Today’s domain find I’m sharing is about a neighbor’s lost four-pawed family member. This story hits too close to home for me.
The great escape…
A few years back, our two boxers got out for half a day on the town and ventured six streets over without my wife and I ever knowing until the latter part of the evening.
It wasn’t until my parents called to check on my wife who was pregnant at the time. It never fails, my parents call and eventually ask about the dogs and how they are doing. When they asked, I went to show them they were outside either playing or napping.
That wasn’t the case this day. The dogs were no where to be found in the backyard. This didn’t seem odd to me. We tend to bring the our dogs in for a late afternoon nap. It wasn’t until I came in and found their custom-made kennel empty that I begin to wonder and panic a bit.
I asked my wife had she let the dogs in. She stated they were outside in the backyard. And I did as Scooby would, “Ruh Roh”. Houston, we have a problem as the dogs were not in the house or the backyard.
So, I checked the gate closest to their dog house and it was locked. Then, I checked the other gate to find it had been left open.
Truth be told, it was an Austin City Inspector’s fault our dogs escaped. The city inspector was to inspect our sprinkler system. He inspect the sprinkler system, yet he left the gate open for the dogs great escape.
Where does one begin to search for lost pets?
Well, let the search begin. My wife and I got in the truck and begin to drive around the neighborhood.
It wasn’t until we were six streets over that I made a comment about there being a lot of flyers on the light posts for lost animals.
As we passed a light post, my wife screamed, “It’s them!” What a relief! Someone had found them, taken pictures of both dogs and posted flyers throughout the neighborhood.
We called the number on the flyer, and Jessica, the lady that found our dogs, happened to live across the street from where we stood making the call. Fortunately, Jessica also is an owner of two boxers so our dogs were treated with great care.
However, little did I realize, Jessica was the same woman that walks and jogs through our neighborhood with her boxers. The interesting thing about this is that I had met her a few times before when I would water the grass. Her dogs would wimper and whine to quench their thirst, and I’d always oblige them.
I never knew her name or where she lived, but was grateful to get a formal introduction to her by way our of wayward duo. So, all in all, our dogs really had an impromptu playdate to say the least.
But the story doesn’t stop there. On our way home, we realized we passed up 7 lost dog flyers that had our dogs picture on them. In fact, one flier was roughly 15 yards from our house, and we missed it. Drove right past it. *SIGH*
Fast forward to my inadvertent spelling error and where it took me…
Now you may be wondering, “What does this story have to do with domains?” Well, I’m glad you asked.
As I walked to check the mail the other day, I happened to run across a flyer taped to a tree next to the mailboxes.
For whatever reason, even after my own dogs great escape, I hadn’t noticed the same flyers taped to a few light posts and trees on my way.
At first glance, it appeared to be a lost pet flyer. I admit, I really didn’t pay much attention to it.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t until I turned around from retrieving my mail that I saw the bolded red letters that read, LostMyDoggie.com.
In most lost pet situations, you typically see an email, phone number, name of pet and a picture of the pet on the flyer. In this case, the prominent domain caught my eye. In my opinion, this was a great use of a domain.
However, curiosity got the best of me. I didn’t have my phone on me at the time (I came back to snap pic).
I ran back home to pull up the domain via a web browser. As I did, I inadvertently typed LostMyDoggy.com. And guess what happened? I was redirected to LostMyDoggie.com.
This made me smile. Whomever created this website was forward thinking to realize the value in owning both domain spellings of doggy and doggie.
It’s one thing to see LostMyDoggie.com spelled on a flyer, yet a whole different issue altogether when advertising on the radio and not know that the domain was spelled with “ie” and not “y”.
By owning both spellings, the owners reduce the risk , if not eliminate it, of individuals arriving at the wrong website.
Should my business be concerned with domain variations?
I raise this question because my mind began to wonder what other keywords are used by those who take to the internet to find their lost pet.
You know me, I begin typing like a wild man. I typed and typed and typed the many variations that were coming to mind. Here’s what I found:
- LostCats.com (redirects to cat.lostandfound.com, registered since 1998, owned by Copreco Financial Inc.)
- LostCat.com (redirects to cat.lostandfound.com, registered since 1998, owned by Copreco Financial Inc.)
- LostDog.com (redirects to dog.lostandfound.com, registered since 1996, owned by Copreco Financial Inc.)
- LostDogs.com (redirects to dog.lostandfound.com, registered since 1998, owned by Copreco Financial Inc.)
- LostDoggy.com (parked page, registered since 1999 and EricMatthews.com)
- LostDoggie.com (parked sales lander, registered since 2009 and Domain Privacy enabled)
- LostKitty.com (parked page, registered since 1999 and EricMatthews.com)
- LostKitties.com (available!)
- LostKittten.com (parked sales lander, registered since 2012 and Domain Privacy enabled)
- LostKittens.com (parked sales lander, registered since 2011 and RareNames, Inc.)
- LostMyPet.com (developed, registered since 2008 and owned by Nicholas Cook)
- LostMyPets.com (parked sales lander, registered since 2006 and Hover)
- LostMyDog.com (developed, registered since 2003 and owned by Ryan Neiwert)
- LostMyDogs.com (available!)
- LostMyCat.com (parked sales lander, registered since 2011 and NameKing.com, Inc.)
- LostMyCats.com (available!)
- LostMyKitty.com (developed, registered since 2009 and owned by GKG.NET, INC.) => Operates LostMyDoggie.com
- LostMyKittie.com (parked sales lander, registered since 2015 and Domain Privacy enabled)
- LostMyKittys.com (available!)
- LostMyKitties.com (available!)
- LostMyKitten.com (1/2 developed, registered since 2015 and Domain Privacy enabled)
- LostMyKittens.com (available!)
Before we move to far from this list. I have to commend Copreco Financial Inc. for registering LostAndFound.com and using subdomains for each species of animal.
So, what does this list tell us? Simply, check the first four domain registrations of this list and you’ll have your answer.
Although the company that operates LostMyDoggie has also registered LostMyKitty, there is more than one registration for the competition, specifically targeting both Copreco Financial Inc. and EricMatthews.com.
Only if the company that operates LostMyDoggie.com owned most or all of the registered domain names above owned by others. What would this do to and for their business? More importantly, what would it do to their competition?
Defensive registrations are just as critical as a single offensive registration
Ever heard the phrase that defense wins championships? It not only applies to sports but business too!
Most businesses wouldn’t worry themselves with defensively registering domains. The very nature of business is often times offensively motivated to capture revenue. The business that captures the most revenue wins the game. Applying this theory in an effort to win, one must only outscore their competition to dominate the lions share of their market.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s good to be offensively motivated to capture revenue. However, it’s more great to play defense and not allow your competition to score while you score. And that’s the crux of defensively registering domain variations.
I encourage you to create a list of domain variations for your line of business. Then, verify whether or not they’re registered and who owns the domains, if they are registered.
Should your business be afforded the opportunity to cash in on defensively registering domain variations, you’ll “domainate” your competition in generating greater customer growth and revenue.
Oh, by the way, and, more importantly, Izzy was safely returned home because of LostMyDoggie.com. 😉
As a domain investor and business consultant, Alvin actively participates in daily domain auctions. Outside of auctions, he passionately shares his views, opinions, and vision for how businesses should and should not use domain names to generate greater customer growth and revenue.
