Heh. One of the first things we did when we secured our brand was register the [brand]sucks.com domain. We then turned it in to a blog, with some more personal biographies of myself and my two partners.

Frankly, when you do business on forums such as WebHostingTalk, where half the membership base are ten year old kids on Spring Break looking for the cheapest Web hosting package around, I wanted to make sure we had that domain snapped up before some punk did it for us.

Turning a negative action in to a positive action. It's all good.

Brendon,

Thanks for the hat tip. I agree with you. Once you start down that slippery slope, there is no end in sight.

If someone wants to say something bad about your company -- they can find a way.

I'd rather invest my energy in making sure there aren't that many people who think we suck.

Drew

Agree you can definitely go overboard if you tried to cover every base with domain name brand protection so it is pretty futile even trying.

However, with the hosting business I've just sold I registered the *brand name*sucks.com version of the domain with the intention of using it on a web site that would be an entirely open for everyone to see complaints resolution system.

Same sort of theory as Jamie above me to try turning a negative into a positive by giving people a chance to express their frustration outside of regular support/customer communication channels which is basically why people flame your business in message boards, forums or on their blogs. This way the aggrieved customer has the opportunity to vent but in an environment that still allows the matter to be resolved.

Alas, I sold the business before I could get the open source complaints resolution web site up and running so I don't know if it would have been successful but certainly would have been fun/interesting/crazy to see it in action.

I think that for certain businesses (ones where your customers find you almost soley via the internet, for example, VOIP phone companies or hosting companies), then registering the [Brand]sucks.com domain name is a good idea (but forget [brand]REALLYsucks.com, or [brand]areabunchofgoodfornothingcrooks.com). I'd probably also do it if I ran a massive or well-known company that's got cash to spend (such as American Airlines, Nike, or Brendon's favorie: Trump).

Otherwise, you're probably wasting your time.

Let's take a landscaping business for example. Chances are while a good number of people find you online, your customers aren't likely the type of people who are nerdy enough to start a website "XYZLandscapingSucks.com" if you trample on their daffodils. Registering this domain would be a waste of time and money, and as Brendon said, where would you draw the line (do you get the .net, do you register different words/phrases... it can get pretty ugly in a hurry)


Tom