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| MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | Views: 1544 |
| Dec 31, 2005 4:24 am | | MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Alex Makarski | | A friend sent me this link earlier this week: MillionDollarHomePage. The guy is selling pixels on his homepage a buck a pixel, 1M of them, to pay his university tuition.
I have very little doubt he's going to sell them all. One crazy little idea, very P.T.Barnum-ish in a way.
What do you guys think?Private Reply to Alex Makarski |
| Dec 31, 2005 6:28 pm | | re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Mitchell Allen | |
Actually, it's brilliant (no pun intended.)
The ability to attract advertisers is the name of the cashflow game. That he, "Alex Tew" has managed to extract a premium per pixel is not the amazing part. No, the amazing part is that he has the equivalent of a super-affiliate landing page nightmare - and got away with it!
The more I think about this, the more impressed I become. I don't know if his is the first website of this type, but it certainly is well thought out.
I was going to buy some pixels, however, I didn't have $29,264 US sitting in PayPal for this:
Oh well, I got it for free, anyway.
MitchPrivate Reply to Mitchell Allen |
| Dec 31, 2005 11:41 pm | | re: re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Alex Makarski | | Wow, that was quick! When I found this thing a good half of the page was still available. Just tells you how far the "make the news, not news releases" princible can take your business.
I poked around a bit a found a bunch of spin offs of that site. Some look like secondary sites by the same guy, some look like other people getting on the same bandwagon.Private Reply to Alex Makarski |
| Jan 01, 2006 5:13 am | | re: re: re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Folks,
I read the thread, but I still do not understand what it is this guy did. You say he sold pixels on his website. This makes no sense to me. Why would anyone want to purchase pixels of a picture? A whole picture I could understand. But, just a few pixels? Why would anyone pay any money at all for just a few pixels of a picture? I must be missing something here. Please explain.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM
Power Networking Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 |
| Jan 01, 2006 5:51 am | | re: re: re: re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Scott Stratten | | Hi Lamar,
What he did was made a webpage of 1 million blank pixels... you could buy them for $1 a piece (sold it lots of 100)
When all sold, his page would be worth a million dollars.
People bought them because you can click through their pixel to their site because of all the traffic that comes to a story about a page worth a million dollars.
ScottPrivate Reply to Scott Stratten |
| Jan 01, 2006 6:13 am | | re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Jessica Sellers | | How imaginative!
I would love to know what he did to get the word out about his website. I mean, something like that doesn't just get spread around without a little help, right?
Reminds me of the guy who auctioned ad space on his forehead. He ended up with quite a sum of money and the company who won got a lot of exposure, I bet.
Just goes to show that your possibilities are endless if you are willing to believe in yourself!Private Reply to Jessica Sellers |
| Jan 01, 2006 4:12 pm | | re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Mitchell Allen | | You have just got to read his blog!
Go to the bottom (Aug.26th, 2005) and work your way up.
It is truly a success story and a case study for building traffic!
The entire site is rather well done and not cheesy at all.
Each purchase was for a minimum of 100 pixels (10x10), which is the smallest useful size for a display ad.
Just imagine the classified section of a glossy print magazine, where all the tiny ads can be found.
There is also an index of advertisers, along with how much they paid for their blocks of pixels.
The testimonials really tell the whole story:
The advertisers took a chance and were pleasantly surprised by the
increased traffic the page brought to their own websites.
(And, more importantly, increased sales!)
It's hard to decide if the Million Dollar Homepage validates the power of banner ads,
or if it simply means that people click pictures in the
absence of having anything else to do.
But, as Mr. Tew says in his first blog entry:
I thought, this could be something crazy enough to work!
Because I think people like crazy/quirky ideas.
If this captures people's imaginations and people check out the site,
then the pixels on the homepage will have value - and
people will buy them (to display their ads etc).
That's the theory anyway.
The way I see it though: I've got nothing to lose by trying.
And I'm sure it'll be fun.
