That Ain’t Working – Bizarre Internet Success Stories

Posted on 04. Dec, 2009 by Jake in Unusual

Some people spend their lives studying, honing their craft and grafting hard to put food on the table. Others simply think of a bizarre internet get rich quick scheme, execute it and then sit back and laugh all the way to the bank. Reading about these bizarre, unlikely money-making success stories, one is left with the impression that the people who started these sites are either geniuses or just incredibly stupid and incredibly lucky.

1. The Million Dollar Homepage
In 2005 a 21-year-old English student named Alex Tew had an idea to help with his university fees – he started a website arranged in a 1000 x 1000 pixel grid and sold each pixel for a dollar to advertisers (Tew felt that people were more likely to respond to the idea if he used dollars rather than pounds). Despite the fact that the result is one of the most boring and spam-heavy sites in history, Tew succeeded in selling all the space on his site, and grossed over a millon dollars in the process. The site is still up there, and you can go see it, if you really want to – it’s a pointless if colourful slice of history.

2. Save Toby

Few people have ever mixed black humour with internet entrepeneurship, which is why Save Toby deserves a place in history. The site features pictures of a cute bunny rabbit, with its anonymous webmasters threatening to cook and eat Toby unless they receive $50,000 in donations to care for. Banking details were provided, as were a variety of rabbit recipe, just to show that they were ‘serious’. One could make a donation or buy a variety of ‘Save Toby’. Since the sites creators remained anonymous, it’s unclear how much money they made off the website, or, in fact, if Toby actually exists/existed. Just in case he does/did, good news for animal lovers is that Toby was saved by Bored.com, who bought the site, thereby sparing Toby from the pot.

3. John Chow

His site adorned with the tag ‘I Make Money Online By Telling People How To Make Money Online’, John Chow is the ultimate internet entrepeneur, as he appears to make money for no apparent good reason. He has 50 000 plus followers on Twitter, despite the fact that his tweets include links to pictures of his lunch (BBQ chicken and chips) and advice on where to get customised M&Ms. According to Chow himself. ‘I am best known for his famous quote “My World! My Rules!” and “Oh well.”’ According to most others, Chow is best known for having a high-profile battle with Google, which has since been resolved but saw Chow’s popularity and fame skyrocket, to the point that now, by his own admission, he makes roughly $40 thousand a month from clicking the occasional button.