First Glimpse: MyPicklist
Jeff Eichel is the founder of MyPicklist, a new web app that embodies a refreshingly simple but potentially revolutionary approach to advertising on the Web. He writes about the MyPicklist product concept in this post:
[from Social Commerce]MyPickList.com helps consumers make informed purchase decisions by creating the first social commerce network website on the Internet. In English terms – MyPickList.com drives word-of-mouth commerce “which retailers love” by leveraging the community aspects of a social network.
With mypicklist.com you can search your social network to find and see what products others who you know own –and– whether or not they like them. Moreover, you could learn about the people you don’t know when they recommend a product. With this information, you could make a more informed buying decision about products you are considering – and keep up to date on the ones you don’t yet know you should be buying.
MyPickList.com integrates a user profile and their favorite product recommendations (what we call a pick list) into a tightly networked community. Once a user creates a pick list it can be shared with family, friends or the public.
MyPicklist helps you to create a list of things -- ten favorite running shoes, this month's best CDs, your favorite list of books -- and allows others to buy those goods by clicking on the list elements. Jeff has ironed out the affiliate relationships with over one hundred companies, and is rapidly adding more, meaning that the user doesn't have to worry about that. But you get a percentage of every transaction. His idea is simple: why just recommend that cellphone for nothing? If you think its cool, create a picklist and make money out of that recommendation.
And his technology will allow you to create banner-style ads for these goods as well: you can be your own ad network!
I have written for years that in the future -- which may now have become the near future -- all e-commerce will be socialized. MyPicklist is an example of that in-context, socialized buying. A well-known fashion critic makes a list of the best fashions for spring on her blog (using MyPicklist) and users buy right there. Of course, in today's version of MyPicklist, the end of the transaction still occurs at the associated retail website, but I think that will change in time, as well.
At any rate, MyPicklist looks pretty cool, and will fit into the blogosphere very naturally. Go sign up for the beta, which should be rolling out very soon.
[Disclosure: I have a Type 4 relationship with MyPicklist, by which I mean that a/ I am an advisor to the company, and b/ I have a financial interest in it's future. (For more about various types of advisory relationships, see this.)]
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