Has anybody ever sought investment?

[nick-harper]

Maybe keep it simple? Content like

* Today's top ten money saving deals
* This month's top ten earners (members)

The job of an expert is to get the information you know out of you, then mix it with some clever ideas. You can do all that yourself if you try

Yep it sends the top offers from that week to users.

It's growing everything I have issues with and it's frustrating as I can't do it as it's not my area of expertise.


Thanks for all of the ideas, all taken on board and will look into them

 

[Jamie101]

I've said it before in another thread, but I really like this idea. It's just one of those sites that has the "chicken and the egg" problem though. Personally I wouldn't join a site like this unless it had loads of active members so I'd know there's a chance of me making decent commission.

I've always wondered what would happen if people made it easier for normal people (not affiliates) to get paid without putting too much effort in to it. For example, people post links to products on Twitter/Facebook etc. every day and could be getting a bit of commission from it by using something like Skimlinks. In general though, people are lazy.

There is potential for this site, but there's just something missing from it. Can't quite figure out what it is.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Retired_member41]

Maybe a combination of what's been said in this thread?

Start by finding prominent bloggers and tweeters, arrange to meet them for 5 minutes and offer them £100 for their expenses. At the meeting show them how much they could earn by sending your site visitors ( set them up as super affiliates ). Offer them 5% of the whole businesses profit, no equity just profit on top of the 100% affiliate payment they will earn.

Do this with 10 good people and you will see your site get amazing traffic and your own social followers by osmosis, they come from social so chances are they will follow you also etc

With each deal you offer them you could say that you will take an average from the first 3 months earnings, use a big example here to attract them to sign up.

If the earnings drop below that threshold you can choose to take the 5% profit back but leave them as an affiliate and either give it to someone new or keep in house. Reality is you may as well give the profit away like this until it's so high from your own promotion but I guess there will always be new social stars to bring in new customers.

 

[nick-harper]

I've said it before in another thread, but I really like this idea. It's just one of those sites that has the "chicken and the egg" problem though. Personally I wouldn't join a site like this unless it had loads of active members so I'd know there's a chance of me making decent commission.

I've always wondered what would happen if people made it easier for normal people (not affiliates) to get paid without putting too much effort in to it. For example, people post links to products on Twitter/Facebook etc. every day and could be getting a bit of commission from it by using something like Skimlinks. In general though, people are lazy.

There is potential for this site, but there's just something missing from it. Can't quite figure out what it is.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

I agree, people want it to be busy.

Although saying that it doesn't actually have to be, one user added 50 or 60 offers on a mad spree in around January and he has still made £20 so far this month as the offers index in Google.

Even if the offer has now ended, if somebody clicks through to Currys for example but still buys something the cashback is still given.

There is a setting which allows to auto post every offer to Twitter or Facebook with your link when posting an offer, or the share button automatically shares the personalised tracking link to make it easy.

 

[martin-s]

Have you thought about trying to steal some of the big contributors from the likes of HotUKDeals? Approach them with an offer that's too good to be true?

 

[nick-harper]

Have you thought about trying to steal some of the big contributors from the likes of HotUKDeals? Approach them with an offer that's too good to be true?

Yep, but the hardest part is ethically stealing them.

I have tried the usual following them on Twitter etc but I don't want to start spamming.

 

[scottmccloud]

Yep, but the hardest part is ethically stealing them.

I have tried the usual following them on Twitter etc but I don't want to start spamming.

Not sure where ethics comes in to this. Go to them direct and make them an offer they can't refuse (not in a Godfather type way of course )

 

[nick-harper]

Not sure where ethics comes in to this. Go to them direct and make them an offer they can't refuse (not in a Godfather type way of course )

I have tried Googling usernames but not too much comes up, so the other alternative is message them on the site which is then going to be a bit spammy and getting banned

 

[martin-s]

Reminds me of how Airbnb grew so quick, harvesting Craigslist!
https://growthhackers.com/companies/airbnb/

 

[accelerator]

I hope you don't mind an honest answer ...

From seeing your stuff online, you strike me as a very good coder, but you are weak on business skills and marketing skills. This is quite common.

