“Limited Link Marketing” - New Pixel by Pixel Marketing Takes Internet by Storm   - 1,609 Views,

Tew sold all million pixels - the last 1,000 went for more than $38,000 on eBay.

And thus was born a new Internet craze, which we call “limited link marketing” or “pixel marketing”. We call it “limited link marketing” because it relies in part on the marketing concept of scarcity - “we have only X links to sell from this page - better get one while it’s available.”

Following the success of The Million Dollar Homepage, in a variation on the theme, two French marketing students in school in London, Guillaume and Olivier, rolled out the “1000 Word Homepage” on June 17th of this year.

And here is where it gets interesting.

Because the concept was then picked up by some high-level Internet marketing experts, who not only ran with that ball, but improved on it. And further capitalized it.

The next thing you know, we have the “500 Words” site (by Adsense expert Joel Comm), and the “1024 Ads” page (by This is True and Stella Awards publisher Randy Cassingham).

Now, these guys are no students trying to pay back college loans. They are seasoned Internet professionials who know how to grab the Internet bull by its horns and wag it by its tail (er… or something like that).

Explains Joel Comm, “I saw opportunity! It was a cool concept that needed improvement and marketing. I brought both to the table.”

And did he ever. While Olivier and Guillaume’s 1000 Word Page, which launched in mid-June, has sold 33 words total to date, Comm’s 500 Words site, which launched ten days later, has already almost sold out. And with words going for an average of $100 or so, it’s pretty easy math to do.

“This is True” publisher Randy Cassingham’s 1024 Ads site hasn’t even launched yet, and he’s already sold 52 ads.

Asked why he jumped on this “limited link” or pixel marketing bandwagon with his 1024 Ads site, Cassingham explains, “I found the other “buy a word” sites lacking: they made you choose from their list of words, instead of allowing you to specify your own. And what if a short phrase was better? But most important, they seemed so fly-by-night — either vague details on who they were (like “students”) or no information at all. I thought an established online publisher in business for more than a dozen years would have more stability — and credibility.”

In an interesting twist, the students have taken umbrage and are blasting Comm on blogs where he has been featured. Complain Guillaume and Olivier:

“Actually, Joel Comm’s 500Words site is a copycat from “The 1000-Word Page” (http://www.1000wordpage.com) that we launched 10 days ago and that has already generated quite some buzz in the media and blogosphere.

We are very flattered to have someone as famous as Joel imitating our concept since it confirms we had an original and innovative idea. We think however that we will generate more traffic than the copycats (ours is more than doubling day to day) since our positioning is more likely to strike a better chord with the media and blogosphere. They like the fact that we are 2 marketing students using this new concept at the cross-road of online business and artistic experimentation to make some money to pay back our loans, give to a charity that sends computers to Africa and invest in new business ideas that we have.”

It may be that “the media and blogosphere” like it better, but clearly that is not the case with paying advertisers, who are flocking to the limited link marketing sites of seasoned professionals such as Comm.

In fact, so great was the interest in Comm’s launch, that he created a whole new product, Link Sizzler, which allows anyone to easily create their own limited link marketing site.

We asked Comm what was up with that, and he explained that “The Link Sizzler web sites are a more intuitive alternative to the pixel ad sites from 2005. The idea is that anyone can purchase a word that will link directly to their site. When site owners create word-link sites, they are offering their members a novel way to get recognition and traffic. On the site owner side, it’s a great way to monetize an existing membership base.”

And Comm’s Link Sizzler customers are already coming up with creative ideas and running their own limited link marketing sites. Todd Robinson’s 500 Top Blogs Link Sizzler site opened for business on July 3rd. Says Robinson of his decision to put up a limited link marketing site, “I am hoping to truly find the top 500 blogs on the Internet. Bloggers that are willing to pay to be listed truly believe their blog is special. I hope in the long run, this will be the best collection of blogs on the Internet.”

And in one final bizarre twist, the site which started it all, the Million Dollar Homepage, was threatened with a lawsuit earlier this year by Million Dollar Weight Loss. Million Dollar Weight Loss was the advertiser who paid $38,100 for the last 1,000 pixels on the Million Dollar Homepage. When the Millon Dollar page was subjected to a denial of service attack (DOS) and taken offline for six days, Million Dollar Weight Loss threatened to sue because their ad was not online during that time.