All in all, a very successful venture.Private Reply to Mitchell Allen |
| Jan 01, 2006 7:44 pm | | re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Mon Nick | | What a fortune,creative year for him that was!
Lamar,incase you missed the entire Homepage story coverage here is the link
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/12/29/student.homepage.reut
And to everyone,I hope the New Year finds you where you want to be.Thanks for a great networking year 2005.
Best of luck and much success in all your pursuits to everyone into the New Year 2006.
Happy New Year!
Mon Nick
http://www.multiculturaltravelinternational.comPrivate Reply to Mon Nick |
| Jan 01, 2006 8:13 pm | | re: re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Alex Makarski | | The saga continues.
A visitor to my blog (http://www.MarketingRant.com) suggested this website: http://www.savemypenis.com, which adds a new twist to the idea. No worries, it's surpruzingly clean, all PG rated and is actually quite funny.Private Reply to Alex Makarski |
| Jan 02, 2006 6:28 am | | re: re: re: re: re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Scott,
I wonder what the ROI is on this kid's initial investment. His last 1,000 pixels are now being auctioned on E-bay. I have a feeling he may end up making a lot more than just a million dollars for nothing more than one page's worth of pixels.
Question. Why did this happen? Why did the public decide to respond the way they did? Is it the fact the kid sent out press releases? Did some news editors simply decide that his was a cute story and decided to run it in their newspapers? Suddenly, everybody wants in on something that is supposed to make "Internet history." Did this kid just get lucky? Or, is there a lot more to it than is readily apparent?
When I look at that Million Dollar Home Page I reflect back on a TV show called "American Idol." I think that show became popular because of the involvement of its audience in picking the winner. (I don't think the judges or the talent carried the show.) However,I think folks watching very much wanted to be involved with a historical moment. In fact, when Atlanta'a Centenial Olympics was being planned, the city actually raised money by offering commorative bricks engraved with people's names to build what became Olympic Park in Downtown Atlanta. Could it be that there is something about connecting with history that is very important to people? Perhaps that kid connected with folks on the Internet for a similar reason.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM
Power Networking Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 |
| Jan 02, 2006 6:29 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Joni Garcia | | Lamar, respectfully, I think you're overanalyzing. Buzz created was genuine because it was simply a brilliant, creative, innovative idea worth talking about and sharing (not unlike all those emails that keep getting passed around for years). A good meme, if you will. As far as I can tell, his ROI is somewhere near 100%, since all he had to do was buy a domain name and build the site, which he probably did himself. Private Reply to Joni Garcia |
| Jan 02, 2006 6:42 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Mitchell Allen | | Lamar,
You hit most of the points. I studied every page of the Million Dollar Home Page, both out of interest and for the lessons learned.
The first thing we all have to do is to respect the business acumen of this "kid". Whether he came up with this idea in August, while lying in bed is irrelevant (in fact, Whois records indicate that the domain was registered August 23, 2005.)
What is important is that he took ACTION.
Sometimes, the way to reach people is with a down-to-earth approach. Alex Tew certainly portrayed the common man. All he "wanted" was to pay for school and buy some fancy socks. It strikes a chord of vulnerability and hence, believability.
Once the idea took hold, Alex did what every budding entrepreneur does - notified everyone he knew and asked them to check out the website and spread the word. He convinced family and friends to come on board, and these first purchases simply laid the foundation for attracting the attention of publicists (a friend told him to hold off notifying the press until he had sold a few pixels.)
He knew from the beginning that publicity was the key, yet he also knew that he had to offer something of value.
In fact, he pushed two emotional hot-buttons:
- Become a part of Internet History
- Get some exposure
It wasn't until later that he realized that the pixel purchasers were actually getting increased traffic to their websites.
At that point, he began mentioning that as a benefit.
There are so many lessons to be learned, I encourage everyone to spend 45 minutes to read his blog - from the bottom up.
I discuss this a bit in my blog:Do You Have A Million Dollar Idea?
(You can link to his blog from there.)
