December 1, 2006

Million Dollar Homepage Becomes Multi-Million Dollar Homepage

Natali Del Conte

187 comments »

Alex Tew, the mastermind behind The Million Dollar Homepage is most certainly pressing his luck. Tew sold one million pixels worth of advertisement for $1 per pixel and made $1 million. It worked so well that he thinks he can do it again, this time for twice the price.

Tew 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 million.

I will gladly eat my words if Tew can pull this off but I just don’t think that lightning strikes twice. It was a good idea…once! Second time around, it’s not, as Michael Arrington calls it, “another stupid, brilliant idea.” It’s just a stupid idea.

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Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. RegioBlogs » Archivo » Que fué del Million Dollar Homepage
  2. Lust::Geek Building The Bridge Part 2 » Slow News Day
  3. The Dollar Factory Blog » Alex Tew’s Pixelotto: A brilliant or just plain stupid idea?
  4. 2 dollars per pixel !!!! at White Bums in The Sun
  5. Kristaps Kaupe
  6. Deathy’s developer blog » Blog Archive » Iara Pixeli… sau cum s-a tampit Alex Tew
  7. The Two Million Dollar Homepage at Not So Relevant
  8. geekbyname » Blog Archive » Million Dollar Homepage guy pushes his luck.
  9. Nerd Approved - News and Reviews - » Million Dollar Homepage Redux
  10. 百萬美元廣告 II at Gea-Suan Lin’s BLOG
  11. Pixelotto: From The Creator Of The Million Dollar Homepage - CyberNet News: Keeping you plugged in!
  12. Million Dollar Homepage is back: Pixelotto
  13. Million Dollar Homepage Is At It Again - CyberKnowledge Blog
  14. JCurve Chronicles :: Chris McAleenan’s view on technology, start-ups, venture capital, and life » So Hot on 12.02.06
  15. IndianPad
  16. Smartphone and Gadget News by ElectroGeek » Blog Archive » Million Dollar Homepage Becomes Multi-Million Dollar Homepage
  17. Pixelmania Reloaded! at district 12
  18. La Página de 1 Millon de Dolares… Ahora es de 2 Millones! en LosBlogs.cl
  19. Million Dollar Homepage Becomes Multi-Million Dollar Homepage » Dee’s-Planet! Blog
  20. Million Dollar Homepage 2.0 « John Chow dot Com
  21. HiiFii Celebrity Entertainment » Million Dollar Homepage 2.0
  22. My Entrepreneurship and Business Blog » Alex Tew at It Again; Million Dollar Homepage 2.0 to Launch in the form of Pixelotto.com
  23. » Blog Archive » Million Dollar Homepage Becomes Multi-Million Dollar Homepage
  24. Million Dollar Homepage klont sich selbst | dies und das | XSBlog2.0beta
  25. מאבד תמלילים - הגלוב » ארכיון » מיליון דולר פעם שניה
  26. Pixelotto - Million Dollar Homepage 2.0 » Webdesignblog
  27. Pixelotto, la Multi Million Dollar Homepage » Sapientone
  28. Million Dollar Homepage Comes Back as Pixelotto
  29. 凡人弄 : Blog Archive : “双”百万格子
  30. rinkusu » Blog Archive » 2006-12-04
  31. primate|blog » Blog Archive » Continúa la saga de la web del millón de dólares
  32. Prime News Blog » Blog Archive » Million Dollar Homepage Becomes Multi-Million Dollar Homepage
  33. Basic Thinking Blog » OneMillionDollar Man schlägt erneut zu: Pixelotto.com
  34. www.best-practice-business.de/blog » Mach´s nochmal Alex - 2. Auflage der onemilliondollarhomepage
  35. RankQuest WebLogs - About Search Engine Optimization » Blog Archive » Alex Tew’s Pixelotto - Pixel + Lottery
  36. Blog World Expo Blog » Can lightning strike twice?
  37. Cultivator de vise interzise de lege… » 1$ /pixel!!!
  38. Win $1,000,000 - Says The Million Dollar Homepage - Profy.Com
  39. Alex Tew’s Pixelotto Is Almost A Complete Failure - CyberKnowledge Blog
  40. andufo.com » Pixelotto
  41. blue&blue 精读 » Blog Archive » YouTube分享率只有0.16%,我們反而慶祝?
  42. Million Dollar Homepage Becomes Multi-Million Dollar Homepage « Design News

Comments

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  1. sharpshoot

    Natalia, the prize is $1m not $1k. Yes, someone else will be another millionaire and its not exactly the same idea. So i’m confident you will eat your words.

