Is it hard to get sponsors with swear words in your domain name?
I recently added a page to Blogging Tips which I hope will make it easier for readers to ask blogging related questions via email.
Jay Wilson from Super Negro was the first to send me a question. Jay asked :
I have a quick question for the Blooging Tips crew - would a URL with
a swear word be able to pull sponsors? For example, if someone want to
start a blog about baseball called Hard”f’n”ball (with the f’n
spelled out), would that be very problematic?
Can blogs or websites with a swear word in the domain name still get sponsors?
Short answer, yes and no. You see, using a swear word in your domain name or running a site which has adult related content (be it swearing, porn or whatever) restricts the number of advertising networks which will accept your site. This does not necessarily mean that you find it hard to find sponsors though, far from it.
For example, many joke and media sites will struggle to get accepted to some of the top affiliate networks (think Casale Media, tribalfusion etc) because their content is of an adult nature. However, there are many affiliate programs which they will be accepted to and in many cases those sites are more appropriate.
So what about a baseball site called ‘Hard”f’n”ball’? Well, that site would probably be put in the same bracket by some affiliate networks as sites with adult content. This would be the case even if Hard”f’n”ball’ had no adult content or swearing on the site (other than the domain name).
So to conclude, if your website or blog is going to have adult content and/or swearing in the articles then a swear word in the domain name will probably make no difference to the sponsors you will be targeting. However, if the content is clean an offensive domain name could see your blog rejected by some affiliate networks because of the name.
It should be noted however that in my experience, companies with their own affiliate program are less strict about what sites get accepted compared to banner serving affiliate networks so if you don’t plan on joining a CPM based ad network all of the above could be irrelevant.
Have you ever had a blog or website rejected by an affiliate because of adult content or because of a swear word in the domain name?
* Thanks again to Jay Wilson from Super Negro for asking this question
Rhys | October 17th, 2007 at 1:48 am #
Interesting question.
On my blog I generally swear and do say a few things that I wouldn’t say to my mother, but it’s quite a personal blog. Ironically I get quite a lot of sponsors for my blog, so I guess they’re not complaining
Mark | October 17th, 2007 at 3:43 am #
Leading on from this point, if the domain name has a swear word in it, does that affect how your appear on search engines, or even how robots see it?
I guess if someone has the “safe search filtering” content filter set in Google to strict then domains such as the few I’ve got with swear words in the subject line won’t appear anyway, regardless of the content on the site - which ironically is not risque in any way.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Kevin | October 17th, 2007 at 5:40 am #
Thats a very good point Mark and something which I should have discussed in my post. The safe search filtering would definately stop a lot of people finding your site.
Neil Duckett | October 17th, 2007 at 8:10 am #
Interesting topic! …. i guess the domain name and blog content containing swear words are 2 vastly different things. I wouldn`t think swearing In the blog would be such an issue …. maybe the domain might be though. Depends on the advertisers you`re chasing i guess.
Frank C | October 17th, 2007 at 11:49 am #
A business I really like, GuitarF*tish (that’s an ‘e’ in that word), has this problem with their ecommerce site. They’re constantly getting blocked by safe search filters and firewalls even though all they’re selling are guitars and guitar parts. They have to maintain a separate eBay store to make it easier for people to slip around filters. The owner of the company says that he wishes he had chosen a less ‘clever’ name but that he can’t change it now since he’s spent the past 5 years building the brand.
Mark | October 17th, 2007 at 11:49 am #
Anyone got any ideas how domains such as wishitwaschristmas.com be affected by the safe search filter with the swear word in there?
Wedding cake lady | October 17th, 2007 at 10:56 pm #
I think if you are bringing in lots of traffic, then thats all it matters to a sponsor.
But I could be wrong =)