Aussie Giant Woolworths Wins WIPO Claim In .AU

According to WIPO, the domain wooliesonline.com.au “was registered on March 24, 2011. On July 5, 2011, the Domain Name resolved to a web page containing sponsored advertising links, including links to the Complainant and its competitor, Coles. Following a cease and desist letter from the Complainant, the web page was changed to remove the references to the Complainant.”

It’s interesting to note that “Prior to the cease and desist letter the Domain Name was parked showing certain advertisements outside the Respondents control.”  The Panel found that Woollies “is so well-known that it is inconceivable that the Domain Name could be used in a way that would not mislead Internet users.” More info: Woolworths Limited v. Save Cash Pty Ltd.

Comment

It’s good to see companies taking action against those that register and/or use domain names in bad faith.

The Biggest Threat To Australian Internet Business

Do you have an Internet business? Are you an Internet Marketer, domainer or an SEO company? Then you better LISTEN UP as this will be the BIGGEST THREAT you will face in the next 12 months.

Did you know that every time you buy a .au domain name, included in that price is a hidden fee (some people would say tax). That fee is paid to a 3rd party called .au Domain Administration Ltd and is referred to as “auDA”. In Australia, auDA write the policies that govern domain names. One of these policies is called the Domain Monetisation Policy.

There is a Names Policy Panel that is reviewing this policy RIGHT NOW. The policy governs entities that earn revenue from a “monetised website”. According to auDA policy, a “monetised website” means “a website or landing page that has been created for the purpose of earning revenue from advertising, including monetised domain parking pages“. In my opinion, this policy clearly discriminates against people who make their living online. It discriminates against drop shippers, information marketers and those people that don’t have “physical stock” to sell. Rather than talk about registrants (people that register domains), it singles out and labels people as “domainers” who have the legitimate business practise of selling products and services online!

Let me spell out the threat in “Plain English”. If someone (such as a competitor / disgruntled customer) complains about your website/business, auDA has the power to take your domain away! They do this (from a technical perspective) by instructing the registry to put it into “Pending Delete”. Other people (such as your competitors) can then buy/backorder YOUR DOMAIN through the domain drop process. SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR BUSINESS. Goodbye to all the SEO you have done, goodbye to your mailing list!

How You Can Protect Your Business

1. Fill in this form TODAY (seriously, do it now)
Private individuals can become auDA members ( in a membership called Demand Class ). It costs $22 and no upfront payment is required.

2. Vote later this year
If you become a Demand Class member today, you can vote at the next election.

What I Am Doing About It

This year I will be running for election to the auDA board to represent the interests of small business, internet marketers and domain investors. I will be actively campaiging for you on this issue, to see this discriminatory policy scrapped!

This is only going to happen if you become a member. Please don’t come crying to me later (when your Internet business has been taken away from you). By then its too late.

Think of it like insurance. If you are serious about your business, you want to protect it. $22 is nothing in the scheme of things.

Just so that you are aware, the election is at the end of the year, but there is a sneaky “3 month membership rule” which prevents new members from voting. As such you cannot delay this application!

Can you do the industry a BIG favour? Fill in this form NOW: http://www.auda.org.au/pdf/auda-membership-form.pdf

After you have done it, drop me a line and let me know. I really want to know WHO the proactive people are – those that will help to safeguard our industry. If you have any questions (or need a stamp/fax), let me know.

Go here now.

When Offline Marketing Fails

This massive billboard caught our attention recently. It lasted a few weeks (on a busy highway) and is a textbook case of what NOT to do when it comes to promoting your website. This would have a cost the company a truckload of money.

What’s wrong with it? Look at the ad for 2 seconds, then scroll down (so you cannot see the ad anymore) and answer these questions:

1. Who is the company?

2. What is the name of their website?

3. What are the features of their product?

4. What action am I supposed to take?

So…how many questions did you get right?

For the record, we don’t know the company, but can only assume they were brainwashed by some dodgy Internet marketers with a degree in hair product. It’s a real shame, as small business can get the wrong impression that “this internet thing” doesn’t work.

TRUenergy Lets Electricity.com.au Expire

Energy giant, TRUenergy has let their domain electricity.com.au expire. The company provides gas and electricity to over 1.3 million household and businesses throughout Australia.

The domain electricity.com.au was bought at auction a few minutes ago for AU$30,933 by Pacific Octane.

Is Groupon Rewarding Bad Behaviour?

A couple of guys allegedly copy your business model in another country. They register the ccTLD version of your name, they register the company name in their country, then they try to register the trademark.

What do you do? Do you pay them to go away or take them to court?

This recent post on the Groupon Blog describes how the company “reluctantly” offered “Gabby and Hezi Leibovich about $286,000 for the Groupon.com.au domain and trademark”. In my view, this is rewarding bad behaviour.

Yes I understand the Mr Nice Guy approach of offering them something and having them go away quietly. Obviously “Plan B” was to “sick the members onto them” – with Groupon advising its customers to get on Facebook and:

“post a note for Hezi Leibovich, politely asking them to accept the $286,000 (which we are still willing to pay) so we can get on with business.”

Groupon – this naive “strategy” (if there was actually a strategy) has generated you negative publicity and set a clear precedent. Not good.

Speaking generally, the problem with this approach is that “copycats” are desperate, dishonest oxygen thieves. They are after a quick buck and wouldn’t have a clue about innovation. The Groupon approach (which is completely logical), incorrectly assumed that these people could be quietly bought out.

When you sit and think about it, we see this all the time in almost every marketplace. Think about the Internet Marketing industry. How many dodgy products are out there? What about the domain investment industry? Notice any dodgy copycat products pop-up lately? Do they look familiar to you?

