Passing Fad or Growing Market: The Future of Pixel Advertising

Impressed by the success of Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage, imitation sites have popped up everywhere, but most of them fail because they offer nothing new.

(PRWEB) February 19, 2006 -- The next generation of pixel ad websites need to offer the client something more than just novelty traffic, they need to offer genuine value and public appeal. How much traffic does Alex Tew's website get now that it has sold out? How many go to his site just to view his list of news links to find ways to promote their own pixel site?

Generating short term traffic is not that difficult with SEO tools, and website promotion software/services. If you are willing to spend a little money, you will see an increase in traffic. How long do they stay, and do they return?

The idea is to offer value, entertainment, or something of actual interest. Some pixel sites claim to support a cause or charity, but it's always a good idea to make sure its genuine. Some offer contests, but are they being conducted fairly, and are the results verifiable? Some sites are building traffic based on content, and using a pixel page as subcontent, much like a banner, or goggle adsense ads on a blog.

The concepts vary just as much as the website names do. Everything from one cent to one thousand dollars a pixel, pixels for peace, pay off my house, or help me retire. The variety includes geography, religion, even politics. Ultimately, some sites will succeed, while others fail. It all depends on the value offered to the potential client.

One site that caught my interest offered a contest, and claims to support an animal rescue. It was started sometime in January 2006, and already has sold some space. The website seems like a 'work in progress', though the main page always displays the pixel ads. Feel free to check it out at:

www.themilliondollarwebpage.org

The website name is similar to many pixel sites, which gives it the advantage of being found in common search engine results, as long as it has been properly submitted. What got my attention at first was the contest. It's a $1 per pixel website, and once it sells out, the author will hold a contest to give away twenty $5,000 prizes to pixel buyers. The details are in the 'Terms' link if you are interested.

What I liked about this site, is that it also plans to donate 20% of the proceeds to a dog rescue organization. Of course that leaves over 60% of the proceeds to the author, but at least it's a little more modest than the 100% that Alex Tew made for himself.

What will the author do with his profits? That is the best part. The site is called "The Million Pixel Relocation Project". Apparently 'he' is trying to earn enough money to move from the U.S. 'to' Malaysia to marry a girl. I'm waiting to see if the author adds a FAQ or About page to the site to explain that more.

The real winner in this phenomenom are the pixel script software makers. For every one pixel site that makes it, there are a thousand that fail. That's a lot of software sales. One of the more popular scripts is made by Jamit Software, and another (but much more expensive) script is done by Texmedia. If you are looking to start your own pixel site, start with a good script, but have a creative concept.

Odds are pixel sites are here to stay. They are cheap to start, cheap to host, and there are endless ways to market them. It should be interesting to see how this marketing system evolves in the future. Banner ads beware, you have competition now.

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