Fobo.com.au - Affiliate-Filled Bargain Sharing Site
Recently I have come across another Australian bargain sharing website as it was advertised here via Google AdWords — Fobo.com.au. According to its About page,
Fobo is the leading Social Bargain Sharing website for Australian consumers. Based on the idea of community bargain sharing, our users can not only share and recommend bargains but also vote for them. The most voted bargains automatically come on top in the process. The website is built on the latest Web 2.0 platform.
Gee. Latest Web 2.0 platform — that is quite a mouthful of jargon. When you look right into its HTML source, the very “Web 2.0 platform” that powers Fobo.com.au is none other than the open-sourced Pligg CMS. Moreover, Fobo’s theme certainly looks very similar to Dealigg, another popular Pligg-powered bargain sharing site in US — just check the screenshots!
I guess I better make a disclaimer here — this review on Fobo.com.au will be completely biased as this yet-another social bargain site is a direct competitor to the community site of this blog, OzBargain.com.au. So sorry about dissecting and criticising this website! There are other reasons which I will reveal later.
Social Sharing Website, But No Community
With any social bargain sharing website, you need (1) bargains, and (2) community. Just browsing through the first three pages of deals, majority, if not all of them, are posted by “god”, the admin user of Pligg CMS. I guess that means I can cross out the “community” bit.
It could have been because the site is new, as the site was only publicised in June and the ABN associated with its .com.au account has also only been as recent as April. Or it could have been excessive amount of spamming, as it says in the about page:
Unfortunately, due to spamming, we had to stop user submissions and currently evaluating other strategies.
Hmm. That is fine by me. Out of 8 months of existence, OzBargain too also has a tiny spamming issue when I trialled anonymous commenting for a few weeks back in April. However, I terminated the trial not because of the spams as Akismet caught most of them, but the natural of anonymity caused some irresponsible comments being written — but that is another story.
I am just wondering that how you can be a “leading” social sharing site without a community. I wonder.
Bargain Website, But No Real Bargains
What about the bargains? There are certainly no short of product listing on Fobo.com.au, from many major bargain online stores — Deals Direct, BIGshop, OO.com.au and more. The format is consistent across the board — a product image, a short description, a crossed-out RRP and your bargain price. Take this Canon DC100 DVD Cam from Quikshop Australia for example:
They do have some genuine coupons though. For example this OO.com.au free delivery coupon, which has expired last month. And this 10% off Deals Direct coupon which is OZBARGAIN — I wonder where they got this from (which has also expired 2 weeks ago by the way).
Since it is a site with full of product listings, you would think that it should take you directly to the merchant’s product page, right? Well, only after a few hops.
Take the Canon DVD Cam example we had previously. When you hover your mouse cursor over the link, your browser tells you that the destination URL is
http://www.fobo.com.au/out.php?id=144
Basically it takes another request to Fobo.com.au before it returns you the real landing URL. Many websites hide their out-bound URL for various reasons, and in fact we hide that as well at OzBargain — so we can track how many times a deal is clicked (but we display the full destination URL using title HTML attribute). Another reason for hiding the URL is because you do not want people to know it, as though your visitors will not click through if they know where they are about to go.
Let us see where Fodo.com.au brings us to. I am an old un*x guy so I called up my friend cURL to check it out for me.
$ curl -I http://www.fobo.com.au/out.php?id=144 HTTP/1.1 301 Connection: close Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 07:45:14 GMT Location: http://www.clixGalore.com/PSale.aspx?BID=48294&... Content-Type: text/html Server: Apache/2.0.54 (Unix) ... X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.2 Vary: Accept-Encoding
Instead of sending us to Quikshop, I am sent to an affiliation link at clixGalore instead, who will pay the affiliate 8% commission if I happen to buy from Quikshop. Unlike going through moneyback networks like MoneyBackCo, Buckscoop or Cashloop, I get none of that 8% back.
Yeah. Where is the bargain?
Summary
So what good is Fobo.com.au, a self-claimed “leading social bargain sharing website” with no community nor bargain? Not much to the Australian bargain hunting community I am afraid. It is yet another affiliate website populated with product datafeed, but trying to hide under that “Web 2.0″ umbrella.
As I have previously stated, there is nothing wrong to make affiliation as your business model — it’s one of the top reason for running a bargain website so you get rewarded when people shop through your site. They are part of the economy of the web (an unfortunate necessary evil I am afraid), but they pass on little if any saving to the consumers.
