It was in late September, 2005 that I heard of MillionDollarHomepage.com – an odd project of a financially-strapped college freshman from England, Alex Tew.
The Million Dollar Homepage project started on this day five years ago – August 26, 2005 – with the intent of collecting one million dollars from an ingenious method of online advertising.
The beginning wasn’t smooth but within 30 days the news spread like fire on dried crops. By collecting $1 per pixel, Alex Tew discovered that people’s budgets can be stretched in order to obtain more visibility; the larger the image one placed on the Million Dollar Homepage, the more it cost.
When I realized the short term & long term potential, I spent $900 on a 30 x 30 pixel block that to this day resides at the top right side of the Million Dollar Homepage. I was lucky being able to reserve a premium spot right against the top; you can’t miss the white capital “A” against a black background with a bold red outline 😀
It generated thousands of clicks and the generation of several business leads. Not to mention, that $900 spent on advertising was yet another business expense when tax time arrived. Therefore, my cost was zero.
Five years later, we have reached the exact point in time that Alex promised to keep the web site alive. In fact, according to Alex this would be the *least* amount of time that the Million Dollar Homepage will be live for; his intention is to keep it going “forever”.
Regardless of whether the web site vanishes or not, Alex Tew proved that small ideas possess the quality of genius and that one can make lots of money, even if the individual amounts are small when there is volume involved.
So Happy 5th Anniversary, MillionDollarHomepage.com – thanks for being a part of Internet history and legend.
Acro —
Well done.
That “A” is brilliantly noticeable.
You are forever embedded within the internet mosaic, history.
Alex is now onto another venture…
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/06/23/internet-conga-line-a-new-take-on-chatroulette-which-feels-safer/
Anthony – Thanks, within the first week of my purchase the good peripheral spots were gone.
People started picking spots in the center, away from the images of others. Perhaps noone believed the entire canvas would be filled up 😀
As with any web page, the visitors aim for the top right side and that’s why I picked that spot.
Alex followed up with Pixelotto that didn’t do as well; good to know he’s working on new projects currently. Thanks for the link.
the site will be online for life unless the guy is brainless since it’s zero maintenance, the hosting requirement is minimum since it’s just a simple html page, and he can get affiliates as well. See the footer hosting affiliate link…
Hey Wallace – You’re right, just a reminder that when he wrote the FAQ, Alex had yet to make all that money yet 🙂 It’s estimated that after taxes he raked $500k – $600k (gotta love the UK tax rates) and I hope he invested wisely. He did drop out of college, however.
Definitely a piece of Internet history. A simple concept that caught on. That’s the beauty of it. I’m sure others have tried to duplicate without success.
Mike – Exactly. None of the replicators succeeded, not even the ones that (get this) bought pixels on the MillionDollarHomepage.com site to promote other “pixel” sites 😀 These concepts only work *once*.
I remember looking from the side as that project was going on. It seemed unbelievable at that time, for a few months it broke into the top 1000 sites on the Net and all it was a page of ads 😀