05 April 2007

brilliant.

You know that huge light bulb that went off in someone's head one day - the one that led them to search for expensive things on eBay, misspelled? They got Compaq computers for next to nothing by simply typing "Compack" into the search field, for example. One person's mistake is another person's steal (almost literally). So, remember this.

Guess why I think the person behind Abundant Bible "By God's mercy, one of the largest Bible-centered sites on the web" is a genius.


Did you see anything out of the ordinary (besides terrible web design, which actually isn't that out of the ordinary)? Click on it and look again. Closer. The URL reads tokyohanna.blogpsot.com. My best friend Nicole was typing too fast while trying to go to my blog, and her mistake led to this web site. Noah told me that apparently they bought the redirect. Every time someone mis-types while going to someone's Blogger-hosted blog, they get redirected to Abundant Bible. I don't think they're one of the largest "by God's mercy." Think of how many eyes they get. I don't know how successful the conversion to sales is, but think of the exposure.
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6 comments:

  1. Toss enough advertising into a bunch of peoples faces and eventually some of them are bound to click...it's sad, really, but this is how so many sites are still making money.

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  2. You're right on. There's an amazing amount of thought that goes into people's behavior to buy misspellings. The only disappointing thing is that I don't see the connection between trying to go a blog and ending up at a Christian site (with a lot of ads). Is everyone reading blogs in need of being saved?

    Also, just as a note, it's not a redirect so much as just buying the domain misspelling.

    As a second note, misspellings on Google are a hugely underutilized advertising channel . . . Think about it: People searching for Britny Spears DVD are searching for the exact same thing as Britney Spears DVD, only the ad costs a fraction of the price.

    Sorry for blabbing.

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  3. Oh, and if you want to avoid tricky sites like this, you could always try using OpenDNS: http://www.opendns.com/ - It's free and helps with misspelling of domains and warns of known phishing sites, etc. Very good, free service. (I feel like an advert now).

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  4. Pretty sad day when the almighty has to stoop as low as this to get new customers.

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  5. oh oops thanks for that correciton, Noah. And yes, all us blog-readers need to be saved. Don't you think? I don't see any faulty logic there.

    ...

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  6. There's a whole spelling error industry. Have you been to Engrish.com it's worth a look or two.

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