digg

Join DiggAbout

Donkeys and Elephants and Delegates,oh my!
Check out the most popular Elections 2008 content on Digg.

Million Dollar Homepage Becomes Multi-Million Dollar Homepage

techcrunch.com — The creator is reportedly on the verge of launching a second site called Pixelotto. Instead of selling each pixel for $1, he plans to sell each pixel for $2, plus hold some kind of lottery where the winner who clicks the right advertisement will win $1,000.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • Roger, on 10/12/2007, -5/+53Lucky bastard.
    • compu73rg33k, on 10/12/2007, -12/+4Wrong reply, wtf.
    • oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17he needs a publicity photo. the picture of him with his hands folded across his chest just makes me want to punch him ..



    • ssanders, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22He's even more lucky if the winner of the lotto is a digg user.... from the article it says the winner gets $1,000,000 by clicking the right ad, but in the digg description, it says only $1,000 lol.

      I can imagine a digger winning this and e-mailing him saying "GIVE ME MY THOUSAND NOW BITCH!"
    • dnthomps, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3He already has the contacts and experience. I think he can pull it off again. I imagine almost all of his previous advertisers will come back for round two.
    • broomett, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10dnthomps...don't be too sure. Most of hte advertisers from the first one did it for the OUTSIDE publicity that came from all his interviews, etc. due to the fact that his site is a novelty. All that is NOT going to happen again, and hence, they are simply paying $2 a pixel to be put on a page with dozens of other ads. A terrible investment without all the talk shows and mainstream media coverage.
    • vbsurfer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6This is him beatboxing (The one on the left)

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W26DYxn-_6c

      Pretty incredible
    • vbsurfer, on 10/12/2007, -13/+1This is him beatboxing...

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W26DYxn-_6c

      Pretty incredible
    • HaltingPoint, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2>>broomett

      Perhaps the most insightful comment I've seen on here about this yet. I'm an advertising executive and I have to wholeheartedly agree with you. The PR value of the people who hopped on the bandwagon was WAY more valuable than the little amount people spent on their actual ad.

      I'd be REALLY curious to see what their ad performance was as well. As an advertiser, I would have serious doubts about the quality of traffic on this new system as it merely encourages people to click the links in a random fashion in hopes of winning. It does not encourage them to find a site they are looking for information on or encourage them to request more information about the advertising site or buy a product. Yeah, you might get a large number of eyeballs, but what do you want to bet their average viewing time of your site will be all of 5 seconds?
    • WolfwoodX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1That beatbox thing is awesome.
  • zerodotcom, on 10/12/2007, -3/+118I'm tired of this guy.
    • TheReport, on 10/12/2007, -6/+71I agree, now the ***** is just getting greedy
    • jcounterman, on 10/12/2007, -18/+4He wasn't greedy when he made 1 million?

      edit: pennies, that is.
    • compu73rg33k, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23"He wasn't greedy when he made 1 million?"
      No because it was a good idea and the idea came from his need to pay for college. He obviously has his college paid for now, and he's doing this just to get rich now...
    • yoda133113, on 10/12/2007, -4/+46News flash, he did it for the money, he came up with an idea to make money, and made it. That's not greed, that's intelligence (and if your definition of greed is using your ideas to make large sums of money, then call me greedy and I'll take it as a compliment). On a second note, this is SOOO not gonna work (unless the $1000 thing takes off), there are too many imitators his idea isn't original anymore.
    • itisme, on 10/12/2007, -8/+5whilst the idea has been lucrative, it really just shows that there is a lot of money in having nothing special except greed in mind.
      At least with the web for every million dollar home page there is a wikipedia...
    • headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -8/+21It's just hi-larious that everyone is calling the guy greedy. Fine. Lets shut down every business in America (well, the whole damn world even). Apparently having an idea and using that idea to make money is now greedy, and wrong.

      While we're at it, lets remove the TVs from our homes, or gaming consoles, our computers, etc, because those were put on the market so people could make money. Hell, just about every advancement in modern society has been spurred by money, and making more of it.

      All those people who invented those products were just greedy, so we should stop using them. No? I didn't think so.

      Can anyone say "jealous".
    • verifex, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7@headzoo

      All of what you said may be true if you applied it to a respectable business that provided a worthwhile service. As it is, the million dollar home page thing was a one-hit-wonder. It had it's curiosity and now that is done. The site serves no other purpose then to display ads to us. The fact that it is not providing any service other then to "show us ads in a weird way" is pretty damn lame. Especially when the original purpose has been lost. The guy obviously does not need our charity, so how about we just let his lame money grab die. If he makes a worthwhile service that is obviously deserving of the money, then go him!

