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08-14-2012, 07:29 AM #1New Member
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Is it true that there is no such thing as bad publicity?
Our team is planning to open a new hosting company in our country. Recently we acquired the domain of a bankrupt hosting company. This company was pretty popular in our country and had hundreds of clients. The problem is that their servers went down all the time. Everybody pretty much hated them. And at the end after a week of downtime they just told their clients to take the backups and go away. This was only 1 year ago.
Now their domain still has pagerank and alexa rank. And a lot of backlinks from complaining clients from forums and blogs.
Should we open our new company under that name and domain?
I am afraid the clients will avoid us because of the bad name of the old company.
What do you think?
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08-14-2012, 08:50 AM #2Junior Guru
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It sounds like a bad idea to me. When it comes to hosting customers want reliability and the previous company's reputation seems like it could taint your business.
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08-14-2012, 09:25 AM #3Elite Webmaster
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Use a NEW name, but point/re-direct the old domain name to your new website for the traffic.
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08-14-2012, 10:28 AM #4Web Hosting Master
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Do it. Come up with a cool ad campaign challenging former clients to stick it to the company that screwed them by hosting a wonderfully successful website with a real provider under the very name they failed to uphold.
Ain't here to spam my signature, I'm not desperate for sales.
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08-14-2012, 01:11 PM #5Web Hosting Master
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08-14-2012, 01:47 PM #6Web Hosting Evangelist
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go for it ... focus on marketing to the old clients ... be truthful that you are new owners looking to recharge the brand.
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08-14-2012, 01:51 PM #7Web Hosting Master
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Yeah, this has a lot of marketing potential. Play up the "new and improved" angle, but find a creative way to do so. But to answer your subject line, there is absolutely such a thing as bad publicity.
The world would be a better place if people drank better coffee.
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08-14-2012, 01:54 PM #8Location = SoapBox
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Is it true that there is no such thing as bad publicity?
I agree - but, I would consider taking it a step further.
use a new name
BUT
put up a page at the old name, explaining who you are and what you are doing - and then link to your new site/name
I would also challenge customers of the old company to give you a chance to prove that new ownership and management wants to make it right for them. Give any customer who can show an invoice or ticket proving they were impacted by the previous owners/management a special package, or free hosting for a year with a single months payment.. something like that
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08-14-2012, 01:57 PM #9Web Hosting Master
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If you're up for the challenge, keep the name and make it big.
If they were known that will help a lot, no matter their reputation.
Now your job is to MAKE IT GOOD!Maxence H. - UBservers.com
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08-14-2012, 06:04 PM #10Web Hosting Master
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It depends on what you are good at.
If you think that you are good at creating something, then start a new website with new domain name and use the old one for just traffic.
If, on the other hand, you think you can do a great job of reviving (ie you know all the disadvantages and have confidence to turn it around), go ahead. This is more adventerous and a little bit risky!
All the best!
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08-15-2012, 06:13 AM #11Moving the Web Forward
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Don't do it, in this industry, reputation is EVERYTHING, bad publicity is better than no publicity and is only relevant to Hollywood, not business. Start fresh, or at least find a name that does not have a bad reputation attached to it (because make no mistake, people will google your name).
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08-15-2012, 06:35 AM #12Aspiring Evangelist
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You can try however you may eventually not get as much as customers as expected with the old name. Using a new name you can atleast get a good amount of customers.
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08-15-2012, 08:55 AM #13Web Hosting Master
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I think you should use a new name instead. If the other name has such a bad reputation it might not be worth it.
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08-15-2012, 09:17 AM #14Managed VPS Experts
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I say keep the name. In the beginning its going to be hard because people will still think you are the provider with all of those problems, but over time it will pass.
New & Improved should be posted all over the site so they know.
- Daniel
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08-15-2012, 04:10 PM #15New Member
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Now im even more confused. The problem is that in our team there are no marketing/seo people. We are all sys admins. Thats why we thought that reviving the old domain would be easier for us to appear in google and in people's mind since everybody already knows the company.
Still thinking while searching for a good new domain.
I guess the safe way is to go with a new name, but the old, while very risky, could be more profitable...
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08-16-2012, 04:20 AM #16Web Hosting Master
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In that case, if you have a good amount of capital at hand, think about hiring a experienced marketing guy.
If you have a cash shortage, I sincerely advice you to start a new company. This not only avoids unnecessary risk, but you can also establish a name for yourself ground-up.
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08-16-2012, 04:28 AM #17Moving the Web Forward
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I think that is even the more reason to go with a new name, because you are going to need one hell of a marketing campaign/team to re-brand a name that is severely tarnished. Further, starting with a new name will also require an excellent marketing plan, however the job will be easier as you will not have to do any damage control (you'll be able to focus on business, without any negativity attached to your name). Just my two cents though, ultimately its up to you. Once you do decide though, I'd be curious to know what the name is.. (either way).
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08-20-2012, 10:01 PM #18Web Hosting Master
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08-20-2012, 10:05 PM #19Web Hosting Master
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I say go for it.
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08-21-2012, 05:55 AM #20Web Hosting Master
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For a starting out company the traffic would be invaluable! Try it and say that you will prove old customers wrong!
I do think there is bad publicity though. Remember when GoDaddy CEO went recreation elephant hunting? All them customers left. Not good.Still under development! Web Hosting in the East of England!
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08-21-2012, 06:02 AM #21Web Hosting Master
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If you use the old domain then you may want to try and reply to as many of the nagative posts as possible and explain your an established company that is taking over the old domain and you will do much better than the pervious doamin owners, you could then give them an incentive to return to the old domain and try out your new services that have a money back guarentee.
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08-28-2012, 11:09 AM #22Disabled
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That's free marketing. Don't pass it up.
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09-01-2012, 10:53 AM #23Newbie
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I believe that it will be very hard to pull this up but it is not impossible you will gust have to do some reputation management. If the previeous company left a lot of unsatisfied customers you will have to prepare to explain to everybody that you are new guys with new way of running the buisnes.
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09-01-2012, 12:26 PM #24Web Hosting Master
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Go for it, and as othe people say, create a page explaining that you adquired it and you chanlenge to the old customer to try the "new" company under the new management.
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09-01-2012, 12:27 PM #25Web Hosting Master
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█ Shared Web Hosting - Reseller Hosting - Semi-Dedicated Servers - SolusVM/XEN VPS
█ LiteSpeed Powered - R1Soft Continuous Data Protection - 24/7 Chat/Email/Helpdesk Support
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█ DowntownHost LLC - In Business since 2001- West/Center/East USA - Netherlands - Singapore
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