eeds the website to be fully automated so that advertisers upload their graphics and their advert is live within an hour if the images can be rebuilt that often. There are sites with individual graphics but the html overhead bulks the page size up inordinately. If the adverts are changed on a day to day basis then its more interesting for both human and search engine visitors to your website.

5. Provide click statistics so advertisers can feel they’re getting value for money. Tracking clicks isn’t rocket science. Nor is sending out a weekly email. Customer service is very important. It helps to keep them coming back.

6. Try and make your site look different to the Million Dollar Home Page; experiment with layouts. I find it depressing that a number of websites have cloned the lay

Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Home Page was unique for probably a completely different reason than just making the million dollars. It has spawned an immense number of competitors and there are probably many more on the way. Googling presently returns 1.5 million search results for “pixel ads”.

The problem is many of them are just clones-with nothing to distinguish them from the growing pack other than perhaps limited specialisation- e.g. pixel ads for Christians, countries, towns. Its made kind of easier as you can even download free scripts to do this- for example from http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/722486

So a couple of questions have to be asked.
· Is this viable long term? Has the novelty worn off and will anyone really be interested in looking at pixel adverts
· Are there any innovations that can make pixel ad sites stand out- ie rejuvenate the genre?

My answer is yes it can be a viable business for a few well run sites but then as I’ve just developed a site, I’m probably a bit biased. Alex Tew had ‘First Mover’ advantage, made his money and ran. However there are something like 30 million websites in existence, and I'd guess a large number of those, perhaps 2- 5 million are commercial and badly need web traffic. Word Tracker reveals 359 searches for “pixel ads” and nearly 200 for “Million Dollar Home Page” over the last 90 days so there is still some interest.

Lets examine the present crop and see in what way can they be improved upon. Note these are my own opinions and I could be (probably am) very wrong!

The premise on which a pixel ad website is offered is that it brings traffic to your site if you advertise there. To do that of course it must have a lot of traffic itself. It’s a chicken and egg situation. There are scores of sparsely populated websites that will never go anywhere and will eventually quietly die. Their owners have spent a bit of money preparing the site but thats where it ends.

Creating a website is easy but getting eyeballs there is not. Here are some principles that I believe provide one way forward.

1. Why stick with a monolithic block divided into 10 x 10 pixel blocks? Quite frankly it is both confusing and ugly. I think a future innovation may lie with smaller blocks, less intrusive in web page, just as google ads don’t take over a web page but enhance it by offering context sensitive adverts.

2. Why stick with just one page? My own site http://logoadz.com has a home page and anyone paying for an advert there can choose any six ‘tags’, each of which has a page of its own.

3. Why pay by the pixel? Be flexible on pricing. Why not pay by the block- conceptually they are the same price but the look of the site can be enhanced by offering pages of bigger adverts all the same size. Ten 100 x100 pixel ads looks much more attractive than the hotch potch you get normally.

4. Advertising has to be far more flexible than buying a space for 5 years etc. Why not offer advertising by the week, the month or any number of days? Advertisers can then test the site and see if they are getting the traffic they expect without a big financial commitment.

This needs the website to be fully automated so that advertisers upload their graphics and their advert is live within an hour if the images can be rebuilt that often. There are sites with individual graphics but the html overhead bulks the page size up inordinately. If the adverts are changed on a day to day basis then its more interesting for both human and search engine visitors to your website.

5. Provide click statistics so advertisers can feel they’re getting value for money. Tracking clicks isn’t rocket science. Nor is sending out a weekly email. Customer service is very important. It helps to keep them coming back.

6. Try and make your site look different to the Million Dollar Home Page; experiment with layouts. I find it depressing that a number of websites have cloned the layo

>· Are there any innovations that can make pixel ad sites stand out- ie rejuvenate the genre?

My answer is yes it can be a viable business for a few well run sites but then as I’ve just developed a site, I’m probably a bit biased. Alex Tew had ‘First Mover’ advantage, made his money and ran. However there are something like 30 million websites in existence, and I'd guess a large number of those, perhaps 2- 5 million are commercial and badly need web traffic. Word Tracker reveals 359 searches for “pixel ads” and nearly 200 for “Million Dollar Home Page” over the last 90 days so there is still some interest.

Lets examine the present crop and see in what way can they be improved upon. Note these are my own opinions and I could be (probably am) very wrong!

The premise on which a pixel ad website is offered is that it brings traffic to your site if you advertise there. To do that of course it must have a lot of traffic itself. It’s a chicken and egg situation. There are scores of sparsely populated websites that will never go anywhere and will eventually quietly die. Their owners have spent a bit of money preparing the site but thats where it ends.

Creating a website is easy but getting eyeballs there is not. Here are some principles that I believe provide one way forward.

1. Why stick with a monolithic block divided into 10 x 10 pixel blocks? Quite frankly it is both confusing and ugly. I think a future innovation may lie with smaller blocks, less intrusive in web page, just as google ads don’t take over a web page but enhance it by offering context sensitive adverts.

