Lessons from Amazon to Nonproifts

These days, when Amazon does something online, pay attention.

In a New York Times article yesterday, Bob Tedeschi explains how two new shopping comparison sites are launching. Amazon has been testing "ProductWiki" since November 2005 and the founders of DoubleClick have started ShopWiki. Both encourage site visitors to enter their opinions about products they've purchased. Both use the wikipedia format that allows users to edit each other's posts, rather than a blog or bulletin-board format that just lists each post sequentially.

The point is, these online gurus believe, that people want to express their opinions and will return to a site to view their edited contributions and add more.

What does this mean for nonprofits? One would expect that people might feel more passionate about animals, voting, international relief, education or religion than they do about toasters? More involvement by your supporters in your site's content will make more supporters feel more invested in your site than in your competitors' sites, and it will encourage more visitors to visit more often and spend more time looking at your pages.

How do you do it? There are free ones, like jot.com, where you can set up a wiki about as easily as you can set up a blog. If you know of others, or have preferences, please share them here. You don't have to use wiki technology, however. For smaller volumes, you can just post extracts from people's email on your site.

If you'd like to "edit" this story, add your comments below.

Rick...