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What is VirtualWorldRealEstate.com?
A new innovative site that
sells and displays virtual real estate
(space) on a dynamic Internet
homepage map. This purchased
real estate can be used to display advertisements,
as an investment or
just for enjoying virtual property
anywhere in the world.
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Is this site for real --
the idea of selling virtual real estate
sounds a little crazy?
This site
is absolutely for real and is growing in
popularity very quickly. It takes a
unique idea to get media attention and widespread recognition. Check out what happened
with the
Million Dollar Homepage.
Many advertisers were skeptical at first
but those who joined in quickly are now
enjoying thousands of visitors to their
sites. With the creativity of Virtual World Real Estate
surpassing all other similar sites, it is becoming the next Internet
advertising phenomenon.
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Is this just a clone of the million dollar homepage?
No -- I
had the idea for virtual real estate
before hearing anything about the
million dollar homepage. Also, I think
VirtualWorldRealEstate.com is more
unique and enjoyable than the million
dollar homepage. Who wants pixels when
you can own virtual real estate? I will admit that
I morphed my site after seeing the
success the million dollar homepage had
selling to advertisers. My original plan
was to target consumers who would like
to own a small piece of the virtual
world for fun. I'm now selling larger
properties to advertisers first. As
explained later in this FAQ, after
enough properties are sold to
advertisers, the remaining space will
become available to consumers for free.
Consumer real estate; however, will be
far less visible than advertising real
estate.
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What exactly do I get when I purchase
virtual real estate?
An image of your choosing placed in the
virtual world with a link to your
website. The image will zoom in and
out with the rest of the virtual
world map. You'll be able to specify
a name and description for your
property which will pop-up (along
with an original size copy of your
image) whenever a user's cursor
moves over your property (See an example). The real estate where you place your image will be
distinctly
yours. Your image and link will be permanent and could potentially be seen
by millions of visitors. The site is guaranteed to be up
for at least 5 years
after the last property
is purchased. Even though 5
years is the guarantee, the site will most likely be up for
many more years.
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I'm interested in virtual real estate but I don't have
a site to link to and/or an image to use?
Not a problem. If you don't have a web site, you could always
link to a blog or a myspace.com account. If you don't already have a myspace.com account,
just follow the link and spend a couple minutes to set one up for free.
If you don't have an image, that is fine too.
Virtual World Real Estate provides the option to not have an image. Instead,
you could have a colored border around your virtual real estate with the map completely
visible inside. Anytime a user clicks in this area he/she will be directed
to your site.
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Why would I want to purchase virtual real estate?
The potential for major advertising for your website. As VirtualWorldRealEstate.com
continues to grow in popularity, you'll see large increases of
visitors to your site. As mentioned, there have been other sites that have
had tremendous success by just selling pixels to advertisers. With Virtual World
Real Estate, you will get much more than a small image buried in a collage of other
images. You'll get advertisements placed in your target locales with
a full size
pop-up of your image being shown whenever a user moves his/her
mouse cursor over your
property. Users
will enjoy exploring the virtual world and seeing what's out there.
Another
excellent reason to purchase virtual
real estate is to serve as an
investment. Did you know that the last
available spot on
milliondollarhomepage.com sold for more
than $38,000? As mentioned below, you'll
be able to resell your real estate. As
the site grows in popularity, real
estate will become more and more
valuable.
Finally, some people may want to purchase virtual real estate just
for fun. It's kind of like playing a giant game of Monopoly. Have you
ever wanted beach front property in Hawaii? Now you can have it in the virtual
world. You can easily email your friends and associates a direct link to your
property.
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Where can I purchase property?
You can purchase real estate at any available spot in the virtual
world by
specifying a city/country or by specifying
the exact latitude/longitude coordinates
(easily available by clicking anywhere on the map). Your property must be centered
somewhere on land but it can extend over water. For the most part, we want
to maintain the natural shape of the continents.
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What does it cost to own virtual real estate and display my image?
