A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about who owned all the Oil Spill and cleanup related domains.
The next day Rick Schwartz published a post of his own, talking about some of the domains he registered related to the spill, and that they were getting traffic making money.
Which got me thinking again, who was buying the keywords on PPC that was creating revenue on these domains.
It looks like I found the answer.
The biggest buyer of keywords for the oil spill disaster?
It looks like its BP.
According to ABC News, BP, thas purchased several phrases on search engines such as Google and Yahoo so that the first result that shows up directs information seekers to the company’s official website.
A simple Google search of “oil spill” turns up several thousand news results, but the first link, highlighted at the very top of the page, is from BP. “Learn more about how BP is helping,” the link’s tagline reads.
A spokesman for the company confirmed to ABC News that it had, in fact, bought these search terms to make information on the spill more accessible to the public.
“We have bought search terms on search engines like Google to make it easier for people to find out more about our efforts in the Gulf and make it easier for people to find key links to information on filing claims, reporting oil on the beach and signing up to volunteer,” BP spokesman Toby Odone told ABC News.
ABC News quotes Scott Slatin, an analyst who runs search engine marketing company Rivington in New York, who estimates BP is paying upwards of $10,000 per day to maintain 1st position under the various search terms.
“If you look at it from BP’s perspective it’s a brilliant move,” Ryan said. “The other option BP had was to just not do this and let the news interpret what’s going on.
“But they’re getting so much bad press that directing traffic to their own site is a great PR strategy,” he said.
“””Terms related to the spill, from “oil spill” to “gulf disaster” to “BP,” have consistently remained in the list of most-searched terms on Google since the spill began in April.””
Guess BP could have saved themselves some money had they registered many of the related domain names rather just paying for the traffic.
I think this is a bit misleading…domains that are simply based on news events will have a short revenue cycle in most scenarios….while the sites may get some traffic, there are not many ways to monetize these sites and they could likely end up on the losing end of breaking even as my assumption would be the traffic is likely to continue
Interesting, Rick Schwartz always is complaining about cybersquatters, and here he registers bp domains. I assume in this case it is called freedom of speach domains ?
Gee.
And I would have thought such funds would be better spent trying to stop the leak and/or clean up the mess they’ve made.
Foolish me.
if you look at it from bps prospective its a brillant move ryan says.stating bp is spending 10k a day to maintain the top of google search engine.rick registers several bp oil spill domains.
1. bp is completely asleep at the wheel here..bp should have a daily spokesman informing the public what bp is doing, the results and what bp is going to do next.day1.day2,day3.day4. etc…
2.bp should have a live video feed with their spokesman,twitter commets
blog commets hourly updates. instead their was a voice mail at the end of bps phone number.
3.rick as usual was ahead of bp every conceivable domain should have been purchased and forwarded to the above website.
4.ryan is an idiot google should not be getting a dime off this transaction.with the above interactive elements this website would be number one under google to begin with.
5. this will cripple the republican party.ie drill baby drill.cut the capilization of bp in half,the ceo of bp will eventually be fired,
and a crimminal investigation will commence….nothing brillant here….
6. this entire episode was missed handle by bp. there should be videos of animal wildlife cleanup,the 3 or 4 failed attempts to stop this leak,what the congress is going to do..they will implement new oil drilling laws,public commets from the areas affected….this entire
oil leak is a fiasco the arabs are laughing at this botched deep water oil drilling…this could have had a much more positive spin instead it is a failing episode.people are making millions of dollars off this the domain guy should not have to educate these idiots.
Whatever it takes to make money-who cares about humanity and morality
at $10,000/day we will have spent easily over $1 million in PPC to try to save face by the time this fiasco is over.
in all honesty, i doubt that our executives care anything for providing accessibility to the public. if this were the case, we wouldnt have made such a big effort to prevent underwater cameras from delivering live video streams of the oil spewing from the ocean floor to the public, and otherwise impeding access of the area to investigators and government officials
– Toby Odone, Chief Bullshit Artist, BP
After seeing your article today I added a few domains to my now over 100 oil spill domains.
Yeah the president one is just something for fun, but the rest should be good I think.
I still don’t understand why this market is still so wide open for domain names somebody is taking a nap on this one.
Domains I got today like: oilspilldonation.com and oilspillfundraiser.com I would thing there are a few organisations out there that needs them.
And how about oilspilldoctors.com I can see a paid directory coming on that URL we already know people are going to get sick, and then they have to see a doctor.
There are so many related industries to this oil spill that I could take out domain names all day long. But ….
Here is my list for today.
healthriskoilspill.com
saftyoilspill.com
watersaftyoilspill.com
medicaloilspill.com
bpoilremoval.com
oilspillcancer.com
oilspillproblems.com
historyofoilspill.com
costofoilspillremoval.com
oilspillsmell.com
dangerofoilspill.com
oilspillsymtoms.com
oilspilldoctors.com
oilspillconsultans.com
OILSPILLBANK.COM
BPOILSPILLMONEY.COM
OILSPILLCLEANUPMONEY.COM
OILSPILLPRESIDENT.COM
OILSPILLWEB.COM
OILSPILLEMPLOYMENT.COM
OILSPILLDONATION.COM
OILSPILLFUNDRAISER.COM
OILSPILLDANGER.COM
OILSPILLTOXIC.COM
OILSPILLALERTS.COM
OILSPILLHURRICANES.COM
OILSPILLSYMPTOMS.COM
In just a few months, and lasting for years, you can make a lot of money from these oil spill-related domains if they’re available. Check your soul in at the door before you buy:
DevastatedGulfWildlife.com
CriminallyNegligentOilCompany.com
RuinedGulfFishermen.com
LoweredBeachPropertyValuesInFlorida.com (I think Rick S. did a followup story about this just after announcing his purchase of his “oilspill” domains for fun and profit and domains that weren’t “pigeon shit”.
LostRevenueForGulfStatesFromDropInTourism.com
IfDeepSeaDrillingHasn’tDestroyedTheGulfThisTimeWaitUntilTheNEXTleak.com
WillTheOilSpillHitTheCaymans.com
BirdsThatDieFromOilPollution.com
MakeMoneyFromWarandDisasters.com (A new ebook coming out, written by Dick Cheney)
DevastationofGulfEconomyandHowItAffectsEveryone.com
I’ll bet BP didn’t buy any keywords for people looking up “how can I help clean up BP’s screwup” and “how can I protect the gulf from BP and Other Oil Companies”
(“Is this what you want to be doing when Jesus comes back?” – Joe Dirt)
Stephen
I think if someone is really interested in the best possible domain for this nightmare of biblical proportions they could go with one I already own:
WeAreFu*ked.com
@ Em-Bee,
Your domain is apropos to be the “definitive domain in its total summation”. I’ll bet when you bought it, you didn’t have this in mind: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2010-06-09-1Aoilhowbad09_CV_N.htm
Hmmm… after a few more moments of reflection on your domain, I’m realizing just how kick*ss it is for the oil spill and a hell of a lot of other things. Yipes!
All I got is “SOMEBODYGETACLUE.COM”!