Alex Tew Story
www.milliondollarhomepage.com
www.pixelotto.com
It took this 21-year-old student just 20 minutes to come up with an idea which made him a million dollars in four months. So what did he do next?
Alex Tew completed just one term of his three-year business degree before deciding he'd do just fine without it. If the $1m in his bank account is anything to go by, he's right.
The 21-year-old student started the Million Dollar Homepage to help pay his university fees, but it ended up making him a dollar millionaire in just four months.
The site sold pixels, the dots which make up a computer screen, as advertising space, costing a dollar a dot. The minimum purchase was $100 for a 10x10 pixel square to hold the buyer's logo or design. Clicking on that space takes readers to the buyer's website.
Alex invested £50 setting up the site. Friends and family bought the first $1,000 worth of pixels. The proceeds of the first sale of ad space went on putting out a press release, which brought the site to the media's attention.
From there it snowballed. As he made money, more people talked about it and the more people talked about it, the more money he made. At its most popular, the Million Dollar Homepage got 863,000 unique users in one day, it still gets about 7,000 a day even though every pixel has been sold.
Ideas machine
But what has happened to Alex since the last pixel was sold in January?
He'd completed just one term at Nottingham University before deferring his degree when the site took off. He thought of going back and completing it but decided to work on his business ideas.
"I'm not good at studying in the traditional sense anyway," he says. "I have a short attention span. I'm always thinking about something new, I have lots of ideas."
He's bought a car with his earnings, but that's about the extent of his big purchases. He's moved to London from his family home in Cricklade, Wiltshire, but is renting a flat instead of buying one.
"Obviously the money has changed my life in some ways but it hasn't in others," he says. "I don't get recognised in the street or anything like that. I pretty much see the same people I used to and do the same things."
After the success of the site, job offers and investment opportunities from around the world flooded in. Some were very attractive, but in the end he turned them all down in favour of doing his own thing.
His mother is still his PA, but he has employed two other people, one to look after his sites and one to look after customers.
"I like to think of it as a internet time capsule," he says. "I want it to sit there for as long as possible, for decades."
Could be you
Most of his time has gone into coming up with a new business idea. The Million Dollar Homepage was a one-off but Alex knew the concept still had legs and could be developed. He came up with Pixelotto, which goes live on Tuesday.
His new venture will turn one lucky web surfer into a millionaire. Again he will sell a million pixels as advertising space, but this time for $2 each.
He will get $1m and the other million will be given to one random visitor. One month after the final pixel is sold, a draw will select one of the site's adverts at random.
Someone who clicked on that particular advert will be picked via a second random draw. The next round of Pixelotto will then begin, giving someone else the chance to become a millionaire. The winner can also nominate a charity to receive a $100,000 donation.
"This idea has longevity," he says. "I don't know anyone who doesn't want to win $1m dollars, so I can keep doing it again and again."
But what about in the long-term future? Even if his latest venture is a success, he says he will still move on to something new.
"I don't think I will be running this company for 25 years. I always want to do new things, I have a very short attention span."
Soucre - BBC News Magazine
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
Google Makes Checkout Payments Free for Another Year
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
Google announced it is extending its promotion for Google Checkout for another year. The checkout service, used by online merchants to process payments from customers, launched in June with lower fees than PayPal's payment service, as well as an incentive for those merchants using Google AdWords. In early November, Google announced that from November 8 through December 31, 2006, Google would process all Checkout transactions for free, and today, it extended the promotion through December 31, 2007.
ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo, whose company provides online merchants and eBay sellers with ecommerce and auction-management services, said of Google's promotion, "This is huge from a merchant's perspective as this essentially drops 2% into their pockets they can either, well, pocket or pump back into Google Adwords" (http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/). However, eBay does not allow its sellers to request payment through Google Checkout. eBay owns PayPal, a competing online payment service.
There have been reports of some buyers and sellers experiencing problems with Google Checkout, however, as reported by Elise Ackerman of the Mercury News on November 28 (http://www.siliconvalley.com/).
