In the meantime, the FDA has already begun sending warnings (C&D?) letters to US manufacturers of the herbal supplement.
The keyword (name of the supplement) is extremely hot in the news right now - over 700 active news stories on Google news and growing quickly as I type.
So, the question is: Will this increase the worth of our domain name? I would presume so, since it should result in increased traffic.
Any opinions, comments or suggestions are most welcome - and appreciated.
Rob
If it's the Coral * supplement.. We've had clients already remove content, and kill SEM campaigns over the past few months..
I would think a domain name for a "soon to banned" by the FDA herbal supplement would be about as worthless as Phen-Phen domain names in the near future..
Sorry for the bad prognosis...
Well, I did mean a "short term" boost in traffic and popularity. The product will be banned as of roughly March 2004, but in the interim it remains a very hot commodity. ABC News just reported this evening that there were US$1.5B in sales of the product in 2003 - and similar numbers for the current year.
I understand that after a few months, the value of the keyword (and domain) will quickly diminish. It's something like the Y2K domain name rush that quickly faded in the last calendar quarter of 1999.
Hmmm... not sure what that "coral *" supplement is.
Also, sort of disagree about the phen-fen / fen example. I think that is still a very hot commodity, despite all the proven dangers. Remember that some of these items will have litigation lasting for years. The target market for traffic to the site isn't just comprised of consumers and ecommerce vendors, but also law firms that wish to attract potential clients for liability proceedings against manufacturers, distributors, etc.
Again, I appreciate the comments.
Phen-Phen though still making some news, is past the cutoff point in the Class Action..
We do a lot of work for Attorney's in Class Actions. The thing about herbal supplements is that most never get FDA approval. The companies that produce these products don't have the "deep pockets" that the Pharmaseuticals do, so they bankrupt fairly quickly, if some type of Class Action get's initiated...
Grisham's "King of Torts" was a great read into the world of Class Action suits... :)
I hope you find some future for your domain though, as it's ashame to get a nice traffic bump, and have nowhere to go with the traffic..
They were blaming the ban on about 150 deaths in the US over the past "x" years, but I was wondering if the real reason was that it widely used in the manufacturing of illegal drugs...
Looking at sales from the last to days, the calls to action of "get it while you can" DO seem to work, as it sold mor ein two days then it has since florida.
So I can see a short term usefullness for the domain. But you have to develop it quickly. 3 Months is a short time to build up organic traffic. But there is at least 1-2 months of heavy sales in it if you know how and if you're starting from scratch.
SN
Killroy - indeed, that is our dilemna. Right now it is up for sale (the domain) but since the official ban, I have been wondering if it may not be better to keep it and (quickly) develop and brand it. Not so sure, like you said, that it can easily be done over a period of 4-8 weeks. We had some decent revenue from RX affiliate sites, particularly during 99-2000 (hehehe) but those were "the" days, so to speak. Today it's a different environment completely...
Rob
We've got a new search engine that some of your clients might be interested in submiting their site(s) to. It's free, so if you are interested, sticky me.
