I have recently found myself with considerable debt, accumulated during my years at Queen’s University. My step-dad saved my butt by co-signing a low-interest loan, giving me time to pay off my debt. I have, however, been left without the means to start making loan payments. I have a few leads for jobs that will allow me to pay off my debt in entirety before I attend BCIT next year, but for now I have to play the waiting game. It is frustrating how long some companies take to make hiring decisions.

Back to the topic on hand: two people – college students my age – have both capitalized on a single idea that has made them both a small fortune. The idea is simple: sell units of *something* on a website and publicly state your goal to make a million dollars. The original, MillionDollarHomePage, sold pixels for a dollar each on a 1000×1000 pixel space. Within four months, all million pixels had been sold, earning Alex Tew an impressive million dollars. A year later, MillionDollarWiki showed up, which is selling ten thousand wiki pages for $100 each.

Based on the same idea, and without precedent, why have these two ideas shared so much success? The answer is simple: for a relatively low cost to buyers/advertisers, they offer exposure to the thousands of daily visitors who are intrigued by the idea. In addition, owners of space on these sites share traffic generated by the entire community.

With so much focus on online promotion today, I believe there is still money to be made from this idea, the question is: how? How can I sell space on a website in a unique and attractive way?