advice I'm looking to park my first domain. Starvucks.com?

[Chris Hydrick]

Hey DN,

I have yet to park a domain, but from what I've been reading, my understanding is you want something with type in traffic. Would StarVucks.com accomplish that?

The Global brand similar to this is ranked 434 Globally, and 434 in the United States according to Alexa. That domain is one letter off from my domain; I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about by now. Adwords receives 1,600 monthly searches for Starvucks.

Is this domain a bust, a suitable domain to park, or something to try and sell to the larger brand the sounds like Starvucks? I'm sure this is somewhere in the many NP threads, but if somebody could answer what factors you look for in a good domain to park, or point me to a previous thread, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[iowadawg]

Try to sell to the big company not a good idea.
They may sic their lawyers on your butt.
So park it.
Take your pick of parking companies.
Read this forum for them.

 

[ecalc]

Pro - Keyword dot com search volume suggests that the parked name might put a good dent in annual renewals.

Con - Parked earning potential is based on confusing similarity to a famous mark. ACPA and UDRP rules and past decisions don’t augur well for you. Also public forum discussions are easily discoverable by the other side.

Recommend - grace delete

Parking is alive and kicking. Look for names with lower ™ risk. Good luck!

 

[bakintek]

typo traffic with brandname keywork?

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Being new, every time I've seen the term grace delete, I assmed everybody was talking about the user @Grace Delete. lol

So according to other forums there seems to be an uncertainty to how long after registering your domain you have to do a grace delete with GoDaddy. And there seems to be a general concensus that you have to call to delete.

Would anybody else recommend I keep or delete StarVucks.com

 

[Chris Hydrick]

typo traffic with brandname keywork?

Yes that is what I'm suggesting, thoughts?

 

[decades80]

You should grace delete it. Its cybersquatting to register a Typo of a famous Brand.

 

[DU]

Being new, every time I've seen the term grace delete, I assmed everybody was talking about the user @Grace Delete. lol

So according to other forums there seems to be an uncertainty to how long after registering your domain you have to do a grace delete with GoDaddy. And there seems to be a general concensus that you have to call to delete.

Would anybody else recommend I keep or delete StarVucks.com

You have to call GoDaddy now as they changed their support rules. You typically have 5 days from registration.

I think they changed rules because people were abusing the Grace Delete via e-mail - it's more embarrassing (and a pain) to actually have to ask a human person to give you your $.99 coupon back as store credit.a

 

[Azwan Asban]

don't delete .. don't park. make a website with "tea" products ..

 

[Chris Hydrick]

You typically have 5 days from registration.

Thank you for clearifying that Grace!

don't delete .. don't park. make a website with "tea" products ..

This is either incredibly stupid or incredibly smart! Three years ago, this brand purchased a Tea company for more than 600 million dollars.

 

[Azwan Asban]

so why you register this domain ??
??
??

 

[Chris Hydrick]

I was under the assumption a misspelling of a popular domain was good for type in traffic. (and) type in traffic is good for parking, so I assumed this was a parkable domain.

Be it as it may be a parkable domain, it seems this community advises against parking it because of the ™ risk.

 

[DU]

I was under the assumption a misspelling of a popular domain was good for type in traffic. (and) type in traffic is good for parking, so I assumed this was a parkable domain.

Be it as it may be a parkable domain, it seems this community advises against parking it because of the ™ risk.

In public everyone acknowledges that it's a very bad practice. In reality, many domainers do this all the time. A lot of people feed a public persona and live a private lie.
As for typosquatting:

Is there a risk? Yes
Is it likely you get trouble? Maybe (UDRP)/ Unlikely (Lawsuit)
Is it worth it? Depends on where you live and how much capital you have and how protected you are

Best conclusion - listen to the smart people and do a search on "Typosquatting".

Parking is alive and kicking. Look for names with lower ™ risk. Good luck!

If you follow that advice

Is there a risk ? Very very small
Is it likely you get in trouble? No

Ultimately it's your decision. Just be informed of the risk but you should always avoid obvious TM. It could financially destroy you worst case (however unlikely).

If nothing else it will count against you if you have legitimate interests later on - reputation in these matters is part of the public record when UDRP.Lawsuit,

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Is Firefoxc.com a better example to park? It was on the expired domains of today.

Nevermind, CiscoSwitch.com I answered my own question about ciscoswitch.com, the wayback machine from 2013 was taken down due to possible trademark issues.

