It is a public secret that celebrities is a good endorsement offline and online. Whatever they do (or not do), great attitude or infamous violence, will attract million readers and visitors. The fact that almost 1,000 new domain names registered related to Charlie Sheen name is a hard evident. Godaddy reported, among these 1,000 domain revolved around the Charlie’s name and catchphrases like “tiger blood” and “winning”.
People should aware that using brand name or personal name requires written consent or they will get in trouble in the future. Considering this condition, I pretty sure this names just more immediate business purposes, riding the hot news to get high traffic and at the end of the day to get some cash. Sheen proved that his name is sellable. Currently, he holds Guinness World Records for fastest to one million Twitter Followers.
Sadly, unlike Charlie Sheen who already cash in with some twitter sponsors, all 1,000 domain names still need to prove themselves that they can compete to become the winner of “Charlie Sheen niches”. Since domain names related to some events like this generally hard to sell in domain name secondary market, the expectation of revenue comes from affiliate ads or Google Adsense.
Considering the risk and cost to potential revenue, I wouldn’t recommend this strategy. These kinds of domain will not last long, there is value while the celeb still get some “free promotion” by the media for their acts, otherwise will go down.
More info about Domain Names: