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THE RISE AND RISE OF THE MILLION DOLLAR HOMEPAGE
We love to hear of cheeky young scamps getting rich by just having a good idea. It makes us feel a lot better about going down the pub, where we have our very best ideas, some of which we remember in the morning (and wonder why we've scrawled 'computer cows. Foolproof. Tell no-one. SELL QUICKLY' onto a beer mat with several underlines.)
Lovely Alex Tew is a 21 year old student in Nottingham university. Possibly not knowing much more about the internet than you do, he had a great idea.
THE MILLION DOLLAR HOMEPAGE IDEA:
- Why not make a web page with a million pixels?
- Why not sell those pixels at a dollar a pop to advertisers?
- Why not advertise this site as being the 'million dollar homepage' (good name) and ask people to buy pixel blocks to help make history?
Obviously, this was pure genius. Cheap enough for people to play, profitable enough for him to make a million dollars. Which is almost as cool as a million quid, but not quite.
WHY IS A MILLION DOLLAR HOMEPAGE SO MOOKY?
- It was quick to set up
- It was successful
- It was done by a student (they get such bad press nowadays)
- It was done by a student from Nottingham (it gets such bad press nowadays)
- It's an idea that reminds us that, no matter how we think we've seen it all before on the internet, there's always something new to achieve.
PUTTING OUR MONEY WHERE OUR POUTSOME MOUTH IS
Obviously, Mookychick felt it had to play too. It was that 'become a part of history' line that sold us. So we pulled $100 from our sequinned purses and bought 10 by 10 pixels of space. We get thousands of readers a week and that's beautiful, but it's always fun to have a few more.
And then we had a problem. Those pixels were shitingly expensive, really. So what would we put on there that would be both mooky and irresistable for clickers?
1) A mouth
PRO: Very mooky. Mookychicks are pouty and possibly gobby, and often wear lippy, and they all have mouths
CON: But did it look like a mouth? And what if girls didn't click on the mouth because they thought it was a porn site? And what if boys did, and got all disappointed, and wrote us unhappy emails about it?
2) An eye
PRO: It doesn't have anything to do with pooky old porn
CON: It doesn't look like an eye unless you know. Readers will be all like, what the hell is that?
3) 'M' for 'Mookychick'
PRO: It's pink! And easy to see!
CON: No-one will know what 'M' stands for. They'll be all like, 'Monkey'? 'Moping around'?
4) Little figure-thing
PRO: It's still pink! It's playful and nothing to do with porn! Boys and girls will click on it with anticipation!
CON: It's a weird little figure
There you have it! In the end we went with the little-figure thing, which had so many more pros than cons. We love the idea that this little creature only costs us a hundred dollars. My gosh, if we could, we'd buy a thousand of them.
Here's what we learned today: If someone has a good idea that makes them money, don't be bitter. Support them. One day, the person with the good idea... will be you.
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