Million Dollar Homepage guy pushes his luck.
Saturday December 2nd, 2006
Everyone remembers (and envy’s) Alex Tew, a student from London famous for fabricating the ‘million dollar homepage‘, a novelty advertising website that sold space by the pixel. Well, he’s at it again, not content with the one million notes gleaned from his last venture, he’s in the process of creating a new website called pixelotto that sells each pixel at $2 a pop.
The twist this time round is that there’s going to be some sort of lottery where “the winner who clicks the right advertisement will win $1 million.”
I’m not convinced, it seems greed has got the better of him, obviously it’s natural for any ‘entrepreneur’, and I say that loosely, to want more money, more cash, more profit from new ventures. It just seems like this guy is pushing his luck, he’s had a slice of the spotlight and wants more. The thing is, I can imagine the ‘winning pixel’ being literally that, one pixel. It’d take weeks to find that, it’d be good for the advertisers as they’ll be getting hits left right and centre but to be honest, people probably won’t care. I doubt many companies will be happy forking out $2 a pixel.
I remember when this guy first hit the news, he wanted a way of raising money to pay him through University, so he created the million dollar homepage and reaped the reward of instant cash, sparking a media frenzy.
He should have left it at that.
Information and images courtesy of TechCrunch
Tags: business, General, Internet money
2/12/2006 at 6:39 pm
Hey, I don’t belive this! I’ve just set up two sites, both working around this concept!
The first one is www.cashcells.co.uk : This site offers the user clicking on the adverts the chance to win $$$, the total size of the prize is directly related to the number of adverts.
The second site is www.microlotto.co.uk : This site gives the advertiser who buys a square the chance to win in a sort of ‘cell lottery’ set up. Check em out!
2/12/2006 at 10:33 pm
Thanks for the links Rob.
It just goes to show that not all ideas are original eh?
3/12/2006 at 1:11 am
Anyone who thinks this won’t be successful, look at all the buzz it’s created on TechCrunch. Almost 100 comments in less then a day? Plus the fact that he has an existing client list from his last project, what makes you think they won’t pay a few more bucks to get some more publicity. It would be interesting if he gave out a prize to the “winning” link too, to drive more advertisers to buy space, but I guess they inherently make money with more user clicks.
If anyone is interested in pixel advertising and art in general, you should check out http://www.citypixel.com . It’s quite an amazing site and they definitely put a spin on internet pixel ads.
Anyway, I wish Mr. Tew all the luck in the world, and trust me I will be one of many clicking away hoping to win the million bucks!
3/12/2006 at 12:54 pm
Hi Coscobber.
You’re right, chances are, he will be very successful in achieving the $2 million mark and giving one million of that away, but I can’t help but think…..is this guy honest?
A lottery has to be regulated by the government (I think) and he could just make the ‘winning pixel’ appear after 1 week, giving the clients a healthy amount of hits for them to enjoy.
6/12/2006 at 7:35 am
This site has a way better concept than the million dollar homepage!
http://www.the-goldenegg.com/
Check it out!
6/12/2006 at 1:37 pm
surfing on web I have founded this site.. very interesting… www.publishandwin.com
21/01/2007 at 10:54 am
I always thought the million dollar homepage was stupid. People set up pop-up blockers and skip hundreds of shite flash movies because they hate adverts, yet they go on Tew’s homepage and just click random ads like a madman. WHY?!?
I understand what Alex gets out of this and what the companies get, but what does the user get?