Variations on the Million Dollar Homepage

using words instead of pixels

[ferraristi]

Mods, sorry if this is in the wrong place but I couldn't think where to post this.

What do you guys think of the latest variations on Alex Tew's million dollar homepage? I'm thinking of the <snip> words instead of pixels variations</snip>.

Do you think these will be as successful as the original concept?

[edited by: trillianjedi at 9:49 am (utc) on June 29, 2006]
[edit reason] Let's not use specifics - thanks ;) [/edit]

[briggidere]

personally i think the concept has been done and it's gone now. The reason it was popular was because it was a new, fresh idea. It got a lot of publicity because the way it was done and he was a student, but i doubt anyone following in his footsteps will get the same coverage.

Just my thoughts

brigidere

[trillianjedi]

Do you think these will be as successful as the original concept?

No, it was a one-off concept. It worked because it was unique, unusual and a clever publicity idea.

TJ

[ferraristi]

Sorry about the specifics.

I like Alex Tew's next step as well. All the space on the original site has been sold, but that hasn't stopped him squeezing a little more cash out of the project. Apparently some see the finished site as a work of art and poster prints etc will be available soon

[ideavirus]

I feel it should still work if you do it for niche markets. Its all about implementation with a little difference and adding value.

I am infact trying with one niche market.

Thanks

[ferraristi]

Are you getting any sort of response Ideavirus?

[ideavirus]

I am still designing and customising it. It should launched in the next 10 days or so, I will PM you once i do the same.

Cheers

[jomaxx]

This has been done to death. With an idea this thin, even doing it once was doing it to death. I doubt there's any part of the original concept that can be successfully stolen.

[trillianjedi]

I doubt there's any part of the original concept that can be successfully stolen.

I think there's a lot to be learned from the marketing tactic though ("impoverised student looks to ensure he doesn't end up leaving Uni in debt").

It's also a great example of a viral marketing campaign executed very well.

However the actual concept of selling ad space on a website whose only traffic is generated out of publicity surrounding the concept of selling ad space (i.e. the ultimate chicken and egg breaker), is not going to be repeated now. The press simpy won't be interested - it's a done story, and this type of concept is 100% reliant on achieving press.

TJ

[Essex_boy]

I agree, I cant tell you loudly I groaned when I heard of it the first time around.

People who naff all about the web kept clucking on and on about at work.

[mack]

Instead of trying to re-do what has already been done I think people will need to think up the next cool "thing".

The milliondollarhomepage was just so cool in it's originality. It was very neat and also very transparent in how it worked. Noting fancy just so so simple yet it worked.

When something like this works for one person there will always be others who try to follow, but in this case the follow on has been far to late. I really don't think there will be any other examples of this type of page that will sell out. It needs to be very different and also very unique.

The hard part is you need to promote it, but not promote it to the extent that people copy you. This is where the milliondollarhomepage got it so right. It was already well on target before the copy cats pounced.
Sometimes you need to go against convention. No web savvy person would have tried it because it was just so unlikely to succeed. Well it did.

Mack.

[TrustNo1]

Fad that is pretty much dead. Except for those still trying to squeeze some money out of it and the suckers they find. I like the original idea because it was something a little different and he worked it and made lots of money, got good press. But it's basically just the world's biggest banner farm. And now with these word sites, just looks like spam pages.