Inspired by the buzz surrounding Twitter and the success of the Million Dollar Homepage concept popularised by student Alex Tew in 2005, Tim Bawtree has decided to give it another go with the same property in his new house competition, Pixahome. Players can enter for free by following Tim's Pixahome Twitter profile. In order to raise sufficient funds to give away the property, Tim is hoping to sell up to 10,000 pixel blocks to advertisers wishing to benefit from the publicity surrounding the competition.

Pixel blocks cost from £200 (approx. $325), providing advertisers with an image linking back to their site for at least one year. According to the T&Cs, if less than 95% of the pixel blocks are sold by 31 October 2009, the winner will be handed a cash prize based on 65% of the value of ads sold up to that date. The rest of the prize fund will be used to cover administrative and marketing expenses.

Many readers will remember the media excitement surrounding 21-year old Alex Tew's Million Dollar Homepage four years ago, which saw him sell $1 million of pixel ads on his site to help finance his studies. The experiment seemed to be very successful and spawned a large number of similar sites online, including Alex's own follow-up Pixelotto.com, which culminated in a cash prize of $153,000 for the winner in January 2008 (well below the $1 million prize Alex had initially hoped to raise). Although many observers suggested that far fewer ads may have actually been sold on the Million Dollar Homepage than suggested by Mr Tew, its success from a marketing perspective was undeniable.

On the flipside, Twitter has seen very strong growth lately, with celebrities like Ashton Kutcher overtaking CNN to amass over 2 million followers online. This has led many marketing professionals to view the social network as the "next big thing" online. As of today, the Twitter profile for Pixahome indicates a total of some 1,450 followers - a great start given the very recent launch of the competition. It is likely that a number of these will have been converted from the previous Win a Cheltenham House Facebook group, which has been renamed for this new competition.

While there is little doubt Pixahome will succeed in attracting more Twitter followers, the real challenge will be to attract enough advertisers to buy pixel ads by the end of October. In order to give away such a big prize, each pixel block on the Pixahome homepage is limited in size. The cost-effectiveness of this type of advertising depends on achieving a very large audience over a short period of time. Although users can see a larger image when hovering on each ad, this offers advertisers limited visibility on a page which features numerous other outbound links.

If all goes well and Pixahome succeeds in attracting a very large number of Twitter users over the next few weeks, in turn this may encourage advertisers to join in - in the hope that the site may be as successful as the Million Dollar Homepage. We wish Tim good luck in this third attempt at giving away the Cheltenham House in a house competition and look forward to seeing how it progresses over the coming months.

What do you think? Is this a good idea as an alternative to running a house competition that requires players to buy a ticket to enter? Do you think it is possible to sell enough pixel ads to give away a home of this value?

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Comments & Opinions

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I don't see it

I can't imagine it would make sense for anyone to spend £200 on such a small ad in today's market... I also sense there are a lot of disgruntled players on the facebook group reading some of those comments about the previous competitions! Got to hand it to Tim for perseverance though good luck

Darren Snowden , 16 Jun 2009

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ambitious

Personally I don't think this is possible. Maybe he'll sell a few ads but to fill the whole grid, that's expensive for the advertisers although I don't know much about this kind of thing :) I can't believe Mr Bawtree still has the energy to put the same house in the competition after the last one didn't work out, but good luck to him!

Liz M. , 16 Jun 2009

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Interesting

why not? If he can get lots of twitter followers maybe some advertisers will see value in buying an ad? Doesn't hurt to enter I guess if it's free

flora , 16 Jun 2009

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I've seen loads of these online...

and they never work out... after the million dollar homepage everyone thought this was a quick and easy way of making lots of money online and guess what, nobody managed to make anything out of it.. My guess is even Alex Tew never made $1m and it was all one big marketing ploy. sure you'll get loads of twitter followers but who would want to buy an ad? flawed concept if you ask me

best, Jim

jim , 16 Jun 2009

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Doomed from the outset

Perhaps a harsh judgment, but so very likely. What this organizer seems to have missed is why pixel advertising was a one hit wonder. The value to advertisers is minimal. The problem with these sites is that they provide a very low quality traffic, which in turn translates into few of the visitors actually taking any action or indeed even spending any time on the websites in question. Given most advertisers, and anyone with a notion of marketing online, will know this, I just can't see it working out. I have little doubt they will attract plenty of players, but my bet is come October, their pixel grid will still look very empty. Sorry, but please prove me wrong!

Tom C , 16 Jun 2009

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what a joke

I can't believe the bawtrees have the nerve to do this a 3rd time what is this some kind of joke? guess they made so much money on the previous one without giving the home away they basically see this as a great little money-spinner: just do a new one again and again, never actually intend to give it away, then keep 35% of all the cash! not a bad little earner but not great for those that are still waiting for a refund! quite a few if I read the posts on the HPC forum... Anyway who on earth would want to live underground??

Andre the giant , 17 Jun 2009

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Where is the facebook group??!

