Correct grammar, spelling and controlled coloring were the goals to reach when we were kids.

Words and language make the world go round. Spelling a word incorrectly or using the wrong word can make or break a negotiation or contract. It's a business commodity just like chairs and furniture and is wielded effectively through magazines, novels, books and newspapers. We are manipulated by words through online and offline content.

What happens with all of the gaffs and mess-ups, when we don't get it quite right? Where does it all go? Maybe if we find the incorrectly spelled words, we'll also find the home of lost luggage and socks. More than likely, it is eradicated in the classroom, stomped into oblivion by book and newspaper editors. What we receive is uniform consistency, spelling it right is upheld, and life moves on.

Here we are then in the 21st century amid technology and texting, emails and instant chat rooms - a whole plethora of technological invention where incorrect spelling is becoming the informal norm. What's a businessperson who speaks English to do?

Everybody is misspelling and texting. Even Grandma is texting and misspelling. Does anybody care if you spell stuff correctly anymore?

Your grade school teacher may be appalled, but there are people who actually want you to mis-spell - in fact they're betting a wad on you doing just that.

Savvy web entrepreneurs like Kevin Ham get excited when you accidentally type in prpsi instead of pepsi. It's so easy to do. The 'r' key is right next to the 'e' key on the standard Qwerty keyboard and Vancouver resident has a search engine listing where he gets paid every time you click on one of his ads.

Do you have any idea how much money you can make from living on the edge on the Internet waiting and hoping for people to make spelling errors.

Business 2.0, June 2007 issue covered Ham's $300 million dollar business that is comprised of mis-spelled domain names that people type directly into their Internet browser address windows.

Others have also bet the farm on your lousy typing and spelling ability. Mark Schilling owns over 320,000 domain names and is constantly increasing his portfolio from his home in the Cayman Islands. He wants you to mess up. Yun Ye, another misspelling guru recently sold his portfolio of 100,000 domain names for $164 million dollars.

In 2006 Ham worked a deal with the Cameroon government in Africa. Why? Well, they have the cm extension for their country. Do you have any idea how many people miss the 'o' in com? Think of the money he will earn just because your finger missed the 'o'. The possibilities are staggering.

Web surfers will make a mistake and end up on Cameroon servers. The name is checked and if there's no one with that domain name, it is redirected to agoga, which Ham owns of course. He claims 8 million unique hits per month.

How does he make money?

Each of his pages are "parked" which means they're not real sites. They simply have money-generating pay-per-click ad links on them that relate to keywords used by searchers. The visitor arrives, finds a page of links, clicks on one and viola, Ham makes money.

Other ways that misspellings are used is to take popular sites and figure out all the ways it can be misspelled, register those pages and put pay per click links ont hose sites or redirect those sites to your main site.

Think about it. Someone misspells a popular name and it is redirected to your little site. Wouldn't you like your site at the end of prpsi? Think of the number of hits you'd get, just because somebody missed the 'e'. So, the next time anyone tells you that you have misspelled something, just tell them toe story about Kevin Ham and keep on typing. Try spulling it wrong. It could make you a fortune.