Deal Sites for Consumers: Service or Spam?

by: Nandang S Nugraha | Total views: 36 | Word Count: 416 | View PDF | Print View

 by: Andrew LaDuke

The internet has spawned yet another class of web sites
designed to save consumers money by helping them to locate the best
deal on the internet for products and services.

This is how it works. Entrepreneurs at web sites such as www.bargainminder.com
search the internet for deals on consumer products. These so called
“deal sites” can list any product under the sun, or some will
specialize by category, such as clothing or electronics.

Each
day the web sites will list items that were found on sale or under a
special promotion offered only through these sites by some of the
largest retailers in the country. For example, www.bargainminder.com might list products from Dell.com, Overstock.com, Amazon.com and many more, while www.dealhunting.com lists products for the home, such as clothing and gardening items.

Another site, www.dailyedeals.com,
offers listings for just about anything. It too, lists a “coupon code,”
which can be entered during the checkout process on the merchant’s
site, to qualify for a particular limited time deal.

Like many, BargainMinder on some items will provide
brief instructions on exactly how to place your order to help you
maximize your savings. Many retailers are offering free shipping these
days, but it is important to make sure you select that option during
the checkout process.

So how do these sites make money? Should they be considered a valuable tool for consumers or merely collections of spam items?

The sites make money by participating in a growing trend
in marketing on the internet. “Affiliate Programs” are offered by
retailers and are a way for any web site to produce some income.
Basically it works like this. When you click on a link from one of the
“deal” sites, the site from which you clicked is tracked by the
retailer. If you buy a product, the referring site makes a commission
on your sale.

Using this type of marketing, retailers get literally
thousands of web sites promoting their products. The deal sites
basically save the consumer the time it would take to research a
product’s price on their own. So do the deal sites save time and money?
Absolutely they do. Are they spam? Spam is defined as: Unsolicited
e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple
mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail. So a deal web
site by itself would not be spam, but if the site sent out unsolicited
emails trying to draw consumers in, then it would qualify.

About the Author

Andrew J. LaDuke is president of AJL Marketing, LLC, an internet consulting firm, and holds a Master of Science degree in Business Information Technology. He is an Adjunct Instructor in the graduate technology program at Walsh College in Southeast Michigan.

kiitz@yahoo.com

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