  2. Alaska Miller

    so the trick is he’s going to keep 1 mil and give away the other 1 mil? i’m going to pre-empt that completely.

    for everyone that paypals me $10 will be entered into a raffle to win 1 million dollars. no tricks.

  3. Sunny

    the kid got nothing t loose. He started something and so many people are trying to copy him. I don’t know why some people are downsizing him. He succeeded once and he can do it again.

  4. mikeyjay81

    I have to agree with Natali on this one, I don’t think the idea will stick this time around.

    Look at all of the pixel-ad copy cat sites out there, none of which seem to have had success even remotely close to the original’s, even with hints of variation on the original theme, and the decaying levels of traffic to the original page (with traffic spikes in predictable places, eg. last block of pixels for sale on ebay, it was more of a PR machine than a destination).

    These pages contain nothing more than untargeted advertising anyways, heck you don’t even know where you’ll end up when you click on a pixel-ad… plus the prospect of winning a prize by clicking ads seems remotely familiar, wasn’t microsoft or yahoo trying to buy searches by offering random cash prizes to the searchers half a year ago or so? Did this work at all?

    Good luck Alex, but I personally was hoping for your next project to bring something new and fresh to the web! Regardless, like everyone else here, I’ll be sticking around to see what happens.

  5. Natali Del Conte

    You’re right, it is $1 million, which is quite an incentive. But don’t you think we’ll eventually get tired of making this guy rich???

  6. Personalizr

    wow, thumb up!

  7. Rulepark

    A new idea that makes his original one looks equally bad. If I were to comment it using other words, it would be ” Cheapskate ” ….

    By reading his blog occasionally, I thought he is up to something new and fresh, but it was dissapointing enough to have a similar “pyramidical” sceheme as ur next BIG idea.

    Still there will be someone to buy his ad, and for sure lots of ppl will be trying to hit the jackpot. ANyway, I dun mind dropping by to check it out myself.

  8. merkato

    Here is why I don’t think it will work:

    He will first have to sell all 1 million pixels for this idea to even start it’s intended scheme: lottery. He’s not going to give away a million until he makes 2 million. So up until that point, it’s basically the same idea as before.

  9. sharpshoot

    Merkato, he’s already sold quite a lot before its on display to the public ;)

  10. Sherwin

    It’s just a stupid idea.

    Natali, and the rest of you too, you call can yak on and on about his ideas (past and present) being stupid. But the fact is this guy has made a shitload of money from his stupid idea. And he’s going to do it again.

    I can smell the envy…

  11. merkato

    “Merkato, he’s already sold quite a lot before its on display to the public ;)” - sharpshoot

    how many has he sold so far?

  12. DavidEzra

    um … “One Hit Wonder?”

    (To bad Alex doesn’t have a band! At least his “hit” would still be playing 15 years from now :)

  13. Rulepark

    I have to agree with merkato. The lottoring system wun be active until every pixel is practically sold. Every ” betting ” machines has is own logics of always winning.

  14. Greg Thomson

    Not only does he have the potential to make $1 million dollars again, he will also end up having a list of email addresses with names, and physical addresses. In order to win the ‘lotto’, you will be required to register. In true marketing fashion, I’m sure that he will require more information to register than should be required. Selling this information will be a large source of income as well.

  15. Joseph Hunkins

    It’s not a test of Alex’s stupidity, rather that of those participating. There are lots of cows getting milked in the internet economy without the cows even knowing it so you just have to wait and see how the cows react. If he brings attention to them it might even have (a small amount) of advertising merit, though I’m skeptical.

