Author name: .SUCKS Registry

A domain registry with a point of view on brand protection and reputation management, marketing, copyright and trademark, intellectual property and (duh) TLDs. Owned and operated by the Vox Populi Registry since November 2014, .SUCKS domains are particularly powerful tools for a brand to have in its belt. When used constructively, .SUCKS can not only protect a brand, but also spark positive conversation and cut through the noise of today’s online world.

Advertising & Marketing, News

www.happybirthday.sucks

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This week marks the first birthday of the general availability of dotSucks domain names. It has been a year notable for both heat and light, adding up to a set of insights relevant for any new gTLD. A successful gTLD either meets a market need or creates an opportunity Be clear about who you serve and use their vocabulary (not domain name industry jargon) to tell them about it. Engage in marketing Have a story to tell Emotional resonance is more effective than even overwhelming facts-and-figures. The right story helps people see themselves in you. Let your customers speak for you People are trained to deflect commercial messages (remember when banner ads ruled the internet?), so let your customers take center stage. Peer-to-peer communication the most effective form of communication. Partner wherever possible, go it alone when you have to Domain names are a small and new industry; often without broad awareness and hard to explain. This is mitigated by participating in larger groups (like an association) to make sure the basic story is told om the same way by many voices. At the same time, each new gTLD likely has its own qualities that may not be relevant to all but can be better heard because of the work of larger groups. Rome wasn’t built in a day Most overnight success is years in the making. Most. It is best not to get too high or too low in the face of daily sales. Focus on building long term value. Make that part of the story, too. Celebrate milestones Much like the birthday of Vox Populi Registry, when meaningful metrics are met or logical mileposts are reached, let people know about it, especially your customers! Be available Answer questions as they arise. Be timely in delivering customer service. Participate in both domain name industry gatherings and those of the market you target. Visibility leads to awareness which leads to sales. Value leads to renewal which leads to long-term success.

Domains 101, Resources

The objective value of deploying on the dotSucks platform

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Vox Populi Registry has gotten a lot of attention for its recent national outdoor and digital ad campaign. That’ll happen when you light up Times Square in New York City encouraging all to “Tell the World What .Sucks” But more than an obvious and sturdy platform for criticism, dotSucks can also deliver two very real business advantages to those companies willing to put the time, energy and interest into a branded site. First, if a company embraces a www.company.sucks site, it can generate real search engine optimization benefits. It can corral a fair bit of criticism that is now indiscriminately placed across the internet, often in places difficult to address, correct or refute. Think of every time a Google search is done for “fill-in-the-blank” company + “fraud” or “criticism” or whatever charge is being bandied about at the moment on the internet. The results are a hodgepodge of those distributed and difficult-to-correct places. But the development of a current and robust .sucks site ensures that it, not the range of rogue sites, will rise in search results. The flotsam and jetsam will sink.  This is a real SEO advantage. For companies whose management decisions are routinely questioned (www.yahoo.sucks?) or get caught off-shore at a time of patriotic fervor (www.apple.sucks?) or become a symbol of using procedures some see as loopholes (www.pfizer.sucks?), the platform is a way to more immediately, comprehensively and definitively respond. And the links that grow on such a go-to site for others looking to vent give it another search engine advantage. Second, companies are not only subject to rumors and second-guessing. Every company, especially the best known, may stub their toe or worse, like getting caught coloring outside the lines. Think Volkswagen and emissions, think FIFA and kick-backs, think Chipotle and e.coli, think Apple and suicides among employees of its Chinese manufacturing partners. At the moment of the event, there is a natural rush to the web in general and to the companies’ sites in particular to find out more. The result may be akin to a self-inflicted distributed denial of service attack. A .sucks site mitigates that. As the web gets wider and deeper, any approach that can make a company more visible and increase consumer contact has got to be a good thing. If, at the same time, it delivers on business benefits, it becomes an even better thing.

Current Affairs & World News, News

Making friends and (perhaps) influencing people

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Vox Populi Registry is just back from INTA16, the annual meeting of the International Trademark Association. Held in Orlando, Florida, it is the pre-eminent destination for anyone interested in intellectual property. As the company that has brought .Sucks domain names to the internet, it is easy to see why that community would have an interest is us. Less obvious – and the reason we participated – is the ability our platform gives companies to enhance their brands. The conference gave us the chance to meet as many IP lawyers in one place, at one time as is humanly (or should that be humanely?) possible. It also gave us time over the course of the four-day event, to make the case in detail. It didn’t hurt that .Sucks tee-shirts were a most significant draw! Our trip to Florida marked our return to the event. It was last year, at INTA15 in San Diego that we had our coming out party. Scheduled right in the middle of the registry’s Sunrise period, where only those with registered trademarks could register .Sucks domain names, we were able to answer the list of questions made longer by a lack of information. We thought it a good idea to confront that. And, of course, be confronted. It was not unusual last year for us to hear both the quiet criticism of people we had just met or suffer the charges loudly made by others as they passed by without stopping. Some of it was colorful. Some of it was alliterative. Still more of it was as much a call to action as a .Sucks domain name. Our presence there then, the clarity and consistency of our business model, the performance of the registry in the year since and the willingness to return to INTA to mark our first anniversary all led to quite a bit different reaction. No one leveled criminal charges (that happened last year), no one began a speech of condemnation hoping for a crowd to gather to join in and no one rushed by our booth shouting opprobrium. All in, I’d have to say it was a great Spring Break trip.

