Did a competitor copy your domain? Or make one close to it?

[Grant]

Was there ever a time where a competitor tried to make a site similar to yours, even making a name and domain close to yours in the hopes people mistakenly entered there domain instead? This sort of thing hasn't happened to me, but I imagine there are some people out there who have dealt with competitors who copy their own sites almost exactly aside from small changes to make things their own.

What did you do?

 

[Al]

Haha yes, once upon a time.

Before the release of the game left4dead I set up left4deadforums.com to track the progression of the game. It was a really successful forum - back when social media was in it's infancy. I had developers sign up and it became an almost official forum when there was no such alternative thing.

What I should have done and didn't do is register the singular, left4deadforum.com - so someone else did and set up a competitor.

There were two ways to deal with it. Via hostility; taking the offensive and attempting to undermine the competitor or by being the best alternative. I opted for the latter. We had a head start. Google listed us much higher but we lost the number one spot on searches for left4dead forum to the competitor. It didn't make much difference. Quality content and having a de-facto official status made a huge difference.

The lesson I took from this: People can do what they want and there is nothing you can do about it. Stay your course, have confidence in your abilities and provide quality content. You'll win.

 

[Riberet19]

Haha yes, once upon a time.

Before the release of the game left4dead I set up left4deadforums.com to track the progression of the game. It was a really successful forum - back when social media was in it's infancy. I had developers sign up and it became an almost official forum when there was no such alternative thing.

What I should have done and didn't do is register the singular, left4deadforum.com - so someone else did and set up a competitor.

There were two ways to deal with it. Via hostility; taking the offensive and attempting to undermine the competitor or by being the best alternative. I opted for the latter. We had a head start. Google listed us much higher but we lost the number one spot on searches for left4dead forum to the competitor. It didn't make much difference. Quality content and having a de-facto official status made a huge difference.

The lesson I took from this: People can do what they want and there is nothing you can do about it. Stay your course, have confidence in your abilities and provide quality content. You'll win.

What a good anecdote and at the same time a good lesson learned, I remember playing left4dead on the Xbox during 2010-2011 if I remember correctly, I suppose it was around those dates when you held your forum dedicated to left4dead, right? Back then, as you say, social networks were not what they are today and everyone went to the forums to discuss, now things have changed.

 

[Kane]

This has never happened to me, at least it is not in my knowledge. However, I once registered a domain with a plural word without realizing that the singular version was already registered and belonged to a popular brand.

 

[Timgab]

I never did this before from the last time I checked. Copying competitor's domain always looks weird to me. Do seems to like copying of brand.

My mind is always like, can't you just leave someone's brand alone and make your. Anytime this comes up, I quit.