A friend of mine has started a site to help raise money for his church and also to help climb out of debt after a financially devastating illness a few years ago. The whole concept is awesome and I wish him the best of luck.

Press Release: Sunday, January 20, 2008 8:19:45 A

Small Business Owner Launches $5 Million Fundraising Homepage to Raise Money for His Church and Pay off Personal Debts

Statesboro Georgia - January 20, 2008 – a 42-year-old small business owner recovering from a long term illness hopes to pay off enormous personal debts and help his church build a new life center building (project est. cost $2.3 million) – by selling 5 million dots (pixels) of advertising space for a $1 each on his website’s homepage.

Allen Harkleroad, from Statesboro, Georgia, set up fivemilliondots.com after reading about a student in the United Kingdom that built a similar website and paid for his college tuition. Knowing the idea isn’t brand new; he felt that if anyone could succeed with such an idea a second time, he could.

Despite the website only being online for less than a week, Harkleroad claims that he’s already made $3,000 although he admits that several of the “dots” were purchased by friends and family. He has also had many inquiries from website visitors about the “dots” for sale.

Ms. Julie Hunter, of Atlanta Georgia, commented, “This looks like a great idea! I didn’t have a website so I had my link point to Samaritan’s Purse (samaritanspurse.org, Franklin Graham’s organization - Billy Graham’s son). They do wonderful work all around the world.”

Harkleroad, who is a struggling small business owner, says that people can buy as many “dots” as they want and display the ad or logo and have a link to their own site.

“I believe this will mainly appeal to businesses”, Harkleroad commented, “I also think that the idea will appeal to small groups and individuals. The larger the “dot” purchase the more prominent the ad will be on the website.”

Harkleroad believes that over time the “dots” will offer a good value because the website will display the purchased ads for ten years, although he hopes to keep it online longer if possible. “Many business owners know that long-term advertising exposure is the key to successful advertising. I am providing an extremely long-term unique advertising opportunity. Once all of the “dots” are purchased the homepage will never change,” Harkleroad explained.

Asked what he would do with the cash should he reach the $5m goal, Harkleroad said, “After paying off all of my personal and business debts, the rest of it will go directly to my church, Fletcher Memorial Baptist Church (fmbaptist.org), for their “Imagine What God Will Do” fundraising campaign to build a new Life Center building. I want to get out of debt and also help our community by funding the Life Center. The church family at Fletcher have helped my family and I so much, I want to somehow return the favor.”

Find out more about Allen Harkleroad and Five Million Dots at www.fivemilliondots.com

Contact: Allen Harkleroad
(912) 489-9333
www.fivemilliondots.com

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