In the first few weeks Alex began by selling to friends and relatives

[zihadhasan019]

After two weeks he had managed to sell 4,700 pixels to only people he knew. At this point, Alex created and launched a press release about his idea and success thus far. The press release was picked up by the BBC, and spread virally both on and offline from there. By New Years of 2005, the site was seeing in excess of 25,000 unique visitors per hour, with more than 999,000 pixels sold.


Alex auctioned the remaining 1,000 pixels on eba uk email address list y for $38,100. After all was said and done, Alex estimates he cleared between $650,000-$700,000. Notable Features of the Viral The crucial thing in creating the media interest was the idea itself: it was unique and quirky enough to stand out. I only had to push the idea a bit in the first few days by sending out a press release which essentially acted as a catalyst. This interest coupled with traditional word-of-mouth created a real buzz about the homepage, which in turn created more interest.




—Alex Tew, 22 February 2006 1. Uniqueness & Originality - It's safe to say this idea will never work the same way again. It was successful first and foremost because it was a unique/novel idea. 2. Seeding and Promotion - Unproven ideas are hard to get behind. Alex was very smart to sell a good number of pixels sold BEFORE doing a press release. This added the legitimacy needed for an organization like the BBC to pick it up.