NOTE: Sorry If I Posted In The Wrong Place, But I Wanted To Let Sig Makers Look At This, Where It Would Be Mostly Viewed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creator and creation

 

 

 

It took a 21-year-old a few minutes to come up with an idea which has made him more than one million dollars in four months. So what's his secret?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It started with a blank notepad, an overdraft and a shortage of socks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's a million-dollar business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last August, as a three-year degree loomed, Alex Tew lay on his bed in his family home in Cricklade, Wiltshire. It was time for his nightly brainstorming session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time, the problem was his finances. He already had an overdraft, which was sure to multiply at university, and he felt his poverty was reflected by his lack of decent, or matching, socks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I made money, more people talked about it and the more people talked about it, the more money I made

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing he wrote in his pad was "How can I become a millionaire?" Twenty minutes later, the Million Dollar Homepage idea was born.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was selling pixels, the dots which make up a computer screen, as advertising space, costing a dollar per dot. The minimum purchase was $100 for a 10x10 pixel square to hold the buyer's logo or design. Clicking on that space takes readers to the buyer's website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With $999,000 banked so far, Alex recalls his thought process at the time. He says: "I wrote the title to spark the creativity and then wrote down the attributes the idea needed. It had to be simple to set up and understand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"It had to have a name to capture the imagination and be something that could be set up quickly with no physical delivery required.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I wrote down some keywords and then the idea came out 20 minutes later - selling pixels. So I snapped up the domain name that very night."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowballing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex spent ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã50 on buying the domain name (milliondollarhomepage.com) and a basic web-hosting package. He designed the site himself but it began as a blank page. His friends and family paid the first $1,000 dollars, which he spent on a press release. That small publicity gave his site more traffic, which in turn persuaded more advertisers to have faith.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An iconic image of internet art?

 

 

 

"It snowballed," he says. "As I made money, more people talked about it and the more people talked about it, the more money I made."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four months and 2,000 customers later, including The Times and Orange, and the million dollars is almost surpassed. Two million different people have accessed the site, which has a wry blog and FAQs, in the last seven days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I've been blown away. These have been the most exciting and hectic months of my life. Things are quite surreal at the moment and because it's been so busy it hasn't really sunk in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"It seems like Monopoly money. Previously I'd associated money with working at Tesco getting paid ÃÆââ¬Å¡Ãâã5 an hour."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His first business venture was when, aged eight, he drew comics and sold them at school. He had no intention of going to university because he wanted to try out some of his ideas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4585026.stm - News

 

 

 

http://milliondollarhomepage.com/ - His Website

There's not much art involved here so I'll move this to Off Topic where it can be discussed better as business style rather than media.

wow lol

HOLY S**T im gobsmacked literally

Hes a very lucky guy. Any avertiser with an ounce of intelligence knows that people do NOT visit sites just to look at averts and that a tiny square ad is going to generate even LESS clicks and that now the site has been used up not even news agencies and cirious people are going to go there. lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its win for the guy whos idea it was but the ppl that paid are royally screwed lol

Well, good for him I guess. To be honest, I never would have thought something like this would work and I doubt it actually does for 999/1000 people. This guy got a break and hey, he made the most of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kick in the teeth for the other 999 though :P

Forealz I never really thought it would work, dang 10x10 for $100. You guys should open your pain programs and see how SMALL that is, could probably make 1000 logos a day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He already sold 999,000 Pixels and has 1,000 more to sell on Ebay currently going for $152,300.00.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So if he sold all his 999,000 pixels for $100 ea thats $99,900,000.

I've followed this since it started and there's been some debate brewing for a while. He's finally come out in the open and admitted he had hired help. The only reason it worked was because he hired a professional, marketer, and she got him press releases, tv times, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd like to see him try and get it to work without that help.

Forealz I never really thought it would work, dang 10x10 for $100. You guys should open your pain programs and see how SMALL that is, could probably make 1000 logos a day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He already sold 999,000 Pixels and has 1,000 more to sell on Ebay currently going for $152,300.00.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So if he sold all his 999,000 pixels for $100 ea thats $99,900,000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pixels themselves are $1 each, so he made $999,000

a lot of that traffic was probably due to someone posting this link on digg.com.

That is one lucky lucky person.

He probably spent most of it on lawyers and other services for his money. Either way he made a bit, but it's not like it could be a career for him, it's kind of a one time shot.

Don't forget the people trying to cash in on it...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

millionpennyhomepage

 

 

 

millionquarterhomepage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think there's like 4 or 5 of them... :evil:

so what are u saying free money??? send me PM i send you my paypal k, keep getting free mony u can always send it 2 my acc... later mate what was ur rs acc again??

Don't forget the people trying to cash in on it...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

millionpennyhomepage

 

 

 

millionquarterhomepage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think there's like 4 or 5 of them... :evil:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yep ive already clicked on one of em.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder if this is just a fad... :roll:

I just can't figure out why he didn't make it bigger.

a lot of that traffic was probably due to someone posting this link on digg.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or maybe it's due to various television appearances, write ups in atleast 20 countries in various newspapers (including the wall street journal) :roll:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And like I already mentioned, he's not getting the full million. He might now because that ebay auction is going insane, but he's got a couple hundred grand in fees to his marketing lady.

seen this a few months ago.......the links on the page stink though

Sigh...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://gadgets.fosfor.se/?page_id=576

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a mini "sponsor box." Works well for blogs, you can do your own mdh on your page.

Thoughs arn't even good, lol. I could make the same and save 100.

He goes to my university (Nottingham University). Much respect to him :) Nottingham has a good entrepreneurial reputation I believe also :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always wondered how he got the site started in the first place though, and this thread is the first time I've heard about his professional marketing help, which is a bit disappointing really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edit: I just read some of his blog, and he only hired his professional publicist in the middle of October, so it didn't get him started at all. Also, it says he has deferred his degree until next year, so technically he doesn't go to my university, heh :P

how can u make so much money off such a random idea?? :? :?

A very creative yet insane idea. Was executed well and combined with a bit of luck it became a lucrative idea. It's the hype he (with help of that marketing advisor) created around it that led to the succesion. Congratulations to the british student.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any avertiser with an ounce of intelligence knows that people do NOT visit sites just to look at averts and that a tiny square ad is going to generate even LESS clicks and that now the site has been used up not even news agencies and cirious people are going to go there. lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was my first reaction too. Did you check the number of page hits though? Sure it may be untargetted adverts and sure the website is not visited by people who want to look at the adds really (no website is?) but I suppose the massivity at which people visit the site could make it worthwhile for the investors anyway... It's the massive hype around it that made it a success - and yes that hype will probably disappear fast when his last 1000 pixels are sold.

Saw this on ebaumsworld.com ;) Pretty cool idea

Saw this on ebaumsworld.com ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typical. Watch them make claim to this one.