Pixel Advertising: Fad or Trend?

Copyright 2006 Oudam Em Pixel advertising is an innovative marketing concept introduced by 22-year-old Alex Tew that allows advertisers to buy advertising space on a per-pixel cost basis. The more pixels an advertiser buys, the larger their ad and the greater the chance that it will be clicked on. Selling one million pixels at $1 each, Alex's Million Dollar Homepage has created quite a buzz in the news media and has easily reached its $1 million target. Thanks to the stunning success of Tew's Million Dollar Homepage (MDHP), pixel ad sites have mushroomed all over the net. There are even commercial scripts that you can buy that will allow you to set up your own million-dollar homepage in less than 15 minutes. However, this does not mean you'll make a million dollars...or even a thousand dollars...or even the cost of the script. Alex Tew's pixel advertising concept was simple, so simple that it eventually led many people to pound their heads on the wall repeating to themselves, "Why didn't I think of this first?" But his idea was also novel and original. And because of its novelty it commanded a lot of attention (and free publicity) from the media. Needless to say, no news organization will rush to report about a second million-dollar homepage, let alone one set up in 15 minutes with a purchased script. This is not to say, however, that there is no room in cyberspace for the second or third or even thousandth MDHP. In fact, there are presently at least a thousand MDHP clones hoping to capitalize on the pixel advertising craze. Many of them have managed to make a lot of money despite not being the original. Some people view MDHP clones as little more than shameless imitations trying to leech off Tew's original concept. This would be the case if his idea, while fun and original, has little use beyond his website. On the contrary, the clones have proved quite the opposite. Their successes have demonstrated that Tew's Million Dollar Homepage was worth much more than $1 million. Moreover, they have lend legitimacy to the concept of pixel . While the original MDHP has made "internet history" (in Tew's words) by achieving its $1 million goal, it is unlikely to become anything more than just a blip in internet history if the concept is not adopted and refined by others. In fact, most MDHP clones have achieved their riches not by ripping off Tew's site verbatim, but by borrowing his pixel advertising concept and finding creative uses for it. Far from being just a fad, pixel advertising holds an enormous promise as an alternative, cost-effective channel for online advertising. But the concept is still in its infancy, and to avoid becoming internet history, it has to evolve. An important aspect of this evolution is how limitations inherent in the concept itself and in how pixel advertising is being used are addressed. Perhaps the most obvious argument against pixel advertising is that its current use is largely limited to websites with seemingly useless clutters of ads with no content whatsoever. At best these sites offer advertisers little more than a source of non-targeted traffic. An obvious solution to this is to incorporate pixel advertising into content-rich sites. Instead of selling pixel advertising exclusively through a site with nothing but a giant grid of picture ads, banner-sized pixel grids may be incorporated into a site with real content. A good example of this application is the relatively small and unobtrusive pixel panel placed on http://www.ezclassifieds.org/. Since most people go to ezClassifieds.org to post and look at ads, the site is an ideal place to offer pixel advertising to visitors. Obviously, incorporating pixel ads into content sites involves a lot more work than installing a ready-made script on a new domain. It involves developing a content-rich site and *then* offering pixel ads as an alternative to text links and traditional banner ads. Used in this way, pixel ads are at the very least superior to traditional banner ads. Unlike traditional banners, a pixel banner may contain ads for several advertisers. Plus, pixel ads are not confined to predetermined shapes and sizes. Many pixel ad scripts will automatically resize images submitted by advertisers, eliminating the need to edit them to conform to the publisher's requirements. Purchasing pixel ads is usually painless and often fully automated. Since most people have grown accustomed to ignore banner ads, pixel ads are likely to generate higher click-through rates.