  16. Veign

    Want to see the logo for Pixelotto website:
    http://www.veign.com/blog/2006.....-logo.html

  17. Veign

    Oops:
    http://www.veign.com/blog/2006.....-logo.html

  18. Adam Livesley

    It wont work again defiantly, the only reason it worked the first time was because it hit the main stream press and even went on tv in the UK! Now the press wont really care because the idea has been sold before, sounds like he’s pushing his luck ….

  19. ReviewSaurus - The Techie Dino

    Don’t you think Natali, that you’ve already given a chance of making this guy rich…and that too second time. Everyone knows that if a news breaks on techcrunch, then the websites get overloaded and then bloggers like me will read this and then will post about it….and that will in turn give him more and more popularity and finally giving him a better pagerank which will inturn lure many and many more advertisers….what do you say?

  20. Alaska Miller

    he obviously went through the email list of idiots that bought pixel ads first time around and offered them to buy ads for his “new venture”

    he’s not desperate so he’s not going to discount his inventory. i’m thinking at least 25% of his inventory has been prepaid for.

    the obvious pitch is of course the fact that once he launches it’s going to be some PR frenzy and he’s going to guarantee the initial “investors” a great return on their investment!

    what’s great is that instead of lying like print publishers or google do about clickthroughs and impressions, he’s upfront with how stupid web advertising and advertisers are.

  21. Richard Ellender

    I really believe that this will work for him.

    I was a little disappointed also, from reading the blog I thought that it was a brand new idea … still, if you know it works for you ……….

  22. Al Tepper

    The only thing Alex Tew needs for this to succeed is free PR…the only way he could lose is if the media did not write about him…

    I posted a comment on the E-Consultancy blog post about this:

    ——————
    It will work … it already is … all he needed to do was find another way to generate millions of pounds worth of free global PR to drive traffic to the site and voila.

    This time he has the added advantage of his previous MDH exploits to attract the press on top of the obvious lotto element and already, before this new site has even launched, the media is starting to bite.

    He may well be a bit of a golden goose to be honest thanks to MDH - I saw something similar a while back (http://www.millionwinnerhomepage.com/) but it just did not have the ALEX TEW factor. To succeed at this game you gotta have a good story for the media to focus on. It’s all in the narrative…
    ——————

    As long as he is media worthy he will succeed…and I see that only getting stronger not weaker…although he has the tough job of evolving the story each time, and to be honest, good luck to him…

    Cheers

    Al

  23. Darrin

    The real question is; how is the lottery going to be run?
    I’m not sure about the UK, but I’m pretty sure in the U.S. that certain types of lotteries are illegal. I’m confident that Tew has consulted with a legal team on this, but this is what makes Pixelotto all that more interesting. Not anyone can just up and run a “lottery.” But I guess it’s the style & type of lottery that is being run.
    In addition, this time around, I’m pretty sure that 1 million might make you a bit wiser to what worked the first time around and what didn’t. As you can see, the PR effect is already working because people are focusing on, “instead of $1 per pixel, it will be $2.” Advertisers had to buy $100 worth of ads (100 pixels) and even that wasn’t enough pixels sometimes. So, in effect, how this site will be different, what you can buy and how much will be interesting.
    2nd question is, what’s the real strategy to get the $2 million?

  24. Darrin

    UPDATE:
    I just did some research & found this info below, from Alex Tew himself.
    You can see it at this site:
    I just skimmed it & haven’t even read it completely yet? Is that wrong?
    You can find it at this site: http://www.moneyforum.com/gene.....-5493.html
    ___________
    Hi

    I have some very exciting news I’d like to share with you.

    Next week, on 5th December, I am launching a new venture called ‘Pixelotto’.
    It’s similar to The Million Dollar Homepage only this time I will be giving
    away $1,000,000!

    It’s all based around pixel advertising and generating big traffic for
    advertisers. Visitors play for free - all they have to do is click on the
    ads for chances to win the jackpot. The more they click, the more chances
    they have - and the more traffic you receive.

