New Home Source Redirects NewHomeSection.com to Their Website
I think NewHomeSource.com and AmericanHomeGuides.com set horrible examples of how companies should do business, the fact that a tactic hurts the competition, does not make it an acceptable business practice.
The popularity of the Internet has ushered in a new era of marketing, an era that requires a revised set of marketing objectives. Today, marketers work to connect with millions of consumers online as they shop, research, communicate, and play from anywhere they happen to be. Boosting sales is no longer largely about driving consumers to the physical location of a business. Today, consumers hear about, research, decide-on, and make purchases online; the way businesses communicate with consumers has forever changed.
Targeted website traffic is king, and as more businesses realize that, it becomes increasingly difficult to get traffic. The Internet has introduced new ways to hinder the competition. Does this fact make it acceptable for businesses to ignore common courtesies and conduct business in a way that would normally be unacceptable?
Do business ethics of the past still apply today…they should, right? Regardless of the situation, professionals should still conduct business in a dignified manner, if not because it’s the right thing to do, they should fear looking like a donkey. “Doing the Right Thing, Every Time” should be a goal every company strives to meet. Success comes from innovation, delivering quality, and putting the customer first; it does not come from misleading consumers*.
Integrity would involve treating your competition with respect; shouldn’t this be a characteristic of all companies?
Get to the point you say, sure… This is what New Home Source did -
New Home Source recently purchased NewHomeSection.com, which in my personal opinion, looks a lot like the name of our company’s website NewHomesSection.com. One thing is 100% certain, it doesn’t look like NewHomeSource.com. I guess I don’t blame them, we wanted that domain name too, but unfortunately, the name was priced outside of our budget.
See for yourself www.NewHomeSection.com.
At first, I’ll admit that I got a little frustrated, but I got to thinking, if a company wanted to do the right thing every-time, would they do this. Would D.R. Horton go out of their way to buy www.PulteHome.com (www.Pulte.com is the real URL) for no other reason than to redirect unknowing consumers to www.DRHorton.com? That’s thievery, right? After I realized New Home Source is stealing consumers, my frustration went away as I’m well aware that theft is wrong (and a crime in all 50 states), and I trust that New Home Source will do the right thing. Why mislead consumers?
Am I the only person that thinks this strategy is cheap? If so, is there anyone that would at least agree that it’s tacky? I have to give credit where credit is due, New Home Source isn’t the only company in the new home industry imploring this trick, in fact, American Home Guides, another competitor, owns NewHomesSource.com (that’s pretty funny!), but shame on both of you.
See for yourself www.NewHomesSource.com.
Surprisingly, both companies offer a great service and have great websites that offer an abundance of new housing information along with a user-friendly experience. I’ve looked up to both companies and have learned a lot from the paths they’ve led.
Hey New Home Source, we’re not mad at you, a little disappointed maybe, but far from mad. I just hope you don’t get upset with us when we take your traffic the old fashioned way – through better search ranking positions.
What do you think? Is it fair game to buy a domain name that is a misspelling of a competitor’s business name?
*If you clicked on the link before the asterisk, you were a victim of an amusing Internet prank known as rickrolling, did you expect something different than Rick Astley’s, “Never Gonna Give You Up”? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickroll)
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Sorry about what just happened. Generally speaking, in my opinion, buying a misspelled domain is not wrong. It's one of market strategies. By the way, domain name is a minor thing. Site's content and service are king. Your competitor may get some of your visitors, but they'll definitely come back to a better service. it's just a matter of time.
I hate to say this as it might add insult to injury but once a website starts getting more than 100K traffic a month it would be really wise to trademark the name. That way you would have a claim against any name that is confusingly similar if they are registered after the trademark date (I think). IMHO you are doing the next best thing by informing your readers of the subtleties involved in the various names. Best of luck and I hope those who act less than honorably get what is coming to them in the end.
Tacky yes, but a lot of companies are doing it. Buying established domains and then redirecting them to another site is all too common a practice today.
I have seen more than a few sites that had done a considerable amount of link building also let their domain expire and find that it had been snatched up by someone else.
Incidentally, you could do a bit of link building so that your site ranks above them for the misspelling…not sure exactly how much traffic the misspelling of your name is getting though.
I absolutely agree with you.Thanks for sharing.
Blair, thanks for chiming in (not too sure if it was actually you who commented as the name was under givings)
I'm also unclear as to what your comment says, exactly. You lost me after "First, we bought http://www.newhomesection.com on" after that, nothing really makes sense. We would love to get our facts straight for our blog readers, can you help us out?
Your link to the GoDaddy Whois info. above actually goes to our Whois information; your Whois information paints a different picture from the one you painted above. In addition, we called the previous owner (a real estate agent back east) back in early 2007 and heard no mention of Builder Homesite owning the domain. If I remember correctly, he wanted to sell the domain for around $6,000 (could be less) and told me that he just never got around to launching it. We watched the whois for the last two years and it never said Builder Homesite, until recently.
If anything I or we've said is inaccurate please let me know and I'll get things changed as needed or removed if necessary.
Blair, thanks for chiming in (not too sure if it was actually you who commented as the name was under givings)
I'm unclear as to what your comment says, exactly. You lost me after "First, we bought ” target=”_blank”>http://www.newhomesection.com on" after that, nothing really makes sense. We would love to get our facts straight for our blog readers, can you help us out?
Your link to the GoDaddy Whois info. above actually goes to our Whois information; your Whois information paints a different picture from the one you painted above. In addition, we called the previous owner (a real estate agent back east) back in early 2007 and heard no mention of Builder Homesite owning the domain. If I remember correctly, he wanted to sell the domain for around $6,000 (could be less) and told me that he just never got around to launching it. We watched the whois for the last two years and it never said Builder Homesite, until recently.
If anything I or we've said is inaccurate please let me know and I'll get things changed as needed or removed if necessary.
We bought a domain, newhomesection.com for a specific purpose before your webstie even existed. 6 months later, a company (yours) launches a new website using almost the exact same name. If I were launching a new site, I would question picking a name almost identical to that which a leader in the space already owns.
As for inaccurate: We did not recently buy the domain. We owned it 6 months before your site existed. All I can say is, you should choose your domain names well and not try to lauch a site based on a deviation of a name a company already owns. If you ever want to contact New Home Source directly, you are welcome to call me at the number provided.
We have had similar instances. It sucks, but in the end things usually work out with the consumer going to the proper, better site. I think most consumers are pretty savvy these days. The web has turned out to be a great device for taking a local or regional business to a National level, however, there is an ugly side to the web such as cybersquatting or traffic stealing. If your story is correct, then congrats to you for calling them out. Best of luck!
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It won't make much of a difference in the long run. I bet most of your traffic is either direct or from Google searches. Direct traffic won't be affected at all and Google knows who you are already.
I agree with the people before, – its skit to do thing like this and what going around – comes back on you later. My point is the other one is a new site and it take a long tome before it’s coming up in the serp. Site's content and service is king. Buying a misspelled domain and try to get traffic has many try before and 99 % has often no success. So don’t be worry, they are away one day. Just working harder with on your site and don’t write anything about them (no free links or publicing)