It will be interesting to see what kind of sales (not clicks) the ads generate. I simply don’t understand what value a page full of ads has for users? why would we even visit such a page, but for the postings by you and other bloggers?

Clever concept, but doesn’t have the cache of the million dollar of MDH, and the visual impact.

Did they contact you or did you find it on your own? It’s interesting to see how sites like this build their momentum in buzz in the early stage. Look forward to seeing it unfold in the coming weeks.

Chunni, that’s just it, it’s posts like this that generate traffic to sites like 1000Tags and the Million Dollar Homepage. The joke’s on us, because the sites are completely worthless.

The value to advertisers will depend on keeping their tag above the scroll. Once the above-the-scroll area is filled, you’re going to see a lot of silly alphabetical manipulations like “Aaaaaa amazon.com!” Consider the click volume of that “starwars” tag and how it will change with 800 other tags on top of it.

IMHO, this is pretty goofy and holds limited value to both advertisers and visitors.

Is this an incredibly cool new web 2.0 business? No

I agree.

But it is a smart idea that I wish I had thought of and executed on. Good for them.

Huh? I’m missing the “smart” part of this idea. Here’s my pitch of it “Its like the yellow pages … but all smushed together into one image! I call it ’smushed-ads.com’!”

This is better off in crunchnotes.com

Am I the only one that noticed the larger tags are affiliate links? Makes you think that the person could simply have built this to create a high traffic webpage so people click on his affiliate links.

I expected something much, much cooler.

In fact, all the tags are affiliate links! Basically you are linking to a scam artist. The MDH was cool, this is 1000levels.com below that.

Scrivs - Yep, you are totally right. They’ve seeded it with affiliate links. I had not noticed that. I still like it though. A lot.

Another one I came across with a similar theme.
http://www.buyitoff.com/
(could be NSFW some time later)

People can buy off parts of clothing of a woman.

How long ’till we start seeing “paid advertisement” tag clouds on blogs and other 2.0 style sites?

I really think if this idea was thought out correctly it could be a big thing.

Just having a page of clouds that are all advertisements won’t do much, but small tag clouds ala PPC all over the web, now that could be big.

Who’s going to be first?

These sites continue to buzz as long as sites continue to write about them. It seems PRweb are publishing press releases on these novelty advertising sites hourly.

I have a couple of thoughts on those affiliated links:

a) they put those links so that when they launched, the page wouldn’t be darn empty.

b) someone went up there and booked a bunch of affiliated links.

A seems plausible. I wouldn’t call it a scam though. They could’ve been a bit nicer and just throw a few direct links, but who knows, if they had tagged TechCrunch for instance, perhaps then Michael would get back at them “hey, I didn’t do that nor I want people think I did”!

B seems also possible. After all, nowhere it says that the site your tag would link to had to be your own.

BTW, now I see some more that aren’t affiliated, so it looks lke the idea is catching up. I also like it a lot - not just this particular site but the concept itself. Somehow I don’t see the future of online advertising going to “selling pixels”, but selling tags? Hmmm…

And now TechCrunch gets a free Tag, isn’t it ?

To be fair Micheal , MDH is just a site selling ads. Thats not a business model nor Web 2.0 . Also its finished in the next few hours. So do us all a favour and don’t profile it.

MDH only worked because the kid hired a PR team to help him sell the idea to the press. On top of that the kid sold it on the pretence of using the money to go to university and now has decided to “defer” his studies. The kid is a con artist.

Either way you look at any of these they have made the people cash. It is dissapointing to hear he has deferred from Uni though. He must be spending that time to watch the e-bay auction of his last 1,000 pixels which at the time of this post has 7 hours to go and is at $143.30 per pixel. Yep $140,300.00

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayI.....:LCA:UK:31

Now http://www.buyitoff.com/ it off is a very cool idea. Follows the same construct but they’ve extended. I think the most clever thing is the use of ’sex’ in it by buying the areas of ‘Monica’. Noticably the crotch costs a fair bit!

//In fact, all the tags are affiliate links! Basically you are linking to a scam artist.//

I agree, it is a scam when you are selling ad spaces to some people and providing the same ad space on an affiliate basis to others. That is unfair trade practices.

