Then I read
http://diamond-online.zlio.net
http://www.zlio.com/signup?r=284799
There are people out there that you know-of and admire; friends, co-workers, family, friends of friends and even, god forbid, celebrities. Some are widely admired while others only you may admire. You think they have good fashion sense or they always seem to buy the right car or the right digital camera or read the right books and buy the right mobile phones. Call them influencer’s if you wish.
These are the people you want to ask for recommendations on products.
That is what I think Zlio and the others can capitalise on. By allowing anyone to setup an online shop they give power to the influencer’s. An influencer could setup a shop that only lists the products that they have bought and used, that they recommend. You, the admirer, can then go along to the shop and satisfy your desire to be like them or at least shop like them. What pen does Philip Roth use? What coffee maker does Jamie Oliver buy? What camera does Michael Reichmann shoot with?
I hesitate though and think this can get ugly quickly. It encourages facile celebrity worship and is easily gamed by celebrities bought out by companies pushing a product.
On the other hand though I think it can enable genuine people to. Think of someone you admire that is unlikely to be a sell out.
Really it is a recommendation system with a product supply chain and checkout functionality.
So Read/Write Web has setup a shop, the Ruby on Rails guys can do so too and you can too.
Your brain, your tastes and common sense, your sense of what works and what doesn’t, you can sell that with Zlio.
