| ABOUT BALLOT MEASURE DOMAINS: |
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Q.
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WHY DO WE HAVE TO LEASE A DOMAIN NAME FROM YOU WHEN WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO REGISTER IT ON OUR OWN FOR LESS?
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A.
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In early 2007 a senior member of a statewide ballot measure campaign remarked how difficult it was to find a domain name for her campaign. Being in the
web development business, I offered to assist her and discovered how right she really was! All of the desirable domain names for her campaign were taken by
investors or by previous campaigns who had registered the domain for multiple years. A little more investigation showed that this was true across the board.
There definately was a shortage of quality ballot measure domain names.
Here was a problem that needed a solution and Ballot Measure Domains was formed. We started a long process of acquiring quality ballot measure domain names
as their registrations expired or as investors would sell them at a reasonable price. Ballot measure domain names are one of the few domain name categories
that benefit from leasing due to the few short months they are needed by a specific campaign. Once a lease completes, the domains are immediately returned
to the pool for another campaign to use.
The domains in our portfolio do not lease every year. The top few maybe once a year, most every 4 years or so, many haven't leased yet. But the key is
they're available when a campaign needs them!
Our rates are much lower than our largest competitor and our discounts on multiple domain leases reduces that cost even more. We think we've achieved a
good balance between domain accessibility and affordability for the campaigns while also providing a reasonable profit for our efforts.
Here are some examples of current (Jan. 10, 2020) prices on investor-held domains: YesOnFive.com - $2995; VoteYesOnF.com - $1995; NoOn1.com - $6395; YesOnG.com - $11,000; YesOnMeasureO.com - $2595; VoteNoOn7.com - $2695; NoOnProp98.com - $3195; NoOn15.com - $2995.
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Q.
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HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN BUSINESS?
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A.
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Since 2007.
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| DOMAIN NAME SELECTION STRATEGY: |
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Q.
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WHAT SHOULD I CONSIDER IN SELECTING A DOMAIN NAME FOR OUR CAMPAIGN?
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A.
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There are three qualities of a good ballot measure domain:
- SHORT - this really helps on campaign signs and also makes the domain name more memorable.
- MEMORABLE - you want to be as easy to find as possible WITHOUT searching.
- INTEGRATED - your printed and Internet campaigns should be as tightly integrated as possible. If your printed
campaign materials are saying Yes On Measure A then your website's domain name should say that also. It's what voters will expect.
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Q.
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WE ALREADY HAVE A WEBSITE USING ANOTHER DOMAIN NAME AND ALL OF OUR CAMPAIGN LITERATURE IS PRINTED WITH THAT DOMAIN. WHAT CAN A BALLOT MEASURE DOMAIN DO FOR US?
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A.
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If you already have an established website with campaign literature referencing that site then your objective should be to get as many voters to it as you can.
Since websites can have multiple domain names pointing to them and many voters will guess at a campaign's URL if they don’t know it, it's important to capture these guesses
if you can. You don't want these voters to use a search engine and be exposed to your opposition's message if their intent is to visit your site.
Think about your situation. If you were a voter interested in learning more about your campaign what domain names would you guess? A smart online strategy
would be to have one or two of these most likely domain name guesses ALSO pointing to your existing campaign website.
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Q.
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WHY DO BALLOT MEASURE COMMITTEES ACQUIRE MULTIPLE DOMAIN NAMES?
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A.
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Ballot measure committees acquire multiple domains for two main reasons:
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They want to capture as much direct, type-in traffic as they can and avoid the need for voters to use search engines
where exposure to the the opposition's message is also present.
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They want to prevent their competition from acquiring the domains and posting a spoof website or forwarding those domains
to the oposition's campaign website.
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Q.
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WHAT IS A SPOOF WEBSITE?
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A.
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A spoof website is a deceptive website posted with the intention of misleading visitors into thinking that the website has been created
by a different person or organization.
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| LEASING FROM BMD |
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Q.
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HOW DO I LEASE A DOMAIN FROM BALLOT MEASURE DOMAINS?
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A.
