Yanik Silver has released ‘Yanik’s Hot Sheat’ September issue. Read Silver’s latest article titled “The HOT Secret of Profiting from User Generated Sales and Content”.


Yanik Silver has released ‘Yanik’s Hot Sheat’ September issue.

Yanik Silver’s latest article is reprinted here.

The HOT Secret of Profiting from User Generated Sales and Content

This one insight is going to blow you away 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 $2k 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…

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.

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

Yanik Silver

Just 32-years old, Yanik Silver is recognized as the leading expert on creating automatic, moneymaking web sites…and he still doesn’t know how to put up his own website.

He is the author, co-author or publisher of several best-selling online marketing books and tools, which can befound at www.SurefireMarketing.com

‘Yanik’s Hot Sheat’ Contents

Silver says, “Check it out – here’s what you’ll hear about inside:

– Google’s new public domain book search

– Public Domain Goldmine Vol 9 Released

– Feature Article: The HOT Secret of Profiting from
User Generated Sales and Content

– Are product launches dead?

– Celebrity Charity Hockey Game

– Cool new video on “going natural”

– Web Designer Contest

– Books and Resources you should check out

All this and more inside this MEGA-sized issue of Yanik’s Hot Sheet”.

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‘Yanik’s Hot Sheat’ Subscription Page

*IMNewswatch would like to thank Yanik Silver for granting permission to reprint the latest article.