Freelance journalist Vincent Flood registered the email address ' popebenedictxvi@hotmail.it' as soon as the new Pope was inaugurated. He auctioned the address on eBay and was eventually offered £84 from a US bidder.

Since his story was picked up by the BBC he's had a deluge of email - some entertaining, and some outraged. He's also had mail from people who seem to think he is the real pope - all of which he says he forwarded to the genuine pope's email address.

Mr Flood is now planning some shameless self-promotion on the back of international interest in the story and has started a Cyber-Pope blog.

"I didn't sit down and plan this. It's just that I'd be mad not to use it to gain some publicity whilst having a lot of fun," he told dotJournalism.

"The story has developed a little, and I'm going to use the blog as a creative means of getting myself a job in five weeks when I finish my MA in journalism."

To take the idea to its logical conclusion, Mr Flood has announced the establishment of 'Confusionism' - a new religion "for those of us who are confused about life in general, or simply wish to confuse others".

"Once it grows a bit and bloggers start to link to it I might launch 'confusion campaigns' whereby members would create mass confusion - nothing antisocial, but possibly anti-ExxonMobil," he said.

"I'm going to play it by ear for now and see how things evolve - a strategy that has been working well so far!"