.sucks domains should be part of your Reputation Management

Article written by Pierre Zarokian of Reputation Stars.

Now that ICANN is making .sucks domain names a reality, big brands will need to figure out whether the costs of owning that real estate would outweigh the potential damage. Up till now, the most a company had to deal with was a controversy on social media, or on blogs, but this has the potential for a larger impact.

ICANN will briefly allow major companies and a-list celebs the chance to buy .sucks domain names to match their respective brands before access will be open to the general public. Perhaps ICANN figures these entities maintain larger budgets, or have better data on how to respond to these PR challenges.

Savvy search marketers may recall a similar disaster when .porn debuted. Harvard, Microsoft and other important entities had to register for their .porn domain because the risks of leaving those properties dormant were simply too high.

The new prefix is not some unique occurrence. Since 2011, ICANN has reviewed and approved 500 domain names from a master list of 2,000 and counting. You can view a complete list of these new registries at the ICANN website, including suffixes like “.sexy” or “.cancerresearch”, and ICANN contributes to the database as new domains are approved for use.

According to James Cole, an ICANN spokesman, consumers and market factors played a significant role in making this choice: “It’s about enhancing consumer choice, increasing competition and creativity in the marketplace.” In general, that has held true.

But .sucks is different. Can you really afford to leave your .sucks domain name alone?

Are you willing to face the potential consequences of leaving your domain untouched? Your enemies and competitors can snatch that Web property up from you and use it to slander your business and cost you thousands.

This isn’t RipOffReport. You can’t pay for arbitration, and even there you can’t have something removed. Only corrected.

Article was written by Pierre Zarokian of Reputation Stars. Reputation Stars offers a lasting solution for your public relations woes.