Signal Hill and Books We Like is the flip side of "voting with your dollars", empowering consumers not just to buy good products but to help market them, and to capture "sales commissions" for doing so. The commissions go to Media Venture Collective and its partners.
We call it "constituency marketing". The best existing example is the way Alternet and MoveOn have marketed the films of Robert Greenwald, Uncovered and Outfoxed. The idea is that some non-profit organizations have high credibility with progressive constituencies, and can leverage that to promote good products, thereby serving both the producer and the consumer. And in doing so, commissions are natural, thereby generating revenue for the recommending site.
Check out our first project, Books We Like, a whole new approach to mobilizing financially in support of independent media and a great example of what MVC is here for.
It's a peer-to-peer recommendation system for books, and it captures commissions on sales and distributes 100% of profits to our independent media partners. If every progressive book buyer makes their Amazon (or other online service) purchases through it, we'll raise millions of dollars. Sign up there and start contributing what you love about books.
Other projects include a partnership with Ode Magazine to grow their US subscriber base, and I-Names for Identity Commons. All generate commissions for MVC and its partners. More are in the works.