The price depends on the size of your image
(in terms of pixels) and where
it is placed. Prime real estate is available at 2 cents per pixel and
standard real estate is available at a penny per pixel. Prime real estate is any
real estate in the USA or Europe.
As you may
have noticed, the virtual world map zooms in and out. The current zoom level
is displayed at the bottom right corner of the screen. It will range from one to
nine with one being a global view of the entire virtual world and nine being zoomed into a particular
region. All real estate is sold per pixel at zoom
level 8. As an example, you could
place a 100x100 pixel image on standard real estate for 10,000 pennies (which equals $100). Prime real
estate this size would cost $200.
While
virtual real estate is sold
per pixel at zoom level 8, it is
good to understand that you are buying a
particular piece of property in the
virtual world. In terms of real world
sizes, you're getting about 250 acres
for each pixel. The real estate you
purchase (your image) will zoom in and
out with the rest of the world.
Just to
be clear, all you will every pay for
your virtual real estate is the initial property
price. You'll own your real estate for
as long as the web site exists (at least
5 years) and will never have to pay
anything more.
There is a $25 minimum price for
each virtual property. This
ensures that administrative costs are
covered and helps cover the long term hosting
of the site. Anyone
should be able to afford $25 for
unique real estate in a virtual world!
For any
virtual real estate purchases greater
than a thousand dollars, the buyer has
the option to pay monthly for the next 5
years. I can setup recurring charges
through PayPal. There will be a 30 cent
fee every month to cover the PayPal
transaction fee. Using this option, a
thousand dollar purchase works out to be
$16.97 a month -- not bad for some prime
advertising real estate. If you
decide to use the monthly payment option, you
would not be able to resell your real
estate until you paid off the balance.
Special: For a limited
time, travel and real estate related sites can get virtual real estate for half price.
I am offering this because VirtualWorldRealEstate.com was primarily created
with these types of sites in mind. While there are a few of these sites already
on the map, I would like to see many more. To get this discount, simply indicate
that your site is related to travel and/or real estate when you email me your request
for virtual real estate.
Please
email me
if you have any questions about virtual real
estate pricing.
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Explain a little more
about zoom levels?
As mentioned above, there are a
total of 9 zoom levels. Each zoom level is twice the magnitude of the previous zoom level. A 100x100 pixel
image at zoom level 8 will show up as a 200x200 pixel image at zoom level
9. Conversely,
it would show up as
a 50x50 pixel image at zoom level 7. To better
understand zoom levels, use the Virtual World Real Estate map and take note of the
zoom level in the bottom right corner. You can take a look at the following
example and zoom in and out.
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Will my image show at all zoom levels?
That really depends on the size of your image. The larger it
is the more zoom levels it will show up at. Properties
show up at any given zoom level if they
are at least two pixels in height and
width. The following list defines the
minimize size an image must be in order to show
up at a zoom level.
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Zoom Level 7 -
4x4
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Zoom Level 6 -
8x8
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Zoom Level 5 -
16x16
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Zoom Level 4 -
32x32
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Zoom Level 3 -
64x64
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Zoom Level 2 -
128x128
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Zoom Level 1
- 256x256
Zoom level 2
is the default global zoom level used when a
user enters the site.
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How should I determine the size
of image to use?
The first thing
to consider is at what zoom level you would like
your image to first become visible on the map.
If you would like it to be instantly available
whenever a user first enters the site then your
image should at least be 128x128 pixels. If you
are only concerned that it be available when a
user is zoomed into a particular region such as
the US or Europe then you can save money by
placing a smaller image on the map.
Another important
consideration is the size of the real estate you
are looking to place your image on. Perhaps you
would like to entirely cover a city or landmark.
You are welcome to submit an image of any size
in order to exactly cover the real estate you're
interested in. A helpful tool in determining the
size of image you should use is the 'Sizing
Window'. The sizing window can be opened by
clicking on the link at the bottom right of the
map page. You can move this window over the
property you're interested in to determine the
size of image you'll need. The sizing window is
200x200 pixels in size and is broken into 10x10
pixel blocks. Remember that real estate is
purchased per pixel at zoom level 8 so you'll
want to be on this level while sizing the real
estate you would like to buy.
