Vote: Will this earn me $1m?

[Robert Black]

Do you have a blog or website? I'm holding a (admittedly very cheeky) poll for my new website - do you think I can make its key idea succeed a second time, through creative marketing?

Note that you don't vote in this poll in quite the usual way - there's a small twist

MillionDollarCu.be/vote

Thanks
Robert Black

p.s. If you end up wondering how the site is supposed to work, refer to MillionDollarCu.be/blog - there's a quick summary at the top of the page. Or see The Power of an Idea, or even just visit the site's home page to see the ads in question.

[Robert Black]

As an aside, it's impressive how much traffic flows from posting a question to the forums here!

[Doku]

Hmm... to "vote" yes, or no, they have to link your site, which boosts your google rank.

Interesting google hack.

[Blueskied]

It's basically the same as the legendary Million Dollar Homepage.
I don't get that 3d cube stuff. You are selling flat ad space, what's that got to do with a cube?

[Robert Black]

Originally Posted by Blueskied

It's basically the same as the legendary Million Dollar Homepage.

Exactly! But it's never been done again successfully, ever. Many argue that it can't be done again.

But I think it can, perhaps once more, if done well enough. Whether The Cube of 100 is enough of a new twist to catch the wind will be borne out I'm sure.

Friends, family, clients and friends of friends have all chipped in to buy pixels, and now I'm starting to get some traction with Australian press and bloggers. I've had sales from the south of France to South America.

The thing is, it's a classic chicken and egg dilemma - how does one sell enough pixels before the site has proven it will work, to convince people that it's working, or a least likely to work? I think it boils down to creative and determined marketing.

The first site had sheer originality going for it, but the copy-cat sites that followed hot on its heels all failed due to a lack of any originality, and close proximity to each other in the marketplace. Years later it's now a long established and accepted orthodoxy that the million pixel feat can never be repeated, and no one's trying. That's a blind spot.

I'm making a bet that adding a fresh new twist, a dash of larrikin humour, some good design and writing, and a lot of elbow grease can get people's tongues wagging that some upstart is actually doing what everyone says is impossible

At this point I can't see any downside in trying, and the payoff if I can will it to work is USD$1m, which sitting here in Australia would be AUD$1,436,000 given today's currency exchange rate.

In the mean time I'm not complaining: I've earned enough to pay for all my time in setting up the site and then some - I'm into profit territory now

So I ask you all (as fellow aspiring entrepreneurs) to vote on whether you think I'll succeed: MillionDollarCu.be/vote/

If you vote in your blog, post a link to it in this thread so others can visit your blog and see how you voted

Cheerio from Australia
Robert Black

[Robert Black]

Originally Posted by Doku

Hmm... to "vote" yes, or no, they have to link your site, which boosts your google rank.

Interesting google hack.

Well, I don't think of it so much as a Google hack, as a social hack

How about 'social networking hack'?

[Doku]

Originally Posted by Robert Black

Well, I don't think of it so much as a Google hack, as a social hack

How about 'social networking hack'?

I think I was looking for Google Bomb. There is a term, other than SEO, that describes getting hundreds of outside links from other sites for the sole purpose of increasing your google page rank. I just can't remember what the term is.

[Orange]

I know the million dollor home page only worked becuase of the amount of publicity it got. He got onto Tv lots talking about what he was doing

[Robert Black]

Originally Posted by Blueskied

I don't get that 3d cube stuff. You are selling flat ad space, what's that got to do with a cube?

This probably won't change your mind, but if you now look at the right side of the home page, you'll find a translucent cube that shows the 100 hundred layers inside the cube - as you move your mouse cursor over the main grid, the cube on the right shows what layer that ad is in. It's easier to just go look...

MillionDollarCu.be - so small it's big



Did you see how the cube on the right changed as you moved your mouse over the grid?

So that's how 1 million pixels fit into such a small cube. The side of the cube is 100 pixels wide by 100 pixels high, and the cube is 100 layers deep.

But it all boils down to this being an abstract concept - that I can pack pixels into a virtual cube, but then slice that cube up into flat layers to display the ads within. (the pixel itself is an abstract concept)

That's okay if that doesn't do anything for you, but I thought I'd try to explain the thinking behind it. Personally, I find the fact that a cube with sides just 100 pixels long contains 1,000,000 pixels to be fascinating and inherently counter-intuitive. It's so small!

[Blueskied]

Ok, it's just a gimmick that makes the concept harder to understand (and thus worse than the original 1M$ page) and an excuse to try the same thing again.
But if i've counted right, you already earned 13400$ with the site.
That's quite good!
986.600$ to go.