Young Alex Tew asked himself one simple question before he went to bed one night. This one question, and the answer that he found, led to him becoming a millionaire virtually overnight. How can we use this young man’s genius in our own pursuit for the perfect online business?

In Mid-August, 2005, a young English lad was faced with a problem. 21-year-old Alex Tew had plans of attending the University of Nottingham. The problem he was facing was that registration was coming up fast and he did not have the money to fund his education. The situation looked Grim.

One evening as Tew prepared for bed, he lay considering the problem. Slowly, an idea came to him. He would start a website and sell pixels on it. It was a long shot at best, and Tew expected nothing from it. The idea did not excite him at all. However, with nothing to lose, he implemented his plan the next day.

One by one, the pixels began to sell. Within a week he had sold enough pixels to pay half of his education. Within two weeks, all of it. In a month’s time, Tew’s site had pulled in $152,900. Today, Alexander Tew is a millionaire.

Many people consider this as a fluke, a one time occurrence of web “luck.” Perhaps, though, it is much more than that. Most modern internet entrepreneurs consider the technical issues of creating the “perfect” website. They consider odds and what has worked in the past. From this, they draw their options.

Alex Tew, however, did not have the knowledge of text link brokers, search engine ratings and SEO management. All that this young man had at his disposal was a need and an imagination. These two aspects mixed together created over a million dollars in revenue in less than a year. There was no business plan. There was no network database. There was only creativity. That was all that Tew had to draw upon.

Just for a moment, put aside your drawn out strategies, long term marketing plans and internet knowledge. Pretend that you do not have it. Now, put yourself in Tew’s place. Tell yourself that you have a goal. It could be to support your family, or possibly to buy a home. Then, ask yourself that same question. What can I put on a website that will attract a million visitors? Don’t rely on your knowledge of what has worked before. Disregard the past techniques that you learned. This was what Tew did. He simply used his imagination and came up with what would attract attention.

Ask yourself the following four questions before you make the final decision as to what will become your next big thing in Site content.

• Has it ever been done before? If it has, stick it on the back burner. You may come back to it, but move onward and see what else you can come up with.

• Does it involve a risk? If not, then go with it. Nothing ventured, nothing lost.

• Who will it interest? If it interests taxi drivers, it’s not good enough. If it interests stock market traders, it’s not good enough. If it interests low, middle, or upper class individuals, then it isn’t good enough. If it interests all of these, then it IS good enough.

• How far can it go? Will this concept only last for a year? If so, again, put it on the back burner. Try to find something that will carry you through at least the next five years.

Too often the internet savvy businessperson will look into what works and try it. There is nothing wrong with this. It’s good to try what has been proven successful. However, if we keep relying on the techniques and concepts that are already out there, then how will we ever move forward? Eventually, all new things become old. It is the creative individual who is willing to try something new that is the future of online business.