What's in a name? At least US$150,000 at auction

No matter how John Kerry and his presidential running mate John Edwards are perceived by American voters after the Democratic Party convention, Indianapolis man Kerry Edwards is a winner.

Mr Edwards is set to cash in on the coincidence of his name through an auction of his internet website address, kerryedwards.com. Bidding closes at midday tomorrow Hong Kong time with the highest bid so far at US$150,000.

The 34-year-old owner of a bail bond company decided to sell the site shortly after July 6, when Senator Kerry named John Edwards to be his running mate for the November 2 election. That day, he got 70,000 hits on the site.

'Before that, I was getting only five or six hits a month from family and friends checking out pictures I had posted,' Mr Edwards said yesterday. 'Since then, it has been getting between 10,000 and 50,000 hits a day.'

With the influx of traffic came offers from the Democratic Party, its supporters and companies to buy the domain name. So many inquiries were received that Mr Edwards hired a firm to handle auctioning of the site and passing on information about it.

A message posted on the site says: 'I decided that the only fair thing to do would be to put the domain up for auction.