Rec.fm lets people help charities by recommending products

Rec.fm is one of those ideas that can either be really obnoxious or well-executed. In simple terms, it's a website that lets you recommend products and have your selected charity receive the affiliate fee if anyone buys it as a result of your recommendation.

Okay, maybe that didn't come out as simple as I wanted. It's easier to understand as a sequence:

• You recommend a product via rec.it, using Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• A friend of yours clicks the recommendation, reads it, and says "Hey, that really is a cool product!" Your friend then buys said product.
• Your favorite charity now gets a cut of what your friend paid. The cut can be anywhere from 4% to 25%.

There are ways to rate recommendations (and the people who made them). They want you to recommend good products and not be annoying. Each person gets a "recommender's rating," and people can rate you up or down, so you build yourself a reputation over time.

My overall impression is very positive. The site is beautiful, and well-executed. They have a thing with huge font sizes, but I really like it. It seems like a very nice way to harness your friends' unabashed consumerism for some good.

Tags: affiliates, business, charity