Here’s the first Weird Wednesday installment in which I bring to you some of the interesting, odd, bizarre and just plain wacky things I’ve found for sale on the web or on ThisNext. This week’s edition showcases the “HotDoll - Love doll for dogs”. This pet “toy” aims to save your dinner guests legs from being used as a, uhm, “release” for your puppy’s more primitive urges. Unless you have a really adorable dog or extremely understanding company, leg-humping is just plain AWKWARD! So maybe you should get your lovely pup a Love Doll. The HotDoll actually reminds me of a rather off-color, yet hilarious condom advertisement.

Whether or not you have a use for it or just find the HotDoll to be ridiculous, it’s certain to be something you can mention at Happy Hour this week right? What a great ice breaker!

Welcome to the ThisNext Community! Here’s a guide to getting started on your ThisNext profile. This edition will focus on making your first recommendations.

Step 1: Go to the top right hand corner on any ThisNext.com page and click on the “Recommend” button you will see a drop down menu like below.


Step 2: You can either paste a product page’s URL directly into the box there or if you want an easy way to recommend click at the bottom of the drop down on “Other ways to recommend”. When you click on that you get a page with three other options for recommending. The most efficient way for recommending products that may not already be on ThisNext is to put our handy button on your toolbar. So go to option 2 as show below:


Step 3: Drag the “Add to ThisNext” button to add it to your toolbar. The toolbar is located at the top of your Internet Browser usually right underneath the website address. On Mac’s Safari it looks like this:


Step 4: Start Recommending! Go to a online store you enjoy, like www.amazon.com, or www.shopping.com, or any other website with products for sale. With your new toolbar button it’s easy. Once you’re on a page for a product like this page for the DVD set of “Mad Men” which is one of my favorite shows. When you’re at that page- or whichever product you’d like to recommend - all you have to do is click the button “Add to ThisNext” that you put on your toolbar. A form will pop down that looks like this:

You probably want to clean up the title so it’s clearer to other users on ThisNext, perhaps something simple like this:

And then you get to type in your recommendation! Write a story about how you loved the product or why you want it, and need it, be as descriptive as you want!

The 2nd Edition shows you how to tag your recommendations and put them in lists!
If you have any further questions please email community@thisnext.com!

Having trouble utilizing all the ThisNext Tools?? Even if you think you’ve got a handle on it, here’s a quick guide to organizing and cleaning up your profile:

TAGGING:

Tagging is important in many ways.

a) it identifies your recommended product by key words, to make it searchable on ThisNext - and in Search Engines. - which means more people can read your review and see your recommended products!
b) it helps to identify your item even if you haven’t properly clarified its use in the review section. If you’ve explained the graphic of a t-shirt in your review, but it looks like a poster - while you’re tagging it you can use “T-shirt, clothes, shirts, tees, cotton, jerseys, etc…” as keywords.

HOW TO TAG:

When making a recommendation write your title and review on the first page then make sure you go to the bottom of the review and press the (NEXT>) button and not Save & Close

This will take you to the next recommendation slide which is shown below. Be as complete as possible: for example - for one of my favorite shows - Mad Men Season 1 - I might use the tags: “Mad Men, Season 1, DVDs, DVD, DVD sets, TV Shows, AMC, TV series, Box sets, boxed set, 1960s, advertising, New York City” - you can even include keywords like the actors’ names “Jon Hamm, John Slattery, January Jones” or the types of materials it’s made with (especially for jewelry and clothes recs).

LISTS:

Lists are great ways to Categorize/Organize your Items for your reference and to help other TN users browse your profile. If you are a handmade user, especially, you might want to make a separate list with only your own handmade products. Don’t worry you can put the same item in more than one list. More Handmade Guidelines here
For instance, since Mad Men is one of my favorite shows I might want to put a check next to the box above that says My Wish List and I might put it in the list Things that make me feel girly or I might start a new list by checking off the new list box (as shown in the image above) and make a new list called “TV Shows that Rock my World” and then I can add more recommendations to that list.

Lists will show up on your front profile like this, so visitors to your profile can easily navigate through your products!

Good luck with Tagging and lists and please comment if you have questions or email me at Samantha@thisnext.com

ThisNext loves Etsy Users, and we would like to help you promote your handmade products. You could be our first Handmade Featured Artist of the new year which means we will buy $500 worth of your products to give as an awesome prize pack to one lucky TN user in 2009. And we will promote you and your profile with an onsite banner and in our newsletter which will reach millions of shoppers!

Here’s how to enter: just make your TN profile and start recommending items along with your own products (profile guidelines here) and tag your homemade products with “TN Etsy”. Our Community Team will choose the best/coolest Etsy user to be the first Handmade Featured Artist for 2009! Good Luck and have fun recommending! Contest Ends Jan. 15th, 2009.

Hey, Etsy, Indiepublic, and 1000 markets sellers and other Indie users, we would love for you to use our site to showcase your items and we’re always looking for the next “it” product, which may just be that hot laptop cover or the rad steam punk ring YOU made. We know you are creative, talented and the next trendsetters, and we’d love to help you connect with consumers that are out there looking for unique items.

