Million Dollar Homepage Causes Entrepreneurial Depression

milliondollarhomepage.jpg

American Copywriter perfectly sums up our feeling and, no doubt, the feelings of other who didn't see the value in jumping on the Million Dollar Homepage wagon. American Copywriter wallows, "Why didn't I think of it? Why why why?" we're in touch with that emotion.

Great Britain college student Alex Tew, creator of Million Dollar Homepage, has brought in $623,800 in ad revenue from selling various pixel-sized ads on MillionDollarHomepage and will, likely, reach his goal of one million dollars. Ashamedly, Tew a couple months ago, sent us a link to his page and we scoffed it off as just another Internet prank. Well, with egg on our face, we bow to the feet of the Million Dollar Homepage master and apologize profusely for not publicizing his effort way back when.

American Copywriter lists five psychological stages of dealing with Million Dollar Homepage psychosis from denial to resentment to rationalization to depression to, well, blogging about it. Tew is the man and he's even made all the way to the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

Written by Steve Hall    Comments (41)     File: Online     Nov-22-05  
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Comments

what a waste of money. advertisters are retarded.

Posted by: anon on November 22, 2005 12:17 PM

He isn't delivering much value to his advertisers. The sites that advertise get minimal increase in traffic.

Posted by: Rob Poitras on November 22, 2005 02:07 PM

Not according to the Wall Street Journal article.

Posted by: Steve Hall on November 22, 2005 02:39 PM

Shhhhh.. don't tell but I'm going to make the billion dollar homepage. Get ready to squint!!!

Posted by: monkeyinabox on November 22, 2005 07:55 PM

I should say, absolutely brilliant! Though its newness provides a leg for its popularity on the internet space, its peak of stardom makes me pity the advertisers who buy a pixel space on the Million Dollar Site. Though the site gets a lot of traffic, I guess the way anyone would consider staying here is IF they are actually looking for something.

But really, who would care to stare at a collage of pixels (it hurts the eyes a bit) just to find an ad? It’s great, it’s coloful, its innovative. But most wouldn’t care of ads on the net right?ne would just search on Google and voila, what you search, you instantly get a lot of links.

I need to mention one ad that was quite effective on that site, the Usenet Downloads button. It’s look was that of a usual button on a certain desktop popup. It was so simple, it actually stood out against the colorful, miniature ones surrounding it. Now that is effective.

I have to say though, that guy was really smart to think of something like this.

Posted by: chedie on November 23, 2005 04:14 AM

As I said before, well sort of. I don't remember exactly. Must be A.M.D.P.D (Accute Million Dollar Page Depression). Anyway, just more proof that there is a sucker around every corner.

The advertisers get squat for value. The thing is, it just takes a few advertisers out of the millions out there to say "what the f$ck, I'll try it" and in comes his million bucks! Good for Alex, bad for advertising.

Posted by: John on November 23, 2005 10:23 AM

WOM is extremely powerful --- but unless you buy a large plot of property so that your logo or message stands out -- would be HARD to find you on the site --- also, if the idea is not patented or patentable (duh) -- anyone could copy it on their site and IF that new site had better traffic numbers -- that new site could demand higher ad revenues.

Posted by: Anthony on November 23, 2005 01:01 PM

Don’t miss the point. The goal of this was to make a million bucks (not to do good advertising). Goal is going to be achieved very soon. Tick. I think this is one of the best ideas ever in terms of time/effort/return. The fact is that for some advertisers this was the best return for advertising dollar (according to wall street journal). If it doesn’t work, they paid a bit of money to be in this beautiful collage. Everybody wins – especially this guy.

Posted by: tamir on November 23, 2005 06:54 PM

hey it's a unique & new kind of advertising. Agreed, its a waste of money & blah blah but hey in this age and time of been there done that here's something u can't say the same, yet.

Posted by: notyergurl_nextdoor on November 24, 2005 11:44 AM

Has anyone seen the Pixel Challenge at http://www.thepixelchallenge.com. They intend to sell 1,000,000 pixels in 30 days. Should be interesting to see whether or not they come close to achieving their goal! I would have never thought it possible, but hey, the original site has already sold over 640,000 pixels in less than three months.