    As a valued customer of The Million Dollar Homepage, I’d like to give you an
    exclusive opportunity to purchase advertising space on Pixelotto before the
    site goes public. The world will be watching next week and this is your
    chance to get on-board before everyone else.

    The following link will give you exclusive access to Pixelotto, where you
    can buy ad space right now:

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

    If you have any questions don’t hesitate to e-mail me and my team at
    info@pixelotto.com

    I look forward to welcoming you on-board for this new pixel adventure!

    Cheers,

    Alex Tew

    Pixelotto
    Pixelotto

    Pixelotto Limited is registered in England & Wales. Company no. 05972757

  25. Anthony

    Why would he try doing the same thing as before only with a bit of a twist. This is lame. Graduate onto something more meaningful or you’ll hurt the awesome legacy of the original MDH. Last time was great story of a struggling student doing something different to pay for his education now it’s just a promotion.

  26. vik

    Damn Brits! All they can do is come up with stupid ideas. Really, when was the last time something great came out of that country?

  27. magher

    Darrin,

    The kind of lottery you’re thinking of is the paid kind. This is a free lottery so it’s legal.

  28. Ashish

    It wouldn’t work if people like you didn’t post about it… ;)

  29. magher

    vik, how about the United States ;)

  30. Adam Livesley

    and the rest of the world, oo and the language you speak!

  31. Ivan Pope

    It’s already been said - but if it’s so crap why do you have to write about it?

  32. ky

    I did keep an eye on alex’s blog b4, he was telling us he was planning something “big”, I thought it would be a brand new idea, but dissapointingly, it falls back to doing the same “pixel web” again. Doing the same thing twice. Maybe this he will put an ads on TV as he put his first one on the national newspaper, that was he managed to attract traffic : ) ! I think he is now a millionare who runs out of idea ,therefore he came out with stupid idea, I personally feel his first one is stupid too, it managed to pull huge traffic was because everyone was curious how a “pixel web” looked like !

  33. $2 Million a Month

    I think it will work because he is already building anticipation .

    He already has a list of previous buyers .

    He has nothing to lose .

    Even if he does not make $1 Million, I am sure he will make several hundred thousand dollars .

    He would have succeed even if he only makes $100,000 .

    Many people will want to jump in early to advertise so as to mazimize there exposure to traffic .

    A lot of people have never heard of Alex Tew . Those people will visit the site .

    The News of Pixelotto will travel very very virally .

    Lots of people will come to the site to win money .

    HE CAN ALWAYS CHANGE HIS BIZ MODEL, especially after getting lots of feedback .

    All he has to do is give out half of his revenue every week . In other words he will have a winner every week . Even if its only $1000 a week .

  34. ky

    My 2nd thought after reading some of the comments and few links here and there, ummmm, I guess he will manage to pull some or even more traffic since he is giving away $1million, this will pull hundreds of thousands to go and click the pixel ads! But, I’m wondering if there is only 1 piece of ad that will bring you to winning the $1million ? Once the site launched, I guess there would be a lots of out there sitting in front of thier PC and trying to click on every single ad on http://pixelotto.com/ , isn’t so easy that you can win the $1 million ? I guess this will create a buzz and pull thousands to wait for its launch for winning the $1M !!!!

  35. Jon Gales

    Here’s a screenshot of Pixelotto:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/7.....310383417/

  36. aaron

    Nothing stupid about this. Straight brilliant.

  37. David Mackey

    I think this idea might just work, especially since there will be incentive for visitors to click on the ads.

  38. Michael Arrington

    I actually think this is kinda cool.

  39. Scott

    Never, never underestimate the stupid idea. Remember the Pet Rock?

  40. Dave

    I thought the original was brilliant (even though it wasn’t truly original) - but this is kind of lame. He must have blown through all of that cash already.

    Michael, I’m thinking about selling pet rocks…but…we will give each customer TWO pet rocks - you want in?

  41. Dave

    ^ maybe we can put ads on the rocks.

