DISQUS

Sharpshoot · 3 years ago

Incentivised widgets seem like the way to go nowadays. With snocap qnd now this, we're definately going to see more viral, revenue generators over the next few months. This is an interesting trend and it shows that entrepreneurs are really understanding the need to combine these two factors. However there is the threat if myspace blocks them.

Khang Toh · 3 years ago

Gizmoojo adgent is about to launch soon and it allows user to select products from Amazon.com (demo here) and add the adgent widget to their blog/site/myspace etc and earn the amazon associates comission (4-8%). And its not Flash-based. The favoritethingz badges somehow did not work real well with my firefox (latest release) with white blocks overlays on top of the badge content.

DanD · 3 years ago

I love the idea, but in practice its not great. I have to "browse" to find items? Are you kidding? Did I miss the search form somewhere? I guess I'll never know as there is also no general contact email. See you laterz, favorite thingz.

Khang Toh · 3 years ago

Sorry for the double post. The hyperlinks on the previous comment was not structured properly.

Gizmoojo adgent is about to launch soon and it allows user to select products from Amazon.com (demo here) and add the adgent widget to their blog/site/myspace etc and earn the amazon associates comission (4-8%). And its not Flash-based. The favoritethingz badges somehow did not work real well with my firefox (latest release) with white blocks overlays on top of the badge content.

Chubbs · 3 years ago

It concerns me that all these "MySpace feeder" businesses are still coming out. MySpace is really starting to tighten things down, and I believe that in the next year, you will see service like these unable to include their product in MySpace.

Khang Toh · 3 years ago

DanD, we do have a ajax-based search form for searching products. pretty cool i would say.

CT · 3 years ago

The real question here is user adoption. I mean, 3-5% cash back off of a SALE of a $50.00 item is no incentive to anyone who does the math. Why would a user bother to pimp a brand for such a pittance? Brand's pay millions in advertising and users are going to be expected to do it for free? It will only generate significant revenue for a handful of users and for the rest, what do they get, the hope that they influenced a strangers buying decision? Don't get me wrong, the fundamental idea is great, but users aren't really getting anything out of this model.

Pete Cashmore · 3 years ago

CT,

I don't think that's the mindset of the average MySpace user. The biggest audience for this thing are those teens (millions of them) who want cool stuff to add to their pages. They're already pimping brands for free, just to associate themselves with those cool items (bands, perfumes etc). I'm not sure that they'll go for the incentives, but they might - a few dollars might not seem like a lot to the highly-paid tech crowd, but to teens it counts as extra pocket money.

The key thing is that you don't just pimp brands to earn money, but also to show that you're a member of the in-crowd.

David G · 3 years ago

DanD is right - while the technology & concept are cool, the usability of "create a badge" is well, unusable - it won't scale - that search was left out makes no sense - hopefully they fix that.

Also, it seems that launching with such a sparesly populated catalog of "things" is a mistake - the buzz they get today won't come again in a hurry, but I'd expect most visitors to the site leave without creating a badge.

CT · 3 years ago

Pete,

I agree, but what I am saying is that the incentive that is provided won't even amount to a few dollars. The thing is most of the users who are pimping a product don't need a widget to do it. They already can and do as you stated. The problem for me is that the revenue model that favorite things is using (CPA) is not sustainable unless they are "owned" by a linkshare, value click, cj or other such ad provider. It is basically the same thing that YUB does except in the form of a widget.

So, given that most won't earn even pocket change, most can already pimp brands (to show you are in the in crowd), all that is left is an interface that spits out a very simple flash file. I don't see how that is a sustainable business model given that it isn't really solving a user need. More importantly, unless they have an agreement MySpace will shut it down as it potentially takes away ad dollars from MySpace - and while it can be plugged in anywhere,
w/o MySpace, there is not much reach. All of course imho.

Guillaumeb · 3 years ago

Interesting, I tested it. too bad they don t have many brands right now.

Frodo · 3 years ago

CT.. What is YUB?

erik · 3 years ago

This is a really interesting idea/widget. I tested it out shortly after coming here, and think it has some significant potential.

The UI is intuitive and easy - however, why waste a page asking people if they're "sure" they want to continue building the widget? If they said they did, then they did.

Anyway, this isn't a far hop away from what everyone was ranting and raving about over at TechCrunch about a company called PayPerPost.com. Here you're getting paid to blog about products, there you're getting paid to blog about... products. Interesting, no?

Payalisha · 3 years ago

What the heck are the badge impressions once you put the widget on a sight. I understand the straightforward click counter but what is the badge impression they're counting. I'm not a marketing major and I think they need a more involved about us or help section. I think its a great idea to add personality to your site while making a lil lunch money if you target the younger crowd, in my opinion.