After one week of thinking an listening to presentations, I (again) got the "a-little-lamp-blinking on-my-head"-syndrome.
One of the presentations I went to was about making money out of open source.
Since open source is free most of the time, this might proof to be quit of a challenge.
Or not?
As I already stated some years ago, there is a very powerful media called merchandising.
Not only do you get your name out on the streets, you can also create buzz around wanna-have-goodies and make fame with it. The fun part of this: you get paid to advertise.
The money that comes in can be used to subsidize developers, organize events, create promotional stuff, ... etc.
Okay so we have the coolest merchandise, good quality, very trendy and fashionable.
Now let's think a bit further. How to sell it?
Most of you will probably spontaneously think: Oh Oh I know it, at our events, or on the kde.org website!
Well yes, that's a possibility, but it doesn't really reach everyone.
Are there better ways? Yes!
I give an example with Amarok:
You have a musicplayer, which already has music shops/services integrated. Aha shops, so it's already possible to buy stuff with a program!
Now let's ad an extra service: "FanShop"
What doe we sell: everything that can be linked to a music player and has the Amarok logo on it:
mp3 players, speakers, t-shirts, remote control for laptop, headset, fluffy stuff, ... etc.
Oh but my program can't! Yes you can.
Some examples:
Social Desktop: Pokens with logo on it, cool t-shirts, fluffy stuff
Dolphin: dolhpins of course, usb-sticks, again t-shirts,...
and I could go on for a while.
it's just a thing of stimulating the creative part in you.
One tip: get a really good Artist to work on the artwork for great succes and be creative!
4 comments:
Neat idea! Love it!
Now I've got a hunkering urge to go out and buy some "fluffy stuff"... ;)
Cool. So when do we start?
It's not that easy Wendy. Someone has to sit down and come up with business plan. Then someone has to organize it. Every bits and parts must be carefully thought through (methods of payment, return policies, shipping and handling, suppliers, investors, etc.) Now I'm not saying it's not possible. Just that it can't be done just like this. Maybe we can have an IRC meeting with KDE promo team all about it? (That is if you are prepared to invest your time and maybe money into the idea).
it-s [Eugene from KDEGames]
While I agree with kdegames that there is a lot of work involved in this, I think you've hit a very interesting venture idea. Firefox has shirts and bags, etc. Why not Kontact, Konqueror, or Amarok? Makes for wonderfully simple advertising, since users wear the ad everywhere :D
Post a Comment