Spatbox (Link)
There does come times when it is good to be a ‘reviewer’ of sites. If anything, I do get a sneak peak at some sites I may otherwise not have found out about. Today, I bring to you, Spatbox.com – a site ready to be launched that may have the goods to be successful. This site is based off the pixel selling idea created what seemed like ages ago by our friend Alex Tew. However, mostly anyone who has tackled pixel advertising and tried to make it a success besides Mr Tew has been a failure. Not because pixel advertising doesn’t work, although some may argue, but mostly because they lack originality. A few sites these days have been building off Tews groundwork and turning up sites that may have some real impact on marketing, like the Wall Around the World, iSquare, You-Cubez, etc. Spatbox is a unique idea that I’m very interested in seeing be successful. Instead of 10×10 grids in normal pixel fashion, Spatbox sells squares 15×15 on 12 separate “grids”. The goal, once completed is to put each of the 12 grids on a side of a magicube. (for those who don’t know, a magicube is kind of a decoration peice where you flip around the cube in different directions creating different pictures based on the sides of the cube. Spatbox has an animation of it as their logo ) With most of the proceeds generated by the site, he will produce 100,000 of these cubes and sell them around the world. (if you buy an ad you get one) Not only do you get advertising off the Spatbox website with your ad, the potential to be seen outside the cyber world is real as well.
Graphically, the site is very appealing. The web design was done very well and everything looks great on the site, I have no complaints. The only iffy part of this project is the cost. He is charging 75 cents per pixel (Not much compared to Mr Tew and his Pixelotto however) so each 15×15 square costs a little less than a 10×10 on Pixelotto. The reason for the price is of course production of these cubes, so the advertiser is not totally left with the feeling of being robbed. I think this site has a load of potential. It still needs to be marketed and grow a buzz about it, but its refreshing to see something different than Joe Schmoe’s pixel site. (Yes people are STILL creating crappy clones of the MDH) – So yes, I like the Spatbox. If you have the advertising dollars to spend freely, it may be a worthy investment.
Iconzrule (Link)
Iconzrule is nice spin on Internet Marketing and purchasing of static everlasting links. Instead of buying per pixel or whatnot, the advertiser buys a 3 dollar 18×18 web icon with no monthly or yearly expiration. Icons seem to be the wave of the future and perhaps they are on to something here, with the amount of recognizable icons spurting up on the web and the ability for people to edit their “favicons” – so who knows? The site is cheap and the icons are somewhat of an original idea. Not to mention they offer an option to add the latest added icons to your own site. Easily implemented in an IFRAME, depending on if the site catches on and webmasters host this feature, your icon could get a lot of exposure. Anyway, I’ll definitely keep an eye on this site, as it seems it has just been launched. The price is so cheap that I say it is a worthy investment.
StumbleUpon (Link)
I’ve been seeing this site pop up in advertisements here and there, and they are starting to generate huge buzz. I actually think I’ve seen this in a few places (iSquare) and even linking in to my site here (traffic I didnt even sign up for, awesome) – If you haven’t checked out this site, and are a web geek, web surfer, bored at work or whatever, you must check this out. This site installs a toolbar on your browser, and it guarentees no spam or spyware, etc. I’ve had it installed on my browser for over a day now and it has not brought up any sites with any sort of threats whatsoever. You check off topics of interest in the setting and on the toolbar you have a number of options. You click stumble! and you get taken to a web site that may or may not peak your interest. Don’t like the site? Click stumble again and quickly transport yourself to another site. If you like it, click “I like it” and StubleUpon will remember the sites you like and send you more and more to sites like these. You can get caught stumbling for hours, seriously, so beware. There have been some really cool sites that came up (including some t-shirt sites I may go back and purchase from) sites I’ve bookmarked and sites that you would never be able to find on Google or Yahoo since they went corporate. Check out StumbleUpon.com and download the toolbar (which hasn’t hindered my system at all one bit and can be accessed at any point) and get lost in the Net for hours.
GoodWorks2006.Com (Link)
Let me start off by saying, if people ask me to review their site, I will, but publicly. I appreciate people thinking my opinion is worthy enough of giving a review of their site, but just let it be known, I’ll review anyones site, but it will be posted on the blog. With that said, Dave from GoodWorks2006.com asked me to review his newly launched site. So here it goes
Immediately when going to the site I noticed the design of the home page is definitely not suited to let the person know immediately what this site is about. Web surfers have a short attention span, and right away my eye wasn’t directly drawn to the main banner or the menu, but the large affiliate banner on the top of the site. After finding out this was mainly a pixel ad site, I wondered why was there a need for a larger than life affiliate banner on the top of the page. If you’re going to be selling ad space, you need to have the ad space be the primary eye catcher, and in this case, the ad space is on the main page but you need to scroll down a page to get to the pixel grid.
Now the site owner David Bland tries to incorporate other things besides the “bland” pixel board, and is good enough to dedicate 25% of the funds raised by the site to charity. He offers some flash games and promises to offer contests and such.
But for me, this site is really nothing to write home about. I’m not compelled to return to the site, nor would I recommend spending $30.00 on a pixel square. Most of all, I don’t know why anyone would incorporate the year into their site domain name. 2006 was last year. 