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Why purchase virtual real estate now?
The best property will go fast. Now is your chance
to get in at the ground floor of what
is becoming the next Internet advertising phenomenon.
You'll benefit by advertising to others who will be searching
for real estate to purchase on VirtualWorldRealEstate.com. When they search
for the best property, they'll see your property (read advertisement) there.
In order to maintain the value of purchased real
estate and to ensure that the website continually performs well, only
a thousand properties
will ever be sold. After that you would be out of luck.
Just like real
estate prices in the real world, virtual real estate prices will go up. As
more properties are sold and the site grows in popularity, the per pixel price will
go up. The current plan is to
raise the price a penny per pixel for each 100
properties sold.
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Can I buy multiple properties?
Yes, you can buy as many as you would like.
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Will the site eventually
be completely covered and hard to see?
I will watch
this carefully and prevent it from
happening. It is not my intention to fill up
every piece of the virtual world -- I want
to keep some free space. As needed, I
will limit sales in certain regions and
promote sales in others. Also, as the
site gets more popular, real estate will
become more expensive which will naturally
decrease the
typical size of real estate purchased.
Smaller real estate will then only show up
at higher zoom levels. There is a lot
of space in the virtual world when you
consider all the zoom levels. Many
people have and will continue to buy real
estate that only shows up at zoom level 4
and higher.
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Can I resell my property?
Absolutely, you bought it. This is as much an
investment opportunity as anything. After the
site grows in popularity, you could make a nice
profit. If you do resell your property, there
would be a small administrative
fee (about $15) for me to make the appropriate changes on the website.
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If I decide to resell my real
estate can I subdivide it and sell it off to
multiple buyers?
This is
a good idea and could potentially make you an
even better profit. This is allowed but the $15
fee would apply for each property that I need to
display in place of yours.
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What will keep visitors interested in this site after the initial
thousand
properties are sold and the media attention goes away?
Unlike many other sites that sell nothing but advertising space,
Virtual World Real Estate will offer something that consumers can enjoy and will
draw them to the site for years to come. After the initial thousand advertising
properties are
sold, the remaining real estate will be open to consumers to own
their own piece of virtual real estate for
free. This free real estate will be limited in size and will only show up at zoom level 9. By limiting this
free real estate, the site will still perform
well and your purchased real estate will in no way loose
value. Instead, this will benefit you greatly
since users are certain to see your property as they zoom down to
the lowest level. The free real estate will serve as a great way to keep consumers
interested in the site and seeing your advertisements for years to come.
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Does owning property on Virtual World Real Estate give me any property
rights in the real world?
Don't we all wish? Unfortunately this is not the
case, but at least at www.VirtualWorldRealEstate.com the world can see your virtual
real estate for many years to come.
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What types of images and links can be placed in the virtual world?
The world is a varied place and so is the virtual world.
Most images and links will be allowed unless they are illegal or offensive
to the general public such as pornography. Also, certain links may not be allowed at certain locations in the virtual world.
I'll reserve the right to decide what makes sense and to refuse any images or links
that I deem inappropriate.
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What if I want real estate that
is already taken?
As mentioned,
property can be resold. Many virtual real estate
owners may be interested in taking offers for
the property they own. You can contact the owner
of your desired property directly (via contact
information on their website) or you can
email me your request and I would be happy to
forward it on to the owner.
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Can I purchase multiple existing
properties and consolidate them so that I can
have a single large piece of real estate?
Virtual World
Real Estate strives to work just like real
estate in the real world. I am open to anything
that could be done if this were actual real
estate. You can acquire whatever land you need
by buying it from existing owners and you can
also get any surrounding available space from me (at
the going per pixel price) to get the exact size
and shape of real estate you desire.
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What Payment methods are accepted?
Once you order your real estate, I'll
send you a PayPal invoice. You'll have the
option to pay using your PayPal account or by credit card. If other payment
methods are desired, please
email me.
