Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
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quote:
Originally posted by GF-91
quote:
Originally posted by Cosmo
And you think you could get 100 people to use the site daily (even half that) simply by word of mouth?
So true 
I'd be happy if just 30 people used it over a month to be honest. £100 I wouldn't of otherwise had in my pocket...
Point is, it doesn't lose money if it doesn't get a single sale (despite hosting which I already have), but if 'on a chance' it picks up and got some media coverage, then you could easily achieve 100 users a day.
Not that I'm going to bother now anyway... but I think you need to google affiliate marketing cosmo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing
- a lot of companies make a nice little small income from this type of business. If you're bootstrapping (i.e. it's a side project, which requires no maintence and allows you to continue with your life / real job) then i don't see why it'd be so comical to have something like this.
Worse case, you only lose time.
Good case, you maybe make enough money to buy a couple of beers a month.
Excellent / unlikely / but entirely possible case - it gains enough media attention that it makes you a fairly nice income (not millionaire standards, but essentially free money for little work).
- I must admit, I originally thought the commission would be more like 10%, rather than 1-3% so the amount I thought you could make I thought would be higher.
e.g. 3 'sales' (users) a month = around £100. Now that is entirely possible.
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Budgie
ive got an idea for ya paul in all seriousness.
and i dont think there is anythin like it atm.
basically most students work in retail (lil known fact) and they dont earn that much so getting discount from where they work is helpful if they want to spend money is said shop.
but if there are students that works in sainsburys that can get discount on food
and another student can get discount from usc or any other clothing company they can get discount for each other.
basically the more student that sign up the more places you can get discount from.
thoughts?
lets start the bidding at £10
Funky site... would be popular with students (although as cosmo says, may breach terms etc  )
but the biggest problem with that idea, is how do you as the service provider (website) make any money?
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Cosmo
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
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I know all about affiliate marketing, and it works well for people who have extremely high traffic websites - as to get a sale from one person you'd probably need 100 others visiting the site and not ordering.
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Cosmo
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
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quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
Funky site... would be popular with students (although as cosmo says, may breach terms etc )
but the biggest problem with that idea, is how do you as the service provider (website) make any money?
Cost to join up to get the discounts.
Advertising within the site seems it will have a very specific user group (students).
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Cosmo
quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
Funky site... would be popular with students (although as cosmo says, may breach terms etc )
but the biggest problem with that idea, is how do you as the service provider (website) make any money?
Cost to join up to get the discounts.
Advertising within the site seems it will have a very specific user group (students).
Yes. Charging to sign up may reduce sign ups a lot. Plus why would someone else want to give the site the use of their discount, to make the site money?
Advertising could work on a free to use site, but would require the site to become big to get that model working.
... The biggest problem I see with what you're suggesting budgie, is the 'marketplace' problem / 'chicken and the egg'.
...
You want users to go to your site to upload their discounts and receive discounts.
- But at first your site won't have any / or many discounts.
- So no user will go to your site.
- So no one will upload their discount.
Repeat.
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Budgie
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Registered: 2nd Dec 09
Location: Basingstoke
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
quote:
Originally posted by Budgie
ive got an idea for ya paul in all seriousness.
and i dont think there is anythin like it atm.
basically most students work in retail (lil known fact) and they dont earn that much so getting discount from where they work is helpful if they want to spend money is said shop.
but if there are students that works in sainsburys that can get discount on food
and another student can get discount from usc or any other clothing company they can get discount for each other.
basically the more student that sign up the more places you can get discount from.
thoughts?
lets start the bidding at £10
Funky site... would be popular with students (although as cosmo says, may breach terms etc )
but the biggest problem with that idea, is how do you as the service provider (website) make any money?
hmmm
1: make student website
2: people buy stuff at discount
3: ?????????????????
4: Profit
1st guess will be discount at hmv could be 15% but price on the website 13% (2% in the pot)
2nd guess joining fee??
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Budgie
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Registered: 2nd Dec 09
Location: Basingstoke
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Cosmo
quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
Funky site... would be popular with students (although as cosmo says, may breach terms etc )
but the biggest problem with that idea, is how do you as the service provider (website) make any money?
Cost to join up to get the discounts.
Advertising within the site seems it will have a very specific user group (students).
i knew i shouldnt of gone to the toilet!!! 
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Cosmo
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
quote:
Originally posted by Cosmo
quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
Funky site... would be popular with students (although as cosmo says, may breach terms etc )
but the biggest problem with that idea, is how do you as the service provider (website) make any money?
Cost to join up to get the discounts.
Advertising within the site seems it will have a very specific user group (students).
Yes. Charging to sign up may reduce sign ups a lot. Plus why would someone else want to give the site the use of their discount, to make the site money?
Advertising could work on a free to use site, but would require the site to become big to get that model working.
... The biggest problem I see with what you're suggesting budgie, is the 'marketplace' problem / 'chicken and the egg'.
...
You want users to go to your site to upload their discounts and receive discounts.
- But at first your site won't have any / or many discounts.
- So no user will go to your site.
- So no one will upload their discount.
Repeat.
People would sign up to get the other offers - if they can sign up offering one then you can get access to 100's of others.
Or you could offer free sign ups to those bringing a discount with them, or a sign up fee for those not offering any discount.