      But otherwise he is riding on the curiosity and charity of others and providing no real service or goods to anyone.
    • orientis, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2@headzoo "just about every advancement in modern society has been spurred by money"

      Cept for the ones that came from war... The human race needs a new collective muse.
    • thecrystalship, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Con artists come up with some extremely intelligent and creative ideas, but that doesn't make it right.
    • TheReport, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"All those people who invented those products were just greedy, so we should stop using them. No? I didn't think so.

      Can anyone say "jealous"."

      Im very ***** jealous, Im not gonna deny it, what makes me jealous is that this asshat had no real product and he made a million dollars out of it, so i think im gonna continue to call this guy greedy cause suddenly he got another boner and decided he is gonna try it again. If he makes another 2 million, my best wishes to him but im sure am not gonna be one of these people who thinks a pixel is worth a dollar or two or whatever he is selling for them now
    • TheReport, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"News flash, he did it for the money, he came up with an idea to make money, and made it. That's not greed, that's intelligence "

      Umm you just contradicted yourself, "He did it for the money" + "Thats not greed" = illogical, Oh and instead of calling it intelligence I like calling it conning. Organized religion called they are looking for a like minded person like you.
    • rekrapt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm still getting pretty good traffic from the teeny little ad I bought from Tew. More power to him.
    • RoboPimp3000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"I'm tired of this guy."

      I agree. Next internet celebrity, please come soon.
  • manatee, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23http://www.PixleLotto.com - typo domain lol
    • thespace, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1- dork
    • OverloadUT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Before anyone else gets confused as I did: This link is not the one to the site this article is about - it's a "typo domain" meaning it's a domain that is very similar, hoping that people will accidentally go to this site instead of the real one.

      The site this article is about is:
      http://www.pixelotto.com
      Which currently just says "soon"
  • Jofaba, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14Well you can't blame him for trying. It's not an entirely bad idea, and the lottery aspect is sure to help make up for the fact that this isn't "new" or "fresh" anymore. It just might work. Good luck to him.
    • liquilife, on 10/12/2007, -20/+12I don't wish him luck. It's a sham and now his greediness is coming to full force. Take your easy unearned million and run. I personally think anyone who ever bought a pixle from this guy is a dumbass and anyone who might do it again for twice the money is twice as much a dumbass. Make him work for his living just like every other citizen.
    • strictnein, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6That lottery aspect was around 8 years ago, so nothing is new or fresh about this.
    • lustre, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Unearned? The idea and follow through was a clever and utterly valid earning.
    • tutivlahos, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2Only in America....
    • liquilife, on 10/12/2007, -9/+7It was not "earned". People work a life time to earn a million dollars, if that. He got lucky with an idea. So please, no more "He deserved it" or "Earned it". He got lucky, that doesn't make him deserving. And the fact that he is doing it again for $2 a pixle says he's a greedy bastard.
    • yoda133113, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5So does that mean Kevin Rose is a greedy bastard for his "Unearned" income from Digg, NO. The coming up with and execution of good ideas is a way to earn money. Now he has another idea and he's executing it. If it works then he will have earned more money. Just because he doesn't work for long periods of time doesn't mean it's not earned.
    • interval, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28"Only in America...."

      He's in the UK, dumbass.
  • emailingRob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11I'm so insanely jealous of this guy. However, as it says in the article, I don't think lightening will strike twice. Time for a new idea, Tew.
  • OrangeTide, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24I should make a page where there are a million pixels and each one costs $1000. A billion dollar homepage is way more impressive than a million dollar one.
    • mycatsboots, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16Sharks with laser beams, pew pew?
    • NerdsOnSite, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1www.billiondollarhomepage.com
    • tntgal, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0 good luck getting the $1000 per pixel ...

      this guy who created these pixel pages ... does he earn from "every" copy cat clone ?

      afterall, the highly valuable (and helpful /useful) intellectual property (idea)
      of a pixel page "IS" his creation!

      i wonder if he's using " idotone " concepts ? anyone know ?

  • grevvvvvv, on 10/12/2007, -16/+2"10,000 Pixel Blocks...
    1 Buck Per Block...
    Help Me Make Another $10,000!"

    Description in post isn't exactly correct.
    • brutimus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Ya...because you clicked the TYPO address someone posted. That's not the one the article is referring to.
  • ipearx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Depressing:
    http://www.alexaholic.com/bla.st+pixelotto.com
    :)
  • coollettuce, on 10/12/2007, -12/+1those aren't even pixels
    damn he needs to look up some words on wiktionary
    • senfo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Umm...I think you're the one that's confused.
  • HMTKSteve, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1This is obviously blog spam as the source is not directly linked.

    My guess is that someone already linked to the source and it came up as a dupe so they had to scour the net for a site that linked to the source...

    http://www.digg.com/offbeat_news/First_Spin_off_of_Million_Dollar_Homepage_2_Pixel_Lotto
  • strictnein, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Ok, there was basically the exact same thing 8 years ago, except instead of them selling pixels that you clicked on, you just clicked on a tree. The money tree or something like that.
    • JavertHolmes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Ok, there was basically the exact same thing 8 years ago, except instead of them selling pixels that you clicked on, you just clicked on a tree. The money tree or something like that."

