The Million Dollar Homepage is a website where advertisers could buy ad space for $1 per pixel on a 1000 x 1000 pixel grid. The site stormed up a media frenzy both in England and here in the US generating over $1,000,000 in 5 months for one entrepreneur named Alex Tew. At the age of only 21, Alex proved he was a marketing genius with his new take on classic advertising. For this and more we take a look at entrepreneur Alex Tew in the spotlight this week. We’ll look at just how he did it and highlight what lessons any upcoming entrepreneur can learn.
Summary:
Name: Alex Tew
Age: 27
Location: England
Claim to fame: The Million Dollar Homepage (A marketing campaign business where advertisers would by ad space by the pixel on its homepage. )
Initial cost: <$1000
How He Did It:
Alex Tew was born and raised in Wiltshire, England where he completed his high school education in 2005. Alex was about to enroll into college for a 3-year Business Management program, which he soon realized would have him facing 10+ years of debt through student loans. Tew quickly began to brainstorm ideas on how he could raise the immediate cash he would need in order to pay for his college education without any loans. At the age of 21 in August of 2005, he came up with the The Million Dollar Homepage. The concept was simple enough. He would charge advertisers $1.00 per pixel on his homepage in a grid of 1000 x 1000 pixels, which in theory if all sold would raise him $1,000,000. Alex sold little ad space to start mostly to friends through word of mouth. After about a month, Alex reached $1000 in income at which point he then put out a press released that was picked up by the BBC News. It’s at this point the site really began to take off generating over $250,000 by the end of September achieving an Alexa ranking of 127 at the time! Tew sold the last set of pixel space on a ebay auction due to the demand, which went for $38,100. Tew ended up generating $1,037,100 in five months from The Million Dollar Homepage making his plan a bigger success than he could have ever hoped for while at the same time making Tew a marketing genius in the process.
Lessons Learned:
- Being able to see things in a new light is vital as a entrepreneur
- Marketing is one of the primary keys to the success of your product – the more that know, the better!
- Outside the box thinking like The Million Dollar Homepage is a great approach to doing business online
- Taking action it crucial – you can start an online business for less than $50 from your home!
- Don’t be discouraged if success doesn’t happen over night – it takes time.
- Remember to reach out to fellow friends and common interest groups for support!
Did you miss last weeks spotlight? Check it out here: The Entrepreneur Spotlight: Tom Anderson.
Be on the lookout for our next entrepreneur spotlight article in this ongoing series. In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think about the success of this week’s entrepreneur and his entrepreneurship characteristics. Also, please let me know if you have an entrepreneur you would like to see featured here in the weeks to come.
Sources:
Alex Tew is one of my inspirations. And he taught me everything is possible on the web.
thanks a lot for such a nice info.