"When we think we have the right formula, we'll ramp it up," he said.
The group is running an ad headlined "Stop Obama Socialism Now," which appears when a user searches for "Obamacare" and other terms. Through the ads, the group has signed up about 1,000 new members in recent weeks, though few if any have donated to the group.
At least one advertiser reports success, in traffic if not profit.
Indiana businessman Joel Nichols is selling bound copies of the health legislation for $125 on his site, buythebill.com. He spends about $40 a day to advertise next to certain Google search terms and $70 to have Kinko's print and bind each copy of the bill.
Nichols said he is getting 1,000 hits a day and is selling a copy of the bill every other day.
"It was kind of a whim," Nichols said. "But if I really wanted to make money, I might have better luck mowing yards."
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Snapshot of a search engine
Google's list of popular search terms has included a variety of healthcare overhaul phrases and buzzwords. By buying ads that appear on screen when someone uses those terms in an Internet search, activists and interest groups can reach people who are interested in the debate. On Aug. 11, these healthcare-related items were on Google's "hot trends" list, which includes the 100 search terms rising fastest in popularity. The terms' rankings are also given:
No. 4: section 1233 (a provision of one of the health bills)
No. 14: health care reform bill
No. 23: hr 3200 bill (the identification
number for one of the House bills)
No. 55: obama town hall meeting
No. 62: obama town hall meeting today
No. 83: obama health care plan explained
Other terms that have appeared on the list in recent weeks include:
* Obamageddon
* health care bill page 425
* health care reform bill text
* citizens for a public option
Source: Los Angeles Times
