Don’t WordPress in Your Domain Names?
WordPress is my CMS of choice, hands down. There’s not much I can’t figure out how to do in WordPress and PHP. It’s become super-popular, and people are constantly wanting to carve their own niche in the WordPress area. The problem is that some people get a little gung-ho about starting their WordPress business. If you’re like me, you don’t read the documentation for things like you should. If you don’t, you can get into big trouble.
Where the Trouble Is
They’ve specifically mentioned that you are not to use WordPress in any domain names. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, even if it’s helpful to others in the WordPress community. Ever wondered why so many sites are named WP this and WP that? That’s why. WordPress will come after you, you can be fined, and everything under the umbrella you created using the WordPress name can be seized. The fines aren’t tiny, if that’s what you’re thinking. You could be looking at $100,000 per offense. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have that kind of money floating around. I don’t know many people who do.
An acceptable alternative
You are stuck with just whatever you could come up with. The most common solution is to use WP instead of WordPress. This has become the acceptable way to imply that something is related to WordPress, without all of the legal trouble.
Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know either
A couple of years ago, I decided that I wanted to start a website about WordPress. Actually, I wanted to start multiple websites related to WordPress, which included sites that sold products specifically for WordPress users. I hopped online and did a search for different domains with the term WordPress available. I was amazed at the fact there were so many available. I wasn’t too shocked, though because I’ve never really had trouble finding domains that I thought could result in something good. Thankfully, before I got wrapped up into starting a WordPress site, I joined the WordPress community on Google plus. One of the moderators there mentioned to me that I couldn’t have WordPress in my domain. I searched for the same term using WP instead, and I was able to acquire that without any trouble.
Do you know of any sites that use WordPress in their domain name? You might build a get away with it for a while, but I don’t think it’s worth the risk. If you want to start your own site devoted to WordPress, it’s a good idea to go with WP instead of WordPress. Avoid all the trouble in the future, especially if you turn your website into a lucrative business. You should be focused more on business growth, and not on legal battles.