//To be fair Micheal , MDH is just a site selling ads. Thats not a business model nor Web 2.0 .//

huh?

There’s nothing smart about this. In all honesty, haven’t we all seen this done a thousand times? Insert “buzz-word” here and pay for sponsorship…this is nothing new.

#5 is totally correct, it’s coverage on sites like this that give these little ideas the traffic they require to perform. Without bloggers, and most certainly main-stream media in about a month or so, this site and others like it would be nothing.

I think a lot of the success of Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Home Page is because of the story behind it: a starving college kid strikes it rich on the internet. We all love an underdog story and continue to beleive that the internet is the great leveler enabling anyone to be successful online (”just give me one more bubble, pleeeeease”). Still, it amazed me to see how fast MDHP has sold out. I mean, how much money does he need for college? I’d rather see one of the copycat sites for charity, like the Billion Dollar Home, see the same kind of success.

As mentioned above in comment #14, Michael, you neglected (intentionally?) to mention the free tag situation for those who write about it like you did and link in (link baiting by tag1000?).

Seems like some important missing disclosure/information there in this piece that makes your feelings of how “cool” it is at least a little suspect. Just a thought, might want to add that as an update or something for future readers.

I agree with TDavid ( and comment #14 ). Now you’re doing exactly what 1000Tags want: getting publicity on the A-list Blogs in exchange for a “free” tag. And then, when they have a stream of visitors, delete the “get a free tag” page like nothing was there before ..

Mike,

I hate to say it, but this is neither original nor a great business plan. Take a look at Steve’s blog for just one example of where this has been done before - this guy started out with a site that sold tags, then moved on to selling his del.icio.us tags when it didn’t work out:

http://www.micropersuasion.com....._tale.html

Whether this one succeeds or fails I don’t care - I just think we should be building sustainable businesses, not creating flashy gimmicks.

#7, #20 and #23: Sorry to ask but…what is wrong with allowing affiliate links? Doesn’t Google allow them in adWords? I see affiliate links in adSense sharing ad space with other “legitimate” links all the time. So what?

Wow.

My skin is getting thicker still.

Folks who feel jaded by current online ad practices should check out my ’social ad exchange’ LinkLike:

http://linklike.com

It is a social networking web site for bloggers. Its metered ad exchange service lets you trade eyeballs with your partners, boosting unique visitors.

“Metered” means that for every user you send to their site, they must send a user to your site. (If your partner falls behind, then our ad server simply stops showing his ad on your site until he catches up.)

It is free… tags and all.

I think this isn’t a horrible idea, but I doubt it will get the attention that MDH got. This site… http://www.zillionwebsites.com is doing something similar. Only instead of pixels or tags its selling space for banners…easier to read I guess.

Not a smart idea?

Whoever started this is paying $5 for hosting, $8 for a domain name, and likely spent 10+ hours making it… and I’m going to bet it will be wildly profitable.

Is it an ongoing sustainable business? No, but it doesn’t intend to be. That doesn’t mean its not smart.

I don’t blame the MDH guy if he hired a PR person, if he is skipping Uni or not — he had the idea, he executed it.

My gripe over MDH is the media made the site , without the media the guy would have made $10 dollars. The Media promoted it because he is trying to fund his studies and people bought into it because he is trying to fund his studies. If now he decides to skip university thats just lying to people to make a buck.

As to techcrunch the MDH thought original its an advertisement billboard simple as.

Am i jealous he made his money ? no cuse no way in hell would I have gone with the idea if I had thought of it simply because I wouldn’t have seen a way to make money.

check out http://www.thandora.com, it’s a free tag based yellow pages ( directory listing ).

I came across this site over a week ago and it looks like they ar doing siomething similar to 1000 tags but they appear to be taking it a bit further by pushing the tags to other sites like technorati and delicious. They are actually sharing the tags outside of the site, this is a neat idea.

Now this may have more relevant value for searchers, and avertisiers. They have more detals and a PDF on how it works at http://milliondollarkeywords.com they also have a blog on blogger.

