Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2010, in the present and future tense, for example saying Alex will have to face a trial. His later career is not reflected; he went on to co-found the meditation app Calm in 2012.
The creator of The Million Dollar Homepage (themilliondollarhomepage.com), Alex Tew, came up with a business at the age of 21 that could have occurred to anyone. A web page is made up of roughly 1,000,000 pixels. Young as he was, Alex had the idea of auctioning every pixel on his page on eBay as advertising space, at $1 per pixel.
The result of his project: by mid-2005, Alex had a little sign on his page that read “Sold out”.
So, with some simple maths, Alex made $1,000,000 from this venture. This example shows that there is always a way: an idea that, however silly it may seem, can become the business of the century.
According to North American sources, the problems began with Alex Tew’s success. His page received so many messages that Alex didn’t have time to answer everyone.
One of those messages warned that one of his advertisers would be hit by a cyberattack. The threat was carried out, knocking the Million Dollar Homepage offline for a few days.
After the success came the problems. Alex faced the American courts, where he was being asked to pay a $50,000 fine for breach of an advertising contract.
At such a young age, Alex will have to deal with a resounding success, a trial and legal fees. That’s a lot to digest in a short time.
We often talk here about how to achieve success, how to get there and so on… but nobody prepares us to defend ourselves from the people who, once we’ve made it, will start trying to bring us down and push us over the edge.
See also: 7 kinds of businesses aimed at millionaires you probably didn’t know existed
Whatever happens, Alex will come away with the experience and the lesson that making a million dollars is incredibly easy. All it takes is a good idea.
Further reading
- 15 business ideas nobody has exploited yet
- How to start a business with no money
- Business ideas built around services for companies
- Financial education: the road to debt
Featured image: Steven Isaacson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
