Interview with The Toss Pot .

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

My name's Mark and I’m based in the UK. I set up The DinnerTimes as an online newspaper but as my journalistic skills are far from 'brushed up', it was easier to just write about what was going on around me and let visitors do the same. I love interactive sites as they're unpredictable. The Toss Pot ( http://www.thedinnertimes.com/tosspot ), my spin on Alex’s Million Dollar Homepage, just seemed to fit into the whole thing nicely.

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

Yup same here. I can't actually remember where I first got the link to the MDH, but I'll admit I was very jealous. I always am when someone gets a really simple idea and makes a fortune from it, as you always ask yourself 'why didn't I think of that?'. 21 years old and more cash than a lot will earn in a lifetime.

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

I wrote my own. Once I realised how many pixel ad sites were out there, and how people were cashing in on his idea by almost claiming they wrote the script, I just decided to have a bit of a go at doing it myself. I think it adds a bit of a 'unique' spin on it too, and it really was the only way to get it to match the rest of my site rather than looking like something that had just landed in there. (if anyone wants the scripts, and knows a bit about PHP, then I’ll quite happily give them to you if you buy a couple of blocks on the Toss Pot and/or send me a nice email. If you're extra generous I might even do the rest for you). Apologies for the shameless plug there lol.

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

Advertising isn't the focus as such. It's not about companies; it's about public embarrassment of people you might not like much. So if your ex has cheated on you, or something like that, post a picture of them (pretty much anything goes as long as it's legal) and write a description of why you're posting them, and then just send the link around. I'm still working on new ideas to make the whole thing even more appealing, but the concept seems to stand on its own. People can place a website link if they choose, but that's not the main focus. Even if a person has only bought a 1x1 block, when viewers click on it, the full picture is revealed.

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

Well it's still new, so I’m yet to enjoy the sort of hits that a lot of these pixel ad sites get. To be honest, from the traffic that's come into the site so far, it seems to be the name of it that draws people straight to the 'toss pot' page. Seems like a universal thing too, as Americans, Europeans and Aussies have all 'drifted' towards that as well as us Brits.

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?

A chance to publicly humiliate their ex partner or someone else, without going as far as cutting up/burning their clothes or keying their car lol. Blocks are 8x8 pixels, and each block is £1 at the moment (about $1.76usd). There aren't any guarantees of traffic yet, but from getting feedback from people who have seen it, they've stated they'd definitely pass on the link to friends, especially those that know the 'tosser'. I think the thing to remember is that the site's not about drumming up traffic for other sites, but more so about having some fun. I'd have killed for something like this when I was working in an office, as there were plenty of tossers that I worked with lol.

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 think people are getting bored of them already. I don't actually think the market is completely saturated, as advertising will always be on every medium we use in some form or other. But I just think that the whole pixel thing isn't really 'quirky' and 'amazing' anymore, and doesn't get people saying 'wow, I wish I’d have thought of that' as much. Alex Tew's site was very interpersonal - his blog actually kept you there, and actually made you feel like you'd got to know him a bit more, therefore I think people just liked and trusted him enough to buy his idea.

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

Honestly? The original. And so far, only the original has made me think ‘wow’. Some of them seem just too desperate for money (ok, Alex seemed that way too, but he did it first and he did it properly) that you kind of forget who’s doing the advertising - the site or its advertisers. Some of them are just clumsy (badly designed and coded), and I cannot believe how many people have just copied a lot of the text from the original site and not bothered to do it themselves. And whilst I don’t feel sorry for Alex (as I don’t for anyway that’s made that much money), I just think far too many of the sites have passed the idea off as their own without even so much as a nod towards the original inventor. The one concept that came from Pixel Ads that I DID like was the ads that people can stick on their own sites (like the Gooooogle ads, but pixels instead). I think it can add a bit of colour and spice to your site if you DO choose to have banner ads, as the Google ones just look a bit nasty now. Actually I just remembered one that I kind of like - http://www.milliondollarlondon.co.uk/ And one I don’t like, just because of a lack of inventiveness - http://www.milliondolarhomepage.com (MDH with one L in ‘dollar’) but it’s a potential gold mine just because of people miss-spelling, so fair play to them for that.

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

Yeah I just think everyone should enjoy pixel ads whilst they’re here, but try and at least give the concept a bit of a spin rather than just ripping the original idea exactly. I don’t reckon they’ll disappear over night, but I do reckon that viewers will get immune to them just like other banner ads and suchlike that are on sites now.