  42. Michael Arrington

    :-)

  43. threz

    Hmm a little too late me thinks, theres already tons of “pixel lottery” sites out there. Most of them sprung up while the original milliondollarhomepage publicity was still around.

    I don’t think he has the slightest chance of generating the same amount of interest again - unless he gave away the million he collected first time round. Now that would be good PR

  44. ky

    Crazy or stupid idea over the web might pull more attention, haha as it will attrack more people due the curiousity to see how it stupid it is, therefore more traffic…… Our talks here already contributes some traffic to it prelaunch and furthermore its $1million prize, I stick to my 2nd thought, he will make another success …..

  45. vik

    @ Magher
    Good things that came out of America:
    1. Yahoo
    2. Microsoft
    3. Google
    4. Myspace
    5. Youtube
    6. FindLaw
    . . .

    vs. MillionDollarHomepage.com for Brits.

    What a joke! :-)

  46. pirate o'hara

    If his first idea is so stupid and made him a million bucks, I imagine all of you smart asses probably already have billions…er… right? Yeah… right!. No comment

  47. Say No to Crack

    Now that TechCrunch has highlighted him, this kid has a chance of succeeding. Seriously!

    Everyone with a new site is looking for backlinks from an established site with high Google PR. It’s pretty dubious that the million dollar homepage would do anything for traffic, but people are easily willing to pay $10-$100 just to get that high PR link. As long as he can get a site that’s has some media attention, he’s set, and TechCrunch has provided this for him.

    This story is starting to climb in Digg, and will probably be listed in the tech news by Monday. Every time we give someone like this attention, they have a better chance to succeed.

    So maybe I’ll buy 1 pixel … it’s better odds than playing the lottery :)

  48. Khurrum

    If it makes people talk about it then chances are that it will succeed. The reason this will work is because he is the guy who made the original.

    1) His marketing has already been done from his first attempt
    2) People are going to be talking about this
    3) People are going to be wildly clicking all the ads for a chance to win a million.

    I think this one will work as well :O

  49. Darrin

    Well, it seems that his Alexa rankings “seem” to be working….

    http://www.alexa.com/data/deta.....elotto.com

    But, that’s Alexa….I think we all have our reservations about that…again, we definitely need to get some new site tracking benchmarks. What are the good ones out there now?

    For Compete, the site is too new. Not familiar with any others. Any advice to get details on this?

  50. ky

    Once it turns into big bucks, the idea is no more stupid ! It will be called “brilliant” ! This post already gathers 49 comments, hot ? This is the first step of success, as it managed to pull the attention of TechCrunch and other tech media! Maybe it will turn into long-term business and continuation, the price of the pixel ads will keep on increasing in more coming generations, such as $3 per pixel next round and even the prize and it might create a trend over the Internet, “click pixel ads, win prize of $1million or more….” :D

  51. dumbfounder

    umm… you are making yourself eat your words by promoting his site on one of the most popular blogs on the web. you are making it lucrative for advertisers to buy ads on the site right now, so I am sure he will come away with much more than nothing.

  52. Say No to Crack

    Check this SitePoint thread on his Pixelotto site.

    Apparently people are already clamoring for pixels, and he’s sold $20K worth already. Not bad for a site that isn’t even up!

  53. Dr. Phil

    you guys at techcrunch are already paving the way to success for this guy….all that he needs is publicity…the success of his first idea was also based on a successful Press release…

    TC writes about it, it gets written elsewhere and suddenly boom…the sites a hit again…

    of course — nothing to take away from this dude…hats off to his execution..

    all you web 2.0 zealots, theres a lesson or two that can be learnt from this dude…

  54. RBA

    “Me again” sells a whole lot better than “me too”. It’s not the idea but who’s behind it.

  55. pirate o'hara

    get the names of all the folks saying he won’t succeed… i’d love to dump a bawl of cold watrrr on them once he cashed the check. Oh be aware, pirate o’hara will publish all your names infidels ;). cheers.

  56. Hornswaggled

    All of us here now know about this, and we are commenting about it. Pretty good kick off for this dude. People that feel they ‘missed out’ on the original can get in on this.

