[Foundation-l] Fundraising idea

[Erik Moeller]

If I could travel back in time, the Million Dollar Homepage is one idea 
I would immediately implement. :-) Unfortunately, I think it really only 
works once to full effect. Certainly, this type of advertising does have 
advantages over more traditional forms, the relative permanence of the 
ads being one of them. But there are good reasons why most people who 
have traffic-heavy sites wouldn't accept permanent ads for a one-time 
fee. It worked for the original Million Dollar Homepage because it had 
no content except for the ad itself, which had novelty value and 
attracted much media hype.

Good luck in generating hype for this -- it seems unlikely that the 
Foundation would directly promote it, given the associated community 
risks (check out the Answers.com controversy), the fact that it's 
separately controlled, and the relative uncertainty of revenue compared 
to more traditional forms of advertising. Perhaps you'll find an 
interesting spin, such as 250 (and up to 500K total) free pixels for 
open source or free content projects. That could fill the canvas a bit 
and provide an incentive for others to invest, given that it'll also 
generate pageviews.

Erik