Greeting-card maker pays for top crowdsourced designs

Product design is increasingly being performed by consumers themselves, as we’ve already noted in our coverage of Exuve, Ryz, Infectious and others. The latest spotting? CardsInk, which brings the Threadless model to greeting cards. All cards sold by CardsInk are created by visitors to the site. In a special section for new submissions, visitors can vote on the user-uploaded designs they like best. From there, CardsInk picks the highest-rated ones and turns them into real, printed cards for sale in its shop; pricing ranges from USD 1.25 to USD 3.99 each. Designers of cards chosen for production get paid USD 100, with an additional USD 50 if the card gets reprinted. Queens, NY-based Scissor Tracks—the company behind CardsInk—currently prints new cards about every two weeks. International shipping is available. It’s one thing to let the eager masses of Generation C(ontent) have a hand at product design, but the rubber doesn’t meet the road until you reward them for their efforts. That’s where Generation C(ash) is born, and it’s also where crowdsourcing reaches its full potential. Keep the (paid) crowdsourcing efforts coming! (Related: Consumers get paid for input on new products.) Spotted by: swissmiss