I have a question are you affiliated with Dave B. (4dmmb) and his team, seems like his information and resources are exactly the same as yours. Just curious.

Brian C.

“Some of these “fish” have brand names in them. Whether you use them or not is totally up to you. I’ve heard of marketers getting Cease and Desist letters from having a brand name in their domain name and the marketer had to take the site down. That has never happened to me as of yet. If it ever does, I’ll take the site down with no issues. That’s my thoughts on that- not to be mistaken for advice or legal counsel”

If this is your “free” advice I shudder to think what you might suggest with your paid services.

Your site is an excellent example of the idea that on the Internet “everyone” is an expert.

Might be wise to include a disclaimer that federal lawsuits can be downright expensive!

I wouldn’t want to put the time and effort into building and promoting a site with a domain name that’s clearly a TM violation. If one of them belongs to a company that aggressively defends its TMs, you’re looking at losing the domain name and all your hard work.

Greg, I don’t think they are trying to hide anything from you, just increase conversions.

I have tested the price thing with my reverse cell phone lookup site, and not mentioning the price upfront dramatically increases conversions, I am talking about 300% increase!

I know it might annoy a few people, but I am a marketer and my job is to increase conversions not make everyone happy at the cost of conversions. I am guessing the 80/20 rule applies here.

As for domains with brand names in them, if you are asked to take it down, there is a simple solution without losing rankings.

Simply do a 301 redirect(.htaccess 301 redirect) to your new domain name and within a week or 2 your new domain name will replace the domain with the brand name.

You won’t lose rankings and the links pointing to your brand domain will now count towards your new domain(This only applies in Google).

Don’t be afraid to test things and make mistakes, it’s the only way you are going to get ahead in this business.

Remember, testing is the only way you will know for sure if something works. I have tested many things that people say don’t work or you shouldn’t do, but they have worked fine for me.

-Brett

re: Price – We marketers are always testing something, aren’t we? lol! Thing is, the only way to make conversions better is to test new things, see the results, and get feedback. I’m sure the guys will appreciate hearing feedback on the lack of obvious price.

re: brand names in domains – Sounds like you’re thinking like I do…. I’ve got what? $10 or so and a little time invested in the site. If a “Big Boy” says take it down and stop selling their stuff there – I’ll take it down quick as a wink.

Thanks for reading!

I’m putting Part 2 together right now so keep your eyes out for a new list of fish!

Jennifer

Best wishes

Back to using brand names though. I have been toying with this idea for a little while, there are some great keywords to tap into. There is always the risk of being forced to pull it down.
But, what has it cost you? A few $ for the domain and a couple of hours to put up a basic site.
I still dither over the ethics of hanging onto the big boys coat tails by using brand names…

One thing that does tickle me, I get hits for Potpiegirl articles just for mentioning Potpiegirls cute beaver and The Dam Way in my side bar!

A bit of testing and tweaking, you might get away with not having brand names in the domain name and having decent content with site tags optimised correctly.

Thanks for the fish Jennifer and another great post.

Ya know what’s “funny”? I never noticed any of that. I always just click the buy button if I wonder how much something is.

I guess I’ve gone “blind” to salespages after looking at them for all these years….lol!

After getting to know these guys I feel pretty comfortable saying that they aren’t trying to hide anything – I hate that it comes across that way.

Jennifer

The third link I could not find the price either.

Thanks.

Glad you’re enjoying – it was fun to put together. I sure hope some folks snatch these ideas up and let me know how they work out.

As for the “brand name” questions…

Here is what I wrote about that in the post above (right before I listed the “fish” – with the “disclaimer” image next to it:

“Some of these “fish” have brand names in them. Whether you use them or not is totally up to you. I’ve heard of marketers getting Cease and Desist letters from having a brand name in their domain name and the marketer had to take the site down. That has never happened to me as of yet. If it ever does, I’ll take the site down with no issues. That’s my thoughts on that- not to be mistaken for advice or legal counsel =) ”

Should you have a brand name you don’t own in your domain?

My short and responsible answer would be, “No”.

If you are not comfortable with it – Do Not Do It.

Have *I* done it? Yes, I have.

Could I have those sites shut down at any given moment? Yes, I could – and I am prepared to take them down in a heartbeat if it is requested.

Me vs. Them? They win.

Here is my personal way of looking at it when trying to decide if I should use one of these domains or not…..

When I search the keyword in Google, I look at the PPC ads.

I know some advertisers have very strict rules about bidding on their brand name in PPC.

If I see advertisers showing up (that aren’t the brand owner) advertising for that brand name keyword, I might consider giving it a go.

My thoughts are that if I am using their name or product name (or version of) to help SELL their product, maybe they won’t be so upset.

People have used my “brand” name (PotPieGirl) and my product name (One Week Marketing) in their own domain names. As long as they are using it to promote me/my stuff, I have no problem with it.

That is my opinion.

Is this legal advice? No. Am I right about this? I have no clue.

You each should do what you are comfortable with…

and never, ever try to outsmart your common sense.

If it feels like a bad idea, then go with that feeling until proven otherwise.

Jennifer

This is where internet marketing gets frustrating. One person says, “Do this…” and the next person says, “Don’t do this…” so it’s difficult to ever figure out what you should and shouldn’t do.

We end up avoiding brand name domains cause someone tells you they’re bad while another person is making thousands per month off them.

So what’s your take Jennifer? I assume brand names are ok with you since they are part of most of your suggestions. In most cases, I would assume the company isn’t going to try and take it from you if you’re promoting in an ethical way and promoting their products, but it would suck to go through all the work of getting the domain set up only to have it disappear and get shut down.

Thanks for all the great advice! 🙂

Do you know this to be not true?

thx