      Yeah, it was the Money Tree and they were one of the first sites I know of to have annoying flash game ads like "Punch the monkey three times and win!" or "Hit the puck into the net and win!"

      From what I could find out about the site, the chances of winning a large money prize were very small, as once you found a high prize winning pixel in the tree, you had to click one or two more in sequence, making the odds astronomically low of winning anything big. On top of that, the high prize pixel positions would change often.
    • anagoge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I loved that idea. I never won though, ever, which pissed me off.
    • HaltingPoint, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Money Tree was a scam. If you kept doing it enough they built up a LOT of info about you that they required you to enter and then that info got sold. I'm pretty sure the owner was laughing all the way to the bank.
  • f00xx0riz3r, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18You're all just jealous and somewhat stupid. What does the guy have to lose? He already has his million. Devtime for a site like this is minimal and he can only win-win-win.

    Good luck to him, he's one of the persons I truely admire for his positive, creative and entreprenour (sp?) sides.
    • wheel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8'Entrepreneur' is how it's spelled. :)
    • chesterjosiah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Should've used Firefox 2.0. Built in spellchecka.exe!
  • sammysnake, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Since the original site there have been thousands of copycat sites...

    http://www.google.ca/search?&q=buy+pixel&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

    This is not gong to get anywhere.
  • HMTKSteve, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10So, should this be buried as a dupe of http://www.digg.com/offbeat_news/First_Spin_off_of_Million_Dollar_Homepage_2_Pixel_Lotto

    or should it be buried as blog spam?
    • jonknee, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Actually if you read that digg it's about a spinoff of the new site. Some clown is already trying to copy the 2 million dollar home page. So no. You should just be dugg down.
  • Botond, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"plus hold some kind of lottery where the winner who clicks the right advertisement will win $1 million."

    The lotto aspect is for 1 MILLION DOLLARS not 1,000. This makes it much more interesting. Genious.
  • iAlex, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3This time, the bastard won't get so much money.
  • goodluck4287, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Viral marketing attempt. This is by the site designer. He acts dumb about it so you think he is a user and not the designer. "Some kind of..."
  • Forse42, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The page really could have been something cool, but you can see how the buttload of advertising with "websafe colors" makes it look like actually clicking on it will give you at least 8 pounds of spyware.
  • gamesector, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think it will work..casino's will buy all the blocks :)
  • calum141, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1The vast majority of you guys and girls who say he didn't earn this are just completely ****ing jealous. He did earn it - he discovered a good idea and hired a good PR manager and got alot of press coverage. Fair enough, I would have just kept the $1,000,000 and leave it also discover a new business idea but I don't think this idea is original anymore. So stop being jealous and stop insulting him
  • jackminardi, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Those of you calling him "greedy" have no idea whatsoever about any type of economics, do you?

    Its like reading Atlas Shrugged all over again.
  • superKduper, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Seeing how all y'all are against someone trying to make a buck, I recomment that you all move to China or some other communist country. You're all a bunch of commies.
  • whitesaint, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1I can't believe someone would do this and do it in the name of our Lord.

    http://www.pixel4jesus.com/en/
  • itisme, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2I like getting dugg down for suggesting that there is more value in wikipedia than milliondollarhomepage.
    this place is a joke
  • itisme, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@headzoo "just about every advancement in modern society has been spurred by money"

    So was newton's or einstien's work spurred by money?
    lucky they didn't take the same approach to patents and copyright of ideas that the supposed ideal we live in today does eh?
  • TheToecutter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"There's a sucker born every minute."
    "A sucker and his money are soon departed."

    Grats to him for milking a bunch of idiots out of their money.
  • rheaume, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Followup headline "Million Dollar Homepage Becomes Multi-Million Dollar Failure"

    Hopefully
  • donbowmanca, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Last time he tried this the site went down right away due to a DDoS attack and subsequent extortion. I wonder what he is in for this time?

    http://www.sandvine.com/general/getfile.asp?FILEID=87 has details on how this happened last time, as reported by the BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4621158.stm

    Also, there were a ton of 'me too' sites, why do we think the novelty comes back after a year?


  • leahculver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Perhaps some people need to stay within their 15 minutes. This is just sad.
  • LeafsScore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Anyone else here ready to make a bot that'll click all the ads?
  • PsychoPNut, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1...another one of those websites that makes you say, "why didn't i do that."
  • broomett, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This won't be nearly as successful as the first one. The first had mainstream press. This one won't. That makes this site just like all the other sites that have nothing but ads on it (I wonder if Google will not allow it to be indexed like they do with the ad sites)

    And advertisers will NOT be falling for the promises of click throughs from people just hoping to win the "lottery" by clicking in the right spot. All those cliks will bgenerate almost ZERO revenue for the advertisers.

