A Dumb Idea Worth One Million

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Please raise a hand if you knew about The Million Dollar Homepage. I'm inviting you to revisit Internet history for a reason. Why? Hint: there is no such thing as a dumb idea.

From Wikipedia:


The Million Dollar Homepage is a website conceived in 2005 by Alex Tew, a student from Wiltshire, England, to raise money for his university education. The home page consisted of a million pixels arranged in a 1000 × 1000 pixel grid; the image-based links on it were sold for $1 per pixel in 10 × 10 blocks. The purchasers of these pixel blocks provided tiny images to be displayed on them, a URL to which the images were linked, and a slogan to be displayed when hovering a cursor over the link. The aim of the website was to sell all of the pixels in the image, thus generating a million dollars of income for the creator. The Wall Street Journal has commented that the site inspired other websites that sell pixels.[2][3]

Launched on 26 August 2005, the website became an Internet phenomenon. The Alexa ranking of web traffic peaked at around 127; as of 9 May 2009, it was 40,044.[4] On 1 January 2006, the final 1,000 pixels were put up for auction on eBay. The auction closed on 11 January with a winning bid of $38,100 that brought the final tally to $1,037,100 in gross.


Is this page dead? No. These are fresh stats:

I've been obsessed with this phenomenon since I read about it in 2006.

How many people, including myself, tried to replicate this success by creating a similar model?

I've followed some of the 1700+ websites that came into existence during 2006-2007. Most of them made not even enough to justify renewal of the domain name.

I want to open a discussion on the topic Original Idea vs. Proven Model.

Who's in?

Have a nice and productive day! (oh, wait... is it Sunday already?)

Richard


Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible. —Chapter 1, Down the Rabbit-Hole

PS: The rabbit hole goes deeper than you might expect, but only a few of you will dare (or care) to ask how deep!


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Recent Comments

82

To add something from myself to the topic original vs proven.

I am a believer that best results are combined. Basically I am for doing proven things to make stream of revenue.

Original stuff is something I want to experiment but for this you need income to be covered and dont rely on only original idea as its likely to fail a few times before you reach stars.

Putting all your eggs in the same basket is definitely a no-no.
Taking risks can be dangerous if it becomes an addiction.
Proven things might not work tomorrow.

All these concepts are the pieces of a puzzle. We shape them as we choose to shape them, and many times the puzzle gets unsolved...

Thanks for commenting. More food for thought for hungry WAers!
Cheers

Well ofc they wont always work in a future but if they work now you need to use income from it to make something else.

Easy example. Apple was selling macs and using this income to create something new. They have failed many times and at some point they have made an iPhone which dominated and replaced such proven method of selling Macs.

Now they have been doing iPhones and at some point introduced ipad.. See where I am going?

You using revenue from proven method to create new revenue and risk something new.

This was my point hopefully it makes sense

Yes, it does.

Have you heard of kickstarter or indiegogo? well, some people are willing to find a shortcut and they ask others to put their money and take the risk. Clever entrepreneurs detected this business opportunity and make money with zero risk ;-)

Yes indeed i have heard of it. But still you need a prototype for kickstarter.

I understand that you need to invest an average of 10% when you create a project, and you need to invest at least 1% to decide whether the project is feasible or not. So if you want to look for investors for a 1M project, to decide if it's feasible or not you need to spend 10K. If 10K is too much for your budget, you should focus on making this money available instead of dreaming...

I love the fact you have bought this subject up! I remember it when Alex was in the media with his crazy but one million dollar making idea. I remember at the time wishing, I wished I have thought of that! So simple and yet it worked.

Now, tell me, Charlene. If you had a chance to be part of the next onemilliondollarhomepageidea (drumroll)

Would you jump and say I'm in? hahahaha

I bet 99.999% of Internet entrepreneurs will dismiss the opportunity and later on sing 'I wished I have thought of that!' with their favorite choir

I think that passion and luck played a lot in
his project. Passion because you have to be a little
crazy and passionate about your project to persever
in such an idea and luck because he needed some to
arrive at such a result.
The people who wanted to reiterate this success and
gave up was because they didn't believe it enough and
maybe thought it was going to be easy.
And they must have felt like they were wasting their time
not seeing success happen.
It's always easier to say that it will not work and move on.
Lack of motivation is much stronger than passion.

Ingrid

Thank you, Ingrid.

Good point. However, I disagree about the reason why people who tried to copy this idea failed miserably.

In my opinion, Tew got lucky because he was the first. A one time hit.

