You buy your $5.99 domain and devote several weeks to crafting your marketing message and putting all the pieces together so it all works to pull in orders like clockwork, day in, day out.

You also put your domain out there in a big way, doing everything by the book to get viral traffic, search engines, pay per click, articles, affiliates all promoting your site...

Because you know the work you do once puts your domain out there and draws floods of people to your site for years to come.

Then one e-mail comes threatening to take it all away in a heartbeat.

Followed by the certified letter, notifying you that a litigious bully will take over your domain, unless you cough up $1,150 just so the National Arbitration Forum will hear your side of the case, stating why your domain should continue to be yours!

"What!" you exclaim. "You mean people can take away my domain, that I registered and paid for? How can that happen?"

Well, when you "bought" your domain, in the fine print you probably didn't read, you agreed to allow an administrative panel determine the fate of everything you've put into your web presence, if someone with deep pockets decided to squash you.

And if you're like most people online, having to throw away $1,150 just to be heard by the one-person panel deciding your fate truly is a scary thought... just for the opportunity to protect everything you have, you've got to come up with what for most people amounts to their mortgage payment or two months rent.

And that just buys you a seat at the table, and doesn't do a thing toward protecting you or defending against this unwanted attack on your livelihood.

For that you're probably best off relying on an attorney specializing in Internet law, and you can imagine how much additional mint that would cost.

Trick or treat, without the treat!

How do I know all these things, you ask?

Because the domain I bought to promote my teachings based on the original version of "Think and Grow Rich", ThinkAndGrowRichSeminars.com, is under such a legal attack.

Through that site I offer my "Rediscover Think and Grow Rich" program to expose Napoleon Hill's teachings to a 20th Century audience, enhancing the importance and value of his work and life.

Yet the Napoleon Hill Foundation doesn't see things that way.

They consider my domain in direct competition to their own sites, and accuse me of acting in bad faith to confuse people that my materials are

Of course we all know how far attorneys will go to argue their point, and how "the truth" becomes irrelevant, or stretched at least to the point of breaking, so the merits of the case don't really matter.

The thing is that if someone decides they have a good reason to challenge one of your domains, and they want it, they could cost you a lot of time and cash, and seriously threaten what you've took so long to build.

What can you do to limit or protect yourself?

1. Know your rights.

The policy you agreed to follow when you registered the domain is posted at http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.html.

2. Don't put all your eggs in one domain.

More than likely any predators looking to challenge your business will search the WHOIS database for keywords related to their area of interest.

For example, they probably found thinkandgrowrichseminars.com by searching thinkandgrowrich.

Yet maybe they wouldn't have found my domain if I had registered SeminarsOnThinkAndGrowRich.com, instead.

And if I'd also registered ThinkAndGrowRichTalks and TalksOnThinkAndGrowRich, I'd have additional options, even though it'd take a lot of work to direct traffic to those sites, instead of the one being threatened for hostile take-over.

3. Direct all your promotions through your personal domain.

If instead of ThinkAndGrowRichSeminars.com I'd directed everyone to learn about "Rediscover Think and Grow Rich" and my other related materials through DanKlatt.com, for example, this threat would not matter so much to me.

4. Register keyword domains that look the same, yet aren't.

I could have registered ThinkAnGrowRich.com, ThnkAndGrowRich.com, or thinkandgrownich.com and they probably wouldn't have raised an eyebrow.

Notice from those examples that our eyes tend to fill in the missing "i" and not notice anything unusual.

Keep these strategies in mind next time you go to register another domain.

A little pre-emptive thought can potentially save you thousands and protect your livelihood online!

Please forward this to others who may not have been aware of this threat, which will only get worse as the domain pool shrinks even more.
About the Author

For important updates on Dan Klatt's domain challenge and also to read "Napoleon Hill's Rolling in His Grave: How Coming from the Old-Paradigm of Fear and Scarcity Is Bad Business" subscribe to the "Consciousness of Wealth Newsletter" at http://www.DanKlatt.com.