===================================
Hot New Internet Concept: 
User Generated Sales and Content 

By Yanik Silver
===================================

This one insight is going to be worth your entire 
year’s subscription if you pay attention. Check 
out this site – www.ThreadLess.com (Actually as 
I was researching this site – I bought a very 
cool T-shirt there – so there’s another reason to 
check out the site.)

Threadless.com is a perfect “closed loop” system of 
interactivity, feedback and direct sales back to 
your "group." It’s pretty damn smart! They have 
over 300,000 registered users who vote on t-shirt 
designs submitted by other users in the community. 
The shirts that get the best scores are the ones 
that are produced and sold right back to the group 
who said they wanted to buy it. Those that don’t 
make the cut are banished to the design archives.

The winners get fame and fortune (sort of). They’ll 
receive a $2,000 prize if they get their T-shirt 
selected for printing and their design immortalized. 
Actually, it’s pretty cool, because the T-shirt I 
bought has the designer's name on the inside of the 
shirt, too.

Let’s explore this a little more…

First off, there is almost no risk in using this 
type of system. It’s a perfect closed loop, with 
material submitted by users, voted on by users and
then purchased by the users. This is one of the best 
applications of the online world I’ve seen in quite 
some time. Consider how much less risk there is in 
letting your community tell you *EXACTLY* what they 
want to purchase and then giving it right back to 
them. Actually, I would bet the sales are even better 
because the users feel like they are involved from 
the very first step. They feel like they have their 
hand in the birthing of the T-shirt. 

The guys behind Threadless.com have only the risk 
of printing up too much inventory – but I’m sure 
they’ve got that figured based on the scoring the 
T-shirts received and past sales numbers. 

Also, they have an ingenious feature built-in that 
lets would-be buyers request a reprint of a shirt if 
it’s sold-out already.

You provide your email address and which size 
T-shirt you want to get updates if your favorite 
design will be updated. The website’s shop also 
leaves up lots of sold-out designs, which shows 
"social proof" of other people buying. Plus, it 
gets people submitting their info to be notified of 
reprints (once again diminishing the risk of 
production).

Threadless.com works on so many levels involving 
their users and really building community – which 
keeps them involved and excited about the T-shirts. 
Plus, it continues building social proof of how cool 
their designs are. For instance…

1. They let users post photos of themselves wearing 
the T-shirt designs.The more people you see in the 
T-shirt the “cooler” you think it is. Plus, it allows 
members of the community to get a bit of recognition 
and fame. They also get “points” for submitting their 
photo in a T-shirt design. Those points are used for 
free t-shirts and that’s also how they run part of 
their affiliate program.

2. Instead of a “real” affiliate program, they have 
managed to activate their users as evangelists for 
them in exchange for free tees. Users get points 
every time someone buys a T-shirt from their link. 

3. On each design submission, registered users are 
encouraged to leave their comments. These real-world 
comments are more social proof (if they are positive) 
and also give the Threadless.com guys some insight 
into the designs that are selling.

4. Attaching themselves to celebrities. Their 
community gets excited when they see a celeb or 
musician wearing one of their shirts. Pictures are 
posted on a “sightings” page. 

5. Keeping it fun and quirky. If you start glancing 
through the t-shirts (yes, I just bought another 
one!) you’ll see the staff at Threadless.com really 
gets into the photography of the shirt. There’s a 
design with Darth Vader from Star Wars pruning a tree. 
It’s pretty good – but then take a look at the product 
pic. There’s a guy shearing another team member’s hair 
(while wearing the t-shirt). 

Okay so how this apply to your business if you’re 
not selling T-shirts?

Lots. Here are some questions to get your started…

Think about how you can make your product and 
marketing more of a two-way street and offer a true 
interaction with customers. 

* How can you get more interactive with your 
customer base and get them actively engaged with 
you? 

* How can you give them recognition? 

* How can you incorporate more social proof? 

* Why do you have to do business the same way 
everyone else does by “guessing” what your 
customers want?

User-generated content is huge!

Look at “American Idol” – same thing but on a 
different scale. All the American Idol hopefuls 
contribute their content (singing) and the 
producers profit from it. 

Go back even further and a perfect example before 
the online world is “America’s Funniest Home 
Videos.”  Users submitted videos (content) and the 
TV show producers profited. Now today you’ve got 
YouTube.com, with millions of video submissions, or 
Flickr.com with photos. I’ll cover user-generated 
content in another issue more thoroughly, but this 
should give lots of stuff to think about. 

This is one of the perfect uses for the Internet 
that could never happen offline.


==========================================================
Yanik Silver is recognized as the leading expert on 
creating automatic, moneymaking websites...and he still
doesn't know how to put up a website. 

He is the author, co-author or creator of several best-
selling online marketing books and tools, including his
newest resource - http://www.UltimateCopywritingWorkshop.com
==========================================================