Millionairepixels.com - another Milliondollarhomepage?
January 23, 2006 | General
I’ve posted about the Milliondollarhomepage twice now and, both times, received a number of comments from people trying to advertise their sites. On both posts I threw down the gauntlet, “pay me money, and i’ll advertise your site”. I didn’t expect anyone to actually give me any money, despite the fact I was only asking for pocket change ($10 the first time, $20 the second), especially considering how much could be made from a site such as these.
I had a few people post comments and I went through and did as I said I would. I emailed them, asking them to pay, and didn’t hear a thing. Those comments got deleted.
However (reading the page heading I think you know where this is going) a few days after posting about the Milliondollarhomepage auction I got a comment from a chap called Alan, asking to take me up on my offer. He had checked out the traffic on my site and decided that it was worth a shot. So, I give to you, Millionairepixels.com
Millionairepixels.com
Millionairepixels is similar to the Milliondollar homepage, but Alan came up with a few twists of his own. His idea is to create a community of advertisers. Roads have been added to the map and the sections created by the roads have been labelled up for different things. The larger sections are ‘real estate’ used for your normal sites to pimp their wares. The smaller sections are for specific types of site, music, airlines, motor vehicles, and other major retailers are all covered here.
So far only a few tiles have been sold but he tells me things are hotting up and more people are becoming interested all the time.
By the way - that photo on the right is an image of Alan in his local newspaper promoting the site - you can read the article at the ‘This is South Devon’ website.
What do I think?
I think that there is still plenty of potential on the web for advertising such as this. Whilst the wonder of the Milliondollarhomepage is wearing off there is still space for other similar projects to spring up (and there have been loads) but to succeed they need to offer something different.
Is Millionaire pixels different enough? Will it become the next big thing? I haven’t got a clue, but Alan is clearly enthusiastic and is trying very hard to make it a success, a lot more than I can say for a lot of the other sites out there.
The End
I’m not going to make a habit of advertising sites like this, it’s a one off, the offer has now been withdrawn (although I’ll never, say never…)
Oh and FWIW I will be giving the $20 I made from this post to the Alzheimers Research Trust.
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January 24, 2006
The pixel thing’s done. Dosn’t matter how many twists you add, it’s just a copy of the orriginal and won’t really get the press for it to suceed. It is nice to see something that’s not just straight forward copying though.
January 24, 2006
I have found tons of other ones around too. Some sites just add them to the header of their page, just 800×300 and sell advertising like that, so the advertisers are advertising on a site that has more content. Who wants to visit a site full of ads? I think it’s a good idea for making money, but it’s a site people aren’t going to visit over and over again, because there’s nothing new. Just different ads. And most of the ads are for “get-rich-quick” schemes and pyramid stuff.
I think the whole concept is going to wear off, as far as full websites full of advertising - but I think if you put a 800×100 banner on the top of your site, people will advertise. They will come to read the content - and they’ll visit more often.
January 24, 2006
milliondollar-homepage.com was launched in the same month as milliondollarhomepage, inspired buy Alex’s work and success. The above was the first site to offer the the virutal real estate and used roads from it’s conception back in Sept ‘05.
January 24, 2006
Sorry everyone, but I just had to stop by and say don’t you just love the pixel sites that have placed adverts for companies and organisations on their pixel sites to give visitors the impression they have received paid ads, when in actual fact they are just free ads with affilate id’s in the link. Or at worst ad’s placed on pixel sites for companies who have never actual ordered and paid for pixels. Never mind! At least they get free traffic………
January 25, 2006
Update from Millionaire Pixels. Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity have now added the story of Millionaire Pixels to their website: http://www.gosh.org/news/2006/...
Regards, Alan
January 25, 2006
Oh lord. I have to say firstly well done ALEX TEW for an original idea that really paid off.
But Alan, seriously. Not only is this an obvious rip off of a great idea, but as mentioned above before, the real estate idea wasn’t yours either. And I was just going to email you personally and let you know that I hope it doesn’t work for you like it did for Alex, but when I saw you’d posted on this website (i.e. see the comment above mine) with another plug, I had to post my comment here for all to see. I’m sure Alan will be back to plug his idea again, so he’ll see my little pearls of wisdom
Enough of that, anyway. Ben, the site is lovely. I only stumbled across it today but it really does look the biz. Well done =)
January 25, 2006
Andre - The pixel thing is done, and I personally I would have removed all references to pixels from the site, and concentrated on the real estate thing.
Steven - Some interesting ideas there. Intending to try them yourself? I know you keep redesigning your site
James - Wow, great minds eh? I’d never seen your site before but it looks like you’ve had a bit more success than Alan, I guess you’ve had a 5 month head start as well though.
Spider - I can’t say I’d noticed that, but I haven’t seen many of the copy-cat sites. I can understand why you would think it sucks though.
Alan - Well done with Great Ormand Street, with any luck that will help.
Something I feel I should point out is your ‘pickiness’ about where you advertise. You should get as many people as possible to link to you, however big or small. Any traffic is good traffic and, whilst the smaller sites may not bring you much initally they will help spread the word to other people who may be better connected.
Matt - I think it’s a bit unfair hoping he doesn’t do well. I agree that it’s clear where he got his inspiration from but I don’t remember seeing the other real estate based version before.
To tell the truth I don’t think it will work as well as it did for Alex, but Alex had the huge advantage of being first (lightning doesn’t strike twice and all that)
January 26, 2006
Alan
Some of these comments are from people who dont understand the wonderful rework of Tew’s self serving site. Clearly your site does work for charitable good as well as profit…Great Ormond Street have seen the potential - if an institution of this world class reputation suppot you then those people who knock on this message board should be squirmying in their narrow (minded) shoes.
January 26, 2006
Agreed. Good luck Alan!
January 28, 2006
Pixel page entrepreneurs are just getting started. Look at the charts and the interest is incredible. Variation and creativity equals success. Curiosity is the key to bringing traffic.
Also, how can I suscribe to your journal?
January 28, 2006
A quick note for future commentors. When I said the offer for advertising has been withdrawn I didn’t mean you could advertise your sites. I WILL delete any comments relating to competetive pixels sites that are posted here - they are not what this post is about.
This includes posting legitimate comments and leaving a link to your pixel site as your homepage. In these cases I will remove the homepage url and allow the comment through.
Allen - to subscribe you can use the feed link found at the bottom of the page. You will need a feed reader of some sort to be able to use it.
June 3, 2006
I think it is very good what alan is doing not just for bussiness but for charilty aswell good luck with it all and best of luck for the furture well done
July 1, 2006
There have been so many cynical ripoffs of the original pixelsite, ive even seen a pixel site targeted at getting pixelsite adverts only on its advertising! The only way forward is to offer it as a frontend on a site with some quality content. That way you can attract good SE traffic and offer potential advertisers TARGETED traffic.