Popularized by a perspicacious and enterprising British student named Alex Tew in 2005, the phenomenon known as pixel advertising has been making quite a name for itself. In actuality, Tew’s “Million Dollar Homepage,” for which he charged 1 dollar per pixel and made within five months time, a million dollars, was not the very first time pixel advertising reared its most interesting head. Its debut was in 2004 when a “one pixel ad” campaign appeared on eBay. The winning bidder was offered a chance to bid on an ad on the front page of, believe it or not, a site named cockeyed.com for 21 days, using a pixel ad placed at the top of the home page. Pixels went undisturbed until August of 2005 when Tew appeared on the scene.
The term pixel advertising specifically refers to visual ads placed on the web, which have their cost calculated dependent on the number of pixels, which they occupy. Today more than 500 web sites sell pixel ads. Generally, they follow Tew’s million-dollar pattern, selling pixel ads in 100 pixel “blocks” as “cell ads” because this is the smallest size possible to display anything and at the same time remain clickable. Some web sites have opted for additional features, which permit a larger image to appear when visitors hover the cursor over the ad. Keyword advertising in which text links rather than graphic advertising space is sold is considered a variation of pixel advertising.
The question remains: Is pixel advertising here to stay? It may be too early to tell for sure, but some feel its uniqueness will soon wear off like a flash in the pixel pan, so to speak. Others state that these “micro ads” may have a future in terms of fund raising for charities or other good causes.
Time will tell and as usual, it waits for no man, woman or pixel.
http://searchcircus.com/pixeladvertising.htm
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