Domain squatting mummy blogger: ‘This was one of the worst days of my life’
The owner of a Queensland blog at the centre of a row about the domain squatting of rival sites has posted a video apology, claiming that she had been given bad advice.
Jody Allen, owner of Stay At Home Mum, posted the apology after it emerged that her company had registered similar domain names to a string of rival mummy blogger sites and redirected them to her site.
This morning Allen posted the video, saying the online backlash was “one of the worst days of my life”.
The issue exploded yesterday after Katrina Springer, owner of Australian blog The Organised Housewife, revealed that a similar domain name to hers was being redirected to Stay At Home Mum.
To ensure this does NOT happen to you, goto http://www.DomainNames.com.au
We are offering domain name registrations for only $19 per annum.
We will also give you a FREE 5 page website with hosting, plus 5 email accounts with every new domain name.
Nicholas James
Sales Manager
http://www.DomainNames.com.au
Seriously Mumbrella, you approved the firs comment?
Great business development work Nicholas James. One bloggers stress is another mans potential goldmine! Incidentally have you seen Wendy Harmers recent promotional video for her site The Hoopla?
What an unfortunate thing to have happened in the Mummy Blogger community, I think we all need to remember they’ve founded their sites based on their knowledge and integrity as parents – they’re not natural-born businesspeople and are not trained in the sneaky ways of big business and so may be a little too trusting of outside advice. Having seen the backlash on social media it’s pretty depressing to learn that Mummy Trolls also appears to be a thing.
Cry me a river.
She was caught out cheating and now she’s sorry she has been caught out.
It only came to a head after she was featured in Fairfax Media yesterday, and others pointed out that her traffic on an insanely high $3m valuation (VC on a mummy blog…really???) primarily came via domain cheating.
Oh cool, we can advertise our businesses in the comments section now?
They have handled the fallout really badly. One of their staff members was tweeting mocking messages about The Organised Housewife, other staff members was rapidly deleting negative comments from social media.
Do they really think mum bloggers are going to have $20k to splash on domain names, and didn’t they realise the negative PR wouldn’t be worth it? Their facebook numbers are going down by the second as people ‘unfollow’.
its not an advertisement, i am merely saying that if you don’t want this to happen to you, then we can help you do something about it
Nicholas James
Sales Manager
http://www.DomainNames.com.au
Thanks Nicholas James. I wouldn’t possibly have known where to go or who to speak to. I’ll be in touch the next time I want to start a Mum blog of some description.
Matter of fact, can you potentially help me buy the following domains?
mumbo.com
drmumbo.com
mummbrella.com.au
mumbrela.com.au
mum.brella.com.au
Hope Tim Burrows hasn’t already got them sewn up.
Nicholas, you’re offering a service. And not for free.
That’s advertising. Even if it as free. Still advertising.
@Nick, There’s no advertisements on TV, just companies telling people if they want to buy something, they can by it from their stores.
I found this quite inspiring so I have just registered http://mum-brella.com/
Tim, you can have it for $20,000.
Stay at home Mum can have it for $30,000.
Cash only!
Maybe if you had written an essay in the comments outlining the issues, challenges and best practices of managing domain names you could have called it content marketing, but as it stands, it’s an ad.
Kate – another lesson that these guys are people, not uber business machines. People make mistakes, let’s hope they learn from it and move on. Yes they’ll lose some followers but good job they’ve got so many, eh? In fact they’re the biggest Facebook page in the country, in terms of number of AU bloggers. I just looked it up.
Nicholas, if you’re in sales but you don’t know what constitutes an advertisement, then I would argue you need to look at your career choices and wonder if you made the right decisions in life.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to buy up some domain names.
Number of Au followers. Sorry, I got all a quiver at the thought of all the domain names I am about to go and buy.
Louise I think you’ll find The Organised Housewife is bigger! 😉 Hence why they want to steal all her traffic.
If you want to protect your brand from being hijacked then you need to trademark it, use it and protect it.
A domain name only gives you the right to use that domain name, there are no implied rights over similar domains.
Louise – The Organised Houswife and Babyology have higher FB followings but I don’t know the country split.
Yes, they have done very well so far and seemed to run an impressive business. Their work on social was excellent. Which is why it is so surprising to see this behaviour from them. I think it’s beyond a ‘mistake’.
The experiences other people have had with Jody do not match the story she is telling now.
Chris Gryg, the Managing Director of Stay at Home Mum, posted a tweet that said “Hey guys I think this domain is still available “not-so-organisedhousewife.com.au” sorry I mean “the-not-so-organisedhousewife.com.au”
https://twitter.com/120dollarsfood/status/479228477204205568/photo/1
Which he has since deleted but it certainly got an angry reaction
https://twitter.com/search?q=%40chrisgryg&src=typd
Was the advice that was being followed,…. if she redirects variations of many other popular blogs to her website she will up her click count and be able secure a large amount of venture capital. The investors may want to look into the value of their investment.
While I hate domain name squatters the truth is it’s up to the authentic domain name to secure its IP and, where there’s a squatter with a similar name, take it to the registrar concerned or to court.
It’s the same as for every other trademark… that’s why God created trademark lawyers (well, that and to help Mercedes and BMW sales)
Why anyone would invest time or money on behalf of any brand in this is beyond me.
Yep the Organised Housewife has bigger numbers, but not in Australia. The majority are in the US. Any public domain social analytics platform will tell you that. Another Agency you obviously don’t understand marketing to parents then do you. Back in your narrow minded little box.
Why anyone would invest their time in reading how to wipe down the fridge door or how to clean a loo is beyond me. Scary stuff that so many people follow such mundane content.
It must feel good to be so judgemental Jen
Just an observation Ken. No need to get your panties in a bunch.
Comments 1 and 7 Nicholas James. Just to keep everyone honest here’s a link titled “DomainNames.com.au SPAM – be careful….”
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/764917
I have received spam from this mob and it’s ironic seeing them advertise on a blog concerning unethical behaviour from Stay At Home Mum.
Here is where you get a list of auDA accredited registrars from which you can register domains:
http://www.ausregistry.com.au/registrars
Note that domainnames.com.au is not in that list.
Di.
Ken … have you seen Jen’s kitchen and bathroom … ewww!