I remember checking out some of the comments on Tim's newly-renamed facebook group for this competition just a few days ago... and so many of them were negative that it looks like he took it down! Lots of people were complaining that they never published the expenses report from their previous competitions and that some were still waiting for their refunds... You can still find it by looking on google but it's an old cached version, I think he realised it was doing him more harm than good at this stage... Interesting don't you think?

Jennifer , 18 Jun 2009

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/pixahome or /pixhome????!

There are 2 twitter profiles for pixahome for some reason?

This one is the official one (I think): twitter.com/pixahome (1,606 followers)

Then there's this one: twitter.com/pixhome (6,071 followers)

Reading the comments I think Tim is running both

dogeye , 18 Jun 2009

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Re: Where is the facebook group??!

@ Jennifer,

Thanks for pointing this out; the Facebook group was still running when we published this post. I just took out the old link from the article.

@ Dogeye

According to the instructions on the Pixahome site, both Twitter profiles belong to Tim. One is described as the Blog, whereas the other one was probably just set up to catch more people (including anyone that enters the wrong URL perhaps?).

Team Win House , 18 Jun 2009

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what a joke!

Price per block now down to $100 didn't take them long did it!!! What a ridiculous idea

And what about this? they seem to think people will want to buy these pixel blocks 2nd hand as well? Why, are they going to rise in value given the crazy demand we're seeing at the moment??!

"Do we allow Resellers?

Yes, we do allow resellers. Resellers can purchase Pixel Real Estate to Resell at a Later Date as long as they provide holding images. Any Transfer of Ownership to a new owner will require images, links and content to be approved before going live. All change in Ads must conform to the Terms and Conditions or risk having their ad's suspended."

I can't take this seriously, sorry :D

chocolatefudge , 20 Jun 2009

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Why?

I really do wonder why anyone would try it this way. I've been looking at various ways of doing this myself, but never thought a free competition could be an option. I think it's great for the players, but there is something missing. Most importantly, I wonder what exactly will get the players to click the ads? The original pixel lottery concept required players to click ads in order to enter the draw. In this version there is no longer any incentive except if you're curious. The weakness in Pixel lottery as a form of marketing was that apparently the traffic it generated was of very low quality. Without incentives I think the quality of the traffic might increase, but the volume will be even less. Without traffic the ad space is worthless...So maybe I'm missing something but, with this in mind I have to agree with some of the others here and assume that the oranisers don't really care about the outcome, and have made sure their costs are covered. Insuring yourself as an organiser is perfectly fine and understandable, but if this is your 3rd attempt, you may wish to consider whether you really want to waste people's time again.

Audrey , 23 Jun 2009

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What's happening now???

Hi,
Nothing has happened on the pixahome.com site for a couple of days now, also nothing on Tim Bawtree's twitter page. Is the competition still going ahead? What happens if he fails to get any body else to pay for advertising on his new site? What if he can't even pay for his expenses?? Would that mean nobody even gets a small cash prize?
Maybe the Bawtree's should look into selling the house in a more conventional way, as they don't seem to have a clue how to run an advertising site. The adverts are tiny and nobody even has to go to them to take part in the competition. Not really an incentive to get people to give him money!
Has he published his accounts from the old winthecheltenhamhouse.com site?
His silence isn't very encouraging.

Potty , 26 Jun 2009

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Re: What's happening now???

Hi Potty,
You're so right - and good of you to point out the accounts haven't been published yet on the previous one.. Not very transparent is it
Why would anyone want to buy an ad on his site, isn't the whole point of Twitter that it's supposed to be free? The ads are tiny, the page will over time (if he sells ads) be stuffed full of links, and yes no player has any incentive to click the ads. Once he's sold a few more to his friends and family I suspect the whole thing will quietly die down and we'll soon see the house back on the market before the summer's over mark my words!

Ricky Gervais fan , 26 Jun 2009

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Still no news.

Is there any way of finding out about this competition? It seems to have completely stalled. No updates on Twitter, no more pixels sold on their website and no more press releases. Just a very loud silence.
What's going on??

Potty , 03 Jul 2009

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Re: Still no news.

Hi Potty actually I noticed yesterday they've started hiding affiliate deals in the grid - check out the new AC Lens ad - guess that can help finance the prize in the absence of sales - but it'll take quite a lot of traffic to make that work... no idea what the plan is otherwise

chocolatefudge , 03 Jul 2009

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Re: Still no news.

I'm not convinced that something else isn't going on. The Bawtree's have always had a bit of a penchant for press releases and making as much noise as they can on the web...but nothing for ages on twitter or in the press. Even Tim Bawtrees twitter page hasn't been updated since June 17th.
I'm not so sure that this competition is still active or a viable idea (was it ever!).

Potty , 03 Jul 2009

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Re: Still no news.

IMHO I'd say the family has taken some time off and is probably relaxing somewhere on the Med - I think it's all just slowing right down and there's nothing much to write in terms of updates these days...

chocolatefudge , 03 Jul 2009

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Remarkably negative comments ...