Before going any further, you need to work out what the unique benefit of your site is to the user. What is the unique benefit to them from your site that they can't get anywhere else?

You then need a home page that can instantly convey this message. At the moment, your site is just utterly confusing and you will not get anywhere with it.

The next thing is, are you sure your business model is worth investing in? Where are the real advantages, and why would people be desperate to use it? Where is the profitability in it? Why would a VC be desperate to invest?

That is honesty. I hope you appreciate it.

Best rgds

 

[scooter]

I could be worth your while contacting "dougs" on here
http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/members/dougs.html

http://www.potential.co.uk/

 

[Adam H]

 

[nick-harper]

I hope you don't mind an honest answer ...

From seeing your stuff online, you strike me as a very good coder, but you are weak on business skills and marketing skills. This is quite common.

Before going any further, you need to work out what the unique benefit of your site is to the user. What is the unique benefit to them from your site that they can't get anywhere else?

You then need a home page that can instantly convey this message. At the moment, your site is just utterly confusing and you will not get anywhere with it.

The next thing is, are you sure your business model is worth investing in? Where are the real advantages, and why would people be desperate to use it? Where is the profitability in it? Why would a VC be desperate to invest?

That is honesty. I hope you appreciate it.

Best rgds

There is profit as it is making a profit every month with it not being that busy so with it being massively busy it can only go one way.

Why would you say people wouldn't want to use it? What is utterly confusing about it?

They can save money and earn cashback.

They can compare prices and when they find the lowest earn cashback through it.

They can post an offer they have found, and earn cashback every time somebody else buys it. There's one guy making money every month (albeit about a tenner or so a month) from a 15-20 offers he posted in January.

I am the first to say I'm no business professional, I have spoken to a couple of "gurus" today and it seems they just spend time talking and using long words and buzz words without much content

I'm also not the best at marketing which is what I'd be looking for help with.

 

[accelerator]

A short summary would be you need to simplify your home page, convey the benefits better, and create stronger and more unique branding.

If you want a link to some conversion rate optimisation resources, then PM me.

 

[max99x]

There is profit as it is making a profit every month with it not being that busy so with it being massively busy it can only go one way.

Why would you say people wouldn't want to use it? What is utterly confusing about it?

They can save money and earn cashback.

They can compare prices and when they find the lowest earn cashback through it.

They can post an offer they have found, and earn cashback every time somebody else buys it. There's one guy making money every month (albeit about a tenner or so a month) from a 15-20 offers he posted in January.

I am the first to say I'm no business professional, I have spoken to a couple of "gurus" today and it seems they just spend time talking and using long words and buzz words without much content

I'm also not the best at marketing which is what I'd be looking for help with.

Take a look at Accelerator's sites and then think if you should be taking advice from him on homepage design.

The answer.... Not in a million years

 

[Trigger Happy]

I have to say for once I agree with Accelerator. I don't use cashback sites so am not sure how this would work for me and would need to be walked through it to have any chance of signing up

Instead, I searched for a Sony Z3 which I am looking to buy. The price that came up was rubbish (£449) compared to searching on google shopping (£250) so I quickly made an exit and didn't see why I would ever return.

There is profit as it is making a profit every month with it not being that busy so with it being massively busy it can only go one way.

Why would you say people wouldn't want to use it? What is utterly confusing about it?

They can save money and earn cashback.

They can compare prices and when they find the lowest earn cashback through it.

They can post an offer they have found, and earn cashback every time somebody else buys it. There's one guy making money every month (albeit about a tenner or so a month) from a 15-20 offers he posted in January.

I am the first to say I'm no business professional, I have spoken to a couple of "gurus" today and it seems they just spend time talking and using long words and buzz words without much content

I'm also not the best at marketing which is what I'd be looking for help with.

 

[nick-harper]

I have to say for once I agree with Accelerator. I don't use cashback sites so am not sure how this would work for me and would need to be walked through it to have any chance of signing up

Instead, I searched for a Sony Z3 which I am looking to buy. The price that came up was rubbish (£449) compared to searching on google shopping (£250) so I quickly made an exit and didn't see why I would ever return.