But It Is Not The Whole Story…
This post has actually been sitting on my draft tray for more than three weeks! I have a complicated feeling towards this site and was hesitated to finalise what I am about to write — not that I have anything to do with it (other than I have just written a short review), but what it has to do with other bargain websites in Australia.
Who is Running Fobo.com.au?
First of all, I thought it would be nice to find out who runs Fobo.com.au. There are various ways to get hints, but I went to the mighty Google first. It got me to this discussion thread on Whirlpool Forums, where someone is asking for feedback on a site that he is working on.
Hey, isn’t that the same guy who called MoneyBackCo a “scam” at Whirlpool a few days earlier in this post?
By the way for the uninformed who happened to see this review on Fobo.com.au — MoneyBackCo is a moneyback/reward community for the Australians, who gives back 100% affiliation commission to its members (but charge $10/year membership fee). Moreover it is in partnership with OzBargain to bring more savings to Australian online shoppers. Scam? Far from it! Thanks to Neil from Metroblogging Melbourne in our defence. Big thanks for that.
More Defamation
Now, let us turn the clock back another month or two, and read this particular thread on Whirlpool where “Aussie Deals/Bargain Websites” were discussed. You will see the same guy has not only bad mouthed OzBargain but also our friends at Buckscoop (whom I reviewed here). Well, I do not deny that Buckscoop is a competitor to OzBargain/MoneyBackCo as it too focused on cashback rewards and bargain hunting discussions, but they compete by giving back more to the consumers — they have my full respect! Unlike someone who compete by defaming the competitors on public forums.
He did have some interesting points in his comments.
The website has to be user driven and not advertiser driven and if you see any affiliate code in the outgoing links — stay away from that website.#
I guess he did not anticipate that he would create an affiliation-links filled “bargain sharing” site one month down the track. He then went on attacking Buckscoop for using affiliation links which I rebuked here, but later on he changed his tone in a reply to Buckscoop.
You know my problem is that we all know that there is nothing wrong with affiliate links but when you try to come across as someone who doesn’t do affiliate links until you are proved wrong, this really pisses me off big time.#
Is he talking about himself?
After all the moneyback sites do not negotiate rates with the merchants individually, but all have to go through affiliation networks like clixGalore, CommissionMonster and DGM to rebate back to you the commissions they have collected. Affiliation links on a moneyback site is working for you the consumers so transactions can be tracked, data can be matched and the rewards can be issued. It is only of no use if you cannot get any commission back.
He then concluded,
Conclusion from a bargain hunter perspective: The chances of finding a genuine bargain on OZbargains and Topbargains are higher than buckscoop as their selection and promotion of bargains doesn’t involve any commissions.#
I agree that when you are more independent, you are less compelled to push the products from merchants you are affiliating with. However by observing Buckscoop’s forums, I do not see his call justified. There are deals posted by many different individuals on many different shops, many are not part of any affiliation network at all. You do not need to set up something to directly profit from it — just think about why Buckscoop bothered to have a bargain forum, and why OzBargain bothered to team up with MoneyBackCo whom we get no commission from…
What about TopBargains.com.au?
But he did brought up another site here, TopBargains.com.au, which I had a quick look 3 months ago. If you think Fobo.com.au claiming to be the “leading social bargain sharing website” is a bit over the top, you gotta check out TopBargains’ claim!
Australia’s largest Social Bargain Sharing network where real people recommend and rate bargains!
For the benefit of doubt, we just assume that they have done the statistics and have carefully worked out that they really are the largest. Google PageRank of 0 and Alexa Ranking 3 month average of only 690,000+ must be totally inaccurate! It does have an interesting policy on affiliation links though. Extracted from their about page:
Q. Can I use affiliate links or tracking code in my story links?
Yes. We have no issue with that as long as it’s a geniune bargain and can help our site users. Majority of the links on internet are anyways affiliate links and we don’t mind if you also make some money by referring bargain products. Some of our regular users do make money by referring good products. We strongly recommend ClixGalore for affiliate account signups.
There is an affiliation link right there on the word clixGalore! See how they have walked the talk?! I wondered who runs TopBargains as it has been mentioned so many times in that Whirlpool thread.
Compare the WHOIS records for Fobo.com.au and TopBargains.com.au, and tell me what do you think. Now I wonder why these Whirlpool posts aren’t deleted as they are promoting poster’s own business.
