September 25th, 2008
Economics of Free: Wish Fulfillment as Business Model
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Pay It To Me is the perfect example of a good idea combined with bad design.
The idea itself is elegant. Users post pictures of the items they desire, along with their prices. Advertisers pay for the items in lieu of having their names and links posted on the front page of the website for a minimum of 15 days. The idea is that the advertisers who pay for the costlier items will attract more attention (but it isn’t clear why).
The execution isn’t as elegant. It’s basically a Blogger hosted blog (and not a very well-designed one at that). Clearly, 30 year old Belgian municipal worker Renaud’s creativity doesn’t extend to website design.
Still, Renaud has managed to get some serious coverage on popular tech blogs and even has a publicist e-mailing bloggers on his behalf. What Renaud needs now is a designer. In fact, I have e-mailed Renaud to check if I can submit a ‘wish’ to hire a professional designer to redo his website.