Posted by: John on November 25, 2005 12:43 AM

Ugh, everyone is jumping on the pixel advertising bandwagon. I'm just wondering where these people get their clicks from? Who on earth bothers combing the pages for a worthy ad to click on? I don't and nobody I know does. In my opinion it's just another way to fill the internet with useless garbage and hype.

Posted by: S. Girl on November 25, 2005 10:24 PM

Dealing with the Million Dollar Homepage psychosis is creating a entrepreneurial boom with lot's of different takes of the original idea. Myself is one of those with bigfatad.com. I think it's exciting to see the spin-offs and are impressed with some of them. But the non-creative obvious rip-offs are only embarrasing.

Posted by: Mattias on November 26, 2005 05:57 AM

The number of visitors that will click YOUR ad is a matter of buzz (how many visitors to the page) but also of visibility (how your ad is attractive). A small 10x10 ad on the MDHP put today will be quite lost (but will still get some clicks). New competitors that follow the same model are going nowhere. But those who offer something new should be considered. What about REAL pixels? A limited number of ads? A small text permanently displayed? Now you can see innovation in pixel ad.

Posted by: Guillaume on November 26, 2005 10:57 AM

This site offers more than traffic! For $100 the SEO side is a bargin!! Because of all the press its been getting from BBC and Wall Street Journal, it has a lot of trust rank going into it! Any SEO knows what that is or justfuckinggoogleit.com!

Posted by: Phil on November 29, 2005 05:13 AM

Most of you are forgetting that MDHP already has a Google PR of 7 with over ~2100 incoming links from blogs. Try paying $200 for a PR7 link anywhere else and you might get it for 1 month but that's about all. For $100-$200 that's pretty good SEO which was the main reason we dropped $200 on it in a link to our similar relaunched site MP3Board.com. On MP3Board we implimented the same concept but we're only accepting music oriented advertisers in a bid to build a useful directory of online music related products and services to build in long term advertiser viability.

Oh and as far as being patentable, if Amazon can patent 1-Click shopping I'd say someone could come along, patent pixel ads and then force all the clone sites to pay up a licencing fee. Simply voicing this idea is disturbing.

And lastly, as far as clicking on the pixel ads it feels to me like a treasure hunt (remember TreeLoot?), Where's Waldo?, or a garage sale, and/or flea market. It's surfing the web for something new (which most people don't do anymore). You don't visit the site to find a specific something.

Posted by: Webmaster @ MP3Board on November 29, 2005 07:04 PM

It's crazy but expected, there are tons of clones. Some copycats are more innovative than others though. An example that come to mind mixes the pixel ads idea and Google Maps.

Posted by: nbenin on November 30, 2005 05:53 PM

What about a spin on this original idea. The best idea is not necessarily the first. However I do agree that it was the 'novelty factor' that really bolstered his site. Here is an original spin on the idea:
http://www.sverigesverige.net

Posted by: karol on December 12, 2005 12:57 PM

http://www.like5.com
Free Advertising Onto Circles. Circle Advertising Link Your Site For Free Boost Your Website Traffic Or Business Sales.

Posted by: like5 on January 2, 2006 03:34 PM

So how much do you guys think will Alex fetch for those ‘last 1000 pixels’ on eBay? As I write this, his auction is already at $21,400, and there’s still almost 9 days to go! Amazing, and -as is this whole ‘pixel sites adventure’ SO inspiring!

Regards,
Rob / PixelSiteLinks.com

Posted by: PixelSiteLinks.com on January 2, 2006 11:26 PM

I watched this site from almost the beginning. It is amazing that a young kid like Alex can do almost every step in the process right, including hiring a US publicist to promote for him.

So what's next? A new idea in www.millionfans.com wants to get million fans in addition to million dollars by using digital photo ads. Should be interesting.

