You Won’t Make Any Money From Pixel Ads
Some of you may remember the Pixel Ad craze from a couple of years ago. In my opinion, the concept of per-pixel advertisement is one of the dumbest ideas in the history of Internet marketing (and that’s saying a lot), but it worked pretty well for one guy.
The original
Remember the Million Dollar Homepage? Back in late 2005, some broke British guy created a 1000×1000 grid of gray pixels on his home page. Shortly after doing that, he decided to try selling those pixels for $1 a piece. Surprisingly enough, his idea worked and on January 11th 2006, he sold his final 1,000 pixels, becoming a millionaire. Pretty smart.
Then what happened?
Even before the original was sold out, the copycats went to work. Thousands upon thousands of imitators were created, seemingly unable to grasp the value of originality. Here’s one example. This guy has SLASHED PRICES by selling each pixel for 10 cents! Awesome, huh? Guess we’ll be hearing another success story soon, right?
Why you should care
That’s all ancient history though, right? I mean, it’s been over a year since the original sold out. That little fact hasn’t stopped the imitators, though. This web directory lists over 2,500 pixel ad sites. 2,500. Why are people still making these? They’re not successful, and they never will be.
The bottom line
The Million Dollar Homepage did it, and they’re the only ones that ever will. Pixel ads are old news and a waste of space.
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