Are million dollar wikis scams?

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In 2005, Alex Tew came up with a radical idea to make money online by setting up a MillionDollarHomePage where a million pixels were sold at $1 each to generate $1million. He succeeded. Many million dollar page clones surfaced after that to try and cash in on the idea but none have had any kind of success in making money.

Now there seems to be a revival thanks to the Million Dollar Wiki, an adaptation of the original idea which instead of selling pixels, sells 10,000 pages for $100 each to generate the million dollars. For $100, you buy a page which you own for life. You can put whatever you want on your page. The Million Dollar Wiki site itself is “guaranteed” to last at least 15 years.

Following a paid review in a popular blog, the Million Dollar Wiki got the buzz it needed although its background story of a student needing funds for his studies was identical to Alex Tew. Even more publicity was generated with the purported sale of its “Business” page on eBay for over $6,000. This spurred more buys as people think they can really make fast cash with it. Over 1,000 pages have been sold so far.

Jumping On The Wiki Bandwagon

Hot on its heels came the Million Euro Wiki with each page selling for Euro75. This was promptly sold by the founder not long after it was launched. If I had bought a page, I would feel cheated because it feels like a scam that the owner would sell off so soon after launching. I could almost imagine the original owner sniggering at those who bought a page.

Several cheaper versions have sprung up, Five Dollar Wiki costs $5 a page while One Buck Wiki costs $10 per page having increased its price after selling its first 1,000 pages. WordHugger sells a word for $60 and brands them as “micro investments - the internet’s virtual real estate gold”. There is even a free one, Spamipedia which lives up to its name being overrun by spam.

What Are The Benefits Of Owning a Paid Wiki Page?

Besides the usual claim that you would be owning a piece of internet history (insert rolling eyes here), paid wikis are suppose to generate organic traffic from buying pages with targeted keywords. With so many wikis springing up, whatever organic traffic generated would be diluted among the similar keywords. No prizes for guessing what the popular keywords are.

For example, I bought a page for a certain keyword at One Buck Wiki. Almost immediately, someone bought the same keyword phrase at Five Dollar Wiki and Million Dollar Wiki. At $10, I wouldn’t mind trying out of curiosity without any expectations but definitely not $100 or Euro75. I haven’t thought about what to do with the page yet but I’m starting to have this sinking feeling that I’ve just thrown away $10.

Making Money From A Wiki

According to this page on Million Dollar Wiki, it shows a list of people who are making money with their wiki page from selling affiliate links, referral programmes and by providing a variety of services. Out of the list, about 8 to 10 people have made $50 - $900 from their page.

They might be making money from the viral traffic generated by the current hype but after that fizzles out, what would figures be like? For the moment, the only people who are guaranteed a chunk of money are the founders of paid wikis and the A-list bloggers they recruit to generate the hype.

Paid Wikis Are Mostly Hype

Let’s face it. If John Chow and other popular bloggers had not blogged about the Million Dollar Wiki would it have been this successful? Probably not, even though it does have a slight twist in selling pages instead of links or pixels.

It’s hard to see how its immediate clone, Million Euro Wiki could have taken off at all if it hadn’t been started by John Cow who wrote the review as a third party when in fact he was the founder - a point which strangely seemed to have gone completely over the heads of his supporters. I’m also taken aback by the ferocity of some comments dished out to Angel who pointed this out and others who commented unfavourably on it.

My Favourite Million Dollar Homepage

And on that fun note, I’m off to my week long vacation in Yunnan, China. But not to worry, I’ve some interesting posts timestamped for publication over the week so do check in. I’ll reply to your comments when I get back.

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Tags: milliondollarpage, milliondollarwiki, millioneurowiki, onebuckwiki, fivedollarwiki

Comments

7 Responses to “Are million dollar wikis scams?”

Athlyn on November 4th, 2007 12:26 am

What an excellent site. Your common-sense ideas are greatly appreciated, for all of us who are trying to monetize our blogs.

I’ve included links to your site at my writing-related blog as well as: http://makealivingfromyourcomputer.blogspot.com

I’m going to review your site on both of these blogs at a future date.
emigre on November 11th, 2007 2:49 pm

Athlyn

Thanks for your kind comments and your kind offer of a review.

Do drop by again soon.

cheers
emigre
bloggingzoom.com on November 13th, 2007 10:57 am

Are Million Dollar Wikis Scams?…

In 2005, Alex Tew came up with a radical idea to make money online by setting up a MillionDollarHomePage where a million pixels were sold at $1 each to generate $1million.

Now there seems to be a revival thanks to the Million Dollar Wiki, an adaptatio…
Does Blogging Zoom Bring Traffic? | Some Useless Info on November 26th, 2007 2:11 pm

[…] Are million dollar wikis scams? […]
Graham on December 3rd, 2007 8:45 am

http://www.milliondollarwiki.com is for sale, so come place your bid and be the second in line for this pump and dump business. I succeeded in stealing 100K from everyday people. Now it is up for sell for you to do the same. Come make history again. http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/16778
Million Dollar Wiki For Sale | Some Useless Info on December 3rd, 2007 4:01 pm

[…] Comments Are million dollar wikis scams? […]
Yet Another Useless Wiki | Some Useless Info on December 13th, 2007 11:08 am

[…] Are million dollar wikis scams? […]