Then came along the “Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act” which took steps to stop that kind of activity and ICANN’s policy and process for allowing a trademark owner to get ownership of a domain.

ICANN’s process typically costs $2000-3000 dollars which still gives speculators wiggle room for profit. Would you rather pay $500-1000 for a quick purchase from a squatter or go through the red-tape and extra expense? Most will go for the easy life.

But today your official website is typically the least important web presence you have.

Online marketing is about interaction.

And the easiest way to interact is through social sites. Be it facebook, youtube or twitter most social sites give you the chance to own your own customised URL. Find me on facebook at facebook.com/porter.im

Introducing, for the want of a better catchphrase – social brand squatting.

It’s not always done for profit and probably mostly done by fans but the desired social url’s are being grabbed up quickly. Out of the 72 most popular social sites the vanity keyword ‘Metallica’ is only available on less than 20%.

Metallica don’t have active accounts on all those sites. But someone has registered them – and that could create a problem. From impersonating the official brand to spreading negative press under an official moniker.

Apple have become the victim of brand squatting as you can see here:
MySpace (/apple) = DJ Apple. Brand Fail.
Twitter (/apple) = Squatter. Brand Fail.

Protect your brand over every site (even if you don’t use it) or squat on some company names late to the game and see if you can profit and collect lawsuits. I use NameChk.com to quickly see the availability over many social sites quickly and then register.

Creating sites for affiliate marketing? Social site profiles rank quickly with few links. Create a hub page on a social site to promote a product and you’ll find you can get search traffic for little effort.