Beware of Domain Squatters

There are two types of domain squatters. One buys up domain names and sits on them without putting them to good use, hoping to sell them for high profits.

The other type hunts for .com domains where the domain owner hasn't bought the .org or .net version of their domain, then they try to sell the domain to .com owner, sometimes threatening to sell the domain to a competitor.

Both types of domain squatters are skunks, in my opinion, but that's another article. What we're concerned with here is what to do about them. Don't get me wrong though, I have no problem if someone buys a different domain type to build a site, it's the rascals that just sit on them that I don't care for.

If yourDomain.org and yourDomain.net are available you could buy up the other domain types before someone else does, thus preventing one of the skunks from trying to blackmail you into buying it from them. That was more practical back before there were so many different domain types such as .biz and .info and others. It would be pretty expensive to buy up every domain type for your domain name, especially if you own several sites like we do.

Of course, if your name is trademarked you might have a dandly lawsuit, but most domain names aren't or can't be because they're too common of terms.

I refuse to be intimidated by domain squatters who try to shake me down. I just don't worry about them at all, and if they contact me trying to sell me my domain with a different domain extension I just tell them if I wanted that domain I would have bought it when I bought the .com version.

If they threaten to build a competing site or to sell it to a competitor, I tell them go right ahead, they don't need my permission! Only once has anyone tried to build a site and compete with me. It was out of business a year later. I hope he enjoyed losing his domain registration fee and wasting his time. :-D

It's just not worth worrying about in my opinion. You'll have to decide for yourself how you want to handle this issue. The time to make up your mind about it is right now though, before the issue comes up. That way you won't be as easily swayed by the emotionalism of the moment.