Kurt

Just bought the shared tag “Dream”. $25 just to see what happens. Decent idea and good for them if it takes off. Like Michael posted… wish I had thought of it. -Rick @ BrilliantDreams

I hate to say it, but a similar effort, that is a copy (or not so copycat? seems a bit original) is on the run. The truth is that the concept better. The guys who did this propably know what a tag is… it is at http://www.forevertags.com.

To tell you the truth, I kind of dislike the concept of “1000 only, 1 million only” and so on. It just gives an expiration date to the whole concept, and looks like the guys who do it are only in for the money. The only traffic this site gains, is by curius who are dazzled by the MDH success, and want to see it happen again (like bloggers).

Anyway, I am in no way affiliated with the forevertags.com website, and honestly, if you think so dont publish/delete this comment. (I am tired of writing it down)

Yep, they stole a day on us;)

TagSponsor launched today and does something similar. You pay from $25 for a 12 month sponsorhsip of a tag. With our site, all tags are exclusive for the 12 month period, after that they can decide whether they want to keep the tag for another 12 months or make it publically available again.

Trade is brisk at the moment but we’ll see where things go

Thanks, Will O’Hara

Will, how is it that they stole a day from you, and you actually registered the name after they’ve got the buzz already out? This is not something you think about doing, and wait to register the domain name. Check 1000tags.com registration date, it’s November 17th, 2005. You mean you thought of this on November 16th?

I’m sorry but as the law says, from this point on, anything you say can and will be used against you.

Copycats were bond to happen. You’re one of them even if you say you thought of it twelve months ago.

Hi Steve,

I didn’t mean it literally! Can’t you tell when a post is trying to be funny? I thought of the idea a while back, simple as that, i’m not trying to claim that i thought of it first. I didn’t register a domain and when i saw the 1000tags site is knew i should’ve done. Hindsight is a powerful thing, nevermind, we’ll see how it goes.

Please, check my site: http://www.nothingforsalesite.com/. I think my idea beats all the above.

Entrepreneur Launches $1 Million Apartment!

An American entrepreneur aims to build $1 Million Apartment by selling 500 PARAGRAPHS of internet ad space and hopes his ‘MillionDollarAptsHomepage’ will attract advertisers and Entrepreneur who see opportunities that others may not see.

“I think this will mostly appeal to Entrepreneurs, “he commented,” and perhaps larger companies will buy up lots of PARAGRAPHS to have a more prominent position on the site.”

Find out more about $1 Million Apartment and his business idea at http://www.MillionDollarAptsHomePage.com

Which one should you get, a tag or link? If you looking for links please, check my site:
http://www.startyourlinks.com/
I think my idea beats all the above.

wow…hey #56, #57,#58, I should feature you guys on my site. We have a special category for “Entrepreneurs” like you on the top of the page. Please get original, it’s not going to work

Yet another one: http://www.traffic-keyword.com DOH! When will this stop?

There’s so many copycat sites now. I found one featuring bikini models
http://www.onethousandmodels.com

Shouldn’t there be something more than a link?

I came upon one site that uses the pixel idea but they provide you with custom cartoons which you may use in advertising campaigns. Now, this I think is original and you get an actual product for your money.

http://www.funnysells.com

I’m just another johnny-come-lately, but at least I have an original idea - albeit potentially sucky

And here it is - http://www.adthello.com

http://www.2006tags.com
a new clone but it’s 1.5 USD the letter

discoverpodcasts.com - MDHP clone with a twist

Also found this (click my name), one hundred events… maybe more interesting but certainly less money-making also…

What a load of rubbish 1000tags is, someone got jealous of MDH and wanted to create something “original” and came up with 1000tags.com Whoever created this needs to get a life and do something better, wakeup this is not original, this is just a rip off of MDH but in a different form. People can read between the lines we’re not all stupid we can see what 1000tags really is. Nothing but a pathetic attempt to make money and ride the hype-wagon.

Hi,
Yeah im with you on that. Poeple need to come up with better ideas these days.
check out this website - http://www.wordestate.com they are giving away a FREE issue of the Million Dollar Internet Ideas Magazine… .Its got some serious ideas inside…. see for yourself.

Rob