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Alex Tew, founder of the MillionDollarHomepage.com, has released 1,000 limited prints of his masterpiece to mark its third anniversary.

The iconic site made then 21-year-old student Tew his fortune and captured global attention. A constant point of reference in the web's development, MillionDollarHomepage is also increasingly regarded as a work of art.

“I’ve had lots of requests for them,” said Alex speaking exclusively to Smarta. “I’ve been meaning to do them for ages so I thought it’d be neat to do it to mark the third anniversary.”

Alex is also looking to the future, however, and is busy working on a secret project. He wouldn’t tell us what (wouldn’t be a secret then, would it?), but has promised to as soon as he can.

In the meantime, snap up your signed MDH print here.

For social use, unless you’re a hardened stalker, you don’t go approaching or messaging people on Facebook who you don’t already know. It’s all about communicating with those you do. Or a frantic pursuit of collecting people you've had the vaguest connection to, anyway – could we win gold in this?

For business though I want to contact people I haven’t met or who won’t remember me. I want to introduce myself, tell them what I do and see if there’s a way we can work together. However, the only way to do this is to cold message and, well, it all feels a little intrusive.

I know Facebook isn't a business network but there's some damn useful people on there, some of whom happily use it for business. Some don't, though - so how do you tell?

Do you mind being messaged cold? Or should business talk be kept to business networking sites?

It’s arguably the biggest challenge of web 2.0 – how do you start charging for something you’ve so far given away for free?

The almost universal approach to date has been that you don’t; instead you find other revenue streams (usually advertising) that allow you to keep offering the core service without charging.

After all, for social networks and free entertainment sites constantly courting the attention of promiscuous web customers used to getting what they want for free, suddenly charging would be seen as the ultimate turn-off.

It’s a bit different for b-2-b though, where you inevitably expect to pay for any service with real value. That’s not to say, of course, that going from a free model to a paid-for one doesn’t hold its risks: you’re opening yourself up to a competitor offering what you do for free, for a start.

It was interest then that I received the following email when placing a job ad on a site I’d used gratis for several years:

“Matt, the position is now live on our site... It’s also worth letting you know that we have moved to a fee paying structure this year – due to increased traffic on the website and the time required to manage it. I’ve attached a rate card for you to see. Please note that we’re offering two free adverts before we start to charge, so do enjoy another free posting with us. On saying that, we continue to post all internship / work experience positions for free.”

So I’ve now got to pay for a service I got for free. But you know what? Providing I still get value, I don’t really mind.

The site, Gorkana, has earned my respect over the years by providing a great service for free. Its rates introduced also mean it's still more economical than competitors and, once compared to the cost of advertising in a national newspaper or with a recruitment agent, I’m still getting a good deal.

Plus they’re softening the blow by communicating clearly and staggering the process with two more free placements. I.e. they’re continuing to demonstrate the quality of their service before asking me to pay for it.

Time will tell if Gorkana’s got it right or wrong for charging, but for me it feels fair and surely that should the barometer for others to follow when it comes to pricing models?

Employees up and down the country are working harder than ever this week... putting the finishing touches to their fantasy football sides ahead of the start of the Premiership on Saturday. If you can’t beat them, join them, so here’s our Fantasy Entrepreneur XI:

Peter Jones
Club: Phones International, Dragons’ Den
Goalkeeper
Commanding 6ft 7in shotstopper whose sheer presence turns the opposition into nervous wrecks, often pitching their best efforts well wide of the goal. Bases his game on percentages but has been known to betray his teammates for a big money contract.

Tom Hunter
Club: West Coast Capital, Hunter Foundation
Right back
Honest full-back who learnt the game at grass roots before working his way up to become one of its top performers and earners. A selfless player who puts the team first and is always the first to help out when others need his support. A successful career as a scout spotting and nurturing future talent awaits.

Levi Roots
Club: Reggae Reggae Sauce
Left back
Plucked out of the obscurity of non-league, Levi’s rapid rise to fame has surprised many but he continues to impress with an albeit unorthodox style that has brought many admirers and a series of lucrative contracts.

Alan Sugar
Clubs: Amstrad, Viglin
Centre back (captain)
Experienced and uncompromising leader, who’s won plenty of honours in a glittering career. Holds the back line together and when he talks, the others listen. If they don’t, they can expect to be subbed.

Michael O’Leary
Club: Ryanair
Central back
Bruising back-to-basics centre back who relishes kicking big name opposition into touch. A value-for-money signing who won’t go missing when times are tough. Prone to disciplinary problems and dissent.

James Dyson
Clubs: Dyson
Centre midfield
Creative playmaker who spots the passes others don’t see. Dismissed as an expensive luxury earlier in his career, Dyson has emerged as one of the most respected exponents of the beautiful game. Doesn’t come cheap, but adds quality where others just work hard to little effect.

Stelios
Clubs: EasyGroup
Centre midfield
Hard-working all-round midfielder who burst onto the scene 10 years ago and, despite the odd loss of form, has remained a core fixture for the best part of a decade. A high impact performer who does the basics well and leads by example, Stelios’ role is to sit in the middle and keep the side focused on results.

