Registering domain misspellings is cheap insurance.
I read a blog post today in Google Reader (via Rick Klau’s shared items feed) from Obama headquarters about using VoteForChange.com to make sure that you are registered to vote. When I clicked through on VoteForChange.com, I ended up at a nonexistent domain VoteForCahnge.com (note the swapped “a” and “h”). There was a typo in the underlying HTML that would only be caught by an editor who checks all links. (I make this mistake sometimes too.)
Because I think the issue of voter registration is important, I immediately registered the typo domain (VoteForCahnge.com) and redirected it to the correct domain (VoteForChange.com). So I may be the only one who notices this typo.
I also wanted to immediately transfer the domain to the legal owner of VoteForChange.com, but the whois record for voteforchange.com is a proxy registration (i.e. private registration), which I think is a very bad idea, especially for a political site.
To summarize my points:
- Proof read and link check before posting.
- Register typo domains. Use the DomainTools domain typo generator tool to find them.
- Be transparent with whois.
And if you know somebody at VoteForChange.com, please have them contact me so I can transfer the VoteForCahnge.com domain name to them. My email address is easy to find. Check whois for VoteForCahnge.com.
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