A Numbers Game

Attracting Traffic Online

The Wall Street Journal reports that, "numbers could be making a comeback," with businesses becoming more intrigued with domains composed of numerical strings. The key to making these domains work, according to the article, is building meaning around and associations with the name.

While sometimes a domain name needs marketing support to be memorable, sometimes a memorable marketing campaign needs the support of a domain name. In terms of creating strong associations, President-elect Obama's campaign put significant effort into associating his campaign with the word "Change." The omnipresence of Obama marketing "Change" could lead people to navigate toward the domain name change.com to learn more about the administration, and in fact, the traffic for change.com spiked from less than 5,000 visitors in October to almost 50,000 in November. However, Direct Navigators that type in change.com will be in for a surprise- the site is home to a retailer that markets lingerie.

Liz Sweezey wrote on the FairWinds Blog about how marketers should not underestimate the persuasive power of their advertisements. Go to DomainNameStrategy.com to read how the marketers behind the Snuggie™ should have given a bit more thought to owning snuggie.com before blanketing the airwaves with their ad.

$35,000 Late Fee for Yuma

Presidential Library Regains Its Site

Yuma Solutions, the company charged with overseeing the Web site for the George W. Bush Presidential Library, overlooked the expiration date of "GeorgeWBushLibrary.com" and as a result, failed to renew the registration of this domain name. Illuminati Karate, a Web development company, saw the domain drop and subsequently snapped it up for less than $10.

According to the article, after The Dallas Morning News reported that the library had lost the domain, Yuma Solutions contacted Illuminati Karate and asked to buy it back- Yuma paid dearly for the oversight, having to fork over $35,000 to retrieve the domain.

"It worked out very well," said George Huger, lead Web developer for Illuminati Karate, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Fraud, Where You Least Expect It

Malware Housed on Legitimate Web Sites Hits a Record High

CNET reports that according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), the number of URLs with hidden code for stealing passwords nearly tripled to a record high of 9,529 between July 2007 and July 2008. APWG's research suggests that the host site for these codes is often a legitimate Web site, rather than a phishing site created for the sole purpose of stealing consumer data. The report also found that new scams mimicking sites of distressed financial institutions have cropped up as a result of the current financial crisis.