Deal Posting Guidelines

The community guidelines are a rough blend of what this site was intended for and the changing attitudes of the community. They have been written to try and help make your experience here more pleasant. Please note these are guidelines and are at the discretion of moderators.

Summary of Guidelines

POST a clear title including price and location.	DO NOT post duplicate deals.
DECLARE if you are a merchant or have some relationship with the merchant.	DO NOT sockpuppet or artificially vote for your deal.
LINK directly to the deal.	NO Adult websites.
CHECK competitors prices before posting.	NO Freeware or Free Websites.
MAKE sure there is sufficient quantity.	NO Gambling Sites.
BE respectful to others.	NO Banned Items or Websites.
REPORT any problems to a MODERATOR.	NO Charity Links.
POST only active deals for group buy sites.	NO Competitions or private sales.
DEALS that are available to Australia.	NO Affiliate Links anywhere. NO Referral Links anywhere (see exception).
COMBINE deals from the same merchant.	NO Price Match/Beat or Negotiated deals.

• Did someone else post the deal already? Search for your deal.
• Is this really the best price on the web? Check for the lowest prices.
• Is the cost of postage, fees or other costs included?
• Is this deal available to Australia?
• Is there enough quantity? Ensure there is adequate quantity.

Do not post the following:

• Auctions.
• Competitions or contests within the deal as this detracts from the bargain. More information.
• Adult sites or adult items.
• Gambling or Betting websites.
• Deals that resemble work or a job.
• Deals available only to staff or employees.
• Government Programs (Social Services/Programs that produce income).
• Crowd Funding Sites.
• Incomparable Services Listed here.
• Amazon eBooks & Udemy Courses (If you are associated).

Be transparent about why you are posting a deal here:

• Declare upfront if you have a relationship to the business.
• Declare upfront if you will benefit from the posting or if someone asked you to post here.
• If you are affiliated with the company.

If any of the above is true, check the I am Associated with the Store or Product box.

Do not ask users to vote on your deal or attempt to solicit votes (in your deal description or by any other means). Do not ask users to vote on your deal, attempt to solicit votes, solicit subscriptions for your user profile or for the related store (in your deal description or by any other means).

Someone else might have already submitted the deal. In that case, vote on the existing deal instead. Duplicated deals will be removed.

There are 3 ways of searching to see if your deal has been posted.

1. Use the search function to find the product or special you are posting.
2. See deals by domain to see the recent deal posted from that store.
3. See product tags to see recent deals posted that are tagged with your product.

• New users shouldn't write I'm new, don't flame me etc.

For first time posters, it's best to avoid telling the community that you are new and asking them to take it easy on you. The “L-plate icon” will be shown to indicate if this is your first post.

• Please check Title Guidelines on how to write a descriptive title for your deal.
• Please check Tagging Guidelines on how to correctly tag a deal.

Please explain clearly what the deal is about:

1. State the merchant and product model, and provide a brief description if you wish.
2. State the price.
3. State the location (city and state) if it is specific to an area. States should mentioned at the beginning of the title, e.g. [VIC].
4. If it's a deal for walk in customers, mention that
5. If shipping is required, state the shipping cost to major Australian cities if this information is available; approximate range is ok if the exact cost is variable or not available. (Store representatives must provide this information - there should be no reason to hide this from potential customers.) At the least, state ”+Shipping”
6. State any relevant terms & conditions, such as expiry date and any “hidden catches”.
7. Summarise briefly why it is a bargain - why did you buy it or consider it worth sharing? How does the price compare to elsewhere? Can you comment from personal experience on the quality of the product?

• Do provide the most relevant details but do not copy pages and pages of specifications from the link.
• Please use the > sign at the start of any line of text copied from webpages, flyers, etc. The Markdown Markdown Extra syntax will mark this text as a quote (with a left-hand orange border), rather than appearing to be your own words.
• Note: If you know someone who works for or owns that business or if someone asks you to post or comment, state this when posting or commenting
• Store Representatives ensure that any links to your site are both relevant (not unnecessary advertising) and at the bottom of the deal description only.
• Avoid adding comparisons to RRP or other potentially misleading price comparisons.