What Tim's trying to do is tough. He has put tons of energy and commitment into his projects, all of which are, in my opinion, straight. Creative people are not usually great administrators, and I'd guess he will in due course get the accounts out and then everyone will see that, far from ripping anyone off, the Bawtrees are probably out of pocket on everything they've done. Nice people, as far as I know -- cut them some slack. It's easier to stand on the sidelines and jeer than actually get off your duff and DO SOMETHING.

George Scott , 04 Aug 2009

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Remarkably negative comments!?

George,
Tim Bawtree still holds a large amount of money from his first competition attempt early last year, that was halted by the GC. Simply google the Grand designs website and the local Cheltenham paper to see many comments from people unable to get a simple reply to emails, let alone refunds from an ILLEGAL competition.

The Bawtrees may be out of pocket, but that does not mean that the 3 competitions have been a good idea or even legal. Tim doesn't even have the decency to update the current pixahome twitter website since 9th July, not really an incentive to people to invest in the Bawtrees, also your comment about creative people not being great administrators...Tim Bawtree is the director of a software company and involved in the Escrow banking industry, hardly a tortured artist!

Far from jeering, I think people are genuinally baffled by the Bawtrees lack of common sense in digging themselves in more and more debt and instead of trying to simply sell their house at a fair valuation, they continue to come up with questionable schemes, to try to clear their massive debts.

George, to conclude, it is admirable to stick up for a friend, but the Bawtrees are running a questionble competition and they still owe refunds on their first illegal competition. Inviting the public to invest in the Bawtrees again is foolish indeed. Competitions are meant to award someone the prize that they advertise. The Bawtrees hasn't on the previous 2 occasions and is now failing to do so on it's third.

potty , 06 Aug 2009

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Nada...

still nothing just checked the site and twitter profiles pixahome is completely dead by the looks of things!?

jimmychoos , 05 Oct 2009

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Re: Pixahome Cheltenham House competition re-launched a 3rd time

A great big silence from Tim Bawtree!!!! What a suprise!

Just out of interest, I wonder where his wife is getting over £21,000 to start her new company swop2shop.co.uk
Not insinuating anything, just curious to know when they will publish the accounts that they promised to publish almost a year ago, for the failed raffles and spot-the-frisbee comp's.

Will Tim Bawtree now choose a "lucky" twitter follower to win a "large cash Prize" from his Pixahome competition?

potty , 19 Oct 2009

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Investigation needed

After visiting the Pixahome website today (wondering whether I had won the Bawtrees "Dream" house" ;), I am absolutely dismayed and flabbergasted that Tim Bawtree is now advertising yet ANOTHER business venture on his Pixahome twitter site. bulb4life seems to be yet one more money spinning, highly questionable Bawtree business.
But he has had the gall to start twittering about how great his new venture is without giving the vaguest hint of how and when the Pixahome shambles is to be ended.

Is Pixahome a competition still?

3 competitions, no house handed over. 2 other Bawtree businesses started and advertised off the back of the Grand Designs house (swop2shop, bulbs4life), not to mention "Twelve Developments" another Bawtree business that "ran" the failed competitions.

What happened to the publics money? What did the Bawtree spend the "expenses" for the last "spot-the-frisbee" competition on? What is happening with the Pixahome competition?

[Last part of comment did not add any new point - edited by admin]

potty , 24 Nov 2009

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winahome4you

Hi there.

Sorry to drag this old thread up to the surface again.

I have come across a Cheltenham based competitions site, which is scarily like Tim Bawtrees old sites for his other 3 failed competitions. winahome4you.com.

The wording in the FAQ's, even the London based solicitor is the same as the Bawtrees other comp's. If this is not the Bawtree's competition then I apologise and wish the organisers well. But if it is ANOTHER Bawtree home competition site, then I think the word should get out about it.

The home is based in Charlton Kings, a 5 minute drive from the Bawtrees house. The twitter, facebook and local magazine campaigns have been delivered in Bawtree style, and Tim Bawtree always said on his other sites that he was looking for other homes to advertise for competitions.

winahome4you is being based on a pretty failed idea, although the £10 ticket price is at least a little cheaper than a lot of other competitions. But yet again the chances of it reaching it's targeted ticket sales in minimal, and the competition FAQ's and conditions leave a huge amount out about how much will be taken out for "Admin, marketing" etc.

Anybody have any info about this venture? Or is it another one to steer clear of?

Potty , 16 Apr 2010

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Re: winahome4you

I looked at the site and although the property is close to the bawtree bunker, the t&cs say that Mr Dean Holmes is the promoter. The lawyers seem to have worked on quite a few of these so I think it's a coincidence doesn't look connected IMO... I'd say it's a separate competition altogether, just happens to be a house in Cheltenham?

Harry , 17 Apr 2010

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Re: winahome4you

If it is the same people again then it would be very dishonest and the lawyers might have to explain themselves if they knowingly advise on something that is not meant to allow anyone to win the house, just a scheme to collect money.

No, I agree with Harry, this just looks like another comp in Cheltenham but not from the same organisers. I haven't come across it before, I don't know how they are doing in terms of ticket sales. Nice site though.

Jen , 17 Apr 2010

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