Epilogue
There are more I can write about this guy and his websites but I think I shall just stop here. These really add nothing to the Australian bargain hunting community, and sorry to those who have read through the whole thing — this article has zero tips on getting a bargain.
This post is not just written for the consumers out there so that they can stay away from Fobo.com.au. This is mainly written for my bargain-website-running friends. For Buckscoop, for MoneyBackCo and for others who might have their reputation damaged by incorrect information posted on public forums. You might argue that I am fighting fire with fire, but if you are the one who got involved, will you let all these non-sense keep on going?
Lessons to all young Internet entrepreneur-wannabe (although I am not young nor an entrepreneur)
- Work hard to create a functional platform.
- Work hard to populate your site with content.
- Work hard to earn the search engine love.
- Work hard to build a long running community.
- Don’t take short-cuts by bad-mouthing your competitors!
Salute to OzBargain. I’m no friend of Scotty nor anyone here in Ozbargain, but I fully support this site as I have found (as a bagain hunter myself) that this website is the most genuine over others bargain website.
Topbargains has so many deals that were simply copied from Ozbargain, without even trying to make the comments or deal’s title different at all. I know for sure they copied them because I could see my deals that I have posted here are copied almost words per words in Topbargains.
Fobo looks new, but all I can see there were items from dealsdirect.com.au, which is kinda pointless, as I don’t really need to have a secondary dealsdirect website.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think you are in place to criticise them Scotty, who especially had cowardly been doing bad talks on other competitors (without even being a better one himself). This posting really helps us, especially new bargain hunters, to filter deals they have found online.
Viva OzBargain ;)
I agree with John 110%, I found this website (OzBargain) from a simple Google search & ever since the deals/bargains posted on OzBargain are useful & not just taken off other websites. The other websites can morn & complain that what Scotty’s doing & OzBargain is crap, but at the end of the day OzBargain helps AUSTRALIAN SHOPPERS find great bargains that can help them each & every day.
MoneyBackCo is the same thing, they help AUSTRALIAN SHOPPERS by going & shopping online like you normally would & then give you some of your money back without any catches.
I’m no friend of Scotty nor anyone here at OzBargain, but the posting by other members of the public helps us shoppers & public members find great bargains.
Viva OzBargain :)
[...] Lots of things that Scotty said about Fobo that I don’t have time to mension here & also it teaches a very important lession: that some people would do anything to make their website #1 - Full Post HERE [...]
Thanks John and Jeffrey for the support.
John — yes I think a community of bargain hunters can really help each other out. Not just sharing where the good deals are, but also the how to distinguish a good deal from the bad ones. I am still learning from some of you guys.
Jeffrey — thanks for linking to this post! I would be very reluctant to call anyone a “scam” though, even if you can’t find any real deal on the site, as “scam” is usually associated with illegal activities. There is certainly nothing illegal on the site that I had problem with.
Scotty, I wasn’t calling Fobo an scam, all I said was really “Bargain Websites - Are They Real Or Are Some Just A Scam To Get Your Money” Couldn’t type the whole heading in!
Jeffrey — sorry I did not mean to say that you are calling someone a scam. What I am trying to do here is to protect myself and my friends, as we do not do what others have done to us, right? :)
I understand where your coming from - right :)
OZBARGAIN IS KING OF BARGAIN WEBSITES (AND ITS BLOG TOO!!!)
Let’s not get carried away Jeff :P
Nice work Scott
Because of the work of some of these posers who hide things, a lot of visitors to my site have trouble believing I’m not making money out of it in any way.
I’m cool with people making money but not cool with people masking their activities. I like the honest way you run OzBargain Scott, I think it’s why you have won a lot of respect
Well done mate :) That’s a hilarious post BTW.
Well I would think that I have seen OZ Bargain copying many deals from other sites also. It’s actually a few people who are present on all the sites and it wouldn’t say that deals were being copied but it’s more of a cross sharing.
Fobo looks new so they are trying to develop a community and it’s no fair to criticize when the site is only a few weeks old. It only shows your immaturity and that you are kind of scared of new sites. In the interest of shoppers, we should encourage newcomers rather than formulating one sided conspiracy theories. If you had a valid point on WP forum, it should have been decided then.
No doubt OzBargain rocks and is the best site but this attack on new sites leaves a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.
Thanks
Yea I find it childish too.. not sure what the purpose behind this is.
