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Domain squatting mummy blogger: ‘This was one of the worst days of my life’

The owner of a Queensland blog at the centre of a row about the domain squatting of rival sites has posted a video apology, claiming that she had been given bad advice.

Jody Allen, owner of Stay At Home Mum, posted the apology after it emerged that her company had registered similar domain names to a string of rival mummy blogger sites and redirected them to her site.

This morning Allen posted the video, saying the online backlash  was “one of the worst days of my life”.

The issue exploded yesterday after Katrina Springer, owner of Australian blog The Organised Housewife, revealed that a similar domain name to hers was being redirected to Stay At Home Mum.

She wrote about the issue on her Facebook page, saying: “I am obviously saddened and confused why they would want to do this to me”.

facebook organised housewife

The Organised Housewife post which triggered the furore

It quickly emerged that a string of domains were being redirected to the Stay At Home Mum site.

Stay At Home Mum initially responded with a “housekeeping” message on its own Facebook page blaming “outsourced developers”. The message conceded: “100’s of domains were redirected to our site, some of which may be similar to other sites”.

stay at home mum facebook

Stay At Home Mum’s initial response

it also emerged that when one site owner had attempted to obtain a URL containing their site title, the owners of Stay At Home Mum had asked for $20,000 to hand it over.

In today’s video, Allen said: “There’s been lots of horrible things said. I was accused of a number of deeply hurtful and saddening things, but my only error was in judging the advice I had been given.”

She said she apologised “wholeheartedly”.

Late last year, Stay At Home Mum was named the Gympie Times business of the year.

Meanwhile blogging advertising company Nuffnang has called for bloggers to collaborate on a set of ethics.

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