Earlier this week, I came across a very interesting case study article from a small business owner describing his experiences with Groupon.  Groupon and other group buying coupon sites is one of the hottest trends these days.  However, a growing controversial debate is whether there are any actual, long-term benefits to the small business — not the consumer.

There are 2 main things that make Groupon (and similar sites) unattractive to the small business owner.

• One, Groupon takes a huge cut of the already discounted product or service.  In this article, he says the Groupon cut is typically 50-60% of the revenue.  As a result, in most situations, the business is literally losing money for each coupon sold (and consumed).  Therefore, business view Groupon promotions as a marketing investment.  It’s a great way to get the word out there about their businesses.
• Secondly, the customers that Groupon drives to businesses are, for the most part, price-sensitive consumers — i.e. cheap bastards. 🙂  Therefore, are these the customers businesses want to attract?  Also, what are the chances of repeat customers, since most products/services offered via Groupon a fairly expensive (without the Groupon discount)?

Now given these odds, the author describes the strategies he used to make the Groupon promotion a worthwhile investment.

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Get in on the Early Bird discount 300K Job Search (Hosted Solution).  Coupons are getting used up fast!

Here are a couple more reviews for this offering. The first is from Jim Saari, who launched HealthcareJobsToday.net.

“Thank you for this great script.

To think that I just found it online while browsing is amazing.  That fact also goes to prove that this guy knows what he’s doing.

This is definitely a true autopilot system!

I was really excited about how fast things picked up right from the start.

Project started 7th of June. So far (17th of June) Google has indexed 8500 pages.

Also, everything is set up to plug ads in. I have set up AdSense and CPA offers.

Even the organic traffic has picked up without me doing anything. Analytics says: 94 visits so far. […]

To celebrate the recent release of the 300K Hosted Solution, I have been sharing customer testimonials (posted yesterday and the day before).  Well, here’s another.  This one’s written by Simon Hurst, who bought 3 licenses, one of which is Local Sales Jobs.

“Having been around the web a while and been ripped off a few times it is a joy to report back on the service I have received from Dave and his 300K business package. I bought three licenses at the end of May.

To start with my technical skills are low but the back up I received from Dave during my installation was top class. He even kept patience with me when it was down to my miss typing my domain names that I was having issues. With Dave’s help the install was completed quickly, with fast responses to my email questions, usually following user errors from my end.

Now to the beef, the three domains I registered are all indexed in google with over 7,000 pages indexed. Every day sees more pages indexed. As yet I have not used the pages to build or sell back-links, but hey I have been on holiday while this has been happening. In addition I am now starting to see adsense income as well.

I am completely happy with my purchase and the power of the 300K package, so much so I am studying Dave’s other packages and services. The man rocks.” […]

This morning, I just released the Hosted Solution version of 300K Job Search In-a-Box.  (Check out this link for the Early Bird discount of 25% off, which applies for the life of your account.) So, I’m now posting up customers testimonials.

Here’s one I just received from Bob Reilly, who bought 3 licenses of 300K Job Search In-a-Box at the end of May.  For those following my SEO case study, Bob is the customer who saw a $20+ day from Indeed on day 2 of his sites being up!

Well, anyway, here’s the testimonial…

“First I would like to say thank you. Following your system I have made to date over $325.00 in ad sales thru indeed.com. I am making REAL MONEY!

And my sites are indexing well and fast. After two weeks one site is at 6060 pages index and the other is 4600 pages index. I have had some positive results in both sites. I also flipped one site I own for $200.00 so the system works. My site URL’s are: rn-traveljobs.com and travel-nurseswanted.com I would and have recommended your system to many!

Thanks,

Bob Rielly” […]

300K Job Search In-a-Box has been about 3 weeks now… and I’ve been receiving very great responses from customers!  Here’s one I just received last night.

“My name is Keith Dean and I am an Offline Client consultant with over 20 clients that I provide work for. My main client has a podcasting service for students and unemployed graduates and needed a job site service to help promote his site.

I discovered Dave from “the man who sold the web” by accident and once I had read through the technical details of how to set up a jobsite using his script decided to purchase 3 licences for my client. I was a little worried with some of the technical aspects of the setup but I didn’t realise what a superb level of support I would receive from Dave.

I was helped through a couple of the steps that were a little too technical for me and now have a fantastic job site for UK jobs running live on my clients site at http://pods4jobs.co.uk.

For anyone wanting to set up a jobsite this is the place to go as not only do you start gaining backlinks quickly from the job pages as they get indexed but you also receive fantastic support and help every step of the way – a 5 star recommendation from me!” […]

I get a lot of emails these days.  One recurring area of interest is the subject of APIs.

I first introduced the concept in my blog article around autoscaling with APIs, where I listed the big names out there.  Then, after rummaging around online, I wrote about Freebase and DBpedia; and, both my live SEO case study and 300K in a Box solution speak to the power of Indeed’s API.

But, do you want more APIs? […]

I am very excited to announce the release of 300K Page Job Search In-a-Box.  This is a turnkey solution based off the Case of 300,000 and Counting.

Just like WordPress, all you need to do is download, upload, and configure.   The difference is… with WordPress, out of the box, you have maybe ~10 pages and will need to continuously add content yourself.  With my solution, out of the box, you will have 300,000 pages and it will autoscale with fresh content itself.   In other words, you have an autoscaling, autopilot megasite.  Big difference!

To my blog readers, here’s a link with a 25% discount.  This coupon will also expire after a set number of uses.

25% Discount for 300K Page Job Search In-a-Box

Questions?  Just ask.

dave

Here are the step by step instructions for setting up your 300K Page Job Search In-a-Box site.  We’ll have your megasite up and running in no time! […]

So, I’ve written article about Wikipedia, because it’s a great source of information.  I’ve written about about APIs, because it’s way to autoscale.

What if you could combine those 2 concepts–or, even better, for your database-savvy folks, query data using SQL?  After some mindful web surfing, I across quite a powerful source of data.  It’s called Freebase (formerly known as Metaweb).  Check out this video first.

[…]

Pick You Niche has just been reviewed by the blog Social Improve!

As many of you may know, Pick Your Niche is a guide about selecting, creating, and, most importantly, capitalizing on niche business directories.  Pick Your Niche is, in fact, my first guide and has gone through 3 editions since its initial release earlier this year.

Not only are online niche directories are great examples of autoscale, autopilot, value-add sites, but they are one of the most profitable types of sites you can create today!  In my most recent niche business directory, with minimal work, I have taken it to $1000+/month by the 3rd month.   One happy customer gave an update only 2 weeks after getting the guide and reported “Since having read this report, and having implement a few things that even I had been over-looking, I have actually increased my monthly intake by over $1100.”

Anyway, enough of me selling my own product.  For an unbiased review from reputable third party, check out the Pick Your Niche book review on Social Improve.

dave