Posted by: Al Lindon on January 6, 2006 08:27 AM

To me, the pixel ads are interesting for about 30 seconds. What keeps visitors coming back? Nothing that I see. They may click a couple pics here and there, but my idea is this... Allow each advertiser to add their part of a story - this story will evolve and grow with each "advertisement" and keep people coming back - it even has an RSS feed! Check it out!
http://www.milliondollartale.com

Posted by: milliondollartale.com on January 6, 2006 11:03 PM

was just wondering... was the "Million Dollar Homepage" considered an online business? amazing if he went through all that effort to get a business license and all for his "million dollar idea" that supposedly started for fun.

hehehe.. and is he going to be paying taxes on his million bucks? >:)

Posted by: kyred on January 10, 2006 07:25 PM

Pixel ads have had their day. Alex is the only person who made money off them.

How about this for an all new concept - not a pixel ad in sight!

www.expensivelink.com

Posted by: expensivelink.com on January 13, 2006 03:54 AM

Always pixels!
Everywhere I look I see... pixels!
I hate them!
Don't you? Take a look here and you will agree:
http://www.pixelssuck.com

Posted by: pixels suck on January 15, 2006 01:12 PM

Its nothing short of genius the waqy he came up with this idea of MDHP..almost like I came up with the idea of www.redwoodbridges.com...a spin off of my original site of www.birdweb1.com

Posted by: Rod on January 15, 2006 03:10 PM

Here's a copycat that uses bikini models :)
http://www.onethousandmodels.com

Posted by: FG on January 23, 2006 11:42 PM

A copycat site that uses fashion models ...
http:/www.onethousandmodels.com

Posted by: Dood on January 23, 2006 11:47 PM

Pixel Advertising will always be around as long as people are interested. Sure it will die down for sometime, but then the interest will sway back and forth as curiousity will always draw them to see and click and maybe even buy something from the advertisers.

As with all advertising you win some you lose some. Innovation is the real key and doing something totally different will make you stand out, check out the http://www.onebilliondollarhomepage.com for 3D Pixels and Video Pixel Ads.

Posted by: Ali on January 24, 2006 01:33 AM

Another website that does pixel advertising:
http://www.bcz.com/

They feature a free online directory listing too at http://dir.bcz.com/

Worth looking.

Posted by: John on January 24, 2006 02:31 PM

More spin offs, looks like the six million dollar page is starting to take effect:
http://thesixmilliondollarpage.com/
http://www.billionairebillboard.com

Posted by: Joel mason on February 5, 2006 01:19 AM

Jobless Boy Launches A Website To Sell 10,000 Jeans On The Internet!

USA jobless boy has set his sights on earning himself a million dollars after thinking of a simple idea of selling brands new and used jeans on his homepage MoneyOrBox.com
He had been thinking of ideas on how to make a little extra money for himself but some of his ideas either never worked out or were just far too ambitious.
So far there are 28 jeans sold on the homepage which has netted him just $1300 but as visitors grow and more people hear about the site, no doubt more jeans will be added and he will progress towards his target of 10,000 jeans on his homepage and one million dollars in the bank.
You can view the website by visiting www.MoneyOrBox.com

Posted by: MoneyOrBox on March 10, 2006 06:32 PM

i came across this site, its a refreshing twist to the billion dollar quest and its hillarious too. think of truman show for a toy cymbal monkey.

Posted by: bd on April 26, 2006 03:45 PM

i came across this site, its a refreshing twist to the billion dollar quest and its hillarious too. think of truman show for a toy cymbal monkey.



http://mybilliondollarhomepage.com

Posted by: bd on April 26, 2006 03:48 PM

FORMULA FOR PRIME NUMBERS!
Some numbers have the special property that they cannot be expressed as the product of two smaller numbers, e.g., 2, 3, 5, 7, etc. Such numbers are called prime numbers, and they play an important role, both in pure mathematics and its applications. The distribution of such prime numbers among all natural numbers does not follow any regular pattern. A proof that it is true for every interesting solution would shed light on many of the mysteries surrounding the distribution of prime numbers.
Since the late 1960s, with the advent of computers, there has been a shift of focus from finding a mathematical formula to devise an algorithm that can test for primality of a given number. Testing of primality thus became an important problem in theoretical computer science. If an algorithmic solution to the problem posed is found, then an executable computer program can be written.
Check algorithmic solution here: www.moneyorbox.com

