Question for...The idea man...Don Alm

I have been told by several of the so called experts in marketing that this type of website
will not work... www.Coupons4Fremont.com

Any ideas on how to prove these "experts" wrong??

John


http://www.Coupons4Fremont.com

I don't know about the site you are showing (I took a quick glance at it) BUT....here's a "Coupon Site" that's been around for NINE YEARS!
http://www.supercoups.com

How long has the "fremont" site been going and WHY do the "experts" say it won't work?
and
WHY are YOU asking?

Do YOU want to set up a similar site in YOUR town?
If so....WHY?

Don Alm

> I have been told by several of the so called
> experts in marketing that this type of
> website
> will not work... www.Coupons4Fremont.com
> Any ideas on how to prove these
> "experts" wrong??

> John

> I don't know about the site you are showing
> (I took a quick glance at it) BUT....here's
> a "Coupon Site" that's been around
> for NINE YEARS!
> http://www.supercoups.com How long has the
> "fremont" site been going and WHY
> do the "experts" say it won't
> work?
> and
> WHY are YOU asking?

> Do YOU want to set up a similar site in YOUR
> town?
> If so....WHY?

> Don Alm

Hi Don,

Thanks for your reply. The coupon4Fremont website is my new website and has be up for about a week. Most people I have talked to say people don't go online to look for coupons. The idea of the website is to have local businesses advertise their business for a monthly fee.

The question is...what is the best way to get local businesses to sign up and how do we get traffic to the website?

John

Here's a link to a guy who got inspired by comments on a discussion board.
http://www.jerseybizguide.com/monmouth/info.shtml

He set up his own "community" site.

Here's another... http://www.marshalltoday.com/

here's a GOOD one... http://www.roch.com/sites/

and...one of my favorites. This guy's been ONLINE for 4 or 5 yrs now and still going... http://www.louisvillebizguide.com

None of them are charging enough to make it worth MY while.

I did start a "community mall" in my town a few yrs ago. Got 87 biznesses to pop $800 to $1200 for a 1 yr listing.

Sales HAD to be made IN PERSON...to explain it properly. Most people don't want to make "in-person" sales calls to prospects so this program should be open in almost every town.

Those who have NOT made personal calls and relied on "remote" marketing....either didn't get many accounts or grew agonizingly SLOOOW!

If you're going to do this...CHARGE ENOUGH to make it worth your TIME!
Then....advertise the heck out of it.
Each account "should" be paying at least $150/mo payable quarterly in advance.

To get started...put in a few FREEBIES so that it "appears" that other biznesses have ALREADY joined.

I learned long ago in projects like this that...
"No One Wants To Be First!"

So...allay their fears by putting in some freebies. YOU own the biz so YOU can let people in for free if YOU want. You would only have to let them in for the first 90 days though. Get them to pay after 90 days. In the meantime you've been able to nail down some "payers".

Send out NewsReleases to every media contact you can think of. Runs small displays in the shoppers and regular newspapers.
Run some radio stuff on talk shows.

Hook up with the local Chamber.

ANd...have your local TV station make up a 30 sec spot and run a few of them on the 6 & 10 news. ONLY run ads on the news! Anywhere else is a waste for "local" exposure.

One thing I found that works is;
Have each participating business have a Door or Window Sign with the URL on it. Put a sign on the back of each of their cash registers.

Have each biz put the URL in ALL of THEIR ads.

Keep researching and chasing down others doing the same thing.

Best of Success......Don Alm

> Hi Don,

> Thanks for your reply. The coupon4Fremont
> website is my new website and has be up for
> about a week. Most people I have talked to
> say people don't go online to look for
> coupons. The idea of the website is to have
> local businesses advertise their business
> for a monthly fee.

> The question is...what is the best way to
> get local businesses to sign up and how do
> we get traffic to the website?

> John


Renew Decks for Bucks

John,

If I am the "so called expert" that you are
referring to...I NEVER said that your site
would not work.

What I simply said was that its an uphill battle.

Do you know anybody that regularly goes online
to print off coupons? I don't.

What I told you is that you need to turn your
business model around and do email marketing
to get people to come to your site.

Other than that, you'll need to do what Don
Alm said...manual marketing. Selling
face-to-face. Even then, you'll find it
difficult to succeed because you need to
drive TRAFFIC and that can be prohibitively
expensive for a start up...unless you do what I
suggested (local email marketing).

The reason I'm so down on a coupon site is that
there are so many other types of web businesses
that you could be dedicating your time to that
are more profitable and that take less effort.

You might consider me a "so called expert" but
I've doing marketing consulting for over 9 years
and internet marketing for five of those 9 years.
So I do know a little bit about this stuff.

David Frey
Author, Small Business Marketing Bible

> I have been told by several of the so called
> experts in marketing that this type of
> website
> will not work... www.Coupons4Fremont.com
> Any ideas on how to prove these
> "experts" wrong??

> John




Small Business Marketing Bible

> John,

> If I am the "so called expert"
> that you are
> referring to...I NEVER said that your site
> would not work.

> What I simply said was that its an uphill
> battle.

> Do you know anybody that regularly goes
> online
> to print off coupons? I don't.

> What I told you is that you need to turn
> your
> business model around and do email marketing
> to get people to come to your site.

> Other than that, you'll need to do what Don
> Alm said...manual marketing. Selling
> face-to-face. Even then, you'll find it
> difficult to succeed because you need to
> drive TRAFFIC and that can be prohibitively
> expensive for a start up...unless you do
> what I
> suggested (local email marketing).

> The reason I'm so down on a coupon site is
> that
> there are so many other types of web
> businesses
> that you could be dedicating your time to
> that
> are more profitable and that take less
> effort.

> You might consider me a "so called
> expert" but
> I've doing marketing consulting for over 9
> years
> and internet marketing for five of those 9
> years.
> So I do know a little bit about this stuff.

> David Frey
> Author, Small Business Marketing Bible

David,

I was not directly referring to you. Other people that have been online for a while have told me the same thing.

I remember reading a post by Don Alm, sometime back that he was putting together a business type directory in his hometown in Oregon. So I asked for his opinion about the coupon website. I know that if people say something is hard to do Don will probably figure out a way to do it.

David, I value both your and Don's opion and have learned alot by your suggestions.

John