• Always link directly to the specific product page. Do not link to the mobile website of a deal, unless the deal is only applicable to the mobile website (happens very rarely) (example here).

• Do not link to the company's top-level website unless there is no specific page that can be used instead.

Linking to a top-level website, especially when there is a direct link to the product, is often regarded as spam-like conduct and is not welcomed.

• Do not post affiliate or referral links in the URL.

• If the link is from a third-party site like Facebook or Twitter, please complete the Store Domain field (located below the URL field) if it has not been automatically pre-filled.

For example, if you are linking to a promotion for Woolworths that is published on Facebook, enter 'woolworths.com.au' in the Store Domain field.

• Do not link to a picture.

There is no need to link to a picture on a website. A screenshot will automatically be generated from the URL of the linked website.

• Use the media file uploader only when there is no direct link to the bargain or information supporting the bargain.

The Media File Uploader is not needed in the vast majority of cases. The uploader should only be used for scanned images (e.g. catalogues, flyers, discount barcodes) and photos (e.g. receipts, pricing displays) when there is no webpage or website that could be linked to instead.

If you are using the link generated by Media File Uploader as the URL for a deal, please complete the Store Domain field if it has not been automatically pre-filled.

If your deal has limited quantity, please mention it in the description. As a general guide, deals with less than 10 items in stock at the time of submission may be unpublished, but moderators may, at their discretion, allow deals to stay if they are potentially useful to the community.

Where a seller is unknown, has very little history to establish a sales history, or there are other problems identifying that the end organisation really is a retailer, wholesaler or manufacturer, the deal might be unpublished or modified. Please also ensure you identify a bargain on your site or don't post until you have a suitable bargain.

If it's a listing on a site such as eBay, Amazon, etc. please follow all other guidelines to see if the listing should be excluded for any reason.

Remember to consider whether it really is a bargain as compared with stores.

If it still looks okay, next look at the history of the seller. If they've been selling for a while and still seem to be active, the listing is more likely to be allowed.

• Related article – Posting Guidelines on eBay Items, Posting Guidelines on AliExpress Items, Amazon Posting Guidelines (3rd Party Sellers)

Think twice if you are posting more than one deal for the same site/store. Are they all really good deals?

It's also possible to post a deal, mentioning the best offer, and mention ”+ more” in the title, then put details of the other bargains in the same posting (along with direct links to those items too)

If more than one post is made for the same site/store within 24 hours, it may be combined (especially where posts aren't considered bargains or are related sales/products). Moderator discretion applies.

Some merchants offer Price Match/price beat against the same product listed online or in other shops. However, price beat itself is not a deal, but rather a method to make a merchant to sell you the same product at a lower price than another merchant's publicly listed price (which is usually the lowest price around).

Therefore, instead of posting the price beat as a bargain, the real deal should be from the merchant who is offering the lowest price. Price beat is a bonus, and other members of OzBargain need to arrange their own price beat. For example a specific model of HP laptop is cheapest at DickSmith, and you get Officeworks to price beat at 5% less. To post this deal:

• Use the merchant you are price match against. For example:
  • Title: HP Laptop $500 at DickSmith ($475 at Officeworks via Price Beat)
  • URL: URL of the product at DickSmith's website.
• Mention that you are able to use price match at a competing merchant.
• Remember to have a link to your receipt as a proof that (in this example) Officeworks do allow price beat on this product. Use Media File Uploader if you need to.

Negotiated deals are dependent on the store, salesperson and other circumstances. Negotiated prices (haggling to receive a further discount on the ticketed price) aren't available to everyone and are not guaranteed. You should post a deal for the ticketed/guaranteed price, you can then add your experience with negotiating further discount in the deal description only. Alternatively you may wish to post your experience in the forums.

