From Starbucked.com to Againstthewal.com, gripe sites – or Websites and blogs that solicit and publish consumer complaints directed towards a particular product or company – are popping up on the Internet with increasing frequency. But according to a piece published in The Wall Street Journal last week, companies are finally indentifying ways to fight back.

Thus far, the preferred course of action has been to buy up the domain names that may one day be used to launch attacks. According to the article – which cites a study conducted by the Internet strategy consulting firm FairWinds Partners – Xerox, for example, has purchased 20 unflattering domain names, such as xeroxstinks.com, xeroxcorporationsucks.com, and ihatexerox.net.

But as Fair Winds Managing Partner Josh Bourne correctly points out, simply deciding to buy up domain names isn’t enough. There’s a lot of real estate in the virtual world (with the advent of .net, .tv, and other domains there’s more being created everyday) and companies should target their accquisitions to only those sites that will attract the most traffic.

But it goes a step further as well. Just like a company wouldn’t buy an empty lot to let it sit undeveloped, gripe sites shouldn’t be left dark. They should be purchased with the intention of transforming them into vehicles by which a company can engage the online community.

For example, visitors to Southwestsucks.com are directed to a Southwest consumer relations page where the same gripes can be aired – but with the goal of solving problems as the underlying theme. And Comcast didn’t buy ComcastMustDie.com. Rather, it started monitoring the site and began contacting those that posted complaints directly. Today, the site – while still highly critical of the cable company – calls Comcast “tone deaf no more.”

If consumers want to complain about your company on the Internet, they will find a venue in which to do it – no matter how much virtual real estate you acquire. Just like any venue that solicits consumer complaints, the goal is to be responsive to your customers’ needs, and thankful for their valued input.