Posted by: MoneyOrBox on May 31, 2006 03:40 PM

FORMULA FOR PRIME NUMBERS!
Some numbers have the special property that they cannot be expressed as the product of two smaller numbers, e.g., 2, 3, 5, 7, etc. Such numbers are called prime numbers, and they play an important role, both in pure mathematics and its applications. The distribution of such prime numbers among all natural numbers does not follow any regular pattern. A proof that it is true for every interesting solution would shed light on many of the mysteries surrounding the distribution of prime numbers.
Since the late 1960s, with the advent of computers, there has been a shift of focus from finding a mathematical formula to devise an algorithm that can test for primality of a given number. Testing of primality thus became an important problem in theoretical computer science. If an algorithmic solution to the problem posed is found, then an executable computer program can be written.
Check algorithmic solution here: www.moneyorbox.com

Posted by: MoneyOrBox on May 31, 2006 03:40 PM

I believe that Alex's site still generates some indirect value for advertisers at least by improving their visibility in search engines. It has a PageRank of 7 and many still continue to add links to it (by the way, this article has just added one link). So, getting the link from website with such a high PageRank for as low as 1$ it is clearly a reasonable investment. Good luck to all the copycats :)
http://www.milliondollarhosting.net

Posted by: Michael Hosting on June 28, 2006 11:47 PM

26 000 pages on portal Popsops.com.
Free Interesting resources.
For You collected archives of audio and video, karaoke, interesting games on mobile telephone, midi, mmf, ringtones. Photo of the celebrities, girls, man, children’s, cities, architectures, flowers, workers of Photoshop and other Karaoke, games, photo

Posted by: popsops [TypeKey Profile Page] on September 25, 2006 06:40 AM

26 000 pages on portal Popsops.com! Interesting resources

For You collected archives of audio and video, karaoke, interesting games on mobile telephone, midi, mmf, ringtones. Photo of the celebrities, girls, man, children’s, cities, architectures, flowers, workers of Photoshop and other
Music, foto, ringtones

Posted by: popsops on September 25, 2006 06:43 AM


Personally designed and custom built to the size you need from 4 ft to 35 ft long. We use top quality Redwood and accept specialty wood requests. at www.Redwoodgardenbridges.com . Many different styles and sizes such as with posts, without posts, single rails, double rails, decorative rope flat or arched. Quality made at the Best prices.

Posted by: joe on December 21, 2006 07:33 PM


Personally designed and custom built to the size you need from 4 ft to 35 ft long. We use top quality Redwood and accept specialty wood requests. at www.Redwoodgardenbridges.com . Many different styles and sizes such as with posts, without posts, single rails, double rails, decorative rope flat or arched. Quality made at the Best prices.

Posted by: joe on December 21, 2006 07:37 PM

Hi!
Friday 13th April 2007! The Million Dollar Borrower is launched.
Hello everybody!
I've spent the last few hours building the site, registering the domain name and here is the result. Check out the ‘frequently asked questions’ for all the answers you'll ever need. Perhaps the idea isn't so crazy after all? Anyway, I'm gonna make some calls, send some emails and see if I can get some press interest!
I will say this: in my view, business success is based on unique good ideas. I thought this could be something crazy enough to work! Because I think people like crazy ideas. If this captures people's imaginations and people check out the site, then the idea will have value - and millionaires will help. That's the theory anyway. The way I see it: I've got nothing to lose by trying. And I'm sure it'll be very fun! Wish me luck and watch this space!
“Seeing the women walking, walking, walking really struck me. We would go for miles and miles and see these women walking, and we’d always look to see if any had shoes. They didn’t!” Melinda Gates talking about a wonderful safari to Africa (1993)
“We all now know that something radical has got to be done to turn back the tide of global warming. It is our hope and belief that the winner of The Virgin Earth Challenge will help to reverse the collision course our beautiful world is currently on.” Sir Richard Branson, 09.02.2007

Posted by: MillionDollarBorrower on April 12, 2007 12:33 PM

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