A Google spokesperson said today in an email, "The Checkout team spends a lot of time evaluating merchant feedback and working to make Checkout as effective as possible, and in recent weeks we've announced several new features and initiatives that should make life even easier for online merchants, including the ability to create coupons for and send email invoices to customers, a simplified HTML-based option for integrating Checkout into their sites, and an extension of our free transaction processing promotion through December 31, 2007."
Both Google and PayPal offered promotions for holiday shoppers as another incentive for merchants.
Scott Devitt, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, said today in a research note of Google's extended promotion, "We think, if it works, it is potentially very disruptive to competition and materially beneficial to Google's core Adwords business."
https://checkout.google.com/
AuctionBytes.com
Google announced it is extending its promotion for Google Checkout for another year. The checkout service, used by online merchants to process payments from customers, launched in June with lower fees than PayPal's payment service, as well as an incentive for those merchants using Google AdWords. In early November, Google announced that from November 8 through December 31, 2006, Google would process all Checkout transactions for free, and today, it extended the promotion through December 31, 2007.
ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo, whose company provides online merchants and eBay sellers with ecommerce and auction-management services, said of Google's promotion, "This is huge from a merchant's perspective as this essentially drops 2% into their pockets they can either, well, pocket or pump back into Google Adwords" (http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/). However, eBay does not allow its sellers to request payment through Google Checkout. eBay owns PayPal, a competing online payment service.
There have been reports of some buyers and sellers experiencing problems with Google Checkout, however, as reported by Elise Ackerman of the Mercury News on November 28 (http://www.siliconvalley.com/).
A Google spokesperson said today in an email, "The Checkout team spends a lot of time evaluating merchant feedback and working to make Checkout as effective as possible, and in recent weeks we've announced several new features and initiatives that should make life even easier for online merchants, including the ability to create coupons for and send email invoices to customers, a simplified HTML-based option for integrating Checkout into their sites, and an extension of our free transaction processing promotion through December 31, 2007."
Both Google and PayPal offered promotions for holiday shoppers as another incentive for merchants.
Scott Devitt, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, said today in a research note of Google's extended promotion, "We think, if it works, it is potentially very disruptive to competition and materially beneficial to Google's core Adwords business."
https://checkout.google.com/
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
The Google Adsense-Adwords Automatic Money Machine
By Jan Sepstrup
www.jasmedia.com
Have you ever tried to make money through affiliate programs using Google Adwords?
Then you know it's not easy. Some say that only 2-3 out of 10 affiliate Adwords campaigns will actually make a profit.
But what if you could get your Adwords campaigns for free, or even make a little profit from using Adwords for promoting affiliate programs.
Actually you can get your Adwords campaigns for free if you combine your Adwords campaigns with Google Adsense.
With Google Adsense you place small ads on your own web-page, hoping that people will click on these ads. When someone clicks on a Google ad on your web-site, you make money.
The normal approach to making money with Google Adsense is to have thousands of pages with Google ads, but you can successfully make money with Google Adsense with just one page.
That's right - one page!
1. Step
All you have to do is find niches, where people pay several dollars to get the top position in the Google ads. You can use Overture's bidtool to find high priced niche keywords.
2. Step
Next step is to build your one-page Google Adsense money machine. Find a free article in one of the article directories and set up a page with your keyword targeted article and three Adsense ad blocks. Use small Adsense blocks, that only shows the top three high priced ads.
3. Step
Last step is to set up a Google Adwords campaign with that niche keyword (and related keywords) - but you only bid 5 cents!
Now sit back and watch the magic. People click on your 5-cent ad and come to your one-page-Adsense website. They read your article - and some of them will click on the high priced ads on your page. Bingo! - you've made a small profit.
Nothing much, maybe a one dollar profit a day. My first Google Adsense 'Money Machine' is generating a profit of 2-3 dollars a day - that's at least $730 a year for just one page.
Want to make more money with your one-page-money-machine?