2. Why stick with just one page? My own site http://logoadz.com has a home page and anyone paying for an advert there can choose any six ‘tags’, each of which has a page of its own.

3. Why pay by the pixel? Be flexible on pricing. Why not pay by the block- conceptually they are the same price but the look of the site can be enhanced by offering pages of bigger adverts all the same size. Ten 100 x100 pixel ads looks much more attractive than the hotch potch you get normally.

4. Advertising has to be far more flexible than buying a space for 5 years etc. Why not offer advertising by the week, the month or any number of days? Advertisers can then test the site and see if they are getting the traffic they expect without a big financial commitment.

This needs the website to be fully automated so that advertisers upload their graphics and their advert is live within an hour if the images can be rebuilt that often. There are sites with individual graphics but the html overhead bulks the page size up inordinately. If the adverts are changed on a day to day basis then its more interesting for both human and search engine visitors to your website.

5. Provide click statistics so advertisers can feel they’re getting value for money. Tracking clicks isn’t rocket science. Nor is sending out a weekly email. Customer service is very important. It helps to keep them coming back.

6. Try and make your site look different to the Million Dollar Home Page; experiment with layouts. I find it depressing that a number of websites have cloned the lay

a pixel ad website is offered is that it brings traffic to your site if you advertise there. To do that of course it must have a lot of traffic itself. It’s a chicken and egg situation. There are scores of sparsely populated websites that will never go anywhere and will eventually quietly die. Their owners have spent a bit of money preparing the site but thats where it ends.

Creating a website is easy but getting eyeballs there is not. Here are some principles that I believe provide one way forward.

1. Why stick with a monolithic block divided into 10 x 10 pixel blocks? Quite frankly it is both confusing and ugly. I think a future innovation may lie with smaller blocks, less intrusive in web page, just as google ads don’t take over a web page but enhance it by offering context sensitive adverts.

2. Why stick with just one page? My own site http://logoadz.com has a home page and anyone paying for an advert there can choose any six ‘tags’, each of which has a page of its own.

3. Why pay by the pixel? Be flexible on pricing. Why not pay by the block- conceptually they are the same price but the look of the site can be enhanced by offering pages of bigger adverts all the same size. Ten 100 x100 pixel ads looks much more attractive than the hotch potch you get normally.

4. Advertising has to be far more flexible than buying a space for 5 years etc. Why not offer advertising by the week, the month or any number of days? Advertisers can then test the site and see if they are getting the traffic they expect without a big financial commitment.

This needs the website to be fully automated so that advertisers upload their graphics and their advert is live within an hour if the images can be rebuilt that often. There are sites with individual graphics but the html overhead bulks the page size up inordinately. If the adverts are changed on a day to day basis then its more interesting for both human and search engine visitors to your website.

5. Provide click statistics so advertisers can feel they’re getting value for money. Tracking clicks isn’t rocket science. Nor is sending out a weekly email. Customer service is very important. It helps to keep them coming back.

6. Try and make your site look different to the Million Dollar Home Page; experiment with layouts. I find it depressing that a number of websites have cloned the lay

ensitive adverts.

2. Why stick with just one page? My own site http://logoadz.com has a home page and anyone paying for an advert there can choose any six ‘tags’, each of which has a page of its own.

3. Why pay by the pixel? Be flexible on pricing. Why not pay by the block- conceptually they are the same price but the look of the site can be enhanced by offering pages of bigger adverts all the same size. Ten 100 x100 pixel ads looks much more attractive than the hotch potch you get normally.

4. Advertising has to be far more flexible than buying a space for 5 years etc. Why not offer advertising by the week, the month or any number of days? Advertisers can then test the site and see if they are getting the traffic they expect without a big financial commitment.

This needs the website to be fully automated so that advertisers upload their graphics and their advert is live within an hour if the images can be rebuilt that often. There are sites with individual graphics but the html overhead bulks the page size up inordinately. If the adverts are changed on a day to day basis then its more interesting for both human and search engine visitors to your website.

5. Provide click statistics so advertisers can feel they’re getting value for money. Tracking clicks isn’t rocket science. Nor is sending out a weekly email. Customer service is very important. It helps to keep them coming back.

6. Try and make your site look different to the Million Dollar Home Page; experiment with layouts. I find it depressing that a number of websites have cloned the lay

eeds the website to be fully automated so that advertisers upload their graphics and their advert is live within an hour if the images can be rebuilt that often. There are sites with individual graphics but the html overhead bulks the page size up inordinately. If the adverts are changed on a day to day basis then its more interesting for both human and search engine visitors to your website.

5. Provide click statistics so advertisers can feel they’re getting value for money. Tracking clicks isn’t rocket science. Nor is sending out a weekly email. Customer service is very important. It helps to keep them coming back.

6. Try and make your site look different to the Million Dollar Home Page; experiment with layouts. I find it depressing that a number of websites have cloned the layout, fonts and colours. There’s enormous scope to be innovative here and some sites have done this.

Have I succeeded with my own site? Well I have applied nearly all of these principles but as the site has not gone live yet it is too soon to tell. Its the first part of a package I’m producing for advertisers. Watch this space!