How to “Monetize,” as the Undead Refer to It.

Rilli — my labor of love along with Colin Brumelle, Adam Bognar and Caleb Buxton — is nearing its public release. One of the things we’re beginning to work on is how Rilli can one day pay us an honest wage; how to “monetize,” as the undead refer to it.

The conversation has been going on for months; Do we ask you for your hard earned dollars? Do we shill online dating and emoticon ads at you? Do we just let Google take care of it like they do for everyone else?

More recently, we’ve been talking about ways to get you stuff. Good stuff, from local businesses and groups that do things we all actually care about. This might mean bartering with a bar to get you and your pals half price mojitos. It might mean empowering a concert venue to connect with their community. Or to give you free tickets to a gig that isn’t sold out tonight. It might mean organizing a ride home for you after camping over the long weekend.

It’s a delicate line, but we’re excited about finding a way to create positive experiences and positive cash flow. We want to be very careful while we’re exploring what respectful advertising looks like. Most of all, we want to listen to people who are using Rill, the people who are excited about their neighborhoods and the people who create the experiences that make us smile real big.

As part of that, the Rilli team has applied to give our first public panel discussion at South by South West this year in Austin, Texas. SXSW selects panels partly based on a voting process, so if you’re interested we’d be jazzed to have your vote and any comments over on the SXSW panel picker. Or drop any of us a line; we’d love to hear from you!