Comments on: Why Do People Run Bargain Sites?

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 25 May 2007 01:50:15 +0000

marko,

(1) I guess earning income is not my priority here. It would if there’s another IT crash, I get the pink slip, and need money to feed my wife and kids — but then again probably making money online is not a good idea either.

(2) You’ll also notice that I don’t really push affiliation sales here. Moreover, I think keen shoppers should know that whenever they buy something online, part of their purchase price is going to an affiliate! Even more importantly, sometimes they can get that commission back via various moneyback programs (like MoneyBackCo I am advertising here). I think I won’t be consciously clean if I send visitors off to merchants without providing them a cheaper alternative — and that’s EXACTLY why affiliation sale is hard.

(3) Alexa is deceiving :)

By: marko

marko — Fri, 25 May 2007 01:33:49 +0000

OK. I Assume you are in the IT industry. It is a bit harder to promote affliate deals these days with email cash prolly the big taker in affliates fees. Also i think your site is gaining popularity, it is ranked high in alexa in oz.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:28:04 +0000

marko — not much. Less than 1/10 of my day time job. I’ll just say these are my hobby sites.

By: marko

marko — Thu, 24 May 2007 04:13:20 +0000

ho much are you making from all your sites? or is just a a part time thing for you?

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 01 May 2007 04:06:59 +0000

Yan — thanks for the kind words. That’s also how I felt when I started. I am never a big shopaholic, but being able to bring down the price can be an enjoyable challenge. However I am also trying to argue that when money comes into the scene, the ideology can become distorted.

Dave — yes, isn’t it great to blog about the things you enjoy, but yet get paid by the affiliates at the same time? The warning of course, is that at one point you started working for the affiliates, and they started dominating your writing. I guess for me the challenge is how to take a good balance.

On the topic of affiliates — yes they pay good money if you do marketing for them. However I am going to write something this week why I am MOVING AWAY from these affiliate marketing.

By: Dave Snyder

Dave Snyder — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:28:36 +0000

Hi there. I found your post informative. I’ve never read a blog post about this exact topic before. My wife and I run what you might call a “bargain site”, although we prefer to call it an “online shopping guide”. We offer reviews of nearly 500 websites with the focus on how they save you money. Some of them don’t really save you much, in our opinion (maybe we’re cheap), such as the few designer clothing sites we’ve reviewed, so we say as much. We strive for honesty, not a simple “buy now!” approach. What’s cool about operating a site such as this as an affiliate is that you are able to post honestly exclusive savings to your shoppers that non-affiliates don’t have access to.

By: Yan

Yan — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:52:58 +0000

Very well put, Scott! My motivation in starting my blog was exactly that — to figure out how the system works. Being a kid, I enjoyed taking apart toys. I guess that part of me never died. ;-)

Not to say I don’t like a good deal once in a while, but I personally don’t buy things very often. It is the challenge of search and satisfaction of discovery that drives me as far as the posting hot deals goes.