Sometime back, I was in Habarana wondering how so many barber shops so close together could still stay in business. Apparently, they were just managing - but only just. According to an accounts guy from one of the “big” hotels in the area with whom I spoke, whenever someone starts something new in the area, everyone else who’s jobless follows suit. While that situ might’ve changed (haven’t been there in quite a while *sigh*) it seems that copying good ideas is a global thing.
From the 28th of August 2005, the Million Dollar Homepage has been selling pixel property for advertising - 01 US dollar for one pixel. With the subsequent publicity, he’s managed to sell 495,300 pixels at the time of writing. That’s $495,300 in less than two months!!
Let’s put that into perspective. Assuming around 100 SL rupees to the US Dollar, that’s 49,530,000 rupees. [feeling just a *little* green around the gills now].
I mean, how much easier can it get to earn money? This guy deserves all the credit and attention he’s getting for coming up with something so innovative.
Then there are the people who try to work on this idea. Alex has something to say about that on his blog.
Doing a search on google for the Million dollar homepage led me to the 50 million dollar website from a Google Ad. This guy’s giving out $1000 to the people who buy the most pixels on his site.
Hmmmm….
October 26th, 2005 at 11:20 pm
Good Designers Copy; Great Designers Steal
On a similar note:
- Eric S. Raymond
October 27th, 2005 at 1:51 am
I’d mumble something about first mover advantage and so on - but the general idea is that anyone who comes up with an idea first
willshould profit from it.Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be quite as clearcut when it comes to products, which is why the first name to make it into some market rarely seems to be the most popular. Let your competitor do the R&D, sink in their cash on a risky product and move in only if it pays off. R&D for free
Anyone remember the face tattoo bids on ebay ? I thought that was … an interesting way to make some cash.
October 27th, 2005 at 11:29 pm
R&D for free certainly works ..
although its not fair in my opinion… but i have a sinking feeling that no one cares anyway..
Dulan .. interesting stuff about the pixel sales… machang thats crazy….. all the credit to the inventor.. but when thinsg go on like this…whole structured will break down…
but then again maybe there always was a certain percentage of a population who are not …following the norms…
adios
October 27th, 2005 at 11:30 pm
wow so many typos..
my apologies
October 29th, 2005 at 7:42 pm
Clarify please, why would anyone want to buy pixels?
November 2nd, 2005 at 12:27 am
Advertising. Just like people spending on banner ads on websites, or like people spending money on billboard.
As long as there is a likelihood of people seeing their ad on your space, people will pay for it. What Alex has done is given the advertisers a massive opportunity to advertise for a low low price of just USD 1 minimum. The resulting publicity for the site attracts visitors.
So what do visitors who come to the homepage see? A whole load of ads.
What else can they do? They click on one or two to see where they lead.
That’s what the advertiser wants.
This is where Alex has come up with the most amazing idea - getting people to actually come to a homepage just to see the ads!
November 2nd, 2005 at 12:31 am
UPDATE:
Seth says it a lot better than I do.