The internet is whirring away with blogs and websites that fan the flames of people's love affair with creation and fame. Little entities are constantly springing up that - if magnetic enough - draw audiences of hundreds, thousands, millions. And after their audiences reach critical mass, most of them are monetized through advertising.
But sometimes, simply harnessing the creativity and desire for fame is enough to make the dollars roll in.
I've been a long-time admirer of threadless.com Since 2000 they've built a thriving online community of 700,000 and growing. This community creates and - through voting - rates threadless' product: t-shirts. If they are rated highly the designs move up the charts. If they get high enough they are printed and sold netting the designer a $2500 prize and, more importantly, the warm glow of fame. Now Imagine that model in the offline world - a fashion label of 700,000 designers with qualitative research groups 700,000 strong that operate around the clock 24/7 3-6-5 giving you real time consumer feedback on your inventory. Ridiculous in the offline world but online - it's as close to perfect a model as you can imagine. The line between producer and consumer is completely blurred: it's all about participation; getting stuck in, sharing your creativity, and holding onto the thought that your creation could end up being worn around the world by thousands of wonderfully diverse creative people - with your name on the label.
The great news is - everyone wins - threadless are at the forefront of a new breed of online business spreading and monetizing user generated contentment. And these little businesses know everyone's happy - because if they weren't, there shelves would be empty.
Really interesting article.
Reminds one that the internet has just so many different kinds of possibilities for people with a creative / entrepreneurial mind.
Posted by: Eamon | July 23, 2008 at 04:50 PM