Late last year, America Online took the plunge, and launched their own web-based portal at Aol.com to compete with MSN, Yahoo! and others. The move was intended to offer advertisers a new high traffic venue. Since then, AOL has been struggling to create original content which would persuade non-subscribers to visit the portal as well. To 
showcase original content, AOL has hired Mark Burnett Productions to produce Gold Rush, a realty treasure hunt exclusive to the AOL network. Contestants will search for hidden treasure across the US by finding clues planted at AOL.com, AIM.com, Moviefone.com, and MapQuest.com. And of course, AOL is selling advertising for the Gold Rush promotion allowing advertisers to reach the estimated 110 million visits to AOL properties each month. This is late breaking news mind you, because AOL has not released the launch date for the promotion, the number of contestants, or the actual prizes. Marketing Blurb believes AOL is old news, but agrees this is a promising promotion idea to raise their profile.
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