Am I hosed? PROTOURING.COM url going live soon

[Larry Callahan]

Am I hosed? PROTOURING.COM url going live soon

I have been after the url protouring.com since day one. It's what we use now just without the dash. When talking about the site that's what everyone calls it. Pro Touring.com

I have had a constant back order on it if it ever expires and I miss it. I keep the date on my calendar and always watch it.

For near 11 years they have done nothing with it and a few years ago the finally replied and said they wanted 5k for it and I could not afford it and still can't.

Now I wish I killed a credit card and grabbed it.

So, today the tell me they now have plans coming up soon for it but would drop the plans and sell it for 12k. They won't tell me what they are doing with it and for all I know it could be a golf thing.

Even if they don't do anything car related it's going to be a nightmare with people going to visit their site thinking it's this one.

Maybe I should ask everyone to start calling Gmachines.com since I own that.

Doh!

[M4XVLTG3]

I wouldent stress about them jerking you around. You already notified them that 5k was not in your price range and now they are trying to make you feel desperate by cranking up the price. They may have a legitimate offer they may not. When it comes down to brass tacks people will know if they are in the right spot or not.

[astroracer]

I don't think I would worry about it Larry. Pro-Touring Dot Com is what it is. If a person runs across both sites, so be it, they'll know what they are looking for and direct their attention appropriately... I know that's what I do...
Mark

[John Wright]

Fabulous.com?....or is that who the owners of protouring.com are using to sell it for them?

eh...I agree with the others, google searches turn up PT cars and point them here...so no problem.

[Damn True]

The brand has been built under the hyphenated form. I don't think there is anything to be gained by a contraction. Besides, it's clearly two words "Pro Touring" not one "Protouring".

I'd keep an eye on it and see if you can grab it at a later date, but I certainly wouldn't drop $12k on it.

[jy211]

Larry,

I had a website almost the same name as someone else. I incorporated my company first and secured the domain name, before they opened theirs. They had a - in their web address though. This other companies potential customers would type in the name as it sounded and my website would pop up. Well I guess enough of his customers complained, he contacted me to buy it. I declined. Then he started trying to threaten me with infringement and all this crap. Well after about 2 years plus he bought the domain name from me.

For what it's worth, leave it alone. Enough people will find their way here.

[ErikLS2]

I agree enough people will find it as it is. I would offer them $2500 I'll chip in a little to help, god knows I've gotten plenty of free help from this site, and I'm sure a lot of others would too.

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

ha!.. FU C K them... we all know it with the dash anyways.. keep the 5K and put it to something on your ride.

[gkring]

Perfect example. Check out www.nissan.com
If anything I would pay to get www.protouring.com and they can have the hyphenated version. Maybe you will get lucky and it iw a golf site. Not as big of a deal since you are not a retail business, but it is always nice to own all the versions of your site.

[Vegas69]

I often catch myself writing pro-touring. Don't sweat it, we aren't going anywhere.

[BuzzKillian]

I found the site through Bing just fine... hypenated or not. Save your money Larry.

[The Stickman]

Larry here is the deal. This is a GREAT site. Nothing is gonna change that.

[Off Duty]

I agree with everyone else.
People that are looking for this Pro-touring site will realize they're here when they see it.
I sort of like the Pro-Touring logo!

I own a website that caters to all makes/models of antique, classic, rat/hotrods, and musclecars.
It's a small site, and regional to Florida (anyone's welcome, but it's focused on the Florida owner/enthusiasts).

I found that there's one similar to mine, but has "central" in the name.
Oh well, no biggie.

Don't sweat it, you're team is here and others will follow

I'd be happy to chip in too if you decide to pull the trigger and they get off their horse on the numbers.
But I wouldn't drop 12 large on it.

[Tony_SS]

Even if you google protouring this site comes up first... I wouldn't worry about it.

[Jim Nilsen]

Even if you google protouring this site comes up first... I wouldn't worry about it.

Perfect example of how greed can bite you in the ass.

When they never get to be on top they will be the ones feeling your woes. And what does it matter if you are second on the search page? I always laugh when I go to google and my Angefire site is right on top just because I have had more hits than the other sites with the word cormaro in them. I never tried to be on top and really didn't know how I did it until it came to the reality that it is about hits on the site.

Let it go the coarse and see where it goes, once on top it is hard for the others to get there.

[skooli]

No one is going to have any trouble finding this site. Don't ever give in to someone's greed. They're like that guy with the rare muscle car rotting in thier yard that's going to "put it back one day", but is actually waiting for someone to offer a ridiculous amount of money for it.

[Flash68]

If you are concerned about it Larry, I would spend your dollars on making sure your SEO (search engine optimization) is current and up to snuff -- THAT is what keeps your pages at the top of web searches. It's not simply a matter of "number of hits" as many seem to think. SEO algorithms and metrics at google have changed drastically in the past couple of years. The SEO work I had done 2 years ago to my site basically is being redone right now as everything has changed.

[NJSPEEDER]

I have seen similar issues with other sites before. They get quickly discredited as not being the real deal and even if their owners do continue to operate their only hope of picking up any membership by people accidentally picking them while looking for this forum.

No worries. I am sure you can count on the community you have built here to keep spreading the word about this site and all it has to offer.

-Tim

[camcojb]

I wouldn't sweat it Larry. No matter how you google protouring it comes to your site first. They are likely bluffing having noticed the traffic your site has, but even if not, whatever they do with the site it will not replace this one.

[Vicinity]

Just wait on it, no big deal. Tell them to take your offer or they can sit on the damn thing forever, just let them know you really don't care. It might give you leverage, if not, oh well, we all have this site bookmarked, and I always remember to tell people to visit and tell them theres a dash.