Clones will never get the same exposure, so they are destined to oblivium, not to success.

It's true, to be the first to have a very good idea
makes us quickly gain notoriety.
I'm not sure that a second Amazon or second Google
will be so successful.
It's better to launch a good idea at the right time!

Yes, Ingrid.
We don't have a crystal ball to tell if an idea will be accepted and turn into a success. I think we might have certain indicators doing market research, but I'm no expert.

Lol oh my... throwback in time..yes i remember that site..thought it was dumb and ingenious at the same time.
Ok will comment further in morning must get sleep before going down the wizards rabbit hole LOL 😂😂

Thank you, Cathy. Please read the reply to @YanFellow below when you get a chance ;-)

I remember the site and at the time I thought, what a dumb idea! :-) For some reason it went viral (why?) which gave it masses of exposur,e and my theory is that companies bought the pixels just to be part of it.

Traffic is everything :-)

Apart from going viral, it was also first to market which can have a massive impact going forward.

Anywy, to your question - this is a bit like what venture capitalists do - they look for the next New Thing. 90% (or more) fail, but the ones that do take off make them a 2nd fortune.

Compare and contast to someone buying a franchine, for example. They ahve more chance of success but are unlikely to make a fortune (depending on franchine, of course).

Ian

Go on then - how deep? :-)
Ian

As deep as you dare... It's endless, now let me share something realistic, to take a break.

While I was taking my coffee, I created a new free website here:

dumbidea.siterubix.com

I googled 'dumb idea' and I found an incredibly inspiring video
but 52 views...

Some people want to see results instantly, they don't have the patience or the commitment required to achieve their goals. Some others have both patience, commitment and passion. However, if they can't transform an idea into a project... doomed

Yeah, sounds interesting - let's get all those crazy ideas off the ground!

I do Improv (like Whose Line Is It Anyway) and one of the core principles we learn is to say Yes to EVRY idea our scene partner offers us.

Our education system teaches us from a very early age not to take risks and to avoid failure. Better say No than risk failure. You know the saying - a man who never made a mistake never made anything. In Improv we embrace failure, and saying Yes to iudeas offer so many more possibilities than saying No.

Ian

Most certainly in for the discussion, I'm sure sitting out there now there are thousands who have had that "million dollar"idea. Why didn't they pursue it? who knows for many the priority is the here and now of earning a living.

Many feel they can't risk finances and many maybe just don't know where to start. But of course amongst the many are risk takers or people so passionate about a topic that they will definitely pursue it.

I to have pondered this question and asked it of myself. I believe I have surfed life pretty well, have taken risks and enjoyed life but I have never had that eureka moment financially and now have become more risk averse, looking to ensure I can live with the little I have.

So yes lets explore that question. I'll ask you another question along the same lines how many potential world champions are sitting out their now on their sofa who never had the chance to pick up a tennis racket, or step on to an athletics track or dance on a stage.

I guess life is about opportunity and being able to seize it before it passes you by. So I guess what most of us will try and do is follow the proven model as best we can.

I wasn't aware of the million dollar homepage but it is interesting to me as with the expansion of the internet I have always said it should be easier to try and sell a million people something for a pound than trying get that million pound sale. Be interested to see what answers you get

Hi, Kevin!

Regarding your question, how many potential world champions, I guess less than 1%, and real world champions 0.001%.

I'll rephrase the question: what are my chances to be among the 0.001% based on my passion, my skills, and my self-perceived potential?

Only you can answer that question but only if you ask it to yourself in the first place.

Do you need a leader to encourage you to take a risk? You certainly don't, neither do I. We both take responsibility for our own choices, risk or safety

Thanks for peeping into the rabbit hole ;-)




It's a good discussion to consider. Let's face it, my first thought is that there are plenty of original ideas that don't develop into proven models because people don't have the tenacity and give it up too easily.

I agree about that. My question is, do they give up because of lack of resources (time, money, know-how) or because they lack the motivation to let the idea flourish?

Definitely the latter. If they really had the passion, they would find a way to make it work, unless the know-how is beyond our current technological understanding. Obviously the idea needs to be feasible given the circumstances. That's a built-in assumption. For example, not everyone is in position to start a new car company, or rocket ships.

So in your opinion, passionate people will find a way, right?

Alex Tew had a bright idea, he did not ask others to join him, he implemented this all by himself and he made the news.

I would say he got lucky, a one-time hit, good enough to retire if he was clever enough to re-invest on sustainable business.

