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There's something appealing about a fixed price of $5. Washington state's Ferry Farm Stand tapped into that appeal with its grab-and-go bags of produce, and now Israel-based Fiverr is expanding the concept into the world of services. Similar in many ways to both Mechanical Turk and ShortTask, Fiverr lets anyone sell a service of virtually any type for $5. Those “gigs,” as they're called, of which there are more than 20,000 already listed on the site, span the spectrum in focus and practicality. Many are much like what one might find on ShortTask—writing positive product reviews on a website, for example—but others venture into much less pragmatic territory, such as furnishing “7 hours, 53 minutes of vacuum cleaner sounds.” Categories on the site include “Fun & Bizarre” and “Silly Stuff” along with the more staid classics such as “Graphics” and “Social Marketing.” For each task sold, the seller receives $4; Fiverr keeps the rest. Both buyers and sellers remain anonymous, while a feedback system enables participant ratings. Now in beta, Fiverr gives cash-minded sellsumers and minipreneurs a quick, standardized way to sell their skills, both practical and otherwise. One to emulate on a localized or niche basis... or to test out in *your* next big thing? (Related: Computer tasks for workers in the developing world — Bidding system for domestic outsourcing.) Website: www.fiverr.com Spotted by: Bryce Hufnal |
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Upscale food trucks have been popping up all over the place for some time now, selling everything from wood-fired pizzas to Korean tacos to gourmet desserts. Now, make way for the double-decker bus, which entered the picture last month complete with a rooftop restaurant. Aiming to go well beyond the taco truck that's so ubiquitous on the streets of LA, local entrepreneurs Travis Schmidt and Jason Freeman began with a vintage double-decker, and then spent six months adding a full kitchen downstairs and open-air seating on top. Now, what might well be America's first “bustaurant” is officially called World Fare, a mobile restaurant that serves up a variety of high-end dishes from around the world. One favourite, for example, is the Bunny Chow, an originally South African street worker food that features a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with chicken curry, coconut milk, chick peas, cashews and cilantro. Also notable are World Fare's house-made “drinks in a bag,” including strawberry basil lemonade. Like several of the recent contenders we've seen, World Fare keeps its fans updated via Twitter; weekly schedules are also posted online. As economic conditions declined in recent years, street vendors and low-cost curbside cuisine ascended; now, as prosperity begins to improve once again--albeit slowly--it makes perfect sense to see the mobile dining experience get upgraded once again. Foodie entrepreneurs around the world: time to hit the well-heeled streets with a double-decker bus of your very own? (Related: Foodie podcast highlights curbside cuisine — Coffee chariot caffeinates Copenhagen.) Website: www.worldfare.com Spotted by: Jim Stewart |
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The music industry has long been putting fans to work for help with promotions and sales, and now it looks like Domino's Pizza is getting in on the action as well. A new widget launched last month lets consumers serve as affiliate marketers for the brand through their social networking pages and blogs. Domino's UK is apparently the first brand to test the new widget, which comes from UK agency BLM Quantum, part of Arena BLM. All consumers need do is install the widget on their website, blog or social networking page, start promoting Domino’s on their personal web space, and then wait for the cash to roll in. The widget tracks all orders placed through their site and rewards consumers with 0.5 percent of every purchase. All the marketing experts in the world can't hold a candle to the persuasive power socially connected consumers have over each other; the key is harnessing that power and putting it to work for your brand—with rewards, of course, for the consumers in question. Who will be the first brand in *your* industry to leverage the virtually limitless marketing muscle of sellsumers? Website: www.dominos.co.uk Spotted by: MarketingWeek via Rick Edgars |
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It's been only a few weeks since we covered French WTFjeans, but we couldn't resist mentioning another gadget-friendly clothing accessory we recently came across. For those not willing to stuff their jeans with electronics—however well-suited those jeans might be—the Bandee is a multifunctional sash designed to hold mobile phones, iPods and all sorts of other gadgets that otherwise fill up pockets or get lost in handbags. The award-winning Bandee is a “multifunctional transport solution for the little things of everyday life,” as its Berlin-based creator puts it. Cellphones, music players, wallets, ID, keys, lipstick and a virtually infinite variety of other small items fit nicely in its many pockets, relieving the wearer of the need to carry a heavy bag or load the pockets of one's clothes. Compartments are configured to ensure that nothing falls out—even on the most challenging half-pipe, say—and a variety of designs are available. Pricing ranges from EUR 29.95 for solid-coloured Bandees to EUR 39.95 for multicolour designs. Currently selling through its online shop as well as through retail outlets in Portugal, the Netherlands, South Korea, Poland and Turkey, Bandee is now seeking distributors in other countries. One to bring to the gadget-dependent masses in your part of the world...? Website: www.bandee.de |
