I bought Forbse.com

I bought Forsbe.com

You’ll never believe what happened next.

Photo by Bruce Mars on Pexels

It happened on a cold, dry evening, in a London coffee shop where coffee and cookie flavours meet with science and art, where creativity encounters productivity. Sitting by the fire, I was reading the news with a freshly brewed coffee. Surrounded by entrepreneurs hustling on their most endearing projects.While my mind wondered I decided to read Forbe’s innovation rubric on AI and Big Data.

In case you didn’t know. Forbes is a New Jersey based American business magazine, most famous for its lists and rankings such as the Forbes 400: the richest Americans, or the world’s top companies: Forbes Global 2000 and the Forbes 40 under 40, recognizing 40 business men and women that have made their names in various industries. The magazine also features original articles on various categories such as finance, technology, politics and many others.

So, I went on to read my rubric on AI and Big Data and typed in my browser:

As a result, I received this answer on my browser.

Yes, I misspelt the name. And yes, Google Chrome did not like it. I began correcting my typo when the creativity infused coffee hit my brain. EUREKA!

by Giphy

Why isn’t this address redirecting to Forbes? Has Forbes ever thought of buying forsbe.com?

As Steve Jobs put it, “Ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.”

So I executed.

Adrenaline filled my blood. I took a sip of that genius coffee. Went on a domain name registrar. Bought the domain for £10 per year. Dirt cheap. Signed up to an URL shortener. Redirected Forsbe.com to Forbes.com (you’re welcome Forbes). Swallowed a sip of coffee. Checked the links and tracking worked. Set an alert alarm to monitor the metrics the following day. Downed my coffee and decamped happy with my catch of the day!

30 days later, the misspelt link brought over 170 visits to the appropriate Forbes.com (that’s just because I’m nice).

🔢 So, in a year time, it will serve over 2,050 visits.

If you think about Cost Per Click or Cost Per Visit, my £10 investment for the year will enable a cost of £0.005 per visit. If your usual Cost per Click on a Google Ad is about £2.00, this is 400 times cheaper!

✋ Hang on.

I can see how you’re feeling on the other side of the screen.

by Giphy

You: “Forbes don’t need this traffic. Users would have corrected their typo. Just like you were about to do yourself, before overthinking this whole thing!🤦‍”

You’re right, and what if I redirected this traffic to ❤ Hackernoon? Competitors of Forbes? Or, my own brand new tech blog? Wouldn’t it bring me then ‘free’ traffic, away from Forbes?

While they might bounce from the site, as it isn’t Forbes, what if I had a well designed specific Landing page? With a great Header:

“Business Mag 2019 — Better than Forbes ”

I could also add tags to build an audience and retarget later these users at an even cheaper rate, with the right creatives. Anything is possible at this point. Just be mindful of your country laws regarding typosquatting.

by Giphy

I might just redirect them to this hacker noon post after all. It would be a great way to bring this article some traffic and views! 😉

In conclusion, as Babe Ruth encouraged:

“Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”

Curious to hear what you think! 😊Leave a comment, and if you enjoyed, please click the 👏 button a dozen times for good luck and to help others find it! It would mean a lot to me.

PS: if you came on this article by typing: Forsbe.com and are reading this… Thank you for getting this far! Now you can go to ➡ Forbes.com 😉

I bought Forbse.com was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.