Thanks for the feedback, I just checked the logs and I can see that you did a search for "offers" so there haven't been any added (that one was from a good few months ago so I have now set it to expired). If the offers and products are confusing I'll definitely work to simplify that to stop people bouncing as you did.

The actual product search is just below though (http://www.finditforless.co.uk/search/sony-xperia-z3).

However the cheapest is £297.99 for a non compact model and on Google Shopping the cheapest non compact is £302.95 here)

The compact that is £250 on Google Shopping can be found here http://www.finditforless.co.uk/search/sony-xperia-z3-compact for £246.99.

The cashback really is simple, you just sign up and then buy through the site and then the cashback is credited to your account (on find it for less) automatically once the store has confirmed it. Sign up using the code ACORN and you get £1 free

So how it would benefit you over Google Shopping is that you would save about £5 by finding it cheaper, get your £1 free credit and around £5 or £6 cashback. (Cashback % is quite low on sim freemobile phones from some stores unless you take out contracts where it is quite a lot more, this is set by the stores).

Then the theory with the offers is that you found a good price on your Sony Xperia Z3, so you turn it into an offer (just press the add as offer button next to the search result), this will then share it with everybody else using the site and will also be indexed into Google. So if anybody else is looking for an offer on a Z3 they may stumble across your offer that you found and buy it. In which case you will then keep receiving cashback everytime somebody else buys it!

Rinse and repeat with washing machine, TV, ps4 games, clothes and it soon builds up.

 

[Trigger Happy]

Thanks for the feedback, I just checked the logs and I can see that you did a search for "offers" so there haven't been any added (that one was from a good few months ago so I have now set it to expired). If the offers and products are confusing I'll definitely work to simplify that to stop people bouncing as you did.

The actual product search is just below though (http://www.finditforless.co.uk/search/sony-xperia-z3).

However the cheapest is £297.99 for a non compact model and on Google Shopping the cheapest non compact is £302.95 here)

The compact that is £250 on Google Shopping can be found here http://www.finditforless.co.uk/search/sony-xperia-z3-compact for £246.99.

The cashback really is simple, you just sign up and then buy through the site and then the cashback is credited to your account (on find it for less) automatically once the store has confirmed it. Sign up using the code ACORN and you get £1 free

So how it would benefit you over Google Shopping is that you would save about £5 by finding it cheaper, get your £1 free credit and around £5 or £6 cashback. (Cashback % is quite low on sim freemobile phones from some stores unless you take out contracts where it is quite a lot more, this is set by the stores).

Then the theory with the offers is that you found a good price on your Sony Xperia Z3, so you turn it into an offer (just press the add as offer button next to the search result), this will then share it with everybody else using the site and will also be indexed into Google. So if anybody else is looking for an offer on a Z3 they may stumble across your offer that you found and buy it. In which case you will then keep receiving cashback everytime somebody else buys it!

Rinse and repeat with washing machine, TV, ps4 games, clothes and it soon builds up.

This makes sense here! The challenge I think is to articulate this on the homepage and in your marketing

 

[nick-harper]

This makes sense here! The challenge I think is to articulate this on the homepage and in your marketing

Thanks, this is what I am finding a challenge. Simplifying it and marketing it.

When I explain to people, being a developer I think I over complicate it and go into too much detail.

 

[accelerator]

Thanks, this is what I am finding a challenge. Simplifying it and marketing it.

When I explain to people, being a developer I think I over complicate it and go into too much detail.

Yes, a very clear simple marketing message is what you need. That is behind all good marketing.

You look like a very skilled developer. From a technical point of view, your site is impressive. The thing is, from a business perspective, you already have two very big cashback rivals who have already captured the market and are already advertising on TV. I would question whether from a business environment point of view, this is the right thing to be channelling your development skills in to. One thing that I personally have been getting a bit tired of is the affiliate model full stop. There are so many ways you can lose out on a sale, and you need massive traffic volume to make it worth while. With you skills it may be worth thinking about how you can develop a site or app whereby people are paying for a service directly to you, i.e. you take the payment. E.g. build a new paid app. When you are taking the money yourself, it's easier to make your site profitable and viable.

Rgds