 

[Marlon Phillips]

You can monetize StarVucks.com at Protected Parking. We have a deal with the Starbucks affiliate program (and over 250 other major brands) that allows our clients to monetize their brand typos directly on the brands website. As you can imagine, conversions and payout are quite high. We also have brands like hotels.com, Expedia.com, American Express, etc.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

You can monetize StarVucks.com at Protected Parking. We have a deal with the Starbucks affiliate program (and over 250 other major brands) that allows our clients to monetize their brand typos directly on the brands website. As you can imagine, conversions and payout are quite high. We also have brands like hotels.com, Expedia.com, American Express, etc.

Interesting. I might look into this. Though, since it's just been sitting there I've been considering contacting the major brand and see if they want ownership. However, the process of getting in touch with the right people within the organization to transfer the domain to is beyond me.

Because of the laws I wouldn't ask for any money. But, I'd hope they'd have the decency to spare some coffee, lol.

With the Starbucks affiliate program, am I protected legally to profit from Starvucks.com?

 

[Marlon Phillips]

As with all of our brand relationships, they have agreed to let domain owners profit from the traffic their domain produce. The brand have also agreed not to know the identity of the domain owner. They just want to protect their customer experience and ensure that customers get to the website they were wanting to visit in the first place.

 

[Hypersot]

As with all of our brand relationships, they have agreed to let domain owners profit from the traffic their domain produce. The brand have also agreed not to know the identity of the domain owner. They just want to protect their customer experience and ensure that customers get to the website they were wanting to visit in the first place.

So, in short, they pay you from the traffic they receive and you in return pay us

Wouldn't be more profitable for them for some *special* domains (ie. those that bring really high traffic) to just demand them from us instead of paying you monthly for traffic that it should be theirs in the first place?

Since, as you said, they don't know the identities of the domain owners, they could easily demand a domain back from any of us.
How would you protect us in that case?

Apologies in advance if there is something that I haven't understood

 

[Marlon Phillips]

To "demand" a domain from you requires resources in launching a UDRP or other legal actions. The brands we work with have found it easier to use our approach. It's a win-win situation for all involved.

Regarding your question of protection. We do not supply the brand with the actual domain name that is producing the traffic, thus they won't know where to find the owner.

No apologies, thanks for asking!

 

[briguy]

StarVucks.com

Just noticed something the "F" and the "G" are also within "typo" area of the "V"...the "F" might be another source of traffic...

 

[JB Lions]

As with all of our brand relationships, they have agreed to let domain owners profit from the traffic their domain produce. The brand have also agreed not to know the identity of the domain owner. They just want to protect their customer experience and ensure that customers get to the website they were wanting to visit in the first place.

When you say relationships with companies. Are you talking about relationship with the affiliate manager that runs the affiliate program or somebody actually in charge of things, higher up. Big difference. Sometimes the affiliate program is such a small part of what's going on, especially with big companies. If it's affiliate manager, you might be alright with them, because it makes their numbers look good but it doesn't mean you have cover from the people in charge of protecting their brand.

 

[Marlon Phillips]

For each organization the relationships differ. We don't provide cover in any way. Just an anonymous way to monetize your traffic in a way that has been previously not allowed.

 

[ulterios]

And there seems to be a general concensus that you have to call to delete.

You can delete them any time, you just won't get a refund at most after 3-5 days.

In GoDaddy to delete a domain just go to your domains control panel, tick the box next to the domain and go to the tools bar at the top of the domains list, hover on top of where it says "More". The drop-down menu will have an option that says "Delete Domain". Click that and follow the step. That's it.

For a Grace Delete (within 5 days of registering) you have to call or talk to live chat support the last time I checked.

 

[silentg]

This is such a bad idea. Risks outweigh benefits. Drop it and find a better domain.

 

[Willox Perez]

My rule of thumb is to park every domain you own. At first this was not the case as I was not familiar with the benefits of parking your domain.

#1 You can test out the natural traffic it gets and keep track of daily visits
#2 You can probably make the yearly reg fee and anything after is a bonus
#3 You can put a for sale banner so interested buyers can contact you

A lot of the parking services offer traffic tracking which is great to test out how good the domain is based on the amount of visits it receives. In your case you have a misspelled of a very popular brand so you will get some type in traffic. The only thing I would tell you off the bat is that it can be considered copyright infringement if the company decides to go after you.

Generic dictionary type of domains tend to do very well when you park them especially if they are short amount of characters. Definitely try out some of the platforms out there and see how it goes. Setting up the parking is very simple and easy as well.

-Will