To make millions online, you have to come up with something clever, right? Well, that depends on your definition of clever. Some people have elevated the ridiculous to the sublime, taking something silly and turning it into gold.
A million dollar home page?
Have you ever wondered what a million dollar website looked like? Satisfy your curiosity and take a look at www.milliondollarhomepage.com – that’s a whole bunch of money right there! In fact, this website’s owner has literally made a million dollars from selling pixels.
Who on earth came up with something so ridiculously clever?
He calls himself the Pixel Hustler, but his real name is Alex Tew. He started Milliondollarhomepage.com back in 2005, in an effort to make money to attend university – it’s paid off…and then some!
How Does it Work?
Effectively, Milliondollarhomepage.com is an internet advertising billboard. The home page consists of a million pixels arranged in a 1000×1000 pixel grid. Each pixel was priced at $1, with the smallest unit for sale a 10×10 pixel block. For their money, buyers got a tiny image of their brand or product, with a permanent link to their website.
In January 2006, Tew put the final 1000 pixels available on Milliondollarhomepage.com up for auction on eBay. Once sold, he had generated over $1 million in revenue. Says Tew, each pixel is now a piece of internet history.
Can you make money online from something silly?
Tew reckons anyone can. The trick, though, is to recognise that silly ideas rely on novelty and will only work once. Copycats can rarely thrive in the shadow of an original.
