Welcome to our very first interview on Oz Bargain Blog. We are hoping to interview other Aussie online bargain hunters / deal website operators in the future, and big thanks to Raja Devanathan of Save As You Spend to be part of our first interview.

Hi Raja! Introduce yourself and tell us who you are.

My name is Raja, and I am working as a doctor in a Melbourne hospital. I trained in Tasmania, however originally from Melbourne. My background is Indian, and I have been living in Australia for most of my life. My life started off in Adelaide, where my family lived for 11 years before coming to Melbourne. I started off my tertiary education as a computer systems engineer at RMIT University, and after 1 year I transferred into medicine. Medicine was my love, but I have a significant interest in technology.

So, you are currently running an interesting web site called “Save As You Spend”. Are you a software developer by trade? Otherwise, what do you do?

No, I am not a software developer. I am a doctor working at a Melbourne hospital. I do have 1 year of software developing experience as part of my 1st year at RMIT, doing computer systems engineering. We mainly worked on Java, and C++ projects. My love was always with Medicine, but I have an intense interest in technology. This is partly because of the high-tech equipment that doctors rely on to help patients recover better and much faster. I am also a great fan of the Internet, but I think we are just scraping the surface of this wonderful .invention., and I am sure we will find a very useful use for the internet for doctors to help patients in the community.

Tell us how and why you started Save As You Spend.

Myself and a friend (Jonathan) started working on Save As U Spend early in 2006. Jonathan was a final year computer student, and wanted some experience in web development. I also wanted to also gain some experience in web design and also web management. Jonathan does all of the coding, and I help with the design of the site and its features. I appreciated that students were always looking for bargains, and being a student I wanted to develop a website which featured businesses that were willing to offer discounts. I also found that it would be a great way for businesses to get free exposure.

At Save As U Spend, we have a few core principles: 1) consumers should get the best bargains possible, 2) businesses should get free exposure for their products and services, 3) the best bargains should be based on the merit of the discount, not the amount of money paid for advertising, 4) consumers should be rewarded with cash discounts. With today’s advertising models, I find that it all depends on money. The more money you pay, the better advertising you get. I feel this is unfair especially for small businesses that may not be able to afford top quality advertising but yet have a competitive product/service on offer. At Save As U Spend we give opportunities for such businesses to advertise online, for free, provided they offer a discount to our website users.

Tell us about this site then. What are its features? What can I benefit as a consumer, or as a frugal bargain hunter?

The concept of Save As U Spend is exactly that, consumers save as they spend. The discounts featured will save them money. This is not a points scheme, or a loyalty scheme. We want consumers to be rewarded with cash discounts when they purchase products from an advertising business. We have a number of features on board at this stage; with many more features to be implemented in the future, including:

• The concept of democratic advertising: This concept is quite simple. The most clicked on discount is automatically brought to the front page of the website gaining it more exposure. This means, advertisers cannot pay their way through to the front page. They must “earn” their way to the front page. To get to the front page, they must provide a significantly worthy discount, and back it up with an excellent product and customer service. This is further backed up by the unique time frame based filter system, so you can find out the most popular discounts from “today, this week, this month, this year, all time” or take a punt at the “random” option.

• The concept of generic search: There are many other Australian discounts website out there, but I find them to be too narrow in their search. At Save As U Spend our key feature is you can simply search for a post code, and all the businesses servicing that area under specific categories will appear. This means you as a consumer need not be too specific in your search terms in order to find something you will benefit from.

• Free advertising to businesses: This sounds too good to be true, but this website was not started to make a profit. We want to provide free advertising to Australian businesses that provide a discount. It.s as simple as that.

• Free for website users: Consumers can certainly benefit from downloading coupons from Save As u Spend, printing them and presenting them at the business. This is a free service. So spread the word, tell your family and friends about Save As U Spend and promote the site which benefits everyone.

These are just some of the benefits already available at Save As U Spend, with many more planned for development.

What about if I am running a business? Why should I be listed on Save As You Spend?

Why should businesses list on Save As U Spend? This is a very good question, and there are a number of reasons:

• We are a young team, with brand new ideas and implantation systems. This means, we are flexible to your needs as a business.

• We are absolutely free, and we strongly believe in the concept of democratic advertising. If you have a great product or service, and are want free exposure online then simple provide a discount and we will get you listed.

• Can you list more than once? Of course you can. We understand that businesses have more than 1 discounts, or more than 1 locations — so we allow multiple listings for a single business if you have more than 1 offer or location just to improve your exposure on the website.

• Although we are a young site, we expect strong growth in the coming weeks to months mainly because of our principles and no cost solutions to small businesses. If you are a business, we want you listed on our site for free.

• In the future we wish to offer businesses the tools to promote their offers on Save As U Spend, all for free!

What do you envision Save As You Spend to be? What will be your next step?

We want Save As U Spend to be the non stop shop for discounts. We want everyone to benefit, and we feel we are developing a solution for all businesses and consumers to go hand in hand. We have a number of plans for the website, based on our core principles. Check out our business blog to find out whats happening right now: http://www.saus.com.au/blog/

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Thanks to Raja for sharing with us his big ideas with Save As You Spend. Raja has also been contributing the best deals at SAUS to OzBargain, our community bargain hunting website. Go and check out SAUS, and support your local business.