Feb 21, 2006

The Million Dollar Homepage

What would you do if your debts are way too high and you are so poor that you don't even have a good pair of socks? If you are Alex Tew, you would start a million dollar homepage. And make a cool million dollars in four months!

How can I become a millionare?

That is what Alex asked himself when his finances were really bad, even to the point that his pair of socks was not decent enough. He got out a notepad and started thinking of a way to get out of the misery. Twenty minutes later, he had an idea. He would sell pixels.

For the uninitiated, pixels stand for 'picture elements', those tiny dots that make up your computer display. In most Internet advertising, pixels are sold in bulk, like banners or skyscrapers. The very idea of selling individual pixel was what made this different from the rest.

That very night, he registered the domain milliondollarhomepage.com and started working on the project. The minimum purchase was for $100, which will give the buyer 100 pixels in a 10 X 10 space. Clicking on that space will take you to the advertiser's page.

With the $1000 that he raised from friends and family, he bought some publicity to his site. With every new visitor, the word about the new idea spread and the whole thing snowballed until he was able to raise his target within a short period of 4 months.

Besides making Alex Tew a millionaire, the site also spawned an entire industry of pixel selling sites. Many copycat clones with similar domain names have been registered, and what is more, you can even get a basic pixel selling kit for a few dollars.

For 20 minutes of thinking and 4 months to project completion of getting a million dollars, that is not bad, Alex, not bad at all.

3 comments:

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Ranjit said...

Criticise me, flame me, worship me, do whatever you want, but don't you ever spam me...