Find an affiliate program in that niche, and put your affiliate link on the page. Some of your visitors will click the Google ads and some will click on your affiliate link. What ever they do, you win!
Now you've got your Google Adwords campaign for free or you're even making a small profit with your Google Adwords-Adsense money machine. At the same time you're marketing your niche affiliate program.
Final advice
Don't use this technique in the 'Internet Marketing' market place - it's much to crowded. Use your imagination and find niches like laser hair removal, wheel chairs, cell phone, homeowners loan etc.
Take action - and go find some money making niche keywords.
www.jasmedia.com
Have you ever tried to make money through affiliate programs using Google Adwords?
Then you know it's not easy. Some say that only 2-3 out of 10 affiliate Adwords campaigns will actually make a profit.
But what if you could get your Adwords campaigns for free, or even make a little profit from using Adwords for promoting affiliate programs.
Actually you can get your Adwords campaigns for free if you combine your Adwords campaigns with Google Adsense.
With Google Adsense you place small ads on your own web-page, hoping that people will click on these ads. When someone clicks on a Google ad on your web-site, you make money.
The normal approach to making money with Google Adsense is to have thousands of pages with Google ads, but you can successfully make money with Google Adsense with just one page.
That's right - one page!
1. Step
All you have to do is find niches, where people pay several dollars to get the top position in the Google ads. You can use Overture's bidtool to find high priced niche keywords.
2. Step
Next step is to build your one-page Google Adsense money machine. Find a free article in one of the article directories and set up a page with your keyword targeted article and three Adsense ad blocks. Use small Adsense blocks, that only shows the top three high priced ads.
3. Step
Last step is to set up a Google Adwords campaign with that niche keyword (and related keywords) - but you only bid 5 cents!
Now sit back and watch the magic. People click on your 5-cent ad and come to your one-page-Adsense website. They read your article - and some of them will click on the high priced ads on your page. Bingo! - you've made a small profit.
Nothing much, maybe a one dollar profit a day. My first Google Adsense 'Money Machine' is generating a profit of 2-3 dollars a day - that's at least $730 a year for just one page.
Want to make more money with your one-page-money-machine?
Find an affiliate program in that niche, and put your affiliate link on the page. Some of your visitors will click the Google ads and some will click on your affiliate link. What ever they do, you win!
Now you've got your Google Adwords campaign for free or you're even making a small profit with your Google Adwords-Adsense money machine. At the same time you're marketing your niche affiliate program.
Final advice
Don't use this technique in the 'Internet Marketing' market place - it's much to crowded. Use your imagination and find niches like laser hair removal, wheel chairs, cell phone, homeowners loan etc.
Take action - and go find some money making niche keywords.
Friday, December 01, 2006
7 Simple Steps To Uncovering Great Niche Market Web Site Ideas...
By Brian Terry
www.theresanidea.com
Discover how easy it can be to come up with potentially profitable web site ideas by following these simple 7 steps.
1. What are your personal passions?
All niche marketing experts agree that when you're working on creating your first niche product it's important to "tap into" any passions you might already have.
Imagine how much easier it's going to be when you're working on something you have a real "passion" for!
Here's a great place you can start start to get things moving...
Spend 5 minutes "brainstorming" all that interest you, go ahead and just write down anything that comes to mind.
If you can't think of anything right now then I've got the perfect solution for you. Recently I created an amazing web site that actually generates niche website ideas at the "touch" of a button.
You can access this great web site idea generator right here for free: http://www.TheresAnIdea.com/new/web-site-marketing-idea.html
2. Who else shares your passion?
It's all very well having an interest or a passion, but what if there are few others who love what you love? What you need to look for is a large group of people (or a niche market) online who share your same passion.
This is easy to do, just go to Google.com type in the subject of your passion then add the word "forums" to the end, then press the "Google Search" button.
So for example if you have a passion for Fly Fishing just do a search in Google for "Fly Fishing Forums".
