Anyone Build Their Own Daily Deal Site

19 replies
I just created a local Facebook fan page on Tuesday and it is growing a lot faster than I thought. I am looking to perhaps build a daily deal site (for now) and run 3 deals/week to local businesses.

Has anyone done this? If so, you have a theme you recommend?

Anyone else build a local fan page like this? If so, monetization strategies?

I am hoping to generate some ideas in this thread and some success stories. My overall plan is to build it out like 'Duke City Local' as I like what they are doing.

Appreciate any/all help.
#build #daily #deal #site
  • Profile picture of the author John Durham
    No, but "Hey Dukes"! Good to see you. Im thanking you just because it's nice to see your face.
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  • Profile picture of the author ADukes81
    I feel the fame, but where is your pic?!?!

    Hope all is well, young man.
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  • Profile picture of the author toddbiala
    What rate's your fanpage growing at? It is going to take alot of subscribers to be successful, and most facebook fans won't join the email list so you have to market to them separately.

    Ran one for a year and a half then got out of it just in time. Was a dying industry. Less and less businesses wanted to run one. But feel free to shoot me a message. Got it up to like 80k email list. All it came down to was getting deals. A good restaurant I'd make several thousand on for just my cut.
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  • Profile picture of the author toddbiala
    also here's what we used. it was based in wordpress. easy to customize and get working
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  • Profile picture of the author ADukes81
    Thank you for all the answer, I do appreciate it.

    My page is nearing 900, but it is locally targetted, but look where I live

    I actually found nice directory theme I was thinking of using, I'll add the deals as a page on the directory site.

    I created this page to test FB PPC as I have not been very good in the past with it ($1/fan) ad I'm getting around $0.20/fan now, which I guess is decent for a local page. Like I said before, I love what "Fireman Mike" is doing with the Duke City Local page and plan to somewhat mirror his.

    For the deals page I was thinking of doing a listing fee for the business owner ($75-100) and they keep the rest. Living like Zig Ziglar with the "more you give, the more you get" type attitude. Of course setting it up would take some time so I would charge a listing fee.

    I just didn't know if anyone had any experience with the deal sites and thought I'd ask. I like the directory model as well as it's "set it and forget it" money, besides the Facebook content, but that's what my assistant is for
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  • Profile picture of the author toddbiala
    whats the directory theme you are thinking of using? I am also thinking of doing some type of directory to find a way to monetize the email list.

    Getting Likes for .20 is pretty good.

    Also noticed didn't put the site i used, groupbuyingsite dot com
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    • Profile picture of the author ADukes81
      Originally Posted by toddbiala View Post

      whats the directory theme you are thinking of using? I am also thinking of doing some type of directory to find a way to monetize the email list.

      Getting Likes for .20 is pretty good.

      Also noticed didn't put the site i used, groupbuyingsite dot com
      Here si the theme I am looking at;

      Geocraft

      It looks impressive. I plan to add a daily deals section along with a classified section.
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  • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
    a good twist is 365thingstodo deals highlighting some fun event/activity, I get one on FB for my city, not sure if they are everywhere or not.
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    • Profile picture of the author ClayWhite
      I'm currently building a custom Daily Deal site for my city. There are many types of platforms out there for $200 to thousands. It really depends on how many features you want (tripper, merchant backend, mobile, etc.).

      You can check out my mock site at magnetic.wiltit (dot) com.

      It's still in development but should be ready by mid/end of the month.
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  • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
    I'm currently working on the next evolution of deals, turning things on their head a bit. Problem is w/ deal sites today is people are basically getting nearly spammed w/ deals, not enough tailoring to more specific interests filters.

    A deals site for businesses might be an interesting idea as well, for common products/services or even serving niches. anyone come across any of these?
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    In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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  • Profile picture of the author thomasmps
    New paradigm there are about three b to b deal sites out there. A Dukes what do you want to know about daily deals I have a lot knowledge on the industry having been in the industry since 2010.
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  • Profile picture of the author vndnbrgj
    I am going to build a daily deals site.
    There are a lot of options, just depends on how invovled it gets.
    A lot of the ones I am seeing start at $20-$50 a month.

    Mine will be a daily deal, but with a social twist.
    Allowing me to quickly build a list into the thousands.
    I also don't plan on doing a daily deal per se, maybe a deal or two a week.
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    - Neale Donald Wilson -
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  • Profile picture of the author Marta K
    I wanted to build one, but I'm rethinking it. The only thing people wanted from groupon was their email list. If they couldn't make it profitable even though taking 50% off the ticket price, how much did they spend on getting subscribers? So I'm making a membership site, teaching businesses how to run their deals, set up email lists and so on, and the directory/groupon bit would be on fb. What do you think of that twist? My only worry is if Fb becomes obsolete, like myspace, I will lose out. On the other hand, that's not in the cards for the next couple years so I might just run with it:-)
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    • Profile picture of the author Eddie Spangler
      Originally Posted by Marta K View Post

      I wanted to build one, but I'm rethinking it. The only thing people wanted from groupon was their email list. If they couldn't make it profitable even though taking 50% off the ticket price, how much did they spend on getting subscribers? So I'm making a membership site, teaching businesses how to run their deals, set up email lists and so on, and the directory/groupon bit would be on fb. What do you think of that twist? My only worry is if Fb becomes obsolete, like myspace, I will lose out. On the other hand, that's not in the cards for the next couple years so I might just run with it:-)

      Build you own website, it would be foolish to create something of value and then lose it because FB or whatever is no longer popular.

      Then have an app on FB where you can embed your website within Fb.
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      • Profile picture of the author vndnbrgj
        Originally Posted by Eddie Spangler View Post

        Then have an app on FB where you can embed your website within Fb.
        Really? Do you know anything more about that?
        That's something I would be interested in.
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        - Neale Donald Wilson -
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        • Profile picture of the author Eddie Spangler
          Originally Posted by vndnbrgj View Post

          Really? Do you know anything more about that?
          That's something I would be interested in.
          Its just using a static HTML to Iframe your website.
          You can search Static HTML on facebook and install the app from there or
          you can get the app with a few more options from many places like...

          One place to get app free is Static HTML IFRAME Tab App for Facebook Pages

          Last time I checked you can also get a limited number of free apps
          from heyo and shortstack.
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