How do you make money on the Net? just be creative!

EricB is very creative, and he's collecting a little extra cash over at FerraiChat. He's not making "Ferrari Enzo in Red" kind of money, but it's some nice extra change. Just by staying in tune with interesting things that are going on, and having the capability to talk directly to people that are interested in them you can make things happen. Makes me wonder if his approach couldn't be made into a process and performed serially.



The catalyst is a red Ferrari Enzo (very expensive and rare Ferrari) that crashed in Malibu. It's a strange story involving a driver that fled the scene, and an owner that might be in the Swedish mafia. And it just keeps getting weirder every day.

When you start reading Ferrarichat, it doesn't take very long to figure out that it is a vibrant community full of very opinionated and outspoken people. I imagine this is true of all successful forums and online communities. You need the colorful, unpredictable personalities to keep everyone else coming back. If they like something, they go on about it for weeks, compiling several hundred posts, spanning pages of reading. Every good forum is like that...

In an environment like FerrariChat, a greedy capitalist will be sniffed out very quickly. If all you're interested in is making a buck off the members of the forum, you're toast - burned by everyone.

On March 4, EricB shows up in the Southern California section of the forum. He says he's never posted to the forum before, but he's been reading it for a long time. Then he says that he's got an idea for a t-shirt based around the strange Enzo story, and he's interested in how many people would be interested in owning one. The community loves it and jumps on it immediately. EricB even works with the community on the final design of the t-shirt, and asks whether he should order 24 or 48 of them... he orders 48, and sells them for $15 each. He accepts money orders to his office, or through a paypal account. He has limited quantities and is concerned about how to refund money to people that don't pick up their shirt before they run out.

For a grand total of 6 posts, and a little creative design, EricB makes $720 (minus his shirt printing costs). Because he's smart? He noticed an opportunity and jumped on it, so that makes him smart. I don't think he's a serial forum crasher - but isn't that an idea? Could you make money by posting a thread saying you're a long-time lurker and have an idea for something and want to see if anyone is interested? ABSOLUTELY - I think it's a great idea, if you're creative enough to sniff out the catalyst and the market.

Here's the process.

1. Stay tuned to the news. Focus on strange stories where nobody gets hurt (a key part of EricB's inital post). Stick to wide interest, and massive distribution. Ongoing sagas, where people have been talking for some time about it. One that I could think of right off the bat would be Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie. How about the tunnels that keep appearing under the Mexican border?
   
2. Come up with a simple T-shirt design based on the story. Don't break any laws! Don't infringe on any copyrights!
   
3. Identify where the community congregates. Forums, newsgroups, social networking sites. In the Brangelina story, it might be the alt.gossip.celebrities newsgroup. In the Mexican border story it might be a pro-legalization group.
   
4. Approach the community with an "idea" to see if anyone is interested. If you receive any feedback, flow with it and mold it into something that they like.
   
5. Collect checks. Collect paypal payments. Collect cold hard green.
   
6. Repeat!
   

EricB - my hat is off to you!


PostScript - I've come to find out that low quantities of original design shirts aren't that cheap. The cheapest price I could find for 48 shirts is $12/ea. That makes EricB's profits a grand total of about $3 per shirt - and he's probably spending that on shipping to the people that are getting one. After reading the FerrariChat post though, I'm sure he could have sold the shirt for more $$. At $20, if you could find a drop shipper for the shirts - it might be worth it.