Active Inactive Domain Name

[debase23]

Hi all, not sure where this query should be.

I have a similarly named competitor whose active inactivity compromises my brand. My company is trying to buy this other domain name; I've visited their URL throughout the past 8 years, and for the past 7 it's been down/offline. I've placed bids on the name, but the original owner keeps renewing. I, and others, have tried to contact the register - no response, not even a defensive one.

What boggles my little mind is the web presence of this site (www.sleepnet.com); it's highly ranked in the search engines, it's got links galore, some very good sounding content, even a recent link on a Twitter tweet. Yet if I visit any of those URLs, I see an Address Not Found page. The Google cache shows content cached from two days ago (when I wrote this).

What does this mean? What is going on?

[SemAdvance]

The URL you posted has some characters after the .com part that are preventing anyone from clicking the link and seeing the correct site.

Other than that if you cannot see anything when you type in the URL directly I would venture to guess your under an IP Ban to prevent you from spying on them.

Hope this helps!!!

[ron angel]

Originally Posted by debase23

Hi all, not sure where this query should be.

I have a similarly named competitor whose active inactivity compromises my brand. My company is trying to buy this other domain name; I've visited their URL throughout the past 8 years, and for the past 7 it's been down/offline. I've placed bids on the name, but the original owner keeps renewing. I, and others, have tried to contact the register - no response, not even a defensive one.

What boggles my little mind is the web presence of this site (www.sleepnet.com); it's highly ranked in the search engines, it's got links galore, some very good sounding content, even a recent link on a Twitter tweet. Yet if I visit any of those URLs, I see an Address Not Found page. The Google cache shows content cached from two days ago (when I wrote this).

What does this mean? What is going on?

When I put Sleepnet.com Homepage in browser seems to work ok your link above is incorrect
Whois Record

Registrant:
The School of Sleep Medicine, Inc.
260 Sheridan Ave. Ste. 100
Palo Alto, CA 94306
US

Domain Name: SLEEPNET.COM

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Smith, Roy
NO ORG NAME
331 Miramar Rd.
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
US
650 283 3086 fax: +1 650 326 1295

Record expires on 19-Apr-2013.
Record created on 18-Apr-1995.
Database last updated on 19-May-2009 16:16:49 EDT.

[bwinkers]

Try the Wayback Machine AKA Internet Archive:

If the link is broken just Google "wayback machine", once you get to the site type the domain question.

Forum won;t let me post because I don't have 10 current posts. BAH!

Brian Winkers
Ultri

[rooed]

I have no problem viewing the URL either.

[gobuy]

I just went to there website and the first thing that I see is there logo Sleepnet.com has the R that stands for registered trademark, so they are registered and they do not have to answer your emails.

Copy of there Federal trademark is below. I would NOT email them again.

Word Mark SLEEPNET.COM
Goods and Services IC 038. US 100 101 104. G & S: Providing on-line electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users concerning sleep disorders. FIRST USE: 19950306. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19950306
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 76065593
Filing Date June 8, 2000
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition July 30, 2002
Registration Number 2638161
Registration Date October 22, 2002
Owner (REGISTRANT) SCHOOL OF SLEEP MEDICINE, INC., THE CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 260 Sheridan Avenue, Suite 100 Palo Alto CALIFORNIA 94306
Attorney of Record EDWARD N. BACHAND,
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR).
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

Henry
Sports News, USsports.com

[Orion]

full site comes up just fine here

[flhu]

No problem; site loads fine. (after remove extra characters)

Might be an IP ban, I know I have done such things to competitors I didn't want snooping around... but for 8 years? I doubt you've had a single static IP that long. Also, although it doesn't take much to implement, the site looks like its owners probably lack that kind of sophistication.

When you see the site as down, have you tried going to the site through a proxy?
try this: Proxify® anonymous proxy - surf the Web privately and securely

[Alan@Genesis]

I was able to view the site as well.

We recently had an issue with one of our vendors not being able to see any of our sites from his network provider XO Communications, our IT guy is still looking into this but apparently our sites are being blocked by this provider.

It may be possible that your network provider is blocking this site, just a thought.

[ronchalice]

Originally Posted by debase23

Hi all, not sure where this query should be.

I have a similarly named competitor whose active inactivity compromises my brand. My company is trying to buy this other domain name; I've visited their URL throughout the past 8 years, and for the past 7 it's been down/offline. I've placed bids on the name, but the original owner keeps renewing. I, and others, have tried to contact the register - no response, not even a defensive one.

What boggles my little mind is the web presence of this site (www.sleepnet.com); it's highly ranked in the search engines, it's got links galore, some very good sounding content, even a recent link on a Twitter tweet. Yet if I visit any of those URLs, I see an Address Not Found page. The Google cache shows content cached from two days ago (when I wrote this).

