Renaming / Rebranding Your Community

[glorified j]

I got started making websites almost on accident. My first community was started as part of another project -- and let's just say the website and community FAR outlived the original project.

At the time I knew almost nothing about websites, and it's taken several updates since to get the site to a place I'm pretty happy with it. But there's a catch. When I started, a lot of the obvious URLs were taken. I ended up settling on CornholePlayers.net. At the time, the .com wasn't even being used on an active site, and the .net seemed just fine.

Four years later, I don't feel the same way. Another organization ended up buying the .com of my name. While my website is the one people are talking about when they say "cornhole players", this other group steals a portion of my traffic because they own the .com.

Long lead in, but here's my question -- After 4 years, is it too late to rename my website? I own the URL CornholeGamePlayers.com, which is a little longer, but basically similar. It's also nice to have 'game' in the title for people who assume cornhole is something else... Technically it's not very hard to reroute the current URLs to the new address, so that's not a factor.

I have 2 major concerns. The community members could get upset. The masses can get really hung up on things, and change is evil. I upgraded my forum software 2 years ago, and it had a lot of people pretty riled up... My second concern is my 'brand'. At first it will be drastically weakened, by changing the name - - but over time I think it can ultimately be stronger, as I have will my own, unique, URL.

Sorry for the long post, I figured this forum would be an interesting place to discuss this.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
--Jeremy
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Beer Brewing | Outdoor Games | Cornhole

[Patrick]

Hey Jeremy,

This is a tough question. Everything you say is accurate (well, they aren't "stealing" your traffic, but they are benefiting, I understand). I might say that, if you are looking at rebranding, take this as an opporting to find a new name totally, rather than just adding game. Are there any good cornhole names that are shorter? Maybe one you already own?

Like, for example, cornholeguide.com. I wouldn't be surprised if people actually search for cornhole guide. Something to think about.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Patrick
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Author, Managing Online Forums - A Practical Guide to Online Community Management
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[glorified j]

Hey everyone. Just wanted to follow up on this.

After weighing all of my options, I changed "CornholePlayers.net" to "CornholeGamePlayers.com". I now have the .com name I've always wanted, I've kept the name similar as not to completely throw people off, and the "game" in the title is even good for a little added SEO.

I've actually already got a site called "Outdoor Game Players", and another called "Cornhole Game Builders", so adding the game wasn't a huge stretch.

I launched about a week ago, and the response has been very good. I know a few of the forum regulars wish I hadn't changed the name, but overall I've imporoved the site, and the .com name gives me a little stronger footing for the future.

Oh, btw, I put a few lines in my htaccess file to make every page from the old domain redirect to the new one. EVERY bookmarked page will take you to the same page on the new domain. Cool stuff.
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Beer Brewing | Outdoor Games | Cornhole

[Patrick]

Good job, Jeremy. Congrats on making it happen!

Patrick
_________________
Patrick O'Keefe - CommunityAdmins.com Administrator
Author, Managing Online Forums - A Practical Guide to Online Community Management
Have a suggestion or a bit of feedback relating to CommunityAdmins.com? Please contact me!
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