January 26, 2008
A small business owner in rural Georgia thinks “lightning” can and will strike twice. 42 year old Allen Harkleroad, who became ill several years ago and nearly met with financial ruin, is taking an advertising idea, twisting it a bit and running with it.
After recently reading about a college student in the United Kingdom that raised over 1 million dollars to pay for his college education by selling pixel advertising for a dollar a pixel on his website, Allen decided that if such an idea could succeed once it could a second time.
Allen admits the idea isn’t a new one; however he added a twist to the idea and erected Five Million Dots (
www.fivemilliondots.com).
The idea behind the website is to sell advertising “dots” (pixels) and text links to raise money to pay off a massive amount of personal debt, fund his daughter’s college education and to help his church build a new family life center building.
There are five million “dots” to be sold at $1 each, after all of the dots are sold the website will be locked and remain online for a minimum of ten years. Allen claims (and God willing as he puts it) the site will remain online beyond the ten years promised.
“I have so many bills that I had to start keeping them in a large box because they just wouldn’t fit into a file folder anymore. I have several debt collection companies hounding me, they constantly harass me. My daughter just started college last fall so that’s another financial worry for me as I want her to go to school.
During my illness my business suffered greatly and even two years later I still struggle every day to ensure my families basic necessities are taken care of. It’s getting a little better each month, but I still have a lot of hard work ahead of me.
A little over a year ago my church, Fletcher Memorial Baptist Church (Statesboro GA), started a building campaign to fund a much needed life center building. My wife and I made a weekly commitment to the building fundraising in addition to our tithing. I know there is more that I can do and with the Five Million Dots website, I can.
I’ve been digging my way out of debt for two years and while I am seeing progress it is still very difficult and my family cuts corners, budgets and does whatever we have to do pay our bills and meet our church commitments. I have a real burden on my heart to help my church raise funds for the building. My church family has helped my family so much over the last couple of years; they are an amazing group of caring people.
Once all of my personal debts are paid off and some money is set aside for my daughter’s education the rest of the funds raised from the website will go to my church to pay for the life center building. Needless to say 75 percent (or more) of the funds raised will go directly to my church. The life centers projected cost is around 2.3 million dollars. I would love to be able to fund that and give even more to help further evangelism in and around our community.” – Allen commented
Allen says that the initial reaction to the website has been very positive and has already sold about $3,300.00 worth of advertising space. Allen claims that in the first week that the website was online that an average of 1,600 visitors visited the site daily and that the visitor traffic is growing by leaps and bounds. As of the morning of January 26, the website shows that over 53,000 pages have been viewed. The website was launched on January 17, 2008 and it appears that the website is already garnering much attention across the Internet.
I believe that Internet “Lightning” may actually strike twice. Allen’s heart is to have financial peace and to give back to his church and community. What a great idea and I wish Allen the best of luck with the website. I will continue to monitor the success of Five Million Dots and be on the sideline rooting for him.
For more information on Five Million Dots and Allen Harkleroad’s complete story you should visit
www.fivemilliondots.com , and read the frequently asked questions (FAQ) page.
You can also reach Allen via telephone at (912) 489-9333.