Advertising & Marketing, News

Field Report: Inefficiency.sucks

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This interview with the people behind www.inefficiency.sucks first appeared in the blog hosted by Rebel, one of our registrar partners. It is an excellent example of how companies are building awareness and reach on the dotSucks platform. Rebel Stories: Operation Incredible on Building a Brand with .SUCKS by Leanne Lovsin 17 May, 2016 Some of our customers are doing such important, innovative, and amazing things with their spaces online that we can’t help but ask them to share their secrets. Inefficiency.sucks is a blog written by Minneapolis-based tech start-up Operation Incredible, co-founded by Veronica Cary. By snagging the eye-catching and memorable domain name for their blog, Veronica and her co-workers are able to dole out their unique and creative brand of technological tips and tricks that aim to make your life more efficient. We chatted with Veronica about Operation Incredible, the inefficiency.sucks blog and the lessons she has learned from being an entrepreneur. What is Operation Incredible’s story? We are a new company that makes websites and web applications primarily focused around government. We cater to a group of people who are currently using ancient technology and are really struggling with it. It was a natural extension of us being bummed about the quality of technology that we had available to us at our jobs, so we decided to start making our own. The inefficiency.sucks blog came out of me wanting to create something full of tech tips for human services staff at my day job. I wanted to build a blog to help them navigate through seemingly-complex tech stuff — even just how to use Outlook or how to format a Word document. Ultimately, my day job nixed the idea and said they didn’t want me to do it, so we just did it on our own. That’s where inefficiency.sucks came from! How did you decide on the name of your blog? The blog came about when we were just getting started. We had acquired our hardware, formalized our team, and were trying to find clients. One of our teammates suggested that we have a separate domain specific to our blog. We wanted something clever, and we decided that the .sucks domain was just so cool. We thought that inefficiency.sucks really stuck out. Everybody uses a .sucks for something negative; it’s typically a complaint thing. We thought that if we created something positive in that space, it might stand out. What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned from being an entrepreneur? To quiet down and let the team talk. I’m an ENTJ personality type, a people pleaser. We’re the people who don’t want anybody else to talk. And that doesn’t actually work so well if you’re trying to get somewhere in business. If you’re single-minded, you’re not going to get very far. I think the best thing that I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is to sit back and listen. Why is an online presence so important for building a brand? It’s pretty significant. We’re primarily focusing on Minnesota right now and we’re trying to get human services agencies to contract us for development. These folks are spread out over a gigantic amount of space, so the absolute best way we’ve marketed our services is through social media. The tools that social media provides for focused advertising are just immensely powerful. We could run a print ad and it would cost ten times as much and deliver half the responses we get out of a single Facebook ad. The only marketing element that works on par with that is peer marketing – word of mouth. Word of mouth is really successful. But you’ve got to get clients in the first place, and social media has been a huge part of that. What inspires and motivates you? Right now we work out of my basement and I feel like it’s the typical start-up story that you hear about – a whole bunch of people working in a garage. I do take a lot of solace and comfort in the quintessential start-up stories, like Facebook in a dorm and Apple in a garage. That’s been a big motivator for me. Also, we are a female-owned company and all five of the people that work here are women. Personally, I find that to be motivation in and of itself. What’s the bravest thing you’ve had to do as a business? A lot of people don’t get far enough to work on a business plan. They see all of the pieces involved and they get scared and back down. We’re not backing down. I have a goal that within the first two years of the company we will be able to quit our day jobs. It’s a little ambitious, but we can do it if we work really hard. Do you have any advice for young entrepreneurs? I wanted to do web design and web development since I was a teenager. I learned HTML when I was 11 or 12 years old and started building websites for my friends in middle school. I was so fearful that it wasn’t a real method of success and that I couldn’t make money doing it. If I would have followed my passions back then, I could have avoided a lot of missteps in my career. So don’t be afraid to jump into something you’re passionate about and to ask other people for help in making that passion a reality. If you want to be successful you can’t be afraid of risk. You have to work through the fear. What do you think of the new domain extensions? With the new domain extensions, you have the potential to allow your brand to really stand out and get noticed. My favourite examples of this are last.fm and the Minnesota-based vita.mn. There are just so many opportunities for companies to brand themselves uniquely without a .com. To me, .com is quintessential 90’s. Our company started out with operationincredible.com. We started writing out our email for people and we realized

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