In less than a second you'll see at a glance how many forums there are about your chosen subject. Go ahead and check a few of them out so see how active they are.
It's these forums where you'll find all the people who will ultimately become your customers or visitors to your niche market website idea.
If there are none or very few of these forums, just go back to step 1. and brainstorm some more. On the other hand if there are plenty of these online forums around move onto step 3.
3. Show me the money!
Once you've found a market of people who share your interest there are a few more things you need to know before taking another step...
a) Do they have a credit card? b) Are they used to making online purchases.
The reason why you need to ask this is because not everyone has a credit card and is prepared to use it online.
So how do you find out if your niche market has what it takes to buy whatever you plan on selling?
Simply go back to the original search you did on Google. This time look at the advertisements on the right hand side of the page. If you can see plenty of advertisement that's great! it means that other people are paying money to advertise to your niche market (or the people who share your passion).
If there are few advertisements on your Google search results page, just go back to step 1 and start over.
4. Give 'em what they want!
Here's where the fun begins...
You've found your niche market, you know they have money to spend, now you need to find out what they want.
What you must do now is get into the "meat" of the matter and find out from the horses mouth exactly what people need, create a product to fill that need, then sell it to them.
How do you do this?
Step 1: Set up what's called an "Ask Campaign" website.
Step 2: Advertise your "Ask Campaign" website in Google to target your niche market.
5. Words are the true currency
It's time to get back to "brainstorming" again as this time we need to know what the people in your niche market are searching for, more specifically what words and phrases they're using.
There's a great free tool I recommend called "Good Keywords" which you can get here: http://www.goodkeywords.com.
This is the "brilliant" tool that's going to get you ever more "closer" to discovering your next great niche market web site idea. It's through this essential tool that you'll discover how many people are searching for things within your niche market.
What you need to do next is collect the top 10 keywords and phrases people are using within your niche market. Once armed with this list it's time to get your Ask Campaign set up and in place.
6. Ask it!
Everything you need to know about setting up an Ask Campaign can be found here: http://www.askdatabase.com
Once you've got your Ask Campaign website set up it's time to get it in front of as many people in your niche market as possible. What you're going to do is get them to ask you a question. The questions they ask you will reveal the problems they are facing. Once you know what problems they face you're in a great position to deliver the solution.
Here's my own Ask Campaign web site... go ahead an ask me a question :-) http://www.theresanidea.com/AskBrian.php
7. Google it!
Build it and they will come... only when you have your Google Ads in place!
To open up your Google AdWords account just go here: https://adwords.google.com/select/
What you're going to do now is write small ads that drive people to your "Ask Campaign" website where you just ask them to ask you a question, for example... "As someone interested in "X" what is the biggest problem you're facing right now?"
So there you have it... the "7 Simple Steps To Uncovering A Great Niche Market Web Site Idea".
Recently one of my subscribers asked me "If there was one single skill to master that makes the biggest difference as an online niche marketer, what would it be?"... I simply said, learn as much as you can about how to Advertise in Google.
To help you on your way, here's a great no cost Google Adwords course: http://www.theresanidea.com/adwords.html
www.theresanidea.com
Discover how easy it can be to come up with potentially profitable web site ideas by following these simple 7 steps.
1. What are your personal passions?
All niche marketing experts agree that when you're working on creating your first niche product it's important to "tap into" any passions you might already have.
Imagine how much easier it's going to be when you're working on something you have a real "passion" for!
Here's a great place you can start start to get things moving...
Spend 5 minutes "brainstorming" all that interest you, go ahead and just write down anything that comes to mind.
If you can't think of anything right now then I've got the perfect solution for you. Recently I created an amazing web site that actually generates niche website ideas at the "touch" of a button.
You can access this great web site idea generator right here for free: http://www.TheresAnIdea.com/new/web-site-marketing-idea.html
2. Who else shares your passion?
It's all very well having an interest or a passion, but what if there are few others who love what you love? What you need to look for is a large group of people (or a niche market) online who share your same passion.
