1 million pixels a $1 each

a novel gimmick pays off

[httpwebwitch]

this page [milliondollarhomepage.com] is selling pixels for $1 each, in blocks of 100. The concept is interesting, and so is the crowd of advertisers who have signed up so far. It's like seeing hundreds of popup ads all at once.

[grandpa]

Well this news ought to spawn about 10,000 copycat pages by tomorrow night :) What a great idea.

[phidentity]

This is the work of a friend of a friend of mine.

Good idea, but only works of the initial momentum. It will have to change somehow (maybe into niche sections) if it's to continue making the same money.

Jon

[ronin]

You know, I'm impressed.

I saw this a couple of weeks ago when there was a lot more blank space on the page.

I thought about the price, thought about the eyeball competition on the same page, thought about the targeting, thought about how much one-time and repeat traffic the page is going to get and thought about the lack of on-page text on or near the link.

Then I decided it would take me something like ten years to make any return on investment.

So I concluded it would never work.

Clearly a lot of people think otherwise.

[MatthewHSE]

I saw this a few weeks ago too. Personally, I can't imagine anyone actually thinking they'll make money from advertising there. How will the page even get any visitors? Search engines? Good luck, no real content and absolutely no theme. Maybe viral marketing . . . Sure, that will bring it a lot of traffic for awhile, but mostly curiousity-seekers and it won't last long. PPC programs? If so, for what search terms?

Seems mostly like a PR opportunity for the advertisers. For instance, I did notice that one of the bigger ads on the page was for the same entity that once purchased a rather famous grilled-cheese sandwich . . . ;)

[httpwebwitch]

you hit the pixel on the head. This is a one-time novelty gimmick - and will be attractive to advertisers who benefit from such things. As for "who will visit the page" - well, people like me who read about it in a blog, are attracted by the novelty, and want to see for themselves.

What's astonishing - and inspiring - is that it's working. The page is probably about half full. Does that really mean it's generated a half-million dollars? wow.

BTW, I did not click on any of the ads. But I did spend more time looking at them than I ever would have if they were five hundred times the size and popped up in my face. I even took the time to look at the really tiny 10x10 ones to see who was hiding in there behind those tiny $100 icons.

[ronin]

But you didn't click. And can you remember them now?
This is largely a triumph of gimmickry over good sense.

But full marks to Alex. She's evidently going to come off very well as a result of this stunt.

[Essex_boy]

So I concluded it would never work - Thats what I thought when I first read about it a few weeks ago.

A flash in teh pan

[httpwebwitch]

it's happening...

copycat [rentpixelads.com]
copycat [million-euro-pixel-homepage.com]
copycat [ebaypixelpage.com]
copycat [yellowgrid.com]

[mattglet]

I saw this when there was only about 2,000 pixels sold... then forgot about it.

I bet the owner is kicking themselves for not making the price $5/pixel ;)

[Essex_boy]

More like the buyers are kicking themselves for throwing money down teh drain

[supermanjnk]

I saw this when there was only about 2,000 pixels sold... then forgot about it.

I bet the owner is kicking themselves for not making the price $5/pixel ;)

if i had made over $500,000 from a website in less then 2 months I don't think i'd be kicking myself over anything. he had a great idea, and the copy cats will never ammount to what his, the first, has done.

[ronin]

Sustainable business models tend to be good for the customers as well as the service provider. I suppose only time will tell if this model is a) lasting b) scalable and c) replicable.

[mattglet]

I don't think i'd be kicking myself over anything

My remark was said in jest.