Referral links & codes are prohibited almost* everywhere on OzBargain; this includes all deal, forum and classified posts and comments. Referral links & codes can however be added to our automated referral system from My Account - Edit - Referrals. Do not solicit referrals by any means in your posts (eg asking users to PM you, drawing attention to the referral system or linking to your own deal posts if you are in the OzBargain referral system for that merchant). Affiliate links are prohibited on OzBargain.

EXCEPTIONS:

• Competition referral links (to gain entries) ARE permitted in competition comments but NOT in the competition post.
• If you have a referral link or code for a deal you are posting AND it is not in the automated system, please add it to the bottom of your post & a moderator will add it into the referral system (and remove it from your post).

Can I post a deal for the Referral offer itself?

• If the retailer offers a referral program, you may post it as a deal (e.g. signup to ABC site via referral code and earn $10 credit) if all of the following conditions are met:
  1. The referee also earns a benefit (e.g. credit, discount, etc.).
  2. The current offer has NOT been posted as a deal previously.
  3. It is a limited time referral offer for the referee or it is a new addition to the OzBargain referral system (added less than 7 days ago).

Main article: Referral and Affiliate Link Differences

• As OzBargain is a community website, deals that you have posted will be judged and voted by our community members. Post when you have a bargain and not just for advertising purposes. Generic advertisements may be removed or may make it difficult for you to post, when you have something that really should be popular. Reps posting deals which are constantly attracting low or negative votes will see their domain banned from posting by the system, as per our performance based store bans.

• Merchants should note that small reductions, excessive conditions, and other costs related to the deal will NOT be well received. Users will likely vote negative for your deals which in turn leads to performance based store bans.

Third-party price comparison/tracking or product review website operators need to follow the Third-Party Website Operator deal posting guidelines in addition to the guidelines here. Deal posts are subject to posting limits.

Physical Goods - Only post deals that can be paid for using Australian payment methods. If the deal does not ship to Australia and freight/mail forwarding is required, your deal MUST include the final price including shipping and the name of the freight/mail forwarding company used for the calculations. Deals without a final price will be removed.

Virtual Goods - Some deals require a VPN or similar to access them. These deals are acceptable but please write clearly in the title 'VPN Required' or similar and give basic instructions in the deal. Deals that require a non-Australian identification card or phone number are not possible to obtain for most users and should not be posted.

Deals in Overseas Countries - Deals available overseas may be applicable to Australians traveling to that destination. Some deals located overseas may not be applicable to the majority of Australians in reasonable circumstances however. Currently only travel/tourist related deals should be posted on OzBargain, these include but are not limited to: Flights, Accommodation, Tours, Airport Facilities/Transport, Special Events (World Cup, Olympics etc) & Communication (Sim Cards, Roaming internet etc). Deals outside of these categories or not realistically applicable to the majority of members may be removed by a moderator. See Discussion

For deals in other currencies, please include both the original currency and the $AU equivalent in the title (if space allows).

People generally value their time.

If you know there is a good bargain or two in a sale, catalogue or store, it's a good idea to mention one or even two bargains, in the title, and provide direct links where possible, to those items.

If there are multiple bargains in the same sale, catalogue or store, it is still advisable to post once only. Then multiple items can be listed in the same posting; probably with what looks to be the best or most popular bargains at the top. Multiple postings for the same sale and/or catalogue may be unpublished.

Deal posts that reference a sale, catalogue or store but don't provide enough information to find at least one bargain, may be unpublished. Deal posts that contains ambiguous or non descriptive titles such as 'up to 50% off sale', 'big clearance' or 'sale' may be unpublished unless specific items & prices are mentioned within the deal description OR a dedicated offer/discount such as '50% off sale' is present (preferably in the title).

If someone else has posted items from the same sale or catalogue as you now want to publish from, please post under the other person's listing. If you do post separately, items should be an especially good bargain and you should also link back to the original sale or catalogue post in your separate post. If you are posting a deal using a coupon code from an existing post, please reference that original post in your deal.

Deal posts that reference an upcoming sale or deal without information about any specific offer, or have an unknown/indefinite start date may be unpublished. Please post only when at least a product price or a specific discount is known, and include that in the description. Please note that up to XX% off discounts are not specific discounts.