This is easy to do, just go to Google.com type in the subject of your passion then add the word "forums" to the end, then press the "Google Search" button.
So for example if you have a passion for Fly Fishing just do a search in Google for "Fly Fishing Forums".
In less than a second you'll see at a glance how many forums there are about your chosen subject. Go ahead and check a few of them out so see how active they are.
It's these forums where you'll find all the people who will ultimately become your customers or visitors to your niche market website idea.
If there are none or very few of these forums, just go back to step 1. and brainstorm some more. On the other hand if there are plenty of these online forums around move onto step 3.
3. Show me the money!
Once you've found a market of people who share your interest there are a few more things you need to know before taking another step...
a) Do they have a credit card? b) Are they used to making online purchases.
The reason why you need to ask this is because not everyone has a credit card and is prepared to use it online.
So how do you find out if your niche market has what it takes to buy whatever you plan on selling?
Simply go back to the original search you did on Google. This time look at the advertisements on the right hand side of the page. If you can see plenty of advertisement that's great! it means that other people are paying money to advertise to your niche market (or the people who share your passion).
If there are few advertisements on your Google search results page, just go back to step 1 and start over.
4. Give 'em what they want!
Here's where the fun begins...
You've found your niche market, you know they have money to spend, now you need to find out what they want.
What you must do now is get into the "meat" of the matter and find out from the horses mouth exactly what people need, create a product to fill that need, then sell it to them.
How do you do this?
Step 1: Set up what's called an "Ask Campaign" website.
Step 2: Advertise your "Ask Campaign" website in Google to target your niche market.
5. Words are the true currency
It's time to get back to "brainstorming" again as this time we need to know what the people in your niche market are searching for, more specifically what words and phrases they're using.
There's a great free tool I recommend called "Good Keywords" which you can get here: http://www.goodkeywords.com.
This is the "brilliant" tool that's going to get you ever more "closer" to discovering your next great niche market web site idea. It's through this essential tool that you'll discover how many people are searching for things within your niche market.
What you need to do next is collect the top 10 keywords and phrases people are using within your niche market. Once armed with this list it's time to get your Ask Campaign set up and in place.
6. Ask it!
Everything you need to know about setting up an Ask Campaign can be found here: http://www.askdatabase.com
Once you've got your Ask Campaign website set up it's time to get it in front of as many people in your niche market as possible. What you're going to do is get them to ask you a question. The questions they ask you will reveal the problems they are facing. Once you know what problems they face you're in a great position to deliver the solution.
Here's my own Ask Campaign web site... go ahead an ask me a question :-) http://www.theresanidea.com/AskBrian.php
7. Google it!
Build it and they will come... only when you have your Google Ads in place!
To open up your Google AdWords account just go here: https://adwords.google.com/select/
What you're going to do now is write small ads that drive people to your "Ask Campaign" website where you just ask them to ask you a question, for example... "As someone interested in "X" what is the biggest problem you're facing right now?"
So there you have it... the "7 Simple Steps To Uncovering A Great Niche Market Web Site Idea".
Recently one of my subscribers asked me "If there was one single skill to master that makes the biggest difference as an online niche marketer, what would it be?"... I simply said, learn as much as you can about how to Advertise in Google.
To help you on your way, here's a great no cost Google Adwords course: http://www.theresanidea.com/adwords.html
A New Scam Hits The Web
By Jim Edwards
www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
New Twist On An Old Scam
Virtually anyone with an email account eventually receives a message running one of the oldest scams in the book.
Often referred to as the "Nigerian Letter," this scam involves getting a message from someone in a foreign country claiming to need a way to get 21.5 million dollars out of the country (the first country used in this scam was Nigeria, hence the scam's name).
He knows that you "are a trustworthy individual" and if you'll just send him your bank account information he will deposit the money in your account and give you 15% of the deposit.
Of course, after you give up your banking information the scammer empties YOUR account.
Well a new scam has spawned to take advantage of one of the web's most successful and widespread activities - online auctions.
