November 18, 2005

million dollar homepage 2.0

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Too funny. This would have to qua­lify for the “Biza­rre Blog Post of The Month” Award.
An old college friend of mine, Talia Chan­non (who was intro­du­ced to me by Dave Mac­ken­zie, fun­nily enough), has a film pro­ject in the works. Here’s the PR blurb:

Follo­wing in the foots­teps of a start­lingly sim­ple online mar­ke­ting scheme launched this year, two UK screenw­ri­ters are rai­sing funds online to deve­lop their fea­ture films.
Screenw­ri­ters Talia Chan­non and Lee Curle of Lucre Films have launched PixelYourShops.com, a site based on the suc­cess­ful Million Dollar Home­page, deve­lo­ped by 21-year-old UK stu­dent Alex Tew. Indi­vi­duals and busi­nes­ses pay $1 per pixel (sold in 100-pixel blocks) to adver­tise them­sel­ves on the web­site for five years, and Lucre Films keeps the funds.
The site has the poten­tial to raise $1m.
Michel Shane and Anthony Romano, who pre­viously ser­ved as exe­cu­tive pro­du­cers on Catch Me if You Can and I, Robot, are attached to pro­duce Lucre

12 Responses to “million dollar homepage 2.0”

  1. john says:

    There are lite­rally hun­dreds of copy­cat sites out there already — this idea jum­ped the shark a long time ago!

  2. hugh macleod says:

    “Hun­dreds”. Can’t say that sur­pri­ses me.
    The only way I see this wor­king is if they manage to suc­cess­fully tar­get the film biz.
    But one thing the inter­net has taught me– you never know what works befo­rehand. So the trick is being able to try lots of dif­fe­rent things. Which is why I like blog­ging. It allows you to try something new on a daily basis.
    So if this 2.0 idea doesn’t work, they’ll try something else. No big deal.

  3. James Shaw says:

    hehe. Yeah, Alex is very cle­ver and tur­ned his sim­ple idea into a good money-earner. I doubt that anyone else will even come close to that suc­cess. Still, the day I pos­ted about Alex the spam com­ments star­ted coming in — check out all the copy­cats that pos­ted to my blog post: http://www.coveryourasp.net/TheMillionDollarHomepage
    I left them all on just because a) they dont get live links and b) they are just soooo sad!

  4. The ques­tion is whether they can get enough atten­tion for their ini­tia­tive. If there are visi­tors, there will be spon­sors. Until now their ‘Pixel clicks’ are not that impressive…

  5. thanks for all your com­ments, Guys! They are greatly appre­cia­ted. It’s true we are only 3 days old which is why we are get­ting viral as fast as we can. Inte­rest from the film biz is great and there will be a lot more busi­nes­ses up in a few days time.
    We are the latest news bulle­tin on Brand Repu­blic as we speak and also Xtreme Media and Ammo for bran­ding, adver­ti­sing and mar­ke­ting.
    We are giving this our best shot — it’s a lot of fun!

  6. Phil says:

    Let’s all board the clue­less train…

  7. well, you know what they say — those going nowhere usually get there — let me know when you need a map, Phil.

  8. beau says:

    I’m giving this con­cept a spin with Million Dollar Wine:
    http://basicjuice.com/million.html
    It’s focu­sed, tied to both the site & the blog.
    I’m curious to see how it works out.

  9. Beau — jolais! C’est tres joyeux! We love your idea ans so will all the wine lovers out there — we wish you well — why don’t you click on to http://www.pixelyourshops.com and see what you think — you never know you might want a block! Cheers!

  10. John says:

    I agree that the basic million pixel sites are pla­yed out at this point. In order for one to work, it has to gene­rate an inc­re­di­ble amount of traf­fic and atten­tion and I just don’t see the copy­cat sites achie­ving this. Howe­ver, I would like to men­tion The Pixel Cha­llenge at http://www.thepixelchallenge. The cha­llenge? They intend to sell 1,000,000 pixels in 30 days. I have doubts as to whether or not they acheive this goal — but who would have thought that the ori­gi­nal would have sold 640,000+ so only time will. I sup­pose if they are adept at gene­ra­ting buzz they could make it happen.

  11. Jamie says:

    Guys i agree with everything you said but, that wont stop me trying! I have copied Alex’s site which it just so hap­pens he turns out to be a friend of a friend!
    Any­way on Thurs­day (World Aids Day) i am relea­sing http://www.thegaymilliondollarhomepage.com which is a simi­lar site focu­sed on the gay and les­bian com­mu­nity who can come together and all adver­tise in the same space! Not only this but 50 cents of every dollar i earn is going straight to UCSF’s AIDS research cen­ter.
    I am 18 years old and the idea is that i can donate a load of money to the worthwhile foun­da­tion and once i have split the rest with my busi­ness part­ner and paid costs of everything and upkeep of the site for next 3 years i might be able to put myself through college.
    Any thoughts? what are my odds?
    Jamie

  12. Sexy says:

    An unfor­tu­nate tale begins to unfold,
    now the win­ter is here and the weather is cold,
    an unlucky lady due to cir­cums­tance rare,
    has lost all her clothes — her body is bare,
    she surely will perish I hear you all cry,
    get laughed at, get ill, arres­ted or die,
    It’s a sad situa­tion, I’m sure you agree,
    It could hap­pen to you, it could hap­pen to me.
    The rea­son I’m brin­ging this pro­blem to light,
    is because you can help her right here on this site,
    With a cou­ple of clicks you can alter her fate,
    and dress her with pixels before it’s too late,
    Any pixels you buy — just a dollar a block,
    can be lin­ked to your site, where peo­ple will flock,
    to see who is hel­ping this girl in dis­pair,
    by dona­ting pixels — for her to wear.
    SexyPixelHomepage.com
    (1 cent per pixel)