RachelRay.com - The Next American Affiliate Marketer
You know, it never ceases to amaze me with the things that I see make Google Hot Trends. So this morning we have Rachel Ray Show landing the number one slot on Hot Trends.
It seems that Paula Abdul and the entire American Idol crew were guests on The Rachael Ray Show today. Paula Abdul apparently drools over the food that Rachael prepared and it made Hot Trends. I couldn’t find anything mentioned about it on her site, but then again, I can’t stand celebrity news and gossip, so I didn’t look all that hard.
Now, here is the reason why I am covering a blog post about this story. You see, #2 on Google Hot Trends is RachelRay.com. Now the owner of RachelRay.com isn’t owned by the famous Rachael Ray. The person who owns RachelRay.com is an unknown individual who registered the domain name on TuCows back in 2001. At some point in time, this unknown owner decided to use RachelRay.com to redirect traffic to Amazon.com using an affiliate link.
So you see, Rachael Ray may indeed be a famous TV icon; however, there is also the possibility that she may indeed be the private owner of the misspelled version of her personal domain name and as it turns out, she could very well be one of the smartest affiliate marketers online. The things that make you go hmmm….
There is a lot of money to be made online, so I have to wonder how effective is the RachelRay.com redirect campaign to Amazon.com? I really wonder if this is working? I know for a fact that RachelRay.com indeed gets tons of traffic, and especially this morning.
What do you think? Should famous people use their popularity to drive traffic to monetized content or content used to promote affiliate based products? Are their already celebrities that do this? Should people register the domain names of common misspelling in celebrity names to drive traffic?
The funny part about all this is the fact that everyone is misspelling her name. Her name is spelled, Rachael Ray and not Rachel Ray. Either way, the person who owns RachelRay.com is getting hit right now with a boat load of traffic and it’s all being directed to Amazon.com.
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Date/Time: 9-10-2008 13:01:12 Comment #21938
I don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to. If they don’t some one else will. It would be in their interest to do it, if they don’t the second best they can get is an affiliate marketer or parked page. The celebrity just better hope the adult entertainment industry doesn’t, or the visitors might be in for a shock!
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Date/Time: 9-10-2008 13:49:41 Comment #21942
I think it is brilliant! If indeed Rachael Ray owns the domain that you are talking about, it is brilliant!
Personally, I think some kid in India owns the misspelling and is cashing in and that too is brilliant!
I know a guy who combs through local newspapers here in Chicago and registers the names of high school football players that appear to be up-n-comers so that one day, he can sell them their named domain back to them.
This was a big controversy some years ago with Warren Sapp of the TB Bucs.
I would never employ these tactics, but I must admit I enjoy seeing others do it. Is that wrong?
AL
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Date/Time: 9-10-2008 15:35:39 Comment #21950
I wonder it will make us banned from amazon.. or sued for trademark..I mean, is it really OK using the name in that way?
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Date/Time: 9-11-2008 11:41:50 Comment #22048
Shit, too bad people don’t search for John Wayne like they used to…lol
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