Upcoming deals should not be posted more than 90 days in advance.

If the airfare is part of an advertised sale, please include both the booking period and travel period. If it is not an advertised sale, please provide at least one sample itinerary that shows the discounted fare as described.

Deals for loans (such as home, car or personal loans) that quote an interest rate must include a comparison rate in the title or description. Deals that specify a loan offer from a financial institution should link directly to the financial institution. The only case where the deal can be linked to a broker website is if the deal is exclusive to that broker only. Further guidelines for deals posted by a loan broker or bank representative as follows:

Brokers and bank representatives must quote their credit license number & authorised credit representative number when posting a deal.

If the deal involves a bank offer:

• Check for duplicates to make sure the bank offer hasn’t already been posted by someone else.
• The deal title must only mention the bank offer in the title.
• No broker offers can be mentioned in the title of the deal. Aug 2021: If your financial services site also contains an offer (e.g. increased broker cashback), you may also include it in the title.
• The deal should be linked to the bank’s website in the URL field and not the broker’s website.
• The deal should be marked as ‘associated’ with your broker website instead of the bank
• The broker details can be mentioned at the bottom of the deal description only as per third-party deal-posting guidelines.
• The information at the bottom of the deal description should be minimal and not take up a large portion of the description. If a large portion of the description is about the broker offer then it should be posted as a standalone broker deal as outlined in the next section.
• The deal will be marked as ‘third-party’ by OzBargain and third-party posting limits apply.

If the deal is about an exclusive broker offer:

• The deal title can be only about the broker offer without any mention of the bank’s current interest rates or the bank’s cashback offers.
• The deal URL should be linked to the broker’s website.
• The deal should be marked as ‘associated’
• Normal store representative posting limits apply.

The Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 and the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code restrict how therapeutic goods (medicines, medical devices, complementary medicines, sunscreens, and weight management therapeutic goods) can be advertised. The easiest way to comply with the law is to make no claim of therapeutic benefits and only include the names and the prices of the therapeutic goods in your posts.

A full explanation and useful links are given on Therapeutic Goods wiki page.

Since fuel prices at petrol stations can fluctuate without warning, please post the latest observed fuel prices in the state-specific fuel watch threads in the Automotive forum and not as a deal. However, if there is a special promotion, such as a bigger-than-usual supermarket discount, or a special price with a defined timeframe for which the price is valid, then the promotion can be posted as a deal.

Due to an increasing number of free Wi-Fi services becoming available in public areas and businesses, these posts are no longer allowed as deals. Please feel free to post any new or existing free Wi-Fi locations in the Australian forum or Overseas forum.

Group buy sites such as Massdrop sell their items after reaching a certain number of people who agree to buy their items.

• Only deals that are active are allowed to be posted on Ozbargain. A deal is considered active when a user goes to purchase the deal and their sale is immediately finalised. A deal is inactive when a site requires X amount of people for the purchase to go through and that number hasn't been reached. (e.g. 35 bought, 65 more required to get the deal)
• Please remember to include the state that the deal is applicable to (e.g. $49 for a $100 Dinner Voucher & a Bottle of Wine at Example Restaurant [NSW])

Don't post duplicates (deals that are already on the site). Please search OzBargain before posting.

Exceptions:

• The original deal is older than one month, and was marked expired or sold out between then and now.

• The original deal is active but older than 6 months and has not been reposted to the front page in the past 6 months.

• The duplicate gains an excessive amount of positive votes (100+) and the original deal was posted and had become active more than 24 hours ago.

• The item is not in the title of the original deal. Moderator discretion can apply if the post is seen as excessive.

Note: If an expiry date is not set on a deal post, it will be automatically marked as expired after 45 days (90 days for freebies). It is the poster's responsibility to either set an expiry date, or report the deal to have it marked as 'long expiry' (never auto expire).

These exceptions do not apply to long running deals where the referral system is the offer.

Don't post auctions.

Please don't submit joke posts in the deals section - new deals trigger notifications to subscribers who are after genuine deals. Feel free to put any humorous finds in the forums.

