There are two ways website domain names could go bad. They could completely lose themselves and become expired (when owners don’t pay attention to reminders that they need to renew). Or they could just be born that way. It’s in their names and there’s nothing you can do to save them.
1. When Domain Names Go Bad
There was an article that was brought to our attention by a client a while back that was a great example of why you should never let your domain name go bad. A gentleman was caught speeding by a “Gotcha Cam” (a police speed camera). When the gentleman went to the police stations website to ask a question about his ticket, he found that they had let their domain name expire. To this gentleman’s delight, he bought up the domain and created a new website with a forum where citizens can post complaints about these speed cameras.
It doesn’t always end up with quite this extreme, but a competitor could notice your domain has expired and purchase it. Or someone with a similar name could purchase your domain name and use it as their own. (And they probably won’t let it expire like you did, so you won’t be getting it back.)
2. When Domains are Born Bad
These are probably the funniest mistake you could make, and provide us with much humor. But we don’t recommend this. The only hope for these domain names is to completely change them.
therapistfinder.com (Therapist Finder)
speedofart.com (Speed of Art)
expertsexchange.com (Experts Exchange)
If you would like to report of an Ad Gone Bad, please contact us at info@transformationmarketing.com.
Note: We are a marketing firm, not a law firm. We are not aware of any copyright laws we may be violating by posting pictures of advertisements that are in the public domain to this blog. This site is just for fun. If you own the rights to any of the pictures or ads posted and feel that violated your copyright, please contact me and we will remove it. If you want us to fix your marketing mishap we can do that too.