Interview with ClickMeDots.

First of please introduce yourself and your site to our readers?

Hi, my name is Jeremy Hagon and I run a million dollar pixel site called ClickMeDots.com.

Most people have been inspired by the Million Dollar Homepage, where did you get your inspiration from?

Yip! Same here I’m afraid. Alex has this strange power of all of us making us believe that any one can make a million (we all wish!) I was inspired by his idea and quickly set to work on ClickMeDots.com as soon as I had watched the news report on Sky News. The website was designed and ready to go before the name servers became active!!!

What software do you use to run your pixel page and why did you choose it?

At the moment ClickMeDots.com is running on MS-IIS and the pages are basic HTML. I shall take the time to convert parts to ASP so it can be database driven - when traffic and sales increase.

What makes your site different or special, what angle have you taken for your Pixel page?

The concept is the same, but I think the layout is more commercially viable. A lot of the pixel sites out there use have been developed from the same script and all look the same. They look’s a bit “underground”. I have designed the site to be more commercially reflective and offer a personal upload service via email, not as a means of laziness, but as a means of control and it ensures that I stay on top of the project at all times.

The original pixel page generated traffic mainly through viral marketing mainly spawned by media interest, how do you generate traffic to your site?

I have taken the steps to submit to all search engines, pages like yours (thank you!) and ensure that we get listed on all the Top Sites pages. Emails have gone out to friends and family here in the UK as well as the US. We don’t know what to expect, but if we can make $40k p/a then we will be happy, and of course - the longer the site takes to fill, the longer the site gets updated!

What do you offer potential advertisers, how much do you charge and how much traffic do you envisage an advertiser could generate by advertising with you?

We can offer an advertiser at present the chance to become part of internet history…blah blah, you’ve heard it all before from Alex.. But it is true! Unlike the index’s of Google and such, when you advertise a certain product on these pixel sites you can be damn sure that it won’t be near any competitors ad! That and the uniqueness of the ad makes it fun! I can also see many spin off’s into the offline world using this type of advertising in the future. Cars with Logo’s all over - and I mean ALL OVER - not your normal racing car type. Burger Wrappers? Magazines? Well - they sort of already do that with the “back page ads”, but I’m sure there are 1'000,000 other uses for this type of advertising.

Currently the top 5 Alexa ranked pixel sites enjoy a lot of interest from the public. How long do you think this will last, is there a long term future for pixel pages?

Ah! Who can tell? A month is good? 2 weeks is good? Depends on the next level. Someone will of course think of the next level and the original idea will be remembered again! I think there is a long term future for pixel advertising, in all wakes of lif.

Besides your own pixel page, which other pixel page do you secretly admire and why?

There are a few, I click around the list’s and see them. Can’t really name them (cause I can’t remember!) but they are not in the Top 10. I generally don’t go there (unless for registration etc..). One banner I saw which was to the point was “Help me raise money so I can get my BMW!” - Fair Play!

Thanks for your time in answering these questions. Before you go are there any comments you want to impart to our pixel hungry readership?

Just please go visit the site! We are raising money for a children’s charity as my partner is running the London Marathon this year and needs to raise 1800UKP in order to run. Up to 5% of the profits from ad sales will go to this charity.