Why movies have such crappy domain names.
There was a time, not so long ago, when people went to movie theaters to watch movies. They were subjected to 30 minutes of previews before the movie began. And these previews included domain names for each movie. Bad domain names. Why do people that pick domain names for movies choose such bad ones, like CrazyMovieTitle-TheMovie.com? Today’s guest has investigated this, and even published an entire blog dedicated to breaking down movies’ domain names. Bill Sweetman explains why Hollywood is so bad at domains, and how he helped people like Phil Collins, Stephen Colbert, and Darth Vader get “their” domain names.
Also: .Org delayed again, GoodRX, Amazon’s domain plans, impact of the coronavirus on domains and websites.
Sponsor: DAN.com
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Seems like a missed opportunity to look forward and not just retrospectively. With the introduction of the .movie and .film gTLD’s the Film Industry has an opportunity to shift the paradigm. I agree Hollywood has been horrible at controlling their online presence and presenting a strategy. We did pitches to all the major studios and were so frustrated by their lack of understanding of how they should be presenting online and managing traffic over the film’s lifetime, rather than just as a trailer. We tried to create an exclusive namespace for bona fide film and they didn’t want a bar of it. Their response was “we get our traffic from search anyway”; which is a circular conversation. That is, the reason you are getting traffic from search is because people cant find you and there is no consistency. It is very frustrating as they continue to keep old world marketing strategies despite the new world opportunities. Look at the work that DONUTS has done with .movie and Lionsgate and the success we at Motion Picture Domain Registry have had at http://www.go.film to see featured sites.
Also, your comments section wont accept my .film website.