The 22-year-old entrepreneur behind "The Million Dollar Homepage," which took the Web by storm last year, has launched his latest venture--again involving $1 million and the sale of pixels.
However, there is a twist--this time Alex Tew will be giving somebody else $1 million, as well as netting a tidy fortune himself.
The site, launched this week, is called Pixelotto.com and, as its name suggests, it is being run as a lottery. In common with The Million Dollar Homepage, Tew is selling off pixels on the site, but this time he is urging visitors to register and click on up to 10 ads on the site. Every click they make, taking them to an advertiser's Web site, will enter them into a prize drawing.
Once all the pixels are sold--which Tew anticipates will happen within the next two months--one registered site visitor will be picked to receive the million-dollar windfall. Tew says he will then relaunch the site and run the competition over again, stating that he believes the format has some longevity.
"I love the thought that I'm going to give somebody a check for a million dollars," Tew told Silicon.com
Already Tew has sold more than $120,000 worth of advertising space on the site, including the largest ad to date which was bought by Lastminute.com for $20,000.
And, as with The Million Dollar Homepage, Tew expects people to launch their own versions of Pixelotto.com.
"People will copy the idea, but I don't think they'll have any sort of success--in part because I'm doing this on the back of The Million Dollar Homepage which was the original," he said.
Tew insists, though, he isn't going to see himself classed as a "one-click pony," simply tinkering with the format of
The Million Dollar Homepage.
He said: "I'm only 22 and I've got plenty of time to come up with ideas which are different. The pixel thing is a unique novelty thing and I've ideas for things you might find more useful, but it takes time to build up the experience and contacts, and to build those things while Pixelotto was right now a good way of building on the brand.
"I'm not going to spend my whole life selling pixels," he added.
Will Sturgeon of Silicon.com reported from London.
What do you think about this new idea? ?Own a piece of the Internet for ever?? I'd like to hear from you. By. <a href="http://www.foreveradv.com/">http://www.foreveradv.com/</a>
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