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We've seen a couple of different initiatives to provide drivers of electric vehicles with free power for their cars—both at a McDonald's and at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport—but as such vehicles become more widespread, efforts like that are unlikely to remain sustainable. Recognizing the need for a formal charging infrastructure, SemaConnect has developed an automated solution that lets parking operators build, scale and manage a network of vehicle-charging systems. SemaConnect offers a range of both pedestal-mounted and wall-mounted charging stations that enable electric cars and plug-in hybrids to connect effortlessly to a power source. Smart card authentication gives only authorized users access to charging, while cellular connectivity transmits transaction information to a remote server. The SemaCharge Network Management System, meanwhile, is a web-based system that allows infrastructure operators such as municipalities, utilities, commercial parking lot operators and apartment building managers to monitor and manage their network of charging stations, including metering, billing and demand response. The SemaCharge network also gives consumers the ability to track their usage and pay online. As company founder Mahi Reddy recently told the Washington Post, “the notion that your landlord would install a socket so that you could get free juice is a fantasy. This is not like charging a cellphone." Maryland-based SemaConnect recently installed one of its first devices at the Loews Annapolis Hotel, the Post reports. Parking-lot operators around the globe: one to get in on early...? (Related: Parking operator launches car-sharing service.) Website: www.semaconnect.com Spotted by: Susanna Haynie |
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We've seen numerous social networks for travellers in recent years, including KLM's location-specific Club China and Club Africa for connecting people who do business in those parts of the world. Taking a slightly different tack is British Airways' Metrotwin, which focuses on comparing and contrasting city “twins” instead. New York and London are the cities paired on the main Metrotwin site, which provides recommendations for the best neighbourhoods, businesses, attractions and places to visit on both sides of the pond. Rather than connecting travellers, it strives to be more of a social utility for time-starved, novelty-seeking urbanites living in or travelling between the two cities. Same goes for Metrotwin Mumbai, a like-minded arm of the effort that pairs London and Mumbai instead. The site explains: “Do you know where to find the Breach Candy of London? What about the Tate Modern of Mumbai? Metrotwin makes these cross-references useful by asking people like you to suggest Mumbai and London ‘twins’ for neighbourhoods, businesses, attractions, places and people.” Rather than reviewing any and every cafe in those cities, then, it focuses on comparable “best of” destinations, drawing from local online communities and bloggers—who, incidentally, get rewarded for their content with British Airways miles. Now in beta, Metrotwin puts an interesting spin on travel review sites by focusing on equivalent attractions in very different cities. That's how people often learn about new things, after all—by comparing them with what they already know—so the approach makes intuitive sense. One to emulate for travellers in your part of the world, or to apply to a different product category? Website: mumbai.metrotwin.com Spotted by: Louisa Redshaw Image credits: Deepa and obo-bobolina |
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UK law requires that children under the age of 12 travel with a booster seat to help avoid serious injury in the event of a collision, and similar laws apply in countries around the world. Normally made of hard plastic, these seats are bulky and difficult to transport, so many children go without proper safety provision when travelling in other people's cars, rental cars and taxis. Enter BubbleBum, an inflatable, safety-approved car booster seat, providing a lightweight, portable alternative to its cumbersome counterparts. Launched in December 2009 and claimed to be a world's first, the patent-pending BubbleBum booster seats fold flat when deflated, making them easy to carry in rucksacks or handbags and convenient to take on holidays, school trips or car pooling. The BubbleBum booster seat is priced at GBP 24.99 and can be purchased through the company’s website. BubbleBum is currently negotiating distribution deals with several large retailers in the UK, Ireland and North America, as well as a travel company. Given the increasingly mobile lifestyles of parents, the demand for travel-friendly child safety solutions is surely on the rise. Get on board now and strap in for a rewarding ride! (Related: For parents on the go, folding high-chair made of cardboard.) Website: www.bubblebum.co.uk Spotted by: Mark Nagurski
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Much the way Supercool School allows anyone to create and monetize an online school, so Estonia-based Traindom focuses on helping information entrepreneurs market their expertise. No programming or design skills are required to create an education-focused business with Traindom; rather, the site gives users everything they need, including an easy-to-use product creation interface, client management tools, payment systems and more. Content can be conveyed through text, images, audio or video, and support is available both from the company and through a community forum. Traindom users don’t pay until they win 10 sales, and there are no contracts, setup or termination fees. Pricing ranges from nothing for a free account supporting up to 10 clients with 500 megabytes of video storage to USD 99 per month for unlimited clients and 10 gigabytes of storage. Picking up where general sites like Instructables leave off, Traindom could provide just the platform for minipreneurs with niche expertise. One to try out on the target market that matters to you? Website: www.traindom.com Spotted by: John Greene |