Advertising would work on any site, free or not, as long as it gets the traffic.
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Budgie
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Registered: 2nd Dec 09
Location: Basingstoke
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
... The biggest problem I see with what you're suggesting budgie, is the 'marketplace' problem / 'chicken and the egg'.
...
You want users to go to your site to upload their discounts and receive discounts.
- But at first your site won't have any / or many discounts.
- So no user will go to your site.
- So no one will upload their discount.
Repeat.
in that case make clear that the more users the better its gonna be.
facebook for example.
start off with a few people then more and more join and you have yourself the biggest networking site
its all about the waiting game
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Paul_J
Member
Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Cosmo
quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
... The biggest problem I see with what you're suggesting budgie, is the 'marketplace' problem / 'chicken and the egg'.
...
You want users to go to your site to upload their discounts and receive discounts.
- But at first your site won't have any / or many discounts.
- So no user will go to your site.
- So no one will upload their discount.
Repeat.
People would sign up to get the other offers - if they can sign up offering one then you can get access to 100's of others.
Or you could offer free sign ups to those bringing a discount with them, or a sign up fee for those not offering any discount.
Advertising would work on any site, free or not, as long as it gets the traffic.
What other offers?
You're starting the site from scratch. What offers do you have to put on the site from launch?
Unless I misunderstood the idea, it's like a discount exchange site - this requires content (discounts), to attract users (discounts).
It's like Weekendracer. Weekendracer needs users and posts, to attract users and posts, which will make users and posts.
... Very hard to kick start an idea like this.
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Butler
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Registered: 2nd Jun 05
Location: London
User status: Offline
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Guerilla advertising
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Cosmo
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
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Obviously from the start its not an option, but you asked how would the owner make money from it which is what I gave!
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Budgie
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Registered: 2nd Dec 09
Location: Basingstoke
User status: Offline
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but its an idea tho.
i thought it would get ridiculed
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Paul_J
Member
Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Budgie
quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
... The biggest problem I see with what you're suggesting budgie, is the 'marketplace' problem / 'chicken and the egg'.
...
You want users to go to your site to upload their discounts and receive discounts.
- But at first your site won't have any / or many discounts.
- So no user will go to your site.
- So no one will upload their discount.
Repeat.
in that case make clear that the more users the better its gonna be.
facebook for example.
start off with a few people then more and more join and you have yourself the biggest networking site
its all about the waiting game
Facebook had seed funding of $12,000,000 - it also started extremely small targeting a niche (havard university campus) to get the ball rolling.
These 'community' driven (chicken and egg problem) style sites funded by advertising are the most common and most likely to 'dead pool'.
Also, did I misunderstand what this site is sharing? I thought it was like you're going to meet up with someone who has a discount card in a certain area and they'll get you the discount? ... if it's simply people uploading the discount codes, it's no different than a service like hotdeals.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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Money Saving Expert has a flight checker if it's not already been mentioned.
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Paul_J
Member
Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Cosmo
Obviously from the start its not an option, but you asked how would the owner make money from it which is what I gave!
Yeah, was kinda replying the budgie about it.
Whenever I think of an idea, I focus on:
- Low cost (no risk if it doesn't cost anything)
- Low maintenance (I don't want to have to quit my job to run it - no risk)
- Uniqueness (I want the idea to be unique as it will help the product spread / media / blog attention)
- A instant service (From day one, there is a service of value. You don't have to wait till the site grows to get anything good from it)
- Would I use it?
- Can it cover its costs (will the return from the idea, make enough to cover any costs to break even).
...
Finally, and it's more of a 'outside of scope' point ... can I make a profit on it and £1 over total costs = profit. Often this may take time on scaling to become adequate, but it has to be an eventual goal, not the necessarily the initial aim (unlike covering costs).
- If all of those look good, then it's worth me spending my time to make it happen.
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Budgie
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Registered: 2nd Dec 09
Location: Basingstoke
User status: Offline
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hey if you dont want it i'll take it back
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Paul_J
Member
Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Budgie
but its an idea tho.
i thought it would get ridiculed
I'd never ridicule an idea, as luck pays a big part in on-line success. An idea is an idea, the execution of the idea makes a big difference and ultimately luck plays its part. I can't say whether it's rubbish, only look at it from the hurdles and constraints that I would see trying to run it.
Some good start up / tech sites which feature things all the time:
http://techcrunch.com/
http://news.ycombinator.com/news
http://www.reddit.com/r/startups/
http://www.quicksprout.com/
http://startupblog.wordpress.com/
http://onstartups.com/
http://readwriteweb.com/
http://mashable.com/
http://venturebeat.com/
http://www.loudthinking.com/
...
and ... a awesome online e-book on start up success / running a good online business.
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php
A video I recommend anyone to watch regarding the whole subject of making money online
http://www.omnisio.com/v/ZW4WTUGdjhG/david-heinemeier-hansson-at-startup-school-08
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Fro
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Registered: 20th Jun 06
Location: Rainham, Essex Drives: A3 2.0TDi Sport
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You cant upload discount codes for retail shops, the person that has the dicount would physically have to buy the items. that's based on when I was at topman (arcadia group) The group would give you a staff account (same as a storecard) but what you buy on it within the group would be subject to your discount percentage before the bill comes to you.
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