Developing A Voucher Code/Deals/Price Comparison site

[affiliate12]

We're in the process of developing a voucher code/deals/price comparsion website and I need some questions answered.

We are signed up to Affiliate Window, Commission Junction, Buy.at and Trade Doubler. We now want to know how we can build a site to display deals and vouchers.

We understand that the price comparison aspect of the site done manually? But How can deals be implemented from all retailers and displayed on the website?

Thank you for your time and concern, and I appreciate your responses.

[dougs]

Do you have a good deal of cash?

The reason I asks is that we have been involved in this sector for over a year now. We have a pile of staff, some great rankings in google a massive optin email database and a large amount of traffic. The problem is we make very little money per visitor and many people will tell you the same. There are also quite a few established players who you will have to compete against.

Admittedly once you get to a point and we are almost there you can start to see the revenues rise dramatically.

Unless you are very very serious then don't bother and go and find a niche.

Doug

[jonsp]

Do you have a good deal of cash?

The reason I asks is that we have been involved in this sector for over a year now. We have a pile of staff, some great rankings in google a massive optin email database and a large amount of traffic. The problem is we make very little money per visitor and many people will tell you the same. There are also quite a few established players who you will have to compete against.

Admittedly once you get to a point and we are almost there you can start to see the revenues rise dramatically.

Unless you are very very serious then don't bother and go and find a niche.

Doug

Say he did have a good amount of cash, what should he spend it on?

[D-Mac]

You can get ready made voucher code feeds from some bloke called Doug, or from icodes.co.uk. I haven't used the icodes one yet, but Doug's one does what it is supposed to.

You need to set up an automated script (cron job) on your server that runs every night and connects to Doug's server and downloads the feed. You can then automatically import it into your database. Once it's in there you can do what you want with it really.

[dougs]

We supply feeds for free and Lee supplies a great product but to be honest this is not an arena to enter now unless you are really serious

What niche? There are loads.

Doug

[affiliate12]

I should of mentioned we don't want to use any third party site like icodes that will take most of the commission of me.

Thanks for the responses previously. We do have investment value, marketing etc. We just need implementation advice hence the thread.

We've signed up to the affiliate programs we mentioned earlier, so "what's next" after registration?

[jonsp]

I should of mentioned we don't want to use any third party site like icodes that will take most of the commission of me.

Thanks for the responses previously. We do have investment value, marketing etc. We just need implementation advice hence the thread.

We've signed up to the affiliate programs we mentioned earlier, so "what's next" after registration?

iCodes won't take your commission - they just charge a flat fee. If you have something like a web developer/designer it wouldn't be hard to make a site that consumes an Icodes feed, looks nice and has a search box at the top.

That said lots of other people are already doing the same thing. What would make your site different?

[affiliate12]

We're not revealing that sort of thing right now. But what I asked originally, the question in hand is being taken off topic.. so can we keep it back on topic. Thank you, pal.

[Cheapdvds]

We understand that the price comparison aspect of the site done manually? But How can deals be implemented from all retailers and displayed on the website?

based on this question/statment you sound like a newbie (no offence) and it sounds like you are trying to run before u can walk.

[affiliate12]

If your not going to post something sensible don't post it at all.

[DenizTuran]

Hi Affiliate12,

You can search the previous posts regarding voucher codes and how they can be integrated to your website if you choose not to build on your own. This one tells you more about it:

White Label Voucher Code Sites

I am also interested to find a good ''white label voucher codes'' provider rather then building it myself but be prepered to share your commision with the provider or to pay a small free around £49 a year,

3 names came to my attention so far, promotions.co.uk, icodes.co.uk, voucher.im. For shared commision or a flat fee, its definetly worthed to consider working with any of these guys, because tehir will save you time, which means money!!!!

By the way, does anyone know who provides the codes for moneysupermarket.com? Their layout looks very smart...

[scriptmonkey]

You can download the vouchers/offers from affiliate window as a csv and work from there, or, manually input the deals from emails that you get, or look to an agency for their merchant-client deals Merchant Discount Codes - Existem Affiliate Management or use a third-party tool like iCodes, which doesn't take any of your commission, and provides a live webservice iCodes Webservices - Voucher Code and Offers API or, use the shopwindow API from Awin to integrate their merchant codes into your site DiscountCode - Wiki

I can't think of anything else of the top of my head, but those are pretty comprehensive starting points.

[affiliate12]

Thanks for the useful responses.

I've got the CSV from affiliate windows product database. It's "what you do next" - they don't have guidelines on their site.

Shopwindow was a bit unclear they don't show how you can physically start using it.


What about "deals" like new deals, deals for individual products. Products listings etc. I've done price comparison before and it's manual work that's time consuming!

We've got a great name and therefore a great brand now we need a great implementation strategy.


@ sorry for this, but what happens you know, when you've added the feed, and the price changes?

[DenizTuran]

I should of mentioned we don't want to use any third party site like icodes that will take most of the commission of me.

Thanks for the responses previously. We do have investment value, marketing etc. We just need implementation advice hence the thread.

We've signed up to the affiliate programs we mentioned earlier, so "what's next" after registration?

oppps, I didn't know that I was soo slow in writing:blush
Please ignore my previous post as I didn't see your comment before I sent my reply

[scriptmonkey]

I have a question or two, what level of programming/coding knowledge do you or your associates have? I mean, does the question ''"what's next" after registration?' indicate that you want advice regarding the coding of the website, the construction of databases and interaction between website and database? Implementation of APIs, Webservices etc. Marketing, SEO, PPC Advertising etc, etc?