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A Texan artist is cashing in on the success of her Britain's Got Talent namesake, Susan Boyle, by selling her web address.
Susan K. Boyle, of Kerryville, was amazed when thousands of visitors descended on her site, susanboyle.com, in April.
After receiving dozens of offers for the domain she decided to offer it for $25,000 through Sedo, a domain marketing company.
Mrs Boyle said: "The week after she first sang, the counter on my website read 58,000 - that is the cumulative number since 2002.
"Normally I get less than 2,000 hits per year but the current count is more than 170,000."
Sedo's director of business development, Nora Nanayakkara, said: "Names like this are not really something we would recommend.
"The value of it really depends on the sustainability of Susan Boyle's popularity and whether she's just a one hit wonder."
The Scottish singer is among 33 of the ITV contest's 40 semi-finalists whose names have been registered by so-called cybersquatters, either on Twitter or as web addresses.
They include belly dancer Julie Naidenko and singing schoolboy Shaheen Jafargholi.
Fan site susanboyle.co.uk is directing visitors to betting and bingo sites and seven Twitter users are pretending to be the Scottish songstress.
Nominet, the company responsible for .co.uk addresses, registers 50,000 domains a month and receives 50 complaints about the unfair use of domains.
Senior legal adviser Nick Wenban-Smith said: "The most common use has been with words and brand names which attract a lot of internet traffic."
Susan K. Boyle, of Kerryville, was amazed when thousands of visitors descended on her site, susanboyle.com, in April.
After receiving dozens of offers for the domain she decided to offer it for $25,000 through Sedo, a domain marketing company.
Mrs Boyle said: "The week after she first sang, the counter on my website read 58,000 - that is the cumulative number since 2002.
"Normally I get less than 2,000 hits per year but the current count is more than 170,000."
Sedo's director of business development, Nora Nanayakkara, said: "Names like this are not really something we would recommend.
"The value of it really depends on the sustainability of Susan Boyle's popularity and whether she's just a one hit wonder."
The Scottish singer is among 33 of the ITV contest's 40 semi-finalists whose names have been registered by so-called cybersquatters, either on Twitter or as web addresses.
They include belly dancer Julie Naidenko and singing schoolboy Shaheen Jafargholi.
Fan site susanboyle.co.uk is directing visitors to betting and bingo sites and seven Twitter users are pretending to be the Scottish songstress.
Nominet, the company responsible for .co.uk addresses, registers 50,000 domains a month and receives 50 complaints about the unfair use of domains.
Senior legal adviser Nick Wenban-Smith said: "The most common use has been with words and brand names which attract a lot of internet traffic."