Theo Phaphitis
Clubs: Rymans, La Senza, Dragons’ Den
Left wing
Cunning ex-Millwall winger who works the flank tirelessly turning around precarious situations before driving forwards exploiting gaps in the opposition’s defence. Can sniff risk at distance but possesses plenty of flair.

Richard Branson
Club: Virgin Group
Right wing
The original celebrity entrepreneur, Branson’s our Beckham. In demand and easily distracted a true globetrotter who remains irresistible at delivery. Adored by his teammates and the public alike.

Lee McQueen
Club: The Apprentice Winner 2008
Centre forward
Questionable track record and lacking experience make assertions McQueen is out of his depth in this side understandable, but our target man will do whatever it takes to emerge victorious, while that dinosaur-impersonating ‘that’s what I mean’ goal celebration could well earn him cult hero status among the masses.

Michael Birch
Club: Bebo
Centre forward
A relative unknown who burst onto the scene with a unique style of play that has captured the imagination of younger supporters. Hot property, this young striker has already played overseas and was the subject of a record-breaking transfer deal earlier this year.

I'll let you name the subs bench and perhaps a women's XI to take on the men?

Need a holiday? Hell yes! Feel like you’re able to take one? Hell no!

I hear entrepreneurs say this all the time. The ambitious highfliers running fast-growth companies haven’t got a gap in their diaries for a frapacuino in the sun let alone a whole week, while the sole traders and micro businesses are working on such limited resources they’ve often resigned themselves to a life without breaks.

Now we all know only life coaches believe in ‘escaping the rat race or 9-to-5’, but surely one of the chief motivations to start your business was to enjoy your life more than if you worked for someone else – at what point does this get lost?

In the middle of an economic downturn when the pressure is on, margins are squeezed and you’re livelihood is at stake, is the probably the very real answer.

However, there comes a point where not taking a break can be bad for your business. Mainly because it’s bad for you.

The Shaw Trust a charity which has launched a free online resource to help employers reduce mental illness in the workplace, says stress and mental health problems are on the increase as a result of increasingly pressured working conditions.

If anything, it’s worse for you lot at the top carrying the burden of the whole company’s survival and your employees’ welfare.

Swanning off to the Bahamas for a month while they worry about redundancies mightn't be too sensible, but taking a few days off to recharge your batteries, look at the bigger picture and come back refreshed with a host of new ideas to the take the company forward could help everyone.

Glasses Direct founder Jamie Murray Wells has ended his search for a CEO, appointing Advertising.com’s UK MD Kevin Cornils.

Back in March, Jamie announced that he intended to step away to the role of executive chairman and partner with a CEO to “help me lead the company as we continue to establish the brand as a global leader”.

Launched in 2004, the company’s budget online specs were an immediate hit with everyone but its high street competitors who tried in vain to shut it down and promptly saw its founder scoop a host of entrepreneur awards.

Despite raising £6m from VCs and driving turnover in the millions, the company has yet to hit profitability and has seen a number of copycat competitors launch in its space. This, the fact he’s still only 25, and a tabloid snapping Jamie out on the town with on-off girlfriend of Prince William, Kate Middleton, led to a few rumours the move confirmed today wasn’t all his own choice.

Blog Smarta’s no celebrity gossip column so doesn’t wish to comment. Instead, we’ll consider that perhaps Jamie’s simply realised inside four years what it takes many entrepreneurs a lot longer to fathom: he can’t do everything and is better off concentrating on his strengths.

If that’s the case, Cornils sounds a shrewd appointment. With a track record of web successes, he most recently joined Buy.at to work with the founding partners, taking it to the US and tripling it in size before selling to AOL’s Advertising.com.

With a site redesign, fresh branding (see above) and some cool new features including a virtual mirror that lets Glasses Direct customers upload photos and ‘try on’ different specs all imminent, the company now looks geared to embark on the next phase of its growth.

It’s been said before that celebrity entrepreneurs are the new celebrity chefs. It was with interest then that I read comments in today’s CityA.M. from Herbert Berger, Michelin-starred head chef at London’s lauded One Lombard Street, condemning the fame hungry antics of his peers.

After labelling some of TV’s biggest stars ‘spoilt divas’, ‘petulant children’ and ‘attention seekers’ he asserts: “It is time for the profession to return to the kitchen and decide between food or fame. Let’s return some dignity to what is – for some of us at least – a civilised profession.”

I think we can safely say Gordon Ramsay won’t be losing too much sleep over Berger’s outburst; while the argument celebrity chefs have done anything other than strengthen the food industry is tenuous at best.

For entrepreneurs though, there might be a stronger case. Earlier this week I sat with two bosses of ambitious, expanding companies who’ve both done a bit of TV, as they concurred neither of them was in a rush to do anymore.

“It might give you profile but profile doesn’t run your business or generate profit,” was the consensus.
One was at the meeting having turned down a show due to hit ITV’s schedule in the autumn because it involved eight weeks away filming – what entrepreneur can happily take EIGHT weeks out of their business?!