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Last year we wrote about retailer Fortnum & Mason’s rooftop beehives in London. Now Sainsbury’s is set to become the first UK supermarket to keep bees, recently announcing plans to install eight 'bee hotels' on land around their new eco-store in Dursley, Gloucestershire. With the new eco-store located in one of the UK's main fruit and vegetable growing regions, Sainsbury’s beekeeping efforts are aimed at helping to improve crop pollination in the area. Sainsbury's Environment Manager, Jack Cunningham explains: "The rapid decline in bee population has had a severe impact upon the productivity of British crops, so we have decided to take practical steps to help.” Sainsbury's won't be collecting honey from the bees, just facilitating pollination of local crops, gardens and wildflowers. This initiative is particularly apt given that Sainsbury's existing loyalty scheme involves customers collecting “Nectar Points”. A boost for the environment and their brand—sweet! Who will be next to jump on the beekeeping bandwagon? (Related: Sponsored beehives produce hotels’ honey — Atop a Toronto hotel, more urban beekeeping.) Website: www.sainsburys.co.uk Spotted by: Treehugger via Raymond Kollau |
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University of the People—which we covered last week—may be tuition-free, but plenty of other schools around the globe are profitable. Just launched earlier this year, Supercool School is an education platform that lets anyone create and monetize an online school of their very own. For USD 15 per month, users of San Francisco-based Supercool School can create real-time classes and make them available to an unlimited number of students from all around the world. The white-label platform offers streaming audio and video as well as the ability to share documents and presentations over the web. Every live class is recorded and stored, enabling thousands of students to view them afterwards. School creators can offer their classes for free or charge for them as part of a global education business that's customizable, brandable and scalable. Professional accounts with unlimited access to Supercool School are now in invitation-only beta; in the meantime, a free version of the platform can be used to offer up to 15 classes per month. More than 45,000 companies and 300,000 entrepreneurs post revenues of roughly $30 billion per year in the U.S. education and training services industry alone, says Supercool, which now enables more than 100 schools, 700 classes and 2,500 users. Time to start a little global education business of your own...? (Related: Peer-to-peer '(un)classes' match interest with passion.) Website: www.supercoolschool.com Spotted by: John Greene |
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There are few commitments in life as irrevocable as getting a tattoo, yet typically there's no way to try them on before taking the plunge. Enter TatMash, a site that lets users see what a real tattoo would look like on them before they really get it done. A broad array of tattoo designs are already available on California-based TatMash, and users can also upload their own. To see what one would look like on them, they simply upload a photo of themselves and drag the tattoo's image to the spot on their body where they'd like to have it done. Ad-supported TatMash is free for users. If today's trysumers like to try before they buy even with relatively low-commitment purchases like cosmetics, the concept is sure to please when the product in question is designed to last a lifetime. Keep the virtual tryvertising innovations coming! (Related: Digital makeup mirror enables virtual tryvertising — Graphic decals turn casts into works of art.) Website: www.tatmash.com Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann |
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We've seen numerous examples of group buying over the years, but recently we came across technology that promises to enable many more. SyncFu is a free widget that any e-commerce website can install to let deal-seeking consumers team up for volume discounts. Online retailers begin by adding SyncFu to their site and then setting the quantity-price ratio for their relevant products. To join a group buying offer, customers need only click on the “Join Group Buy” or similar button on the seller's website. They're then presented with the SyncFu widget, which displays how the price drops as the size of the participating group grows. If interested, the customer leaves his or her email address and makes a micropayment of less than USD 2 by cellphone or credit card; he or she can also spread the word about the deal in the hopes of increasing the group size and lowering the price. SyncFu, meanwhile, gives each pledging consumer a code for use when shopping to receive the discount. At the end of the deadline for participation, all participants pay the most recently listed price. Since the deal is done directly in the seller's web shop, there are no intermediaries; sellers keep all the profits. Italian SyncFu, meanwhile, is funded by buyers' micropayments. By giving vendors a way to lead the group-buying initiatives—rather than following (and paying) via third-party aggregators like Groupon—SyncFu promises to shift power back to those on the selling end. One to try out on your own thriving e-commerce site? Website: www.syncfu.com Spotted by: Peter Holwitz |
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