What works for alternative rock music, might also work for wine. You may remember how Radiohead got the world's attention when it let listeners download its album In Rainbows, asking them to pay whatever price they thought the music was worth. Sales of the album reached USD 10 million. Since then others have tried the pay-what-you-like marketing technique, including Paste magazine, which we featured in October.

South African BLANKbottle has gone a step further. The boutique winemaker's founder, Pieter Walser, sent 20 cases of its latest premium white wine Moment of Silence to loyal customers on consignment, asking them to evaluate the wine and then pay him what they thought it was worth. They paid up to ZAR 90 per bottle (USD 11.80 / EUR 7.50), and the average price came to ZAR 50. Since BLANKbottle aims to exceed customers' quality vs. price expectations, the wine went on sale to the public at a price of ZAR 40.

Walser, for his part, got a high return on the wine he risked in the venture. In addition to the publicity he garnered, he determined a new product's price point based on the actual purchasing decisions made by the winery's best customers. Feedback that's likely to be more valuable than the opinions volunteered by focus groups or market research experts. And by involving them in such a fundamental business decision, he no doubt increased brand loyalty among the winery's core customer base. One to try out with your own best customers!

Website: www.blankbottle.co.za
Contact: thebestwines@blankbottle.co.za

Spotted by: Bruce Gourley

There are few things more gratifying to us here at Springwise than seeing an idea we write about get picked up and used to create other new businesses. But that's exactly what has happened to Cozi Central, the online weekly planner for families that we wrote about late last year.

BusyBeesNYC is a new service that uses Cozi Central technology to offer busy New York City parents a fully customized calendar service to schedule their kids' activities. For an annual membership of USD 499, BusyBeesNYC will create a schedule of classes and activities for a family's children that combines free, paid, scheduled, drop-in and sometimes lesser-known events while accommodating the kids' eating and sleeping routines. Run by two parents, BusyBeesNYC has scoured the area spanning Murray Hill, Kips Bay and Gramercy Park for the best kid activities available, and can recommend a wide variety of things to keep kids busy and learning. Four starter packages are available focused on music, sports, crafts or languages, but BusyBeesNYC can also mix and match as necessary to suit a family's needs. Once the parents approve the schedule, all they need do is actually sign up for the relevant activities (BusyBeesNYC always makes sure there is room first). Thanks to the Cozi technology, the plan for each day is viewable online from anywhere, with color-coded indications of where everyone needs to be. It can also be printed out for distribution to babysitters, nannies and others.

So that's New York City covered; who will bring a Cozi-based service to busy families in the rest of the country—and the world?

Website: www.busybeesnyc.com
Contact: info@busybeesnyc.com

Spotted by: Jay

As the weakening economy causes purse strings to tighten in many parts of the world, consumers are increasingly looking for new ways to earn some extra money. Enter My Gold Party, which facilitates Tupperware-style parties that help guests sell their unused trinkets, cashing in on record gold prices.

Launched earlier this year, My Gold Party sells all the equipment minipreneurs need to host parties in which guests can sell their gold, including a scale, karat tester and book of instructions. Party hosts then invite guests to bring gold coins, watches and jewelry to their party, where they assay and weigh each item to determine its current market worth. The party host pays guests for the items with cash or a cheque, then ships the gold to a refinery, which in turn pays the host—at a rate the host hopes will be higher than paid to the party guests. The gold is then melted down and reused. My Gold Party's kit for hosts is priced at USD 699.50. (Obviously, scales and karat testers can also be bought from many other suppliers.)

Consumers in hard times have always been able to sell their spare jewelry in pawn shops, but by bringing the process out of the back alley and into the living room, My Gold Party legitimises and updates it with a social and entrepreneurial twist. As the saying goes, there's gold in them thar hills—both for the consumers who have it and for the minipreneurs who help them sell it. One to bring to cash-strapped hills near you?

Website: www.mygoldparty.com
Contact: info@mygoldparty.com

Spotted by: Bill McMahon

There are numerous sites out there for crowdsourcing graphic design, including SitePoint, which we featured last year. A new entrant into the space, however, is adding a slightly different twist by having bidding designers submit completed concepts rather than just proposals in the competitive process.

Launched earlier this year, Chicago-based crowdSPRING is an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of all creative services. Buyers that need a new logo, website, marketing materials or other creative content post what they need, when they need it and how much they'd like to pay. They also deposit their payment up front into an escrow account with crowdSPRING, where it will remain until an artist is chosen. Designers, illustrators, writers or photographers around the world can then work on the project and submit their creations for review. Buyers can sort, rate and give feedback on the designs they like until they find the right one. Once that happens, rights to the work are transferred, crowdSPRING takes a 15 percent fee and payment is made. crowdSPRING offers a money-back guarantee so that if buyers don't get at least 25 entries, they can walk away with a full refund; creatives, meanwhile, are assured that their projects won't get cancelled or abandoned for no good reason. Every transaction is protected by a free, customized legal contract with digital watermarking, as well as being automatically filed away in an intellectual property vault with IP Registry at no extra cost. Community tools available on the site include public profiles with feedback, ratings and stats; private messaging; portfolios; and creative community forums.

Some designers may balk at the idea of creating a full-fledged work before having a guaranteed buyer. On the other hand, by allowing both established creative professionals and talented newcomers to compete based solely on their creativity and the quality of their ideas—rather than bids, proposals or portfolios—crowdSPRING could also level the competitive playing field for creative people worldwide. To wit: when the site launched into beta in March, it posted just a stark website and asked the crowd to redesign it for a winning prize of USD 5,000. A few weeks later, a student in the Netherlands beat out 80 creatives and 337 other entries with a winning design. Lesson: never underestimate the power of the crowds!

Website: www.crowdspring.com
Contact: www.crowdspring.com/help/contact_us

Spotted by: Pete Burgeson

We've written about eBay feeder businesses before, such as Zippi, which we featured last year. Now, another example has popped up in the UK focusing on the collection and delivery of 'pickup only' furniture and antique items.

For prices beginning at GBP 40, Lots2 will collect and deliver items bought on eBay or other auction platforms from or to anywhere in London, the South East and East Anglia. Large and awkward items that cannot be posted via a conventional courier are the company's specialty, such as sofas, antiques and furniture. Lots2 offers both economy and express delivery, depending on the flexibility of the customer's timeframe. Express service is typically for delivery on a particular day with a short lead time, whereas with economy service, Lots2 will collect the item within a week of receiving the order and deliver it within 10 days after that. Lots2 offers pack and protect service to keep items safe during delivery as well. Launched in February 2007, the company has since maintained an on-time delivery record of 99.6 percent.

Lots2 operates just within a portion of the UK, so the opportunities are plentiful around the globe to offer like services. Finding sellers to work with is relatively easy—just use eBay's search engine to find sellers within a set distance from your zipcode or postal code that sell large items. Movers, delivery companies or minipreneurs with a van—this one's for you!

Website: www.lots2.co.uk
Contact: hello@lots2.co.uk

Spotted by: Naomi Healy