What does this mean? What is going on?

The site looks both active and relatively content-rich to me. He's owned the site and the registered trademark since 1995. I don't think you've got any recourse. Perhaps if you had an M&A attorney tender an offer for his company...

[Dinghus]

Just because a name is trademarked doesn't mean you can't contact them about buying the name. Heck, the big boys on the internet have been buying each other for years. So ignore that person saying don't contact them. No law against it .... until you get into harrassment. If they tell you to quit, then quit. On the other hand, I doubt they are going to sell.

The site loaded fine for me too. (Not using your link tho)

[emps]

You've definately got an IP ban.There is no other valid explanation of ur exclusion from visiting the website,since other searches from others inc myself have no problem.

It is an active website,and i suspect the owners are taking umbrance to your enquiries/motivations.

[InfoHQ.us]

8 years without much sleep typing the wrong url to access SleepNet.com?

I spent about 10 years (not 247 just about 5 times per month) checking a particular domain I wanted the most - my name (8 letters). Finally the registrant probably forgot to renew it.

[thai_guy]

This site has a PR7, inside pages have huge page rank (PR 6), Forum is highly active, backlinks galore (as you say). This is a legitimate site, full of information, and if I were webmaster I would just chuckle at any request to buy this domain... unless there was serious money on the table.

Naturally it does well on Google because it is probably the prevelant website on the Internet for this topic... and would kick butt if they did some more work on their SEO.

Don't lose any sleep over this one... forget about it.

[williamc]

From the sound and look of it, this poster has harrased them and they permanently blocked his ISP from accessing their site 7 years ago. As they are trademarked, they are likely not diluting your brand, you are probably diluting theirs.

[nickoran]

Would an IP band prevent you from emailing someone by any chance?

[ron angel]

Originally Posted by nickoran

Would an IP ban prevent you from emailing someone by any chance?

NO it could not stop hotmail or gmail ect as they come from a different IP address source but the company, as you can could block any email address with a spam filter.

[debase23]

Thanks all, very helpful information. The Proxify link brought me right in to the site (I've never tried to visit it from a non-work computer).

I heard there was some beef about the similar company names before I joined the company, but the personnel turnover is such that I don't have any real info. It's entirely possible that it came to digital fisticuffs. I'm personally irked because I've been pointing out at meetings that the site is down (guess I'm quite out of line) and because I do customer service; I would have referred end users to this site if I knew it was active, and enjoyed its content myself.

Oh, and the chances of my company changing its name is 0/0. We'll just have to play nicely.

[subsystems]

One way to guage the value of a domain is sites like this.
sleepnet.com Estimated Worth $22783.3 USD by websiteoutlook
The value it derives is very suspect but by comparing a number of sites including your own you may be able to get an idea if the domain is worth persuing.

One of my websites in 2003 was valued at $150,000 if memory serves me. But the site was pulling in $350,000 in sales with about a 35% profit margin. So the domain's value was nowhere near as much as the business generated using it.

What was of more value at the time was to compare our competitors sites with our own. We were able to get a feel of how we were doing in sales vs them. We also shared suppliers with them on a couple of brands and because we became friends with our sales rep, we were able to findout if they were selling more or less than us and compare their purchase volume with ours etc. We concluded the domain value was in proportion to our relative sales. We could then just keep an eye on the domain value every so often and focus on our own daily efforts. We could tell for example if their big advertising push was working or not and not have to do quite so much trial and error. What the heck, I didn't feel like spending $10,000 on a certain ad campain if it wasn't going to pay off. I'd save it for one that would. We would be alerted to advertising campains of theirs by simply using a hotmail address and signing up for all of their newsletters etc.
We determined an important piece of data on our biggest competitor. Several of their newsletters stated things like "We just exceeded $2.2 million in sales for our fiscal year!" The implication was it was the website that was doing this kind of business. They didn't market their retail locations agressively on the web. Their retail advertising was being done mostly through traditional advertising. We determined their websales was about $500,000/year in sales the remaining 1.7 mil was from a half dozen retail stores they owned. If they had been entirely web based we would have know our market was much larger on the web and we were seriously missing the boat.

[Dubbya]

Originally Posted by flhu

No problem; site loads fine. (after remove extra characters)

Might be an IP ban, I know I have done such things to competitors I didn't want snooping around... but for 8 years? I doubt you've had a single static IP that long. Also, although it doesn't take much to implement, the site looks like its owners probably lack that kind of sophistication.

When you see the site as down, have you tried going to the site through a proxy?
try this: Proxify® anonymous proxy - surf the Web privately and securely

Great post. Sage advice with the proxy recommendation. Well done!

Rep points awarded!