5 ridiculous ways people made bank [original list]

Steemit is becoming more of an unstoppable train that doesn't even make a stop for releasing some steem. Creators that shares popular contents are making profits at the speed of light and the platform continues to expand worldwide over. By simply writing something original and interesting the creators are rewarded real money directly. As of now users has been rewarded between $1 - $30k which blows any type of grinding that requires manual labor.

There are people who have found a ridiculous way to make an income and I scouted the internet for the 5 most ridiculous ways people made money or earned big rewards.

5. The million dollar homepage - profit $1,037,100

Back in 2005, a student from Wiltshire, England decided to create a website to raise money for his university education. Alex Tew's creation came from the idea to arrange 1000x1000 pixel grid on the website and sell each pixel for $1 on a 10x10 block. The purchasers could then provide images on these blocks that are displayed on the website and it linked to their websites. It was launched on 26 August 2005 and instantly became an internet phenomenon, it didn't take long for the websites to fill up and the last pixel was auctioned off for the winning bid of $38,100 on 11 January 2006 which brought the final profit to the web owner $1,037,100 in gross income.

4. Pennies for college education - crowdfunded $28,000

Before Indiegogo or Kickstarter existed or before even Google existed, another student decided to crowdfund his college education simply by asking strangers, with the help of a journalist, to send him a penny. Eighteen-year-old Mike Hayes couldn't pay for the four years of tuition when he enrolled in a science program at the Univeristy of Illinois as his four older siblings already put through college by his parents and didnt want to burden them with more debt. So he came up with the idea to convince 2.8 million people to each donate a penny to him and with the help of the famed journalist Bob Greene, his donations came pouring in the mail as 70,000 pieces of mail with nickels, dimes, quarters, checks and so on. He would receive 26 feet of mail in one day and the postmaster delivered stacks of his post everytime. Eventually, his goal was met and he ended up getting more donations than he needed.

He graduated in 1991 with a degree in food science and student loan free.

3. One red paperclip - successfully bartered a paper clip to a two-story farmhouse

This is a modern take on the Japanese folk tale of the legend of the "Straw Millionaire" which tell the story of a poor man who, with a straw, make successive trades until he finally becomes a millionaire. I wrote about it here https://steemit.com/steem/@aeico/the-straw-millionaire-and-why-steemit-is-the-straw-in-this-folk-tale

Canadian blogger Kyle Macdonald bartered his way from a single red paperclip to a house in a series of fourteen online trades over the course of a year. He started with trading the paperclip for a pen, which he then traded for a hand-sculpted doorknob. He then traded the doorknob for a Coleman camp stove and then successfully traded it for a Honda generator. Yeah, you know the gist by now and on his final trade, he had successfully traded for a film role which he then traded for a story farmhouse and reaching his goal. He received so much publicity and was amongst the first viral stories back in the early days of the internet.

2. Mukbang - the niche of eating in front a streaming audience - income $150,000-$200,000 yearly

Besides having a free and the fastest internet in the world, South Korea has successfully gained its own phenomenon and internet craze besides kpop and korean drama. Japan is still number one source for weird and crazy tentacle stuff, but only South Koreans can only come up with making money by eating large quantities of food in front of a streaming paying audience. Mukbang, which is short for 'Muknun bangsong' or "eating broadcast", became popular in South Korea back in 2010 and has created mukbang celebrities that earn a lot simply by streaming their dinner time to paying streamer. This is supposedly soothing for the viewers as they are not only getting amused by the hosts but also won't feel loneliness as they get company when eating as well. One particular 'mukbang' celebrity who goes by the name of 'The loan Shark' was one of the first 'mukbangers' that became popular. This short and chubby dude, who reminisces a little bit of Bobby Lee has an income of $150,000 - $200,000 yearly simply by amusing his audience.

1. Nasubi - The Japanese version of the Truman show

Before reality shows was a thing and tv-shows like Big Brother became huge worldwide, Japan had already devised this platform back in 1998. If you haven't heard of Nasubi before, then you are in for a ride. The idea of this reality show was to have one contestant live in an apartment with nothing but his birthday suit entering sweepstakes to win the game. He was only allowed to use the things he got rewarded for on the sweepstakes. The only thing he owned was a stack of postcards and a camera that recorded every second of his daily life. In order to complete his task and winning the reality show, he needed to enter mail-in sweepstakes until he won 1 million yen (about $10 000) in total. The sweepstakes could be everything from food and clothes, toys and other things that could help him to sustain longer in the game. So in order to survive he needed to actively enter sweepstakes and win which prolonged his stay. He would, for example, win a bag of rice but because he didn't have a pot to cook with so he would use an old can instead and when he, later on, would win a pot was probably one of the greatest moment in tv history.

He was constantly recorded and thought that the show would be re-broadcast later, but in actuality, he was on live stream video each week making fun of everything he did, especially his sadness and frustration. There were no specific date for when the show was to end as he only needed to reach the goal of 1 million yen to win, but when he finally reached that goal they blindfolded him and took him to another apartment, in South Korea this time, thus restarting the show again,  but this time he only needed to win the amount for a ticket back home. Once he finally won that amount they blindfolded him and sent him back to an apartment in Japan and as he took off his blindfold realizing he was in another room he started to take off his clothes, the fake walls suddenly fall down revealing that he was in a middle of a set where people was following him all the time, much to his surprise. The entire ordeal lasted 15 months and when he finally won, his daily diary became a best seller in Japan earning him millions and the TV show broke records with 17 million viewers each Sunday night.