To be a successful ThisNext Handmade user we ask that you follow a few guidelines:

1. Firstly, and most importantly, recommend in a ratio of 3 to 1. Meaning you recommend three items from other sources on the web to each item of your own creation. (You may, if you would like, put your own items in lists that promote them as your own to organize your page, or you can have them throughout multiple lists.) We ask this because
a) more content on our site means more search options, higher ratings for the site - more people looking at your products.
b) users appreciate pages that are flushed out and may not be as receptive to items that appear to be completely from one site. (your page will look more organic - There is synergy in recommending a new blackberry and a great handmade blackberry holder that you made in the same space.)

2. Pimp your profile. ThisNext users get to know you and your personality, through not only your recommendations but through your profile. Your content will look better if you fill out your profile and spiff up your page (organize your items into lists). Would-be customers appreciate having a background to their handmade purchases. Including personal pics is also appreciated by customers. (Also we cannot include you in any promotions - like our newsletters - if you do not have a picture in your profile)

3. Clearly tag your items. To get your products more clearly integrated into our search, tag your items precisely and clearly. Just think, the more accurate tags the more users will be directed to your content. Remember to include tags like “etsy”, “handmade”, “unique” and colors/fabrics/materials, and obvious tags like “laptop cover”, “jewelry”, “hat”.

4. Take clear and detailed pictures of your products. This is fairly self explanatory, but white backgrounds look best on our site.

5. Clearly describe your product in the recommendation. If would-be customers can’t see or understand your product they will certainly not be actual customers. Remember while writing a description to be specific in what your product does - a poster and a t-shirt may look the same in a picture, or you might have a brilliant corkscrew that is disguised as something else, so be clear.

ThisNext wishes you luck and looks forward to seeing your items throughout our site!

ThisNext is launching our FABULOUS Myspace application today! So now you can Wish List all that you want for the Christmakwanzichah holidays… (I’m sorry “world peace” is too much of a Beauty Contestant wish, so save that for your “Q&A” section of the pageant) Browse the TN world o’ goodies, WISH LIST what you want, share it with your family and friends and all your Myspace Entourage. While you’re looking for yourself, go ahead, take notes those hot items as ideas for what to get your Friend’s Mother’s New Husband’s Podiatrist’s Dog as well.

If all you want for Christmas is your two front teeth… then go see a dentist, but if you’re looking for some fabulous gifts this holiday season all you have to do is Wish List it!



Go ahead… install it… be the first on your block to have your very own Wish List… you know you want to!

It’s National Stress OUT Week… meaning to get the stress out of your life… which might be a bit confusing, but once you get over that you realize that you too need to Relax. At least this TN’er needs a bit of relaxing. Whether it’s yoga, or a massage or a spa treatment, go ahead and treat yourself. You know you only get one of you and you need to treat yourself the best that you can - cause let’s face it, who else will treat you as well?

Here are some of my favorite de-stressing tips. I like to add in a good book while I’m listening to classical music and burning an aroma therapy candle. But that Detox Wrap is going on my Holiday wish list!

Today is Hat Day here at ThisNext! Ok, sometimes we get a bit corny but it’s all in fun. As I scan the room here, I notice a lot of different styles. We have pageboy caps - FashionKitty’s looks adorable in a Beige Cordoroy Pageboy, while Dlp’s got a crochet Pageboy thing going on. Elianahava rocks a retro city council Trucker cap, Chadosko’s sporting a camo Volcom Trucker cap, and Mgpolar101 has donned a straw Fedora for the occasion. Some of the Tech Department are showing off their Cowboy hats and we’ve even got a TN’er in Mickey Mouse ears (I’m jealous!) Me? Well, I’ve got a brand new grey men’s style Fedora, I dig the retro stuff.

And I’ve got just the list for today… it’s a sampling of hats that just might make you mad - as in crazy for the styles of yore. There are Fedoras and Bonnets and Pageboy caps galore, and if you’ve been dying for a Edwardian era Beaver Fur Chapeau, then you’re in luck. Also if you’re going to a Soap Opera Funeral, I’ve got just the thing for you. And if you are Carment San Diego, then…. WHERE are you?

You may have already heard, but Nov. 7-8, Lucky Magazine is hosting Lucky Shops 2008 - a blue-moon New York shopping event in which products from premier shops and designers from around the globe are available at up to 70% off. With over 65 brands being represented, this is truly The Ultimate Shopping Event. Tickets to the shopping extravaganza are still available, with three levels of participation. The best value is the limited $250 VIP pass which gets you a VIP gift bag valued at $500+, giveaway eligibility, and free-flowing cocktails in addition to access to deals you’d be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. Fifty percent of the ticket’s value goes towards Robin Hood, an NYC organization that fights poverty. Other tickets to the event can be purchased for $35 and $20. 

Speaking of VIP gift bag (see below), in conjunction with Lucky Shops 2008, ThisNext is giving one away! Simply recommend any item on ThisNext, and tag your pick “TN Lucky”. The giveaway ends on 10/14. Are you lucky? Jump right in. 