1Stock1.Com (Link) 1Stock1.com has launched what it calls a Link Investment Board, which combines good old link advertising and management with stocks. Somewhat similar to the You-Cubez I had just reviewed, in that you purchase a link off the site and with time and popularity as the site grows your link will grow in value. You can rent out your link space or you can keep it for yourself. Also promoting people to the site, will help increase the value of the link. The idea in theory seems like a good one. I have a few issues with this site however. Browsing through the various links, it is easy to get lost in the site and not be able to find the Link Investment Board again. The site design is nothing special, although in this case I wouldn’t say the site needs to be flashy, but the navigation needs work. Also, the details of how everything works seem a bit complicated. Maybe I’m not the brightest crayon in the box (and I’ll readily admit it) but making the system for buying and selling links could get tricky. The site contains a lot of rules and there is a fee for selling. The complicated system in which this works, would probably turn off the average link buyer, but I can’t be sure. Perhaps those who deal with stocks [I clearly don't] may find a home with this site.
You-Cubez.com (Link) You-Cubez.com is a recently launched site that leaves me sitting on the fence about whether it will actually work or not. Essentially in this form of link advertising, you buy a cube for a minimum of £1, and there is no maximum. The site doesn’t specify how much real control you have over your cubes design – being able to design your own cube however in a graphics program might be pretty neat. Once designed it goes on the home page and listed by value. There are more ways to increase your cubes ‘value’ than just money which is very interesting although some of the landmarks you need to reach in referal’s and sending web traffic to You-Cubez seems a bit large to accumulate any real value, but if you do get a lot of people to buy there own cubes your cube will increase £1 each. The part I really like about this, is the resale of cubez. If this site does start to catch on, the reselling of cubes could be fun, although You-Cubez takes a percent of each sale. Either way it MAY be possible to make money on the site in the future, kind of like a stock market of Cubez.
I’ll keep monitoring this site and let you know of any updates.
NetXperiment.Com (Link) The NetXperiment “A Race to 1 Million” is what I would classify a mix between the Million Dollar Home Page and Tag-A-Cloud but with a more noble cause. The site uses the Tag Cloud, and to increase your tag’s size to get noticed on the page, you need to contribute more money compared to other contributors. All proceeds according to the site go to the Five Million Foundation ( http://www.f5m.com.au/ ) raising money for MS.
Can’t argue with a charitable cause here, but the site does have some problems. The major as I see it is the Tag Cloud is not the main page. Advertisers don’t like this, and it also seemingly takes away and distracts people from what they are supposed to want. The second problem is that the smallest contributors can’t even be read on the page, it’s just scripple, and I understand people need to pay more to get it bigger, but there are several large spaces in between tags, and at least on my own browser the graphic design of their tag cloud seemed off, the tags were not inside their cloud background. A bit sloppy.
If you’re down for the cause and would like to donate, by all means, but the site needs to be improved if they really want to raise a million dollars, because people who really would donate to their cause could just directly donate to the Five Million Foundation and avoid paypal taking part of the donation.
If anyone has any sites for me to check out and review, send them over to sitesummoner@aol.com ..
TagACloud.Com (Link) There have been plenty of other “Tag” web sites springing up lately, but tag-a-cloud seems to be setting themselves apart from the competition. Web masters reserve a word, or “tag” on this page. You then get an image or link to the Tag A Cloud site that you place on your own site. Tag A Cloud monitors referrals and web site hits, and I believe impression, and all of these go into a formula and make your tag grow on the site so you stand out from the crowd and in turn receive more visitors from Tag A Cloud. Looks like good programming, good site design, and best of all it’s free. I strongly recommend getting your tag. The only downfall for blogger’s like me, is I cannot add subdomains, and I’m not positively sure I can put a script on this blog either. Anyway, take a look at Tag A Cloud, I’m sure you will hear more about this site very soon.
The CollaborativeEffort.net (Link) This site is not the usual internet marketing site’s I usually review, but I think it is definitely going to turn some heads. I’m sure it’s been attempted before, but this site is attempting to unite authors around the globe in writing a paragraph of a story that they will attempt to publish. It looks like with a great interface and a quality editor, this site can really become something. The great part is, the visitors get to vote on the next proposed paragraph. It’s serious and its being written well, and additions to the story will add to those who are into reading it a reason to return. Wanna-be authors like me may try to add our own paragraph, maybe getting in on it, and possible a share of any proceeds from publishing [who knows?] Great site, got nothing bad to say about it. Not flashy because it doesn’t need to be. I’d advise checking it out.
Pixelotto
Pixelotto (Link) Pixelotto jumps to the number one spot this week, but not because good publicity. The buzz these days is that the advertisers are not happy with traffic among other matters, and have spurned forums like Pixelottosucks
The Wall Around the World
The Eternal Wall (Link)The Eternal Wall remains strong at number two, launching an IPOD give-away in very 'pixel' fashion.
iSquare.it
iSquare.it (Link )"The coolest and most original way to explore the internet" is founder of iSquare Antonio Lupetti's slogan for his innovative new site. There's something about Lupetti's site that is eye catching and involving. Everyone is set on equal ground, a 50x50 square, its hard not to explore.
Tag A Cloud
TagACloud.Com (Link) Tag A Cloud hits the rankings this week, and could remain on the top list for some time. Get your tag and make it grow.
You Cubez
You-Cubez (Link) breaks into the top site list with the departure of King of the Bill. You-Cubez, a creative concept of buying a cube, increasing your value in a number of ways and possibly reselling it, is definitely a site to watch.
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JerDon&Sara Gibb… on Review: Boy Million Tony on Review: You-Cubez.com Retro Fashion on The Wall Around the World laun… Ben on Review: Spatbox Best Shopping Info on Keeping an eye: King of the… 99BestWishes.com
99 Best Wishes (Link) - Maybe someone can tell me why this site annoys the hell out of me so much. I hate ragging on it, because it looks like someone did a hell of a lot of work putting it together, but I don't know. Selling christmas ornaments on a fake tree? Stars in the sky, bottles in the water? Maybe if they stuck with one theme, but I just don't get it.BeTopDollar.COM
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