Taken from The Telegraph...

A student who hoped to graduate without debt by setting up a website offering internet advertising space has made £519,000 in only four months.

Alex Tew, 21, a first-year business management student at Nottingham University, said he hoped to achieve his aim of making a million dollars - £578,000 - early in the New Year.

"I thought I might make a few grand but I've made a fortune," he said. "It's been a crazy adventure."

Milliondollarhomepage.com was launched by Mr Tew in August in an attempt to raise enough money to pay for his three-year degree course.

The website is made up of one page divided into 10,000 boxes, each 100 pixels in size.

Companies can buy one or more boxes for $100 (£54) each and cover it with a logo, which, when clicked on, transports web users to the customers' own site.

Within days of the website being set up the address began appearing on chatrooms and dozens of firms had signed up.

Businesses featuring on the site include an international telephone company, media and holiday companies, and firms offering dating services. Mr Tew's most extravagant purchase has been a black Mini.

"I'm trying to be sensible despite the large amounts of money," he said at the family home in Cricklade, Wilts.

Mr Tew's enterprise has resulted in a speaking tour of the United States where he appeared on television chat shows and featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair.