Thursday, August 09, 2012

Monetising a blog

A couple of years ago I wrote about the menswear blog Put This On.  I had another look at it today (curiosity sparked by trying to find a male version of the Wendy's Look Book videos)

Put This On definitely isn't a male version of those (though there'd be a huge market for them if someone wants to make some), but what it has done is find a really good way of monetising.


PTO started listing cool items that were being listed on Ebay, and found that it was a really popular service.  In fact, you can see how the popularity was self defeating - suddenly lots of people were bidding for the same cool vintage sweaters and shoes.

What they've done is to produce a weekly email alerts of the best Ebay items as a subscription service, at approximately $1 a week, through Member.ly, as 'Put This On - Inside Track'



It's a very clever solution to monetising blogs that are effectively curating items around a theme, and also makes use of one of my favourite trends, managing scarcity.

Update - 2013 - they now also have an Etsy page, selling pocket squares

Member.ly offer lots of other things on subscription, including subscriptions to fine soaps, loose leaf tea, and arty prints, but sadly aren't taking on new clients at the moment.

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