Red Jellyfish – Using the Internet to Save the World
When I first heard of Red Jellyfish, I cringed with imagined pain at the last time I was stung while diving. Fortunately this is a different kind of fish. Red Jellyfish is an online shopping center for “green” products, including t-shirts, tote bags, posters, food, and other organic products. Instead of producing environmentally friendly products, Red Jellyfish helps people buy them. This supports the growth of socially conscious companies while making their products easier for consumers to find. Red Jellyfish has become a green marketplace on the internet, enabling “green commerce.”
Red Jellyfish has harnessed the power of internet affiliate advertising to fuel its success. On the web, companies can make money by referring visitors to another website. If the visitor makes a purchase, the referring website receives a payment – similar to a commission. Red Jellyfish, essentially, directs internet traffic to different websites that sell green products. While it does not have any products of its own, Red Jellyfish brings green companies together with an audience of environmentally friendly internet shoppers.
Internet marketing is more art than science. Online stores have to balance the need for commerce (linking to green product companies) with the fact that website visitors want more than a list of shopping opportunities. Red Jellyfish wraps information around the shopping experience, explaining the importance of socially conscious shopping while helping visitors to find the products they want.
Red Jellyfish does not simply bombard website visitors with links and ads to random companies. Instead, they do their homework. Companies have to apply to be listed on Red Jellyfish. Red Jellyfish carefully examines applicants to ensure they meet the website’s stringent criteria. Products have to be organic, cruelty-free, and sustainably harvested (where applicable). High use of recycled materials is important, and products must not contain genetically modified organisms.
Online retailers have their own “real estate” considerations. There is only a certain amount of space available on each page, and some spots are better than others. Red Jellyfish allocates some prime screen real estate to encourage donations to environmental non-profits such as the protection of Mexican rainforests and chimpanzee adoption through the Jane Goodall Institute.
Red Jellyfish plays an important role in growing the popularity of green products. It gives shoppers an online destination where they can be confident that they are purchasing organic, cruelty-free, and generally socially conscious goods. Red Jellyfish uses the power of internet affiliate advertising to bring shoppers to socially conscious companies – generating a profit while expanding the market for green commerce. How profitable? We do not know but we did write to the company requesting an interview. In the meantime you can look at the chart on the right showing its daily internet traffic over the last 6 months. Personally I do not think these charts are accurate but it sure does show us significant interest in this type of service. Green is green.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Traffic Rank for redjellyfish.com: 144,403