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Just follow these simple steps:
- Click on the yellow Search For Your Domain button in the upper right corner of the page.
Fill in the search form with the infornation of the domain you're looking for and click on the yellow Show Matching Domains button.
The page will refresh with a list of domains fitting your requirements.
- Call or email us when you have selected the domain(s) you want to lease and are ready to begin. The process can be completed VERY quickly if you need it.
- We'll be preparing a brief lease agreement and will need the following information:
- The domain name(s) you are interested in leasing
- The term of the lease you would like in months
- The date and ballot (state, county, city, as applicable) where the measure will appear
- Primary contact name, email, and telephone number for operational decisions regarding the lease
- Alternate contact name, email, and telephone number as a backup
- Name, title, and email address of the person who is approving the lease agreement on behalf of the campaign.
The lease agreement will be sent to them as approver. We can also cc anyone else you like.
- Make a payment for your lease via PayPal.
- We will change the DNS or forwarding on the domains per your instructions within 24 hours.
Please call us if you have an urgent need for access to the domains sooner than that.
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Q.
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CAN I LEASE MORE THAN ONE DOMAIN NAME FOR MY WEBSITE?
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A.
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Yes. It's very common for campaign committees to lease two or more domains and feed the traffic from all of them to their website. The most common
arrangement is to lease both the ".com" AND the ".org" version of the shortest domain name matching the issue designation
(ex. YesOn2.com and YesOn2.org). Some committees will also add a pair of domains matching the type of ballot iniative that their state or community uses
(ex.YesOnProp2.com and YesOnProp2.org). The average campaign leases 2 to 3 domains, the record is 16!
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Q.
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IS THERE A MINIMUM LEASE TERM?
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A.
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There is currently a 3 month minimum term.
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Q.
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DO YOU GIVE REFUNDS?
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A.
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No, we do not give refunds. If you find that you have leased the wrong domain please contact us and we can probably work something out.
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Q.
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HOW IS ACCESS TO THE DOMAIN DELIVERED? CAN I GET ACCESS IMMEDIATELY?
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A.
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Once we receive payment for a lease, we access the registrar's Domain Management System and redirect incoming traffic
per the instructions you've provided us. If we haven't received redirect information from you yet we contact you by email
to let you know that we have received your payment and that we are awaiting your instructions on redirecting the Web traffic.
Usually this process is completed within 24 hours of your payment. If you have more urgent needs, please feel free to contact us
by email or phone and we'll try to get you up and running ASAP!
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| TECHNICAL ISSUES |
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Q.
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WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU NEED TO CONNECT A DOMAIN NAME WITH MY WEBSITE?
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A.
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If the domain name from Ballot Measure Domains will be the primary domain name for your website then we'll need the nameserver assignments
for your website in order to direct traffic to it. Nameservers are usually of the format NS1.SOMENAMESERVER.COM and NS2.SOMENAMESERVER.COM
(always 2 or more nameservers) and can be obtained from the firm that is hosting your website.
If your website is already operational and is being served by some other domain name that you want to keep then we just need the full URL
of the specific page that you want the traffic directed to. Usually this is the home page.
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Q.
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WILL WE BE ABLE TO USE EMAIL WITH OUR LEASED DOMAIN?
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A.
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Yes. We can provide you with either:
- email aliases which will forward incoming email to a non-BMD mailbox of your choice (free)
- full mailbox accounts with send/receive capability (additional charge)
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Q.
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WHAT HAPPENS IF THE DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION EXPIRES DURING MY LEASE?
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A.
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If a domain name is scheduled to expire during the term of a new lease we generally renew it for 2 years to avoid any possibility
of there being an unexpected expiration that would disrupt service to the campaign's website.
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Q.
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WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR DOMAIN'S TRAFFIC AFTER OUR LEASE ENDS?
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A.
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When a lease terminates we forward each domain's traffic back to its respective domain name detail page on our website. Campaigns
who want to try to capture that post-election traffic without paying the full price of leasing the domain may place an optional link
or a banner ad on the page announcing an active website for the user to visit.
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