How does this site work?

MillionDollarFlashGame.com contains a Flash game I made that's surrounded by 9,620 blocks. Advertisers can place ads on any of those blocks for a rate of around $100 per block, occasionally more.  Once all the ad blocks are sold, I'll have made a million dollars.

Who are you?

My name is Derek Hanson and I'm a medical student from New Jersey.  I've got about a year to go before I graduate, and I'm planning on going into pediatrics.  Ultimately I'd like to end up as a pediatric oncologist and treat kids with cancer.  If you'd like to find out more about me, my main website www.DeROK.Net will tell you all about my likes, dislikes, interests, etc.  But please, no stalkers. 

Why are you doing this?

To try and make a million dollars.  As you can imagine, I've got a hefty pile of student loans to pay off.  And in about a year, I'll also have a wife to support.  Having a million dollars would make those things a whole lot easier.

But aren't you going to be a doctor?  Why do you need the money?

While it's true that doctors do make a nice salary in comparison to most people, they don't make THAT much money.  Especially pediatricians, who are generally the lowest paid docs. What that being said, do I NEED the money?  Probably not. Thankfully, if I never make a dime off this site, I will probably be able to support my family and give them a nice life without much trouble.  But that doesn't mean that a million dollars wouldn't be a major financial help.

What are you going to do with the money?

Pay off my loans... Probably buy a house... And other smart investment things to help my family out in the future.  I'm not the type of guy that you'd see cruising around in a new Hummer if this site takes off.  And I'm also planning on giving some of it away to a good cause.

Isn't this just a rip-off of The Million Dollar Home Page?

Kind of, but not really.  Alex Tew's Million Dollar Home Page was a stroke of pure genius.  He definitely deserves the credit for inventing "pixel advertising" and the million dollars it earned him.  But just because Alex came up with the idea, doesn't mean that others shouldn't be allowed to tweak with it to try their own million. I mean, nobody criticizes Burger King or Wendy's for copying McDonald's' business model. 

Why are you even trying this?  Haven't almost all copy-cats failed?

Basically, if anyone just flat-out copies his idea, they'll get nowhere with it. Most people who have tried to duplicate Alex's success just threw up a poorly-made replica onto the net and expected the cash to start flowing in.  That's not what I'm doing here at all.  I'm attempting to take the concept of pixel advertising to another level. 

Think about it...  Would you watch TV if all that was ever on was commercials? Of course not!  So why would anyone think that people would want to visit their site if all it contained was a wall of ads?  (Unless you happened to be Alex, who was able to attract people because of sheer creativity.) The television networks realize that good content attracts viewers, so they broadcast entertaining shows knowing that you'll watch the commercials during the breaks. That's why I'm trying to integrate content into the concept of pixel advertising. 

This site isn't just a giant page of ads. It contains a actual content on this site that is entertaining and hopefully offers value to my visitors. The Million Dollar Flash Game is the main attraction and the ads surrounding it are the background.

So yes, most copy-cats have flopped. But if somebody comes up with a good marketing strategy and adds a new twist or feature to Alex's idea, like I feel I have, then there's no reason their site can't be successful as well. 

How did you make The Million Dollar Flash Game?

Let me start off by saying that when I came up with the idea for this site, I had absolutely no idea how to make a game for the internet.  I had messed around with Flash to make some movies for my site, but had never done anything even remotely close to building a game from scratch.  Thankfully, there's a lot of cool people on the net who were willing to lend advice about how to make games.  After following their instructions and taking inspiration from a few examples here and there, I was able to build the fully functioning game you see on this site. 

How did you choose which type of game to make?

When I was thinking of what type of game The Million Dollar Flash Game would be, I knew that it had to be something simple, yet fun and challenging enough to make people want to play it multiple times. I figured that I could either go the funny route or the puzzle route.  Seeing as I had no funny ideas, I went with the current format. I've played The Million Dollar Flash Game more times than I can count and I still get addicted to it.  So hopefully that means I reached my goal. 

Can I add The Million Dollar Flash Game to my webpage or MySpace?

Absolutely.  Click Here to find out how!