Help with domain name

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FranticFrummie

Wed, May 04 2016, 2:14 pm

When I moved to Israel, I closed down my website for a while. I didn't want my customers to think I was being flaky if I didn't have what to sell or ship while I was in transition.

Well, I was stupid and didn't secure the name, and now some weird Japanese hair loss website is using my business name! Their site has absolutely nothing to do with the name, they probably just got it from a random generator of abandoned sites.

I was just getting ready to go back to my business, and now I can't! Is there any way of getting my site address back?

I feel so dumb. embarrassed

shooting star

Wed, May 04 2016, 2:44 pm

It's sometimes possible to contact the new owner of the domain and buy it back from them. However, that might be costly.

I would recommend that you use a different extension for your url. So, for example, .com can become .company or something that works well for you. There are new options that didn't exist before if you take a look at GoDaddy.

Then you can focus on SEO (and social media) to make sure your website stands out and old clients will find you.

doctorima

Wed, May 04 2016, 3:11 pm

There's no way to force them to give it back, but you have nothing to lose by asking nicely. They'll name their price, and if it's reasonable, you can pay and get it back (and try to bargain them down a bit lower), and if it's crazy expensive, choose something else, either a completely different name, or changing .com to .org, etc.

bluebird

Wed, May 04 2016, 4:36 pm

I looked it up (assuming I'm remembering it correctly). The new owner's ownership expires on August 15, 2016. You could watch it and try to buy it on that date.
https://www.whois.net/

Otherwise, I'd try buying it from the new owner or get one that's .biz or .net or whatever as others suggest.

FranticFrummie

Wed, May 04 2016, 4:51 pm

bluebird wrote:

Good to know, I'll mark it on my calendar!

I found out that I could get the ".design" domain, which I LOVE. It costs more, but I could do a redirect from my old site to my new one. Just have a landing page at ".com" to keep up my Google rank, and then rebuild from there.

GoDaddy seems to have a much better sales platform, and much cheaper than the one I was using before. (Volution was costing me an arm and a leg, and the SEO was clunky and difficult to figure out. I'm not so well versed on the back end of web building.)

Thank you so much! I'm feeling better already. Very Happy

You ladies are awesome! Hug

bluebird

Wed, May 04 2016, 7:59 pm

FranticFrummie wrote:

I found out that I could get the ".design" domain, which I LOVE. It costs more, but I could do a redirect from my old site to my new one.

Oh, that's pretty cool! Perfect for your business.

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