What would be the lesson for the rest of us watching his success and wondering WIIFM?

What does it mean to be in position to? Was Henry Ford in that position? Apparently yes, but before he did no one would have agreed that he was.

I do agreee that passion is what brings ideas to life, together with the belief that you can. Most of us have been broken into believing everything's impossible.

Well, you can decide to continue as a victim of your circumstance or pull yourself together, ask yourself 'why not?' and try to find a way. I'm not Alex Tew, nor Henry Ford, but I have decided to take my chance and choose to believe it's possible and find out how.

There was once a little boy that came one day from school with a note for his mom, he was told that only his mother could read the note.

When delivered, she opened the letter and started crying. The boy asked "why are you crying mom?" And she answered "You know what's written in this letter? That you are a genius and they can't teach you anything else so I'm going to have to teach you at home."

Thomas Edison's mother died when he was 22 and he found the letter and read it to remember that moment. This time he cried. The letter said: "Your son is mentally ill and we don't want him at school anymore".

Then it is possible!

Actually, passion is just one ingredient. They also probably need to be disagreeable and conscientious in order to succeed. Openness to new experiences wouldn't hurt, and they probably have a low level of neuroticism in order to cope with the setbacks.

You might look into the Big 5 personality factors if interested!

I don't really wonder at his success, to be honest. It certainly was a creative idea, that creation was not dumb luck.

Henry Ford must have been in a position to gather enough money and investors, certainly. That's not available to your average Joe on the street.

You can answer that question yourself, really, with a little research into the matter. Sorry, but I don't think your analysis that 'no one would have agreed that he was' follows from the little bit you have shared here.

If a straw man argument is going to be pursued, it still needs to be backed up with some facts, not opinions :)

Thank you, Marc. Your insight pushes me deeper into the rabbit hole... LOL

You are correct. My knowledge about Henry Ford's situation is limited, but I do not wish to argue it. I am fine believing that him and many others (about whom I know more about) have done what most wouldn't, and pursuing what I want to do with the knowledge that it can be done.

Henry Ford was merely an example that suited what you mentioned, starting a new car company. I don't believe it to be impossible. Even if the case is that he founs investors, which is probably true, investors don't invest in ideas, he had to prove himself and it's still his merit.

Nowadays the limitations are even less, Russell Brunson created a 100m company in 3 years without outside investment.

excellent points! It't true that some of these unicorn companies can be made literally from scratch with little investment.

It's all a matter of vision, belief and attitude, I believe.

Russell leveraged the power of JVs in an unique way. Now everyone's trying the same. He explains the concept in his books.

hey hi Wizard! -- i think it's in the secret recipe where the secret sauce is made! ... yes, original idea counts! ... the application of the original idea counts even more!

just 28 cents worth for now ... cheerio ... ⭐️🎈

Hey, Keisha! Thanks for your 28 cents, can I buy some more?
cheerio ... ⭐️🎈 (it doesn't look like me, does it?)

sure for the secret ingredients that go into making the secret sauce! ....

all great ideas come outta the blue, so to speak -- something like inspiration -- it's curiosity of mind that fuels creativity ... so what's the next biggest thing yet?!

answer: ___________.

it's all good! ... enjoy it all! .... ⭐️🎈

p.s. .... and by the way, there's no such thing as a 'dumb idea' ... just ones that haven't been thought of yet! .... lol ... cheerio ... and hey, no copy-cats allowed here ... 🎵

Wow, what a stats, Richard! A lot of research done! Well done! Yes, we never know how deep, until we venture :o)

That means you're not in? hahahaha

That's why I didn't raise my hand. Haha.
Let's see whether if I can contribute. If not, I would not mind being a participant observation :o)

Fair enough, wise man.

Ha. Thank you for your compliment, Richard. I am still far from it as I still have a lot to learn from all :o)
Just amazed by your following of the 1.7K + website! How did you manage to do that? Must have invested a lot of time and effort! Mostly, once I visit a site, mostly I will not go back. Unlike a well-known website or online purchase. Ha :o)

I didn't say I followed each one of them. I can create a program to gather information about a website periodically, save this and analyze its evolution. Repeat for 1700? Easy. But analysis of a unique phenomenon is a completely different beast.

No worries, Richard. No wonder you are able to create program since you are IT savvy. Yes, analyzing is not easy. In my past jobs, I was an analyst in costing. I can tell you, I analyze until I 'paralyzed'. Ha. Kidding. Pardon me. It was not an easy job :o)

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