    Bottom line is this guy is milking this simple idea to the max, good for him.

  57. $2 Million a Month

    Hmm!
    See the same concept here
    http://www.millionwinnerhomepage.com/

  58. Ousama

    Are you kidding me? Natilie thinks this will flop? I almost guarantee that this site would hit well over 10 million unique visitors, which is more advertising big companies can get on youtube!!!

    This is going to make bank.

  59. Pramit Singh

    There’s no dearth of suckers in this world.

  60. Andrew

    Sure it may be a “stupid” idea, but I’m sure we can all agree (at lease those of us who are smart) that we wouldn’t mind being the one who started this “stupid” trend. ;-)

    I placed the very first order on his new site the minute I got his email. I got the top left corner. I’m glad to see it’s going to work again because last time most of us who got in early got a ton of traffic.

    If you don’t think it will work then don’t buy a spot. It won’t change anything because enough spots are sold already that the snowball effect has already begun… I highly doubt it can be stopped.

  61. Preston

    It’s the long tail in action. Who can’t afford to put in 2, 4, 8, 12, 24 bucks just for some clicks? People will want to be the one millionth clicker, so it’s going to work.

  62. Stefanos Karagos

    “It’s just a stupid idea”
    … that stupid people will follow it…

  63. You switch

    I think that Alex Tew is not going good for himself. With his last success he has so much of creditibility that he could have started some real business. Now he is just ruining his chance and next time he won’t be a powerful sneazer again.

  64. Ali

    If the other site is going to give away $1 million based on clicking a correct pixel, I can easily program a bot which randomly sends HTTP requests to the URLs on each of the pixels until I hit the jackpot. Why hasn’t anyone thought of that?

    I’m with pirate o’hara in spilling cold water down the heads of all the people saying this won’t work once it works.

  65. Web two point oh

    Your greedy b#stard tew - you aren’t web 2.0 - take your spam elsewhere

  66. sharpshoot

    Ali, every REGISTERED user gets 10 chances per day to enter the lottery. The more entries you make the more you get the chance to win the lottery when the draw takes place. So bots won’t work. Don’t think this hasn’t been thought through ;)

  67. Adam Livesley

    A bot would work, just program the bot to run a maximum of 10 times a day, or just create 10 user accounts, then the bot has 100 chances a day and everything increases …. so your chances will be increased of winning, 10 times more than normal!

    it would work ………

  68. Ben

    This will succeed for the simple reason that hey will get TONS of press, which will immediatetly rise above the noise in the “selling pixels” copy cat world. The TONS of press will drive traffic. Traffic will drive advertisers. And the snow all will go down the hill, again, annoying everybody in the whole world who thinks (knows) this is the dumbest idea ever.

  69. PBJ

    it would work ………

    No it wouldn’t - the winner has already been selected.

    This kid is a con artist extraordinaire. Last time the pitch was that he was raising money so he could finish school. The excuse for making the amount 1 million was that it needed to be “memorable.”

    Of course, as soon as he had cashed the last check he announced that he was dropping out of school, and has been burning through the money ever since.

    Why on earth would anyone trust this guy to run a legitimate lottery? You think he’s just going to give 1 million dollars away to a stranger when he can get all of the same benefit by giving a fraction of it to a business associate disguised as a “regular user”? Please.

    This scam is as old as fraudulent transactions on Ebay. The only thing people are buying if they participate in this is several hundred hours of bot traffic to their site (to make the Alexa numbers look good) and a permanent testament to their own gullibility.

    TC keeps promoting cr-p like this on the frontpage, and I’m unsubscribing. I can read about Scam 2.0 somewhere else.

  70. Daniel Harper

    He’s had a slice of the spotlight pie and wants another bite of the action.

    I think greed has got the better of him to be honest, he originally created the MDH to see if he could raise money to pay him through university.

    He achieved that and more ($1million!), I’d be content with that!

