Million dollar homepage

Why it worked only once

If you haven't already heard about this website, just search for it on Google and you'll find it quickly.

I have some humble opinions about why this website worked only once to make money and why it will never work again.

Originality
The idea by itself is completely original. The creator of the website was just selling pixels where advertisements can be placed. This is very different from already existing advertising methods - the key to why it became so popular. I think that even clever hybrids of the idea will not earn money, such as selling advertisement words or characters on a website, just because they don't really push the boundary enough.

The audience
The targeted audience of the million dollar homepage was - marketers. Marketers are a breed of people who always look for places where a lot of people crowd (even if the crowd is other marketers). So, just saying that this page was receiving millions of visitors was enough to bring new curious marketers into the crowd.

The million dollar homepage also instantly offered a way to monetize on the visiting marketers, by allowing them to buy pixels. The curiosity of the crowd grew go strong that they could not resist to give up their dollars, and in many cases with great return on the advertising money spent!

The lesson
Be original! But also look for nice ways to quickly monetize your idea, because otherwise it might not earn anything.