Competitions are not deals, so please do not post competitions, contests or anything that only a small number who have registered might win. Please do not run contests or competitions within deals as they detract from the bargain. If you have a competition that you wish to share with other members at OzBargain, feel free to post in our competitions section.

Private sales are not deals. Should you wish to sell personal items please use the classified section. Note that only long standing members can post in this section. More information.

There are so many useful free multimedia content (e.g. ebooks, videos, photos, software, apps etc.) and websites out there that if we listed every great one, then we would be inundated with deals. Feel free to discuss any of these in one of our forums. Alternatively, add the freeware to its dedicated free software wiki page – Useful Free Software.

In general, always-free multimedia content that are available to everyone should be posted in the forums. Products that are temporarily free or have become permanently free qualify as deals. Moderators will make informed decisions on whether posts should stay as deals or be moved to the Free Software forum. As this is an evolving subject, community feedback is welcomed in our Site Discussion forum.

Examples of what you shouldn't post:

• Software: Mozilla Firefox (Free Browser, Always Free)
• Websites: Google (Free Search Engine, Always Free)

Examples of what you should post:

• Software: DVB Web Scheduler Pro is now free (Normally you have to pay for it, now free)
• Websites: Used Car Ads Free on Carbuddy.com.au (Free for now but later on not free)

Freebie deal posts from charities targeted at specific groups where you receive a physical item in the mail are not permitted (with exception of a deal posted by a rep). See discussion.

Charity deals where the user receives nothing in return are not a bargain but feel free to post any charities or good causes on the forums.

Sites with adult themes should not be posted on OzBargain.

• More discussions in the forum section.

Store representative posting limits:

• 1 deal per 24 hours
• 2 deals per 7 days - provided the votes on past deals are not too low. This can be reduced to 1 deal per 7 days if past votes are low.
• If the past 2 rep posts for the domain made the front page (30+ votes), the representative is allowed an extra post per week, making it 3 deals per 7 days.

See posting limits for details.

User posting limits:

If users or representatives are found to be posting a high number of deals garnering negative votes, you may be put in the penalty box.

Deals which involve betting and/or gambling should not be posted. Offers that requires membership of gambling sites / venues cannot be posted either. Please see Gambling advertising restrictions at Liquor & Gaming NSW.

While discussions on betting and/or gambling may be discussed in the forums, moderators reserve the right to remove them at their discretion.

Jobs or deals that resemble paid work are not bargains.

Deals available internally to staff members (for example, Woolworths Team Benefits) are not permitted to be posted as deals.

Deals from providers external to the workplace (for example, free Maritime Museum entry for NSW Health employees) are permitted as deals. In this example, free entry to the Maritiime Museum for its own employees will not be allowed as a deal.

Government programs that are cost saving measures (e.g. free public transport) are permissible to be posted as deals. However programs and social services that produce income (e.g. increase to Centrelink payments) should not be posted. Related discussion. Moderator discretion will apply.

Refund policies or satisfaction guarantees are seen as store policies and not something to be used for monetary gain. As such they should not be posted as deals, you are welcome to discuss such policies in the forums however.

Crowd funding or kickstarter posts are usually unreleased products with no guaranteed delivery, they are therefore not suitable for OzBargain. Should you find an interesting product via one of these sites you are welcome to discuss it in the Forum.

The following services are not suitable for OzBargain due to their ambiguous nature, posting such incomparable deals has usually ended with unsatisfactory results for both members & businesses/reps. Discussion

• Web Design & SEO Services
• Discounted Facebook Advertising
• Photo Shoots / Videography
• Resume/CV Services
• Assignment/Writing Services
• Social Media Management Services
• Investment Opportunities
• Wedding/Marriage Services
• Psychic Readings

Due to the number of Amazon eBook and Udemy course 'rep' posts of questionable qualities, only regular members are permitted to post deals for them. Friends and family of authors/instructors/reps are also not permitted to post them. eBook Discussion

If you are an instructor/rep and would like to post a Udemy course, you can and may only do so in this thread.