The question is, do you support the “good guys” or do you back the dishonest ones? Make your mind up and accept it. Call it fate, karma, whatever you want. It’s your decision – you have to live with it.

If I was a Groupon customer, I’d be supporting them, not some copycat site.

Bunnings Loses Hardware – Woolworths Snaps It Up = [Record Sale]

Many of you would have seen the sale of hardware.com.au in our domain sales database for $33,333. The domain was purchased by Woolworths via its advertising agency.

What many of you don’t know, is that hardware.com.au was previously owned by Bunnings! It seems they forgot to renew it (or rather update their email address in the registrant details).

The Australian hardware sector is a $36 BILLION dollar market and the JV between Lowes and Woolworths have already spent $12 million in setup costs. Now they own the hardware market with a $33k purchase. Nice one!

A spokesman for Wesfarmers (owners of Bunnings) told the Herald Sun “This is the first I’ve heard of it, I didn’t know. I’m completely in the dark”. No doubt, heads will be rolling at Wesfarmers today.

Of course, if Wesfarmers had a Domainer Income Professional Membership, then they could have kept track of the expiration of hardware.com.au and this would not have happened.

Editors Note: We have been holding off publishing this story until now. Given that it’s just hitting the media – the cats out the bag!

Domainer Income Includes Trademark Checking

Over the past few months the team at Domainer Income has been testing out a new groundbreaking feature – automatic trademark checks!

That’s right. When you are viewing .au drops, all of those domains are now checked for trademarked keywords. This level of automation is something that is not offered anywhere else. It can:

1. Save you HOURS of time.

2. Potentially save you from a lawsuit.

3. Save you money, because you will be shown what auctions to avoid.

See the TM column? You can hover your mouse over it and get all the information on the trademark. Cool eh?

Why Trademarks?

Trademark infringement is one area that hurts domain investors and newcomers to the industry. It’s largely something that’s not widely talked about, so here are a few scenarios to be aware of:

Example #1

A newcomer to the industry gets sucked in by all the marketing hype around “buying aged domains”. They sign up to the latest and greatest auction site and start buying, only to find they get slapped with a lawsuit because the keywords in the domain name they just purchased were trademarked.

Example #2

Someone buys a domain at auction for $1,000 and a few days later receives a letter from the regulator that their domain infringes on someone elses trademark. The domain is taken off them, put into “Pending Delete” and the person loses their $1,000.

The Future

This will be the first in many new features that we are making available to our Professional Members. We have some VERY BIG surprises for 2011.

Thanks again to our customers who continue to support us and inspire our team to innovate.

[Help] Us Shape The Future Of .au

As you may know, I’ve been representing the interests of both the domain investment community and small business on the auDA Names Policy Panel. The panel today released:

1. A discussion paper to the general public based upon deliberations to date.

2. This survey to seek public opinion on domain monetization, misspellings, eligibility and allocation policy rules.

Why should you care? Because:

1. If you buy .au domain names (or want to buy them, but you can’t), this gives you an opportunity to get your voice heard and change the rules.

2. If you think that domain monetization (eg: parking) is a legitimate business practice and want to see the “domain monetization policy” abolished, then now is your chance! Seriously, go and tell auDA what you REALLY think! Should Australia continue to be the only country in the world with these restrictions?

Anyone can provide feedback – you don’t have to be an auDA Member.

What You Should Do Right Now

Its Friday, take some time out and fill in this survey.

Thanks again for your support.

auDA Caves In And Releases Secret Ballot Numbers

Over the past few days I’ve been receiving a lot of phone calls and email messages from auDA members who are angry and frustrated with what happened at the 2010 AGM.

I’d like to set the record straight.

I attend the auDA AGM as a demand class member, but more importantly, representing the interests of small business and professional domain name investors. As a small business owner myself, its something I feel very strongly about.

After the votes were cast into a box, a number of people went off to another room to count them. There was no truly independent 3rd party to review this process. There was no independent scrutineers – we were just told of the result.

Having spoken to many small business owners and domain investors I had a good idea of how many votes I had. What has shocked me, and has shocked the entire industry is that auDA refused to disclose the voting numbers because they claim it was a “secret ballot”.

Later that afternoon I posted the results on this very blog. What I didn’t know was that the auDA board was meeting behind closed doors and discussing this issue.

What has since transpired is that auDA has emailed its members and disclosed the numbers. This has never happened before and I’m told that it’s a direct result of my candidacy.

Here are the numbers:

Richard Bone – 2 votes
Kevin Fleming – 2 votes
Kim Heitman – 34 votes
Simon Johnson – 21 votes
Erhan Karabardak – 23 votes
Cheryl Langdon-Orr – 32 votes
Kelvin Markham – 2 votes

What is not clear is if these numbers include any votes that auDA may have deemed “invalid”. For example, people filling in the form incorrectly. Votes are sent in via fax to Maddocks (auDA’s lawyers). Who knows if your vote was counted or not!

At the end of the day, this is a huge win for our campaign for transparency. In the 10 years auDA has been going, its never disclosed this information… until now.

Result of 2010 auDA Board Election

First of all I want to say a BIG thank you to all the people that voted this year. Unfortunately I did not get elected to the board. The election was won by Kim H and Cheryl L who were the incumbent Directors.

For the record, I asked to see the votes at the AGM and was told (no) it was a “secret ballot”. As such, I dont know if I lost by 1 vote or 10 votes. This is obviously not acceptable and I’ll be pursuing this with auDA.

In any case, today marks the first day of my 2011 campaign as I’m going to run again! This result has made me even more determined and I’m going to do everything possible to ensure that the auDA board (and its policies) are representative of both small business and domain investors.

The industry needs someone to “keep fighting for what is right” and I’m going to continue this until such time as things change.

I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be our year and I look forward to your continued support!