    I predict this site will have the same amount of success that all the other copycat sites had. Because make no mistake about it, this is a copycat site. He is copying off himself.
  • jackwaters, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I really can't see this working for him again.... It's been done so many times now....
    • manatee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I think he will make another million, but I don't think he'll sell out again after he wipes the slate clean. He is too well known for this not to work..
  • IMustBeEmo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4What a dick.
  • gardnmi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3You don't see this working for him? This guy is a marketing genious and guess what he is on the DIGG front page. I think he has gotten everyones attention yet again and is on he way to another million.
  • FushBuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The whole point of spending money on advertising is either 1)brand recognition or 2)to convince people to buy your product or service. Because you must visit his site in order to be influenced by the ads, and because his site has no actual content besides ads which will draw viewers, whoever would give this guy money is a fool.

    Am jealous he made honest money from suckers, though.

    The only way to make this premise worthless is for more people to start sites like this. The first few who do will make some money...
  • manatee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm not sure what the laws are in the UK, but my guess is the way he gets away with this is that the advertisers can't win the $1,000,000 prize - only people who register for free can win (open dec 5th)... I have a funny feeling that someone might try to shut him down for trying to run his own lotto...but perhaps he's already figured out the legal loopholes. Anyone have some thoughts on this?
  • Gullop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Not exactly original :/.
    • NikZ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2dude... ya got something on your chin...
  • moobler, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Not original alright, I thought of this idea when I was in the pub trying to raise a bit of money to pay off my student debt, www.hundreddollarclick.com is what I registered when I was drunk but then thought about it and decided not to create the site.

    The basic idea was that you click on an advert, if that advert is the chosen advert then you get $100, no *****, no con. Obviously we would need to generate $100 from the clicks first and only pay out when we are on a profit but its essentially ***** because people just click the adds and the chances of winning are very slim. Also lawsuits, damn lawsuits!

    I've made $2 so far from http://www.hundreddollarclick.com/, and some charity has made $2,, woooo I'm in the money :D

    moobler
  • HP844182, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I hope he chokes.
  • neiltc13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't think we should support this guy twice - once is enough for all of this - he said the proceeds from his site would go towards his education which:

    a) Is not actually all that expensive in the UK - his tuition fees for a 4 year honours degree would run to about $10,000 maximum.
    b) He still hasn't continued

    After he made his $1m he'd be liable for the higher income tax bracket for the UK, which I understand currently is 42%. So, he'd be left with $580,000. Subtract whatever the site costs from that and the PR person and there isn't anywhere close to $1m left.

    I'm also a bit weary of the whole "you win $1m if you click the correct one" thing - it will take a great deal of technology behind the scenes to:

    a) Identify the user who clicked
    b) Make sure the message appears only once

    Also, there are laws surrounding this sort of thing in the UK. If it comes to the point where it could be deemed a true "lottery" then he has to give 20% of his proceeds to charity by law.
  • manatee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1He's up to $92,000 already...

    http://www.pixlelotto.com/blog/pixelotto-news/pixelotto-rakes-in-over-92000-in-first-48-hours/
  • honest, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why are so many people offending the guy? He won lots of money. That's good for him, and has nothing to do with me. Why will I call him this or that?
  • VURG, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Some people don't realise this. Pixelotto is a multi-round idea. One month after the first round of advertisements are sold, the second round of advertisements start selling. He is hoping to get such a large volume of people clicking to win that advertisers fill up the next round immediately after the previous round has finished.

    If he pulls this off, Pixelotto.com could end up with 12 rounds a year for the competition. With 45% of the revenue going towards the running of Pixelotto.com (+profits), the pixelotto competition could end up generating his company ~$10million per year.

    He probably needs a few hundred thousand people loyally clicking for the chance to win every day to pull it off.
    • 3DinfoSpace, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Are we going to comment the MDH serial here month by month, and year by year?!
  • jdonner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Lucky the first time and stupid the second time.
    • 3DinfoSpace, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0While we are discussing this, Alex's Prize Fund rises ($110,300 at the moment).
      He does not read digg.com, or what?!!!
  • juniortp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0for 2006 the year of youtube, http://www.itsyourstage.com fits better as the pixel page.
  • 3DinfoSpace, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Pixelotto sales seems start slowing down...
    See my opinion why here:
    http://mini-billion.blogspot.com
    Pixelotto 2 - The "Year Of CLICKING!!!"
  • BioALIEN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think Alex Tew whishes he had come up with a web 2.0 equivalent of his MDH idea like http://www.TheMillionDollarAdvert.com

    Now that would make him a genious, unfortunately for him (and fortunately for us) lightning doesnt strike twice!

    I wish him luck either way.
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.