

As to how to action - it all depends on how the affiliate is using the url. Usually, you have more to gain from working with the affiliate, rather than chucking them out. However, I really don't see the point in a straight redirect from the misspelling to the merchant just to get the cookie, when the customer mistypes the url in their browser. To be used in ppc, yes, to be used to build a site, yes, all with the merchant's blessings obviously.

[Stellar]

So I set up a burger place next door to Burger King but call it Bugger King and then when someone comes in charge Burger King 10% to send them next door - its blatent passing off and just short of theft. However if Burger King say I can do this then OK but if they don't then I have no option but to stop when they say stop!! If I stop but then start sending customers to McDonalds then lawyers and damages come to mind.

I have mistypo domains but they only have a value because they attract traffic wanting to go somewhere else and rely on the marketing and advertising of someone else. I will just right them off if the company involved starts complaining.

I see your point. However, loads of shops place themselves next to big name stores in order to get some of the footfall that is heading for the big name store. They are cashing in on someone elses marketing. It is very very common. Not quite the same as a misspelling though I suppose.

[Greavsie]

Hi Joel

Andy from LinkShare. I would consider terminating the affiliation and make sure you do not let them join OUR network and start doing the same thing under a different name. Linkshare do monitor for typosquatters and block them where possible.

the site itself is worth nothing if they cannot monetise it, so they'll probably end up parking it on sedoor Google if he owns hundreds. do as UKOffer suggests, seek legal advice on obtaining the domain.

RE: ingenious. i'm pretty positive most users typing in the wrong address like we all do everyday, retype the right address in instances like this. I cannot believe that many users bothering to type in laurashley.com would not add the extra "a" when they realise their error. Or return to google/yahoo and try again

[DomainsUnlimited]

Firstly, typo domain names are big business. Some of the master domainers live offthem. Most of you must have heard of Kevin Ham? Worth $300m, he has cornered all .cm (Cameroon) for mistypings of .com Kevin Ham, the $300 million master of Web domains - June 1, 2007
Also, domain law in the US is different to the UK I'll see your domain name in (US) Court! | The Register

Personally, LauraAshley, and all major plcs should register all variations and misspellings of their brand name and the respective domain extensions .com .us .org .tv .net .info .co.uk .org.uk and regularly update their T&C's on ppc advertising on SE's for affiliateers. Joel should contact the affiliate thank him for his custom derived from the .com; Joel should then peruse the owners of the .co.uk who are actually passing off and legally reclaim that domain.

Having personal experience over the years, having registered the names of celebrities (living and deceased) and even trademarked domain names - as long as you have a disclaimer that you have no association implied or otherwise with the relevant party but are merely promoting the benefits of their services - you can work and earn online legally.

Good luck.

[sgpratley]

OK, the particular example in question might not be 'ingenious', but what I meant was on a more general level, if affiliates pick up traffic that merchants may have missed, that are not going to the optimum landing pages or could otherwise be diverted to competition, that should be a good thing. Deciding after the event that you don't like it is not really on.

However... (squeal of tyres as Steve executes a high speed U turn)

Having had another look at this site, the domain redirects to another before you go to the merchant so it wouldn't have shown up quite as easily. I imagine all the traffic looks like it comes from bedland.com

all with the merchant's blessings obviously.

I think that's the crux of the matter. I don't think there's been any transparency in how this affiliate drives their traffic.

[Hero]

Firstly, typo domain names are big business.

So is adware... that doesn't make either of them right.

Being on this issue, a question that has been puzzling me for quite a few months now and I'm not sure how to tackle, so would like the affiliates' opinions on this.

I want to add 2 "best practices" to all the programs I look after, which aren't exactly ppc restrictions or major changes to Ts & Cs, as they are afterall best practice guidelines: not to use competitor names to send traffic to the merchant and not register similar urls without the merchant's consent.

Would you guys expect this to go through the normal notice period, or would it be ok to add in and drop you an email for the updated terms?

thanks

[drivetowin]

I would be very against having a broadbrush "not register similar urls without the merchants consent" -

why? well a) similar is too vague a term - some will say bugger king is similar to burger king, some would say it isn't - if you want to exclude names then list them explicitly, don't rely on a vague term which is open to interpretation. It shouldn't take that long to do and has to be worth the effort.

b) what if the name is made up of generic words, are you then going to say if the merchant is called paintbrush.co.uk an affiliate can't register the domain paintbrushes.co.uk - it's very similar........

I'm sorry but I stick by my original stance on this, if the owner of the domain can't be bothered to register misspellings, they reap what they sow - 200 domain names = £1K, not doing it = priceless...

[ParisEngLtd]

I still maintain 100% it is still far better to have an affiliate using your misspellings rather than a competitor, if you haven't registered the names that's your error and you are lucky your competitors haven't picked then up.

I own a fair few eBid.net misspellings, most are key strike errors so look far enough from the original domain not to infringe the trade mark in any way. Luckily for eBid I choose to use these for my own purposes but could just as easily (if I chose to) be using them to promote eBay links. eBid has been around long enough to have snapped these up themselves and have chosen not too.

All this talk of court action and turfing him out of the affiliate programme is a bit extreme, if you now really want him to stop using the domain maybe you should try to come to an amicable arrangement to buy this off of him?

[BASILF]

All this talk of court action and turfing him out of the affiliate programme is a bit extreme, if you now really want him to stop using the domain maybe you should try to come to an amicable arrangement to buy this off of him?

The domain has little value if Laura Ashley did not exist so the owner is leeching off them. OK it may be acceptable to them but if it isn't then they should simply pull the plug on the affiliation. The domain then would be worth very little.

[kier]

I'm sorry but I stick by my original stance on this, if the owner of the domain can't be bothered to register misspellings, they reap what they sow - 200 domain names = £1K, not doing it = priceless...

I disagree. I think affiliates should be looking to add value to a merchant, not searching for their mistakes to exploit. Everyone makes mistakes, even in business. I'm surprised to see that you think its OK for affiliates to try and find them in this way. This kind of activity perpetuates negative stereotypes about affiliates and thus harms everyone.

[John Jupp]

I'm sorry Kier but I just can't agree. Let's take this from a different tangent and not look at misspellings but at actual domains that are not misspelt.

An affiliate owns bathroom.com, bathroom.co.uk, bathrooms.com and bathrooms.co.uk (I'm sure you know who you are without my naming you). I have been privately offered ibathroom.co.uk as I wish to create a dropship bathroom supply or as an affiliate promote an existing bathroom supplier.

Don't you think that the domain holder of bathroom.co.uk and derivatives will be a bit peeved? It's even in the same sector and but for a mere single letter is exactly the same as them. Yet they haven't registered ibathroom.co.uk (please don't bid against me if I exercise my option to buy) but could legitimately claim I am infringing on their commercial activity. If they were a merchant with an affiliate scheme I would probably use ibathroom.co.uk to promote them, if I didn't launch my own retail venture, yet even as a retailer, the use of the domain in your eyes would be infringing the owner of bathroom.co.uk, a statement I just don't agree with.