Million dollar idea, really

This new marketing monstrosity was called 8216;8216;The Million Dollar Homepage8217;8217; 8212; since Tew stood to make a million bucks milliondollarhomepage.com. He put the last thousand pixels up for auction on eBay 10 days ago with a 1 starting bid for the lot. Tuesday8217;s bidding reached 152,300, putting him over the million-dollar mark.

8216;8216;I8217;m half-expecting a last-minute flurry of bids. I think it is going to go higher,8217;8217; says Tew, whose initial investment to set up the pixel page was less than 100.

8216;8216;I never imagined things would get to the level that they have.8217;8217; Unsure initially that a single pixel would sell, Tew felt the idea had potential, so he aimed high. 8216;8216;I asked myself the question, 8216;How could I become a millionaire?8217; Twenty minutes later I had the answer,8217;8217; he says. The phenomenon has been hailed by some as a genre-changing concept in online marketing 8212; otherwise an advertising badlands of spam, banner ads and pop-ups.

Others say it8217;s a brilliant, one-time marketing aberration that will never be replicated. Whatever it is, the Million Dollar Homepage isn8217;t a pretty site 8212; even as it nears completion and begins a guaranteed minimum five-year lifespan. 8212;Reuters