Business owners sometimes just don’t care...

[mat]

Something that happened recently I find interesting as it has now also had repercussions with the “.uk”

There is a local restaurant that we often visit. When looking up their website I was quite surprised at the quality of the site and their effort with social media etc. They currently have the domain name “NameCity.co.uk” and after quickly checking I realised that their “Name.co.uk” had recently expired and was free to register. The City part is actually longer than the Name of their restaurant, so the free to register 8 character domain name would have been PERFECT.

I decided to give the owner a quick email, explaining to them that the exact match domain name was available and had been registered when they first made their site, so now for around £7 they could take hold of the correct name. I even pointed him to the site of his registrar.

He got back to me the next day and said “thank you very much, I will get this sorted asap”

Well he never did register it and I watched as the owner of the .org.uk got awarded the .uk

In my opinion SUCH A SHAME and combined with the fact that they probably paid £xxxx for their site and ongoing costs, I just cant understand how he didn't register the domain name at such a small cost...

 

[julian]

Because it just doesn't matter that much.

When you run a real business long as bums on seats and the websites good enough, I think that's all that matters at that point in time to them.

As domain investors we have very purist views..

Something that happened recently I find interesting as it has now also had repercussions with the “.uk”

There is a local restaurant that we often visit. When looking up their website I was quite surprised at the quality of the site and their effort with social media etc. They currently have the domain name “NameCity.co.uk” and after quickly checking I realised that their “Name.co.uk” had recently expired and was free to register. The City part is actually longer than the Name of their restaurant, so the free to register 8 character domain name would have been PERFECT.

I decided to give the owner a quick email, explaining to them that the exact match domain name was available and had been registered when they first made their site, so now for around £7 they could take hold of the correct name. I even pointed him to the site of his registrar.

He got back to me the next day and said “thank you very much, I will get this sorted asap”

Well he never did register it and I watched as the owner of the .org.uk got awarded the .uk

In my opinion SUCH A SHAME and combined with the fact that they probably paid £xxxx for their site and ongoing costs, I just cant understand how he didn't register the domain name at such a small cost...

 

[boxfish]

In my opinion SUCH A SHAME and combined with the fact that they probably paid £xxxx for their site and ongoing costs, I just cant understand how he didn't register the domain name at such a small cost...

But what is the real cost for him?

Transfer existing website? (He may even think he needs a new website)
Redo menus?
Redo signage?
Redo all leaflets and adverts?
Dissappear from Google/Review sites that mention his domain?

Some people see website/domains as the same thing and some people don't see 'domains' as anything important. From his POV anything he did with it was going to cost him extra cash and for what return? (and possibly with negative effects)

 

[mat]

The reality is though that for a mere £7 he would have had it secured and could simply redirect it to his existing domain name. I can understand the logic behind why people would not bother, but for me looking on it is a shame.

 

[DaveP]

Like Julian said, to some it doesn't matter at all. Recently I tried to sell the exact .co.uk + .uk pair to a company using the .uk.net, they just weren't interested at all. I guess it's only confusing to us domainers lol.

 

[mat]

Well, I for one won’t be dining there until they sort the domain name out.

 

[bonusmedia]

Is this how domainers choose where to eat. You've got your generic eating house called Restaurant.co.uk which sells every type of cuisine, then you've got your EMD eating houses like, IndianRestaurant.co.uk and ItalianRestaurant.co.uk that cook what it says on the domain or for those on a budget you've got CheapIndianRestaurant.co.uk and what about those local eateries CheapIndianRestaurantInBlackburn.co.uk.

Every time I order from Just Eat I cringe at the hyphen.

 

[retired_member34]

Every time I order from Just Eat I cringe at the hyphen.

I dislike hyphens in most cases, but in this case don't you see "teat" in the non-hyphenated version?

 

[diablo]

Just watched the Falkirk - Rangers match.

Falkirk's back of shirt sponsors are www.webhelpukcareers .com - a name that hardly rolls off the tongue as far as memorability goes.

Because of its length you can barely read it and yet they pay £30,000 a year to have it on the back of Falkirk's shirts.

 

[scooter]

What a shit name. I had to look at that a couple of times to see what it actually read. No way you are reading that on the back of a shirt as they run around.

Why do this when they own webhelp.com and .co.uk???
Bizarre



.

 

[Stephen]

.uk

Thanks for the post, I agree what you have described is the real world.

That's why .uk is a time bomb in 4 years and 10 months.

The vast vast majority of .co.uk owners of REAL .co.uk business will not protect themselves by acquiring the .uk.

Huge amounts of .uk will be acquired in a free for all by a range of domain investors, registrars, domain squatters, competitors, criminals and a few who will start new sites not competing with the existing .co.uk.

For domain investors like me, there will be some .uk bargains to get, unless Nominet changes direction due to the apathy of real businesses on this topic.

Note: Nominet despite having over 8 months to plan to sent the 7,000,000 existing registrants an email telling them .uk even exists have failed to do so. They originally planned to send emails, but their plans have been delayed and no update has yet been provided on when this may happen.

 

[aZooZa]

Apathetic British attitude to business generally - you have to laugh.

 

[devilsrefugee]

yeah for the sake of a few quid and they could have just had it redirect so it wont affect anything like menus, bcards, brochures and rankings etc.

Strange.

 

[jonathanx99]

http://www.webhelpukcareers/ is currently not resolving

Had a similar conversation the other day.

Only way to get "billboard traffic" - that is people doing something as a result of seeing a passive message is to

1. Get more signs
2. Get more people to look at the signs you have
3. Get a better sign in the first place.

 

[diablo]

http://www.webhelpukcareers/ is currently not resolving

You need to add the .com

 

[jonathanx99]

You need to add the .com

rumbled

btw - what are customer experience outsourcers ?

 

[jonathanx99]

plus first thing I get is a massive pop up telling me my clicks and mouse movements will be recorded... #fail

 

[diablo]

plus first thing I get is a massive pop up telling me my clicks and mouse movements will be recorded... #fail

Yes, nothing like scaring the bejesus out of new visitors to create that first impression!