Interview with Talkfolio.

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

Hi, I am a student artist from London. I am doing this just for my interest. talkfolio is a homepage all about art & design. My intention is to build the biggest ever art & design portfolio online. My idea is simple.

Create a cyber space to gather art & design portfolio around the world. Create a cyber gallery to link all artists and designers together under a single website. Create a platform for students or professionals to gain publicity.

If you are an artist, web designer, graphic designer, fashion designer, etc., here is the ideal place for you to marketing your product. The picture I always imagine is where talkfolio is the homepage that have thousands photography of artworks, sketches, colours, lines etc. The end result of the homepage will be a cluttered collage of ‘Arts’.

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

I was thinking about creating this piece of cyber art about 2 years ago, but I always wondering how can I do it and where do I get the funding. Recently, the Internet is been overwhelmed with the concept of ‘selling pixel’, a new phenomenon of online marketing. By adopting this 'pixel ads' concept, I think the talkfolio will work really well not only from the marketing point of view but also to create a piece of art.

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

I am using basic Dreamweaver and Photoshop technique. The configuration of the homepage is straightforward. No complicated scripts involved.

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

Talkfolio is a homepage with only art and design web links. I could have offered the pixels to everyone easily but if I do so the homepage will be just a mess with links to all sort funny website. I hope this homepage will be a pure piece of 'Art' for the art lover.

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

Honestly, I started this website on a very limited budget. The plan is to reinvest the money received from the sales to upgrade the site as well as advertising. All of this means more exposure and more traffic. I believe my homepage is the only ‘pixel ads’ homepage that special only for art and design. (Sorry if I am wrong)

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?

I am selling the pixel in ‘block’. Each block is made up of 10x10 pixels, equivalent to 100 pixels per block. Each block is now sell for only US$1.00, you can buy as many as you like to suit the size of your image (portfolio) you wish to appear on the screen. The image (portfolio) will be hyperlinked to you own website.

The website was launched in November 2005, since it started the traffic had steady increased. Although it may not be as popular as the MDHP, but I believe in the long term, I believe it will be taken off. With the current price of only US$1.00; in long term, it will be a worthwhile investment.

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?

I quite agree that all the ‘pixel sites’ will be gradually slow down once the "MillionDollarHomepage" has filled up. But the basic ‘pixels’ concept will still be stay on, and more interestingly the online marketing will get to the next generation.

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

Every pixel page came with a unique concept. I don't like copy-cats or site based on the Million Dollar Homepage script. Good luck to all the ‘pixel website’ authors. Thanks to Alex for creating such an interesting ‘game’. You deserve to make a million.

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

Good luck to you all.