Before you start throwing the now household names of Dragons’ Den or Alan Sugar at me, they don’t count. They’ve made their fortunes, they’ve nice big senior management teams taking care of the day-to-day. In turn, I'm sure it's not the Gordon Ramsays of the food world, Berger's vitrol is aimed at.

Mind you, I’d question if even Gordon or ‘Sir Alan’ would be comfortable with leaving their businesses for eight weeks.

Celebrity? You can keep it.

It could have been the brilliant final scene of The Usual Suspects where we realise Kevin Spacey’s Verbal has fabricated the wondrous illusion of Keyser Soze from papers lining the walls of the detective’s office (see below) or it could be the time Microsoft told me competitors once hired a neighbouring office to try and peak at a top secret presentation, but whenever I visit a company’s office I’m always fascinated by what’s on the wall.

Indeed, you can often learn more about a big company and its processes from the remnants of meetings,brainstorming sessions or signs for staff than an interview with its PR-savvy CEO who's rattled off the same polished story a million times before.

That wasn’t the case with the media company I visited recently whose boss is lovely, but the flipchart scribbling left in its meeting room made interesting enough reading for me to want to scribble it down.
It looks like it was a summary of a management or staff training/strategy session and was titled ‘team behaviours’:

Value the team
Flat management
Acceptance of each other as individuals
Open and honest but be respectful of each other
Play to each other’s strengths
Best idea not the loudest idea
Everyone encouraged to speak
All ideas are valued
Always consider new ideas and ways
Forget past lives, enjoy the future
Embrace constructive criticism

Really healthy stuff, I reckon and definitely reflected in the relaxed, democratic and motivated feel to the office. Far healthier than the instructions for work experience students I once found in one of the UK’s largest and esteemed organisations, which began, ‘1) Don’t ask questions’.

I’ll keep reporting my nosy parker findings, but let’s hear about yours as well!

Last night’s Dragons’ Den was a classic, with two DD firsts and one poor guy being practically set alight by the dragons' fury!

First, Clive Billing was offered a DD record £255,000 for a 40% stake in his online jewellery retailer Diamond Geezer from Peter Jones, James Caan and Theo Paphitis – and then turned it down! “I’ve no regrets whatsoever, it wasn’t a fair offer,” said Clive, who was holding out for 20%, after the show.

He’s confident he’ll get a better deal elsewhere. Given Clive only made £3,000 from £1.6m turnover last year and has liabilities of approx £300,000, we’re not so sure! And fancy passing up on the opportunity of adding three dragons to your board!

The unique aspect to Peter Jones’s £75,000 investment for 35% of Victoria McGrane’s fledgling fashion company Neurotica was that she’d only asked for £56,000! While one by one the other dragons balked at Victoria’s obvious failure to budget for stock to meet supply orders, Peter readily upped his offer to account for the oversight.

While hardly a first, the dragons were also at their fiercest best. Diamond Geezer Clive got a stern reprimand from Deborah Meaden for having broken the show rules by previously contacting her, while unimpressed Duncan assured him the pleasure in their meeting was all Clive's.

The real pasting was saved for Richard Mire and his Screen Machine idea to help parents control children’s TV viewing. The dragons’ nonplussed reaction was just the start; the real action began when Richard revealed his other business made £300,000 last year.

“Get out of here. GO AWAY!” screamed Theo, repeating it several times. When the chorus of abuse subsided, James Caan spelled out Richard’s crime for him: “So this is such a amazing idea you want to put £2,500 in for 85% and I’m going to put in £150,000 for 15%?! I’m a bit disappointed that you think we’re that stupid.”

Duncan Bannatyne quickly lowered the tone again, sending Richard packing with possibly the hardest exit line in DD history: “I wish you absolute failure. I hope it doesn’t take off. I hope people don’t buy it, I hope it fails. I think it’s ridiculous.” Just in case that didn’t fully clarify where he stood, Duncan added the all too familiar “I’m out.” Harsh. But, on reflection, probably fair.

If you missed, catch it iplayer until Monday.

Brits are pitching their tents and going camping for their summer holidays this summer. Entrepreneurs will be joining in too with September marking the return of last year’s highly-successful Seedcamp, where a more familiar form of pitching will be on the agenda.

The week-long experience will see 20 selected start-ups undergo an intensive investment-readiness programme, with the help of a diverse mentor network of serial entrepreneurs, corporates, product designers, venture capitalists, recruiters, marketing specialists, lawyers and accountants.

At the end of the week, five of the companies will win €50,000 in exchange for a 10% stake. Those five then get the same ecosystem of experts for an extended three-month tutorship which, in addition to more intensive scaling up, includes two investor presentation days.

Organised by Index Partner’s Saul Klein, founder of Video Island and former VP of marketing and e-commerce at Skype, Seedcamp has representatives from Google, Microsoft, NESTA, Cisco and Mizilla on its advisory board.

If you’re an early stage idea and meet Seedcamp’s flexible criteria, you’ve got just under two weeks to apply.

Oh, and don't forget those tentpegs...

Image: Flickr