Anyways I didn’t know all these new sites but thanks to this post, many of OZbargain visitors will now know about new competitors. The guy who owns them must be enjoying free publicity from a leading competitor :)
Talking about some of your points, I find you no better than any other bargain sharing sites. The same page on which I am posting is all filled with ads and if you are saying that you are better than others - BULLSHIT and there is nothing bad about using a Pligg template - the 90% of internet runs of open source sofware. Don’t think that I am supporting anyone here but most of your logic is self-contradictory.
Wish this energy can be used in bringing good bargains than pointing fingers on others.
Cheers.
Brian
Jonk — exactly. Actually I am not against making money online, and I have written before about many reasons people run this kind of bargain websites. As long as I am transparent about — there are text link ads, AdSense and affiliation links in various places which should be very easy to spot.
Jeoff — as with sites copying deals, I am sure it happens. After all we are not the ones that provide that deal but the merchants, and many sites actually receive these deals independently from their usual channels (newsletters from merchants, for example).
As of attacking a new site. Well, please read through what I have written again, especially why I am writing this. I did not wake up one day, saw a new bargain sharing site and then decide to barbecue it for breakfast. What I found out when I woke up one day was — the reputation of OzBargain, MoneyBackCo, Buckscoop and potentially other websites has been damaged because a new website decided to take short cut to popularity by defaming its competitors with lies.
As of encouragement — see my verdict at the end. Also what I had written when I discovered TopBargains back in April — I have actually gave a compliment to both Dealicious and TopBargains in my blog. Please re-read what I have written again, and see whether your comment about me is justified.
Brian — please read again what I said in the first summary section. I have no issue when websites do affiliation sales. I have no problem sites making money online. I am not saying that I am better because I have less ads on this site.
What I do have issue is, that someone demonstrated this kind of attitude on a public forum, criticising other sites with ads, yet at the same time is making websites with affiliation links.
Nor am I mucking Pligg or open source software. This site runs on WordPress. OzBargain runs on Drupal. They run on a Linux box with MySQL, Nginx, PHP 5.2 and other open source software. I am even releasing open source software on my other blogs if you care to search for it. What I was trying to say is — don’t call your Pligg based affiliation site a “Web 2.0 social bargain sharing website” when you can’t even define what Web 2.0 is.
Mate, when you don’t have problem with anything you are doing - then what’s the debate for?
Now for my own curiosity, what you know more about Web 2.0 than those guys because you surely try to position yourself as the only expert on many things and you refused to confess many things regarding advertising on OZBargain unless you were proven wrong?
Jeoff. I can tell you are most likely associated with the fobo site. Piss of if you dont like this website no one asked you to be here there are many people who do like this site if you dont just go simple as that. Scotty is helping us find great deals even if he earns a bit from it its okay cause he puts in the effort.
Jeoff, I don’t see how Scotty is trying to start a debate. What he did with the posting was to PROTECT other bargain/merchant sites that had been wrongly accused (Scotty even proved the facts with the posting in whirlpool). He clearly mentioned that in the posting and in his comment here.
And what he did with the replies for your comment (and Brian’s) was he answers the critics and not raising another issue to be debated. I can’t even see a question mark in his comment! What I see, is that YOU are the one who tries to initiate the debate.
As with the advertising, Scotty did not hide it at all. I believe I’ve read a few of his posting regarding the advertising, how he had to do it to keep the site alive (especially with giving away $40 a week!). It’s not about the advertising he made, but it’s how he is being honest with the visitors to this site. For that, he deserved some respect.
So if you don’t like what’s been posted here, then just drop it and let it be mate.
I really wanted to keep out of this thread and have indicated my views on what Scott has written to him privately, however I just want to reiterate what I’ve said before, that you will not find a more genuine person in the bargain website community anywhere, of course some of you will say “well you’re going to say that, you’re in partnership with him”, one of the major reasons I welcomed Scotty’s suggestion of a partnership is because I know what an honest bloke he is.
In my opinion he really does want to bring the best bargain deals to Aussie’s, he has no hidden agenda’s and is as honest as it gets, after all how many other sites will review a competitors in an unbiased way.
Keep up the great work mate.
Btw, haven’t heard from Scotty for a while ey Steve. Is he still in his holiday? I think I’m just going out of topic, but what the heck :P
Just got back from the Gold Coast this evening and will get back to work tomorrow. Thanks for the support mate.
I think it would be wise for me to actually write about what’s my own agenda in creating these sites to just make things clear. It will be here this week.