As with so many things, the ideas that really 'work' on the
Internet are often the most simple. In fact, they are
often the ideas that most people would just discard as
being too ridiculous to even try (this doesn't just apply
to the Internet of course - many great
inventors/entrepreneurs have been laughed at in the past
only to have the last laugh themselves...).
Anyway, I have been following the story of one such idea
over the past couple of months and although I am sure many
of you will already be familiar with it, I wanted to share
some thoughts with you.
The site in question is called the Million Dollar Home
Page. This site was the brainchild of an English guy by
the name of Alex Tew. Alex is 21 and back in August was
about to start university. Being only too aware of the
fact that many students end up finishing their education
with huge debts to repay, he decided to try and generate
sufficient funds to cover his expenses whilst studying
using the power of the Internet.
The basic concept of the Million Dollar Home Page is that
website owners can buy advertising space on the home page
of the site at a cost of $1 per pixel. The smallest
advertising block you can purchase is 10x10 pixels, hence a
cost of $100. There are a million pixels available for
purchase, thus if Alex succeeds in selling them all, he
will have raised a cool $1million!
On the face of it, this is a crazy idea - why would anyone
want to pay to put a tiny graphic on a page of thousands of
other tiny graphics on the off-chance that someone might
click on it? If you had asked me 3 months ago (ie. prior
to the site being launched) if I thought it was worth
doing, I would have said 'no' (as indeed, I think most
people would have done). How wrong I was....
Alex launched the site at the end of August and right away
started to try and generate press interest. This approach
worked superbly and he has had International press coverage
over the past couple of months which has helped to spread
the word about his site in the viral manner that is only
possible via the Internet. Result? At the time of writing
this article, Alex had sold over half a million pixels -
yup, that means he has generated over $500,000 in income in
just 2 months! At this rate he will achieve his target of
selling a million pixels by the end of the year and even if
he doesn't sell another pixel, he has still done superbly
well.
So what can we learn from this?
Well the first thing is that even the wackiest ideas can
work and it doesn't matter how simple a theory may be, it
is worth giving it a shot. You don't get much simpler than
the idea for the Million Dollar Home Page - in effect, this
could have been a one-page site. As it is, Alex has added
other pages such as a blog and press release info which
helps to make the site even more appealing as people like
to read stories such as this as they happen.
Clearly you don't need a 1000 page website with lots of
complicated programming running in the background to earn
half a million dollars - one page will do it! :-)
The second thing to note is that the way in which the
Internet can spread the word about a website is hugely
powerful. Admittedly much of the PR that Alex obtained was
via television/radio and newspaper articles/features but an
enormous amount of the traffic and customers that he has
received will have been via people emailing his link to
their friends and by hearing about the site from articles
such as this one. Remember, all of this 'advertising' is
completely free and it doesn't get better than that.
Of course it didn't take long for the copycats to show up
and there are now several hundred similar websites online -
many of them haven't even bothered to change the style or
wording from the original site and have just copied and
pasted Alex's work. How lazy can you get? It is a fact
that if you have a good idea that makes money on the
Internet, sooner or later someone will copy it. I know
this from my own experience! What all of these copycats
miss is why an idea such as this works - it is a one-off
and the only person that is going to make any serious money
from it is the guy who was first to the table, ie. Alex.
You see this so often both on and offline - how many people
are still trying to set up online auction sites that are
never going to work because eBay is already too far ahead
of the game?
I have even seen several people selling scripts that
automate the admin functions of a 'pixels for sale' page so
that you can set up your own pixel site without having to
manually add graphics/links etc! At least this shows a
little imagination and doesn't rip off the original idea
completely :-)
In summary, Alex has to be commended for coming up with a
brilliantly simple idea and for actually seeing it through.
The advertisers will almost certainly be seeing increased
traffic since the very nature of the site encourages
visitors to click on a couple of graphics 'just to see'.
Of course, this traffic won't be targeted and for the most
part therefore, will be pretty poor quality but as they
say, there is no such thing as bad traffic.
The Million Dollar Home Page is a perfect example of how a
basic idea can be let loose online and allowed to generate
a small fortune from nothing in a very short space of time.
The best ideas are yet to come and to repeat a quote that
I used a few months ago, 'Most of the people that will
become Internet millionaires don't even have a website
yet...'
Three months ago Alex fell into that category, today he has
a website and I willing to bet that in a few months time he
will also have the $1m to go with it. Will it be your turn
next....?
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