As a final note, regarding his ROI. In my opinion, the process of going from idea to fruition is more valuable
than his monetary gain. In true capitalist fashion, he created wealth (although on a very tiny scale) and
he created jobs (at least four people helped with the image uploading duties).
He learned how to scale up the technology and his "staff" to handle the increasing number of customers.
Finally, he has made a name for himself and has received job offers and {wink-wink} joint venture opportunities.
Private Reply to Mitchell Allen |
| Jan 03, 2006 1:22 am | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Alex Makarski | | Lamar,
What this "kid" did was leveraging the power of outrageous marketing.
This reminds me of the two other "kids" who came up with the "ticker tape toilet paper" (i.e. the toilet paper with the ticker symbols of the tech stock plummeting during the tech meltdown of 2000). There made a fortune selling it $10 a roll. Ten bucks for a roll of toilet paper! They sold many a truckload of it and made every possible TV show and newspapers front page.
What the "kid" did was very P.T.Barnum-esque in many ways. "There is a customer born every minute" by Joe Vitale is a book on P.T.Barnum I enjoy reading and re-reading, as well as his Hypnotic Marketing. Joe is a master of outrageous marketing himself: He generated a ton of web traffic by advertising - and then selling on eBay -- an "Elvis Mermaid".
Paul Hartunian became famous for selling the Brooklyn Bridge for $14.95 a piece. In case you’re not familiar with the story, you’ll find it here: http://www.PaulHartunian.com.
All these examples are in the same league and all have a great ROI.
Lest we forget, the Academy Awards started out as publicity stunt created for the then ailing movie industry. And so did the Miss America pageant, and so did many other things we now take for granted.
Alex Tew proved it once again, you don’t need to be a big-shot celebrity to make some big waves.Private Reply to Alex Makarski |
| Jan 06, 2006 2:41 pm | | MillionDollarHomePage - a brilliant idea | # |
Denise O'Berry | | When I first saw this concept in Sept of last year, it really intrigued me. What a great idea! And being first to market with it didn't hurt a bit. Not to mention the viral marketing that took off and that the big pubs seized the news about it too.
What's been interesting to me is to watch it grow and morph and see the copy cats come along. There are now tons of them. Even if they don't make a million, they too will make money off this single idea.
That's how you can make money too. Study the techniques used by others in getting the marketing message out. One of the best keys to success is watching what others do and applying it in your own business.
Here are a couple of blog posts I wrote about this very concept.
Great Marketing Idea -- Sell a Pixel
I wrote this when Alex was one short month into it. His page looked radically different then. I had to disable comments on this post because everyone was advertising their pixel site and a few of them were porn (ack!)
Marketing Idea Spinoffs a Good Way to Make Money Online
This post is about helping people see that you don't have to be the first. There's plenty of room for more.
Best regards,
Denise O'Berry
If It's Such A Simple Thing To Make Money Online,
Why Don't More People Do It?
The truth? The majority don't do it because they don't try.
Here's your chance to learn how to create a simple online business.
P.S. It's great to see this network getting active again!
Private Reply to Denise O'Berry |
| Jan 07, 2006 5:59 am | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
John B | | I'm fascinated by success stories like this. How does it happen? Why does it catch on?
It's in the same league as any other novelty or the latest "must have product". The pet rock, ticker tape toilet paper, ebay novelty items.
Many different factors came together:
-A unique product
-A simple message
-The potential of a huge ROI for advertisers as it mushroomed in popularity.
-Very, very savvy marketing.
-The power of buzz/word of mouth marketing.
Auctioning off the last 1,000 pixels was a stroke of genius. It maximizes everything that he's already done. I wonder what he'll do for an encore.
-JohnPrivate Reply to John B |
| Jan 09, 2006 5:32 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: MillionDollarHomePage - is it time to buy some pixels? | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Alex,
Are you sure the Academy Awards and the Miss America Beauty Pageant both started out as publicity stunts? Wow! That never even crossed my mind. That would make one want to re-examine a lot of things around you for their viability and true usefulness. I must be more gullible that even I suspected.
Lamar Morgan Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 |
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