Million dollar idea, really

This new marketing monstrosity was called ‘‘The Million Dollar Homepage’’ — 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. Tuesday’s bidding reached $152,300, putting him over the million-dollar mark.

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

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

Others say it’s a brilliant, one-time marketing aberration that will never be replicated. Whatever it is, the Million Dollar Homepage isn’t a pretty site — even as it nears completion and begins a guaranteed minimum five-year lifespan. —Reuters