In the eyes of consumers, fellow consumers are the most credible, unbiased source of product information. Who would you trust in purchasing a high-end HDTV for example? — the manufacturer who clearly stands to gain from the transaction? What about the retailer whose objective is to shove as many high-ticket items in your shopping cart as possible? No. When discerning product quality through recommendations rather than experience, it makes more sense to trust your peers (the ThisNext community). Case in point: the retailer in the following video wants you to purchase this samurai sword. I’m sure consumers familiar with this product would have suggested one that’s a bit more durable. Don’t end up like this guy.

Shame on you if you weren’t aware, but ThisNext’s fashion goddess and certified weblebrity Fashion Kitty has a blog - AskFashionKitty.com. As a hub for style advice, product reveals and test drives, and all notable industry happenings, it promises to raise your fashion IQ. Check out her product badge to see all the latest items she’s recommending on ThisNext, or stop by her ThisNext profile page and leave a comment. 

In 2005, the San Francisco art collective REBAR created an annual global event based around rethinking and recontextualizing the use of public spaces by inciting an army of volunteers to turn parking spaces into tiny parks. Tomorrow, September 19, 2008, ThisNext will be participating in the fourth annual National PARK(ing) DAY alongside Mahalo and Causecast!

Please come by and join in the fun as we turn a row of parking spaces into a plush green park, complete with kiddie pools, rubber ducks, lawn chairs, and a grill!

We’ll be at the Mahalo Building, 902 Colorado Ave. in Santa Monica at 11 am PST.

For more information about REBAR and National PARK(ing) DAY, please visit the website at http://www.parkingday.org.

It’s no secret that we routinely give away fabulous prizes to our loyal ThisNext community - a Vespa, Designer of the Week fashion, coveted video game consoles, iPhones, etc. Now you can check out all of our current site-wide and Maven-only contests in addition to recent winners on our new Giveaway Calendar.

Among the current giveaways, we have an Apple TV digital media receiver, $300 gas card, and $300 Halloween costume credit up for grabs. Keep in mind that you can only tag one contest per recommendation, so choose wisely…or, just write more recommendations. :)

Les Deux has returned. Tonight’s final installment of the fun-filled Hollywood mixer promises to be bigger and better with free-flowing alcohol from 10pm to 11pm and more exciting members of the ThisNext community than you can shake a stick at. Do come if for no other reason than to see Fashion Kitty do some good old-fashioned Tom-Cruise-on-Oprah couch stomping. Be there or be a rectangular geometric figure with four sides of equal length (commonly referred to as a square).

Boyz II Men once sang “It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.” That’s certainly the case when it comes to gas prices which have more than doubled in the past 5 years. ThisNext is doing it’s part to help temporarily remedy this situation for a lucky community member with our $300 Shell Gas Card Giveaway:

Imagine pulling into the pump and not having to dip into your hard-earned cash for a good 3-5 tank loads. Relief! To enter the contest, simply recommend your favorite products and tag them “TN Gas”. Details here. Good luck!

The Kindle is Amazon’s revolutionary reading device that allows you to wirelessly download electronics and read them on a crisp, high-resolution screen that looks as natural as real paper. With over 150,000 titles available, readers can consolidate extensive collections on the slim, lightweight device that measures only 3/4” thick. On the Kindle’s release day in November 2007, it sold out in less than 6 hours and remained out of stock until April ‘08. Well, the good folks at ThisNext have one and wanna give it to YOU! To enter the giveaway, simply tag your recommendations “TN Reads”. Details here. Hurry, the contest ends on 9/2.

Check out CNet’s Kindle review:

It was just another day at ThisNext headquarters when we decided to make a music video. Who doesn’t love a little ’80s fun? With some sequins for inspiration, a few run-throughs of the Loverboy classic, and a Purple Rain ensemble pulled out of CEO Scott Morrow’s closet, we were ready to rock.

Check out some items that helped in our preparation:

Please join us at Les Deux for another night of fun! This week’s designer is Paige Premium Denim.  See you all there.

It’s that time of the week again … Les Deux time.

Tomorrow night Les Deux is going to be bigger and better than ever.  Not only is it the 2 year anniversary for Wednesday nights at Les Deux but there will be special guests too. The featured designer this week is Sorum/ Noce — Matt Sorum is from the band Velvet Revolver. There will also be a special performance by the Darling Stilettos. Come join us for drinks and a whole lot of fun.

Hope to see you there and be sure to check out photos from our party last week! 

For all who missed, ThisNext.com went to Les Deux last night! The slideshow featured t-shirts from Junkfood (a great company that mixes everyones favorite old movies and television shows with a retro 80’s style t-shirt). Of course there were also slideshow favorites like the toilet with a fish tank in it and the Hello Kitty rifle. We passed out party bags filled with condoms and childhood favorite Ring Pops (the candy that never stops being entertaining). The featured guest this week at Les Deux was German-loved stud David Hasselhoff.  What a babe.  Make sure to come and join us and ThisNext next Wednesday at Les Deux’s Summer Style Series to join the fun!