Did you read my post on Augmented Reality and Micro-Payments? You should. It’s pretty cool. The more I think about affiliate links and micro-payments, the more I get excited about the idea.

Could we test this concept in 2013?

You bet we can. Here’s how.

Step One - Find a client willing to do an experiment with you. It probably needs to be a commercial client, my guess is that a coffee shop or restaurant would be a perfect fit.

Step Two – Select a product in the building, perhaps a cool light fixture, chair, or maybe a coffee cup.

Step Three – Find that product on Amazon.com. It’s probably there. We’re singling out Amazon because I understand their Affiliate Program. If you hate Amazon and can find the product through another site that works with Affiliates, use them. I don’t care. And you probably shouldn’t either.

Step Four – Set up an Affiliate Account with whichever website you choose and create an Affiliate Link for the product you selected.

Step Five – Go to a website that creates free QR codes like QR Stuff.com and create a QR code of the link you created in Step Four.

Step Six – Print that QR code on some stickers. There’s a million ways to do that.

Step Seven – Put those stickers on some products in the selected pilot-project, ideally in an eye-catching, friendly manner.

Step Eight – Do nothing. Just wait and see what happens. Maybe nothing will. Maybe this idea is not ready for prime time. Or maybe, just maybe it’ll make some money for you.

But wait, why does the client even need the architect to do this? Can’t they just do Steps One through Eight on their own and cut us out? Aren’t we just the middlemen? Well… yes. So what’s your argument against that? You’ll set the system up and manage it for them, for free. And you’ll split the profits 50/50? You’ll make the system pretty, attractive to their customers, and beneficial to their bottom line? You’ll sell them the idea as a design service or that this is an extension of your current services? You’ll send people via the QR Code not directly to a site like Amazon, but to a site you host, one that talks about your services, your clients services, etc. In this way your QR Code becomes a link to a larger ecosystem you run for the benefit of yourself and your clients. A website focused on the design of spaces and the benefits of custom environments? I don’t know. You could also say nothing and just get marginalized one more time.

However, there is a lot of validity to the middleman argument. And perhaps what was an idea to help architects share more of their design sense is really not a good fit. Maybe this is really for owners to work directly with users of buildings. The AEC are left out and it’s just the OU that benefit. That’s possible. In that case I should just be writing this on a blog for small business owners.

But maybe we just need to broaden our sense of what we provide. If we are the middle men in the concept I propose, how can we change that? We either need to be the owners or the providers.

A Coffee Cup

We’ll talk more about this soon, but perhaps product design and 3D printing is the answer. Instead of QR Codes that send people to products on Amazon, maybe you should be putting QR Codes on products that you designed. Then the client is getting a commission on your profits. Then the middle man isn’t you the architect, but Amazon or some other big company. And you just cut them out. Why not design something like a coffee cup in your BIM software and print it through a website like Shapeways. That’s not overly complicated (and personally it’s on my to do list for 2013). Now your client is getting a more customized space and you, the architect, have a new revenue stream. Today things like coffee cups, wall hangings, vases, table legs, cabinet pulls, door handles, floor tiles, or iPhone covers are easy to print. I’m sure in 2014 (or by Christmas) more complex objects like light fixtures, switches, and other basic electronic stuff will be just as easy to manufacture.

Oh and if you’re 3D printing, the QR code can just be part of the object, not something affixed later.

Is your mind racing yet?

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