1-800-Get-Rich Can Toll Free 800 Number Domains Pay Off?

The toll free number 1-800-Get-Rich belongs to the Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. Perfect vanity number for a casino, right? Well apparently not. Their website shows the actual numbers, 1-800-438-7424 for the marketing department of Resorts Atlantic City. Those NUMBERS are nowhere near as memorable as is the mnemonic device of letters representing those numbers on the telephone keypad. It makes you wonder, did the casino have bad luck (no pun intended) or receive bad publicity for their 800-Get-Rich phone number?

Doing a Google search for 1-800-GET-RICH returns several spoof articles using the toll free number to make light of get rich quick schemes. Seems as well suited to a casino as to satire, since gambling represents the ultimate get rich quick scheme.

But on the web there's a another element to toll free numbers you must consider. 800 numbers are used as domain names which seem to stick in our memory as a web address just as well as a phone number. Resorts Atlantic City Hotel Casino should buy the domain name www.1800getrich.com from the current owner and assign their marketing department toll free 800 vanity number to the Casino instead.

The domain name www.1800GetRich.com is for sale as of this writing if you visit that web address. You can be certain that the current domain owner knows that the toll free vanity telephone number is owned by Resorts International Hotels www.resortsac.com which matches the domain www.1800getrich.com. It has to be enticing to think a large international hotel corporation may want his domain.

The casino owns the toll free number but isn't using the mnemonic for the numbers (GET-RICH for 438-7424). Makes you wonder about the history of the domain name, since WHOIS records show it was reserved only this past May of 2004, AND the history of the vanity number since it is going unused, at least on the web site. Hmmmm...

There are vanity phone number resellers online that actually specialize in providing 800 numbers with matching domain name for those seeking the consistent branding for their business. Clearly this is simply a marketing ploy by savvy 800 number vendors, as those domains may be full of hyphens and may cost more than they should due to the perception of value-added.

An interesting aspect to toll free numbers as domain names is that of 1-800 copyright and trademarks. Take for example, the well known flower retailer 1-800-FLOWERS.com where they use both the domain name and the toll free number. Both are copy- righted and trademarked names and essential to the business.

Legal precedent allows trademark owners to confiscate domains from "cybersquatters" who buy domain names containing trade- marked or copyrighted words and phrases hoping to sell that domain back to the trademark holder. But it is less clear an issue when it comes to descriptive toll free and vanity phone numbers. How about 1-800-PINDROP.com - which you would think would be registered to Sprint Communications? Curiously, as of October of 2004, this domain was available. What do they use? www.pindrop.com (without the 1-800) goes to Sprint.com.

It appears there are wide inconsistencies in using toll free 800 phone numbers as domain names but they can be memorable, which is one measure of a good domain name. They also aren't limiting as to word length. I've always felt it's a bit odd to type in 1800keywordphrase.com as a domain name, but only because there is no hyphen in it. 1800 looks like eighteen hundred and is just as strange as typing 247 for domains as a suggestion they are always open, more often seen as 24/7, but domain names can't have that slash mark in them.

As a matter of fact, I've always disliked numbers of any kind in domain names - especially those using numbers in place of the words "to" (up2me.com)& "for" (good4you.com) But, as owner of http://website101.com I'm at odds with the dislike for numbers in domain names. Still, it works better than 1800website.com or 1-800-website.com, both owned by Verio Web Hosting and both purchased in August of 1996, but neither have web sites configured at those addresses. They must not have been a worthwhile domains, yet they keep them.

If it offers you another option for a memorable web address, 800 number domains may be worth considering.

Mike Valentine operates WebSite101 domain name tutorial http://WebSite101.com/Domain_Name/ Free domain lookup tool to find out who owns domain names at http://website101.com/Domain_Name/Domain-WHOIS-database.html This article written for 800 Numbers Toll Free http://800numberstollfree.com/toll-free-800-number-index.htm

Latest News

Learn the ins and outs of buying a domain name Arizona Republic, AZ - 8 hours ago 2, 2008 09:42 AM Answer: Your domain name is the most important part of your Web site outside your welcome page. It defines how customers find you on the ...

New York Times

.Tel Them Where to Find You New York Times, United States - 4 hours ago A “land rush” period, in which anyone can buy domain names for around $150 a year, begins Feb. 3. After March 24, domain names will be available for around ... Netfirms Announces Availability of Innovative .TEL Domain Names PR Web (press release) all 8 news articles

Internet body to auction special domain names The Punch, Nigeria - 1 hour ago By Jonah Iboma The Nigeria Internet Registration Association, the body in charge of the administration of the country’s top-level domain name, .ng, ...

SnapNames.com Announces Auction Services for Deleting .mobi Domain ... PR Web (press release), WA - 11 hours ago Founded in 2000, SnapNames operates the largest auction of expired and deleting domain names. Partnering with the world's largest and best-known registrars ...

Domain Name Community DNF24 Launches Free Expired Domain Name Tool 7thSpace Interactive (press release), NY - 10 hours ago Amsterdam and New York, December 2nd 2008 - Today, domain name community DNF24.COM has announced the launch of its available expired domain name service for ...

Early Christmas: Domain Name Community DNF24 Gives Away Free ... 7thSpace Interactive (press release), NY - Dec 1, 2008 Amsterdam & New York - December 1st 2008 - (7thSpace.com) - Today, domain name community DNF24.COM has launched a contest, where community members can ...

Genius Marketing: Answer Trivia on Twitter, Win Free Domain Names Mashable, CA - Dec 1, 2008 Domain registrar NameCheap is executing one of the latter, running a holiday trivia contest where their followers are awarded free domain registrations for ...

Australia: Watch This (Expanding Internet Domain Name) Space: An ... Mondaq News Alerts (registration), UK - 16 hours ago The following FocusPaper provides a broad overview of ICANN's newly proposed procedure for the introduction of additional top-level domain names to the ...

John Motson's Free Book "Domaining Manifesto" Reveals Secrets Of ... PR Web (press release), WA - 17 hours ago With the dire state of today's global financial market, domain names are turning out to be a very steady and reliable investment alternative as domain names ...

Tucows Joins Ethoca-Powered Global Fraud-Fighting Community PR Web (press release), WA - 11 hours ago Hover is the easiest way for individuals and small businesses to manage their domain names and email addresses. -- Tucows also owns a portfolio of tens of ...