Do pixel sites offer any value to advertisiers?

[GoSarah]

Can any one offer any advice about pixel sites. I keep getting offered advertising on pixel sites but I'm not sure whether it offers any value.

Do internet users really use these pixel sites to find products and services and click on any of the ads?.

Do they have any value with regards to search engine optimisation or could they be considered a link farm?

There is a lot of buzz about these sites at the moment but can they offer a viable advertising vehicle?

[DrTandem1]

The first time I heard of one of these sites was in the news for milliondollarhomepage.com. If their testimonials can be believed, then the answer to your question is yes. However, I find it more of a fad than a good way to advertise.

What made it good initially was the novelty of selling the pixels by a student.

[mikmik]

Can any one offer any advice about pixel sites. I keep getting offered advertising on pixel sites but I'm not sure whether it offers any value.

Don't open spam.

[scarytruth]

The one thing about Marketing is what may work for one person; may not work for another. Research Research Research. Internet Marketing is 85% research and 15% taking action.

[Gary Golden]

It is a fad! Personally one I would never waste a dime on, I am amazed that the news even picked up on this and quite honestly I think they scour the web for ideas that do not make any sense.

Has anyone seen a pixel site with any rankings on the search engines?

[mavahntooth]

it is a unique idea that make them rich... hmmm i hope i come up in the net with a unique idea too.

[SEOforGoogle]

Do pixel sites offer any value to advertisiers?

If they bought a large amount of space, all they get is a lil bit of brand name exposure, and a link to their site.

As stated earlier, it's a fad and should be added to the list with Link Farms and FFA sites...

[marcel]

Warning, my opinion is heavily biased since I own http://targetedpixels.com. If you don't care, read on...

MDHP clones are fads but advertising a good product within a related context will never be a a fad. I strongly believed targeted pixel campaigns work.

See a targeted pixel campaign example: http://01ftp.com

01FTP.com uses pixel advertising from TargetedPixels.com. Our faithful audience is interested in technology, any advertisers interested in webmasters and a tech crowd would benefit.

Here is an example:
I'm testing pixel advertising on 01FTP.COM. 01FTP.com is 3+ years old and listed on *moz, it gets over 80,000 page views per month. Our members are faithful and happy with the 01FTP.com service. Usage has actually increased since I added pixel ads.

At $4 per CPM our advertising should cost $19200, over 5 years.

But with pixel advertising 01FTP.com offers 3 years of pixel ads at $0.1 per pixel. So a branded 5 years of branding and advertising on a 100 x 100 pixel box will cost $1000. I don't think PPC or CPM advertising can beat that.

Targeted pixel advertising offers a large advantage over PPC. See this unfinished article I'm writing:
http://targetedpixels.com/why-use-targeted-pixels
To advertise on 01FTP.com see: http://targetedpixels.com/order?pixelspaceid=1

[JKomp]

A site fully of crappy little pics linking to unrelated site is not somewhere i would want my web design company associated with.

[marcel]

Originally Posted by JKomp

A site fully of crappy little pics linking to unrelated site is not somewhere i would want my web design company associated with.

A tiny 10x10 ad will hardly do any branding.

But a 50x50 or 100x100 ad will definatly help brand your business.

[JKomp]

100 by 100 would cost $10,000 really worth it?

[marcel]

Originally Posted by JKomp

100 by 100 would cost $10,000 really worth it?

A 100x100 ad will go for $100 and last 3 months.
I changed my pricing just for you.

Adsense or CPM ads could never beat this, and that's not a idle boast.

[dannywirken]

It all depends on how many visitors you do get on the pixel page.

[marcel]

Originally Posted by dannywirken

It all depends on how many visitors you do get on the pixel page.

Traffic is easy the easy part ... :)

For example, on 01FTP.COM, we get 800,000 pageviews per year, and 30,000 Unique visitors per year. It's also listed on some of the best directories out there. BTW, 01FTP.com is at last 2 years old.

You see the ads are not displayed on cheap singles pages. It's displayed on mature valuable web properties, with an active userbase. It's cheaper than adbrite and adsense combined.

[marcel]

Article on click fraud
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003856

[encoder]

Any form of advertisements, like pixels, can attract a visitor. My question is will that visitor buy or remain as visitor? I guess it will depend on the presentation of the website to attract the visitor to buy the product.

[onfrench]

Consumer value is what the original Milliondollarhomepage and the vast majority of its copycats lack: they are untargeted and do not attract enough visitors to make it worth any advertiser's while. The original created a buzz because of the traffic it generated, but once it was completed, it remained what it always was: a spammy-looking site with no value for consumers or advertisers.

I only heard about the page after it was completed, so I missed all the buzz. Yet, I was impressed... Not for the original idea per se, but for the possible greater idea behind it. What the original brought was the idea of advertising at the nano scale (nanoadvertising?), and that is a great idea if you look at it with foresight and forget all about the business model - if any - of the original.

Take a look at www.mindfreeze.com. It is an initiative from another British student and, in my humble opinion, the only pixel idea that can give value to pixel advertising, and work for advertisers and consumers. First, pages are targeted, not a cocktail of random ads that pollute each other and make pixel pages look so much like advertising on steroids...
Second, it is based on two search engines that interact with each other. Mindfreeze finds the pages specific to your product, and each page has an integrated search function that allows to refine the search. (They have a demo online. Try it.)
Result: streamlined research capability for consumers; no need to go down lists and lists of unrelated results on google or other search engines. Targetting and streamlining create value in the eyes of the consumer.

Value = traffic.
Traffic generates traffic.
Traffic = value for advertisers, at a fraction of the cost.

And because images can be enlarged, you can actually do some branding on a 10X10 box.


So...
Are pixel sites worth budget money? At the current juncture, everybody is right in saying no way in hell.

But give it a few weeks: they just might, and then some.