  71. Ali

    It doesn’t make sense. Each person can only have 10 entries per day? That makes everyone equal as *everyone* will click 10 ads each day, and at the end the person who wins will be completely random and the whole ‘the more entries the more chances’ doesn’t mean shit.

    If I register 10 accounts and submit 10 entries from each account each day, and someone else registers one account and submits 10 from his account, would my account # 3 have a higher chance of winning than the other person, while both accounts submitted 10 entries each? Or do you have to register many accounts and spam their database with duplicate accounts to increase your chances?

    P.S how did you find out about the 10 entries/day thing? Any links?

  72. Eric Litman

    Anyone familiar with the UK tax code know if he’ll be taxed at corporate rates for the entire $2m?

  73. Chris

    “Damn Brits! All they can do is come up with stupid ideas. Really, when was the last time something great came out of that country?”

    Hmm. Tough one. How about 1955 Vik?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners_Lee

    Try not to shoot your mouth off next time. ;)

  74. /pd

    theres no such thing as a stupid idea.. !!

  75. Coscobber

    Anyone who thinks this won’t be successful, look at all the buzz it’s created just on this site. Almost 100 comments in less then a day? Plus the fact that he has an existing client list from his last project, what makes you think they won’t pay a few more bucks to get some more publicity. It would be interesting if he gave out a prize to the “winning” link too, to drive more advertisers to buy space, but I guess they inherently make money with more user clicks.

    If anyone is interested in pixel advertising and art in general, you should check out http://www.citypixel.com . It’s quite an amazing site and they definitely put a spin on internet pixel ads.

    Anyway, I wish Mr. Tew all the luck in the world, and trust me I will be one of many clicking away hoping to win the million bucks!

  76. Pixelotto Observer :p

    When the news got out I was surprised when I got here, and there wasn’t a post about it.
    I created a squidoo ( http://www.squidoo.com/pixelotto ) to comment the story, and to see how a squidoo could rank, and yep, it’s fine.

  77. ipearx

    > TC keeps promoting cr-p like this on the frontpage, and I’m unsubscribing.
    > I can read about Scam 2.0 somewhere else.

    One reason it’s on TechCrunch is because it’s an interesting money making venture, whether people like it or not. Good on him for coming up with the original idea, and making it a success. Why shouldn’t he cash in on his original scheme? He’ll get a ton of press just by default.

    At the very least it’s inspiration to other entrepreneurs.

    What I find depressing is the Traffic his not-yet-functioning site gets compared to my own functional advertising site!:
    http://www.alexaholic.com/bla.st+pixelotto.com
    Still, I think bla.st is sustainable long term, and far more useful than any pixel advertising site.

  78. ipearx

    Here’s an article I wrote about 6 milliondollarhomepage spinoffs that actually have original ideas in them:

    http://bla.st/site/blog/11/

  79. Rob

    Hey, I don’t belive this! I’ve just set up two sites, both working around this concept!
    The first one is http://www.cashcells.co.uk : This site offers the user clicking on the adverts the chance to win $$$, the total size of the prize is directly related to the number of adverts.
    The second site is http://www.microlotto.co.uk : This site gives the advertiser who buys a square the chance to win in a sort of ‘cell lottery’ set up. Check em out!

  80. People Finder

    This one could go either way; but, then again, that could be said of his first site that took off. Good luck to him.

  81. John

    I founded a similar web site, this site sells pixel too, but the different between the original one is there are prizes!!!!

    http://www.publishandwin.com

  82. D Sarathy

    All the best to Alex Tew for his second episode.

  83. Sarah

    Sometime back happened to see a site for the lovers with similar concept.
    http://valentinehomepage.com. It’s interesting.

  84. KIWI

    I’ve got really bad tinea. It’s itchy. Having moved to my crotch from my toes, it’s a real drag. Damn - it’s terrible being a kiwi!

    Go hard Alex - most people are thick as pig shit and will love to tew (sorry, chew) on this for a while…

  85. Leah Culver

    I feel a bit for Alex because I pulled off a similar stunt (http://leahculver.com). The only difference between us is that I felt some guilt and wouldn’t do it again.