Happy 5th Anniversary MillionDollarHomepage.com !
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.
