Hi,
I was thinking that it might be good if Ozbargain could send out emails for deals which fit certain criteria, such as ">100 votes" and/or "50 votes within the first hour". Basically, a mechanism to notify members of "epic posts", such as the Dell $9 printer.
Although I can see how it could potentially backfire by reducing visitor numbers, I thought it might be worth considering.
EDIT: should I have put this in "Comments/Feedback/Suggestions" Thread? Sorry, I only found it later.
I agree that regular visits are important. I would not want this feature to be available for any deals other than the truly "epic" deals that come around once a month or less.
The main objective would be to ensure loyal members do not miss out on "unmissable deals", but also to encourage people to become a member of Ozbargain (allowing them to contribute as well). There are two things I frequently notice in comments: people who complain they missed out (despite often visiting Ozbargain), and people who state that they only just signed up "just to post a deal/comment" after having visited Ozbargain for ages.
So basically, the target audience for this feature are loyal members who hate to miss out on incredible deals, and people who visit Ozbargain as non-members (and therefore do not contribute). This feature can help to entice people to become members, which ultimately would cause them to contribute as well.
Obviously my opinion is based on some assumptions, so feel free to disagree. I personally am just as interested in "good but not epic" deals, so it would not affect my visiting behaviour.
Well, I guess there are a few options currently such as the email newsletter that is sent daily or the front page RSS feeds. So would an individual email for each frontpage deal (>20 votes) be useful?
I am not sure whether the daily newsletter accommodates for this, because many "epic" deals last only hours because they are Ozbargained or expired.
I think an individual email for "epic" posts would be beneficial, but not for all deals above 20 votes, because I would have to agree with Monad that it is likely to reduce site visits (and contributions). In other words, it should probably not act as an alternative to actually visiting the site. Also, I would personally not want to receive too many emails of bargains.
From a user point of view it would of course be best if the vote count was configurable, but I can see how this could adversely affect income generated from adds.
OzBargain's goal is to help the community find deals first and foremost.
Makeitso, in the words of Star Trek: it's continuing mission is to explore strange new retailers, seek out new deals and freebies, to boldly go where no one bargain hunter has gone before.
If it helps users then we can think about implimenting it. The emails would link back to OzBargain anyway.
So let's define an epic deal: >100 votes with 50 of those votes coming within the first hour? There shouldn't be too many of those so I guess there wouldn't be a problem with email overload.
Yeah, you could be onto something here. The "epic" deals email alert might draw people to visit due to the exceptional interest in it and want to read what the fuss is about. The drawback might that the deal gets Ozbargained far quicker than it would have otherwise and those who take the time to visit the site unprompted and regularly (thus generating revenue so Ozbargain can continue) might miss out.
Maybe limiting the "epic" deals email alert only to people who have logged in within the past 24 hours?
I like your thinking :)
Yes, I think it should be >100 votes. The reason why I was thinking that the first ~50 should come in within the hour (or 30 in first half hour?) is to target the "urgent" deals requiring immediate spending, and filter out the "long-term, good, but not great" deals.
But then again, there might be a problem where deals(especially freebies)are a scam(the pen, pizza cutter, etc)
Not sure if that would be a legal issue or not(once the email is sent out)
I think that is a problem regardless. As long as people know that the "epic bargain" emails are no a condonation of the deal by Ozbargain.
BTW, what pen? Hope you don't mean the 3 free pens, because I received those alright :)
This day and age — XML feeds, social networks, status updates, etc — people somehow still prefer emails :)
Otherwise,
But yeah, I think with enough interests we'll definitely look at possibility of configurable "hot deals" emails.
It's too hard to have to check so many media all the time. The only thing I have time to constantly check is email. I use email for important things only, and epic bargains fit in that category :)
you can configure many services online to email you rss feeds. I think the one i used called "feed my inbox" did the job well
EDIT: you can also use rules to send it into certain folders, or use RRS owl to view them all as a seperate program
What about an RSS feed for deals matching the OP's criteria (">100 votes" and/or "50 votes within the first hour")
The whole point of Ozbargain is to get people to visit regularly and participate in the site and ultimately from a business standpoint, to gain revenue from advertisements.
What do you consider would be the advantage in adopting what you have suggested?