Co-registration - or how to build more than one dbase at once

I was having coffee the other day with a smart fellow who runs www.nationwidenetworking.com.au in Melbourne. He introduced me to an idea that had me thinking "fantastic" at the same time as "why haven't I thought of it before?!".

The idea is co-registration. That is, when someone is in "opt-in" mode and signing up for your website, when they've finished give them the option to check a box to sign up for one or two other related business newsletters at the same time (potentially with an incentive). This gives you the chance to either (a) charge for names you're collecting for someone else OR (b) do a reciprocal deal with another business that builds both of your databases at the same time.

And the "cost" for this great database building technique? Well, after a bit of tech time, pretty much zero.

See how smart this little "two for one" deal is? Who could you be working collectively with to get that database growing?

Mass customisations - for a teeny price

Ok, my new fave place to shop online is www.threadless.com. Introduced to me by my 22 year old assistant (when did I get so old?) this site is a fantastic example of "zero budget" going big business - as in US$20 million turnover big business.

For those who haven't been there, they have tonnes of wanna be designers submit designs for the threadless community to vote on - adding a bizarre MASS to CUSTOMISATION. They print the "winning" designs, and pay the winners a flat fee of $2,000. This gives the designers some cash and cred - and gives the brand the license to print thousands of tees for a fraction of what it would take to pay for each design as a commission. Plus, the variety is amazing - you're tapping into your customers to design and decide what they're going to buy - so you've got literally THOUSANDS of people in your creative team. But you're not paying for them...see the genius here?

So next time you are faced with a tight product development or marketing budget, have a think about how else you can generate content, designs, creative, etc? The web means you've got a real opportunity to have your market generate your content for you...for pretty much nothing!

ps. Plus, this is a good present shopping option - I bought 11 for people for xmas for $10 each...