The scammer sends you an email offering to purchase an item you're selling through an online auction or in the classified section of your local paper.
They tell you a relative living in the area will pick up the goods, however, when the check arrives, it's made out for more than the agreed price (often thousands more).
The bidder asks you to refund the difference and keep a percentage for your "trouble."
Of course the check is forged and, if you refund the difference, you can kiss your money goodbye.
Moral of the story: free money is only free for the person who steals it from you!
~ The Coming Storm Over DVDs ~
If you thought Napster caused a stir over trading music and the illegal CD-ROMs people made on their computers, wait until everybody gets a DVD burner!
The average price for an excellent DVD burner has dropped well below $400 and medium to low priced computers now include DVD burners as standard equipment.
The only thing holding back the avalanche of DVD copying seems to be the rather hefty cost of buying blank DVDs.
With an average price of $1.50-2.00 each, blank DVDs cost far more than blank CDs, which run around 20 cents each.
But, if you look back about 6 years, blank CDs used to cost a dollar apiece, so it won't take long for the price of blank DVDs to drop.
When that price drop does come and every home with a computer can also duplicate full-length movies on DVD, watch for one of the biggest upheavals in the history of Hollywood.
It will make the music industry's crackdown on illegal music sharing look as mild as a 5 minute "time out" in the local pre-school class.
~ Yahoo! - Still King! ~
In a bid to capture even more of the world's search engine traffic, search giant Yahoo! recently purchased the web's largest pay-per-click search engine, Overture.com.
In the process (and more importantly), since the commissions from pay-per-click advertising with Overture represent a major source of revenue for most of the other major search engines, Yahoo! definitely holds the upper hand.
www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
New Twist On An Old Scam
Virtually anyone with an email account eventually receives a message running one of the oldest scams in the book.
Often referred to as the "Nigerian Letter," this scam involves getting a message from someone in a foreign country claiming to need a way to get 21.5 million dollars out of the country (the first country used in this scam was Nigeria, hence the scam's name).
He knows that you "are a trustworthy individual" and if you'll just send him your bank account information he will deposit the money in your account and give you 15% of the deposit.
Of course, after you give up your banking information the scammer empties YOUR account.
Well a new scam has spawned to take advantage of one of the web's most successful and widespread activities - online auctions.
The scammer sends you an email offering to purchase an item you're selling through an online auction or in the classified section of your local paper.
They tell you a relative living in the area will pick up the goods, however, when the check arrives, it's made out for more than the agreed price (often thousands more).
The bidder asks you to refund the difference and keep a percentage for your "trouble."
Of course the check is forged and, if you refund the difference, you can kiss your money goodbye.
Moral of the story: free money is only free for the person who steals it from you!
~ The Coming Storm Over DVDs ~
If you thought Napster caused a stir over trading music and the illegal CD-ROMs people made on their computers, wait until everybody gets a DVD burner!
The average price for an excellent DVD burner has dropped well below $400 and medium to low priced computers now include DVD burners as standard equipment.
The only thing holding back the avalanche of DVD copying seems to be the rather hefty cost of buying blank DVDs.
With an average price of $1.50-2.00 each, blank DVDs cost far more than blank CDs, which run around 20 cents each.
But, if you look back about 6 years, blank CDs used to cost a dollar apiece, so it won't take long for the price of blank DVDs to drop.
When that price drop does come and every home with a computer can also duplicate full-length movies on DVD, watch for one of the biggest upheavals in the history of Hollywood.
It will make the music industry's crackdown on illegal music sharing look as mild as a 5 minute "time out" in the local pre-school class.
~ Yahoo! - Still King! ~
In a bid to capture even more of the world's search engine traffic, search giant Yahoo! recently purchased the web's largest pay-per-click search engine, Overture.com.
In the process (and more importantly), since the commissions from pay-per-click advertising with Overture represent a major source of revenue for most of the other major search engines, Yahoo! definitely holds the upper hand.
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