Pull back the curtain. We want tales of "Sponsored Deals." How many requests per week? More...
Just curious about Woot's experiences with "Sponsored Deals." Are you flooded with requests? What percentage of requests are crummy deals? Ever get offered bribes? Do many companies you solicit turn you down?
by
wootvan
asked 2 years ago
Great question! I have been unimpressed with many of the sponsored deals although a few in the past couple of days have looked better.
I like this question. Today's top deal was by far my favorite. It is actually a store I shop at and will always endorse.
Yes, I would love to here about what failed to make the cut.
Maybe we could have a rejected deals page with little dunce hats for voting chevrons, where we vote for the worst submitted sponsored deals.
@catbertthegreat: Oh, I love the idea of the dunce cap (as long as I don't have to have one).
I'd like to know what failed to make the cut and why (unwilling to offer a decent price/unreliable vendor/just plain crap/woot overlords in a bad mood/product that woot thinks won't sell). While we don't know what items sell well from the Community Deals, some (to me, anyway) have generated a surprisingly large amount of interest.
@wootvan: If you've hung out long enough on Woot (and we know you have), you can start to get an idea of what will take off, and what no one wants. I'm surprices not to see a sponsored deal for refurbed roombas, but I suppose that's up next. Bacon sells well on Woot, and here. I'd guess that there have been a few startled folks as a result of their site getting posted here.
I think that Sponsored often takes on the flavor of the people working to fill those spots. Princess likes the jewelry, and TheFenst likes oddball tech stuff, for example. It's a bit more varied than the old Side Deals used to be, which is nice. I note that the wine deals from Wine Direct aren't around much, lately, which is fine by me, since they never had anything I wanted.
I agree, though. Let's have some stories of bribery, and wanton cruelty.
@shrdlu: said, "Let's have some stories of bribery, and wanton cruelty."
That's the spirit!!
@wootvan: I wonder if woot staff have been sent some "free samples"?
@catbertthegreat asked, "I wonder if woot staff have been sent some "free samples"?"
I bet they all have a lot of coffee mugs, but I'd hope that a code of conduct would be in place for woot decision-makers...kind of like they have for members of congress...ooh...bad example. Still, I'd like to shop at the woot employee store.
It seems as if some of the sponsored deals have arrived from sites that did well on Community Deals first. I'd love to know how many Sponsored Deals retailers seek out deals.woot after they experience a notable amount of unsolicited traffic (discounting the community deals that were already posted by employers of the retailer).
@glindagw: I think that sometimes they may be potential sponsored deals on probation. You know, post some deals, let us see how good you are at fulfilling, and what kind of customer service you have, and then we'll talk.
@wootvan: I used to have that code of conduct, but unlike politicians, we followed it to the letter. Nothing in value over $25. Pens, mugs, tshirts, goofy toys, all okay. We could go to lunch, but needed to pay our own way. Dinner was OUT, unless we were traveling. I still have all the rules memorized.
It is very weird, now, if someone gives me something, because I can KEEP it. No paperwork to fill out explaining where it came from, and no sending it back. I just get to keep stuff.
Boy, if I was @prettywootprincess, I'd want coupons to go shopping at DSW. Now THAT would be a great bribe.
The stories they could tell! But then, the woot staff likes a good joke, and some of them may be slightly embellished for dramatic effect.
This is a great question. So good that I voted for it after it made popular. Usually, that is a no-no for me.
good question - I'll seek some transparency to be shared next week if no one has direct info over the weekend from the team. (I know a fair amount generally but I'll push for some specifics from the team)
@snapster: Thanks...looking forward to it. Try to find out what the secret ingredients are in WootPunch.
@wootvan: Secret ingredient? Used flounders, of course.
@glindagw: Absolutely bacon! and chocolate!
@shrdlu: and bacon!
@shrdlu: We should probably include coffee as long as you're topping the leaderboard.
@glindagw: I contributed used flounders. Surely that's enough. Besides, my topping the leaderboard in the reputation category would be more meaninggul if it meant that I was unusally trustworthy. I am, but people here have absolutely no way of knowing that. I have good opinions of some of the other people in that column, and not so good opinions of others.
BTW, the easiest to game is the Top Early Adopters. BTDT. Top Questioners is the most misleading, since your score is directly affected by the ratio of number of questions asked to number of votes. No account seems to be taken for worthiness. Asking two or three highly rated questions will put you higher on that list than asking many questions, some very highly rated, some not. Otherwise Pommy (and some others) would be there.
They also appear to be deliberately excluding staff from the statistics, or you'd some some different numbers and names (not counting sponsored deals).
@snapster: I don't think it is transperancy we are looking for so much as amusement about what/who may have approached you. Like perhaps the flounder of the month club.
@shrdlu: I know. My apologies for the leaderboard comment. I should have just left it at coffee.
It's interesting to watch how things play out on the leaderboard. I'm intrigued by people worrying about "points", etc. It's not as if ranking on the leaderboard leads to extra/weighted votes, woot discounts, or even mini woot monkeys (which the kid wants, so I would put some effort in for that). I agree with you, it isn't even an indication of quality contributions.
Back to the WootPunch: Used Flounders, Bacon, Chocolate, Coffee...perhaps a liberal pour of wine?
@glindagw: Oh, wine. Excellent. I'm a stalwart member of the ABC club. How about a nice Cabernet? I don't know about flounder, but it's excellent with salmon.
@shrdlu: I'm glad that you're up for salmon instead of flounder. ABC as in Anything but Chardonnay? I'm down for that. I'm drinking Cab tonight. Maker's Mark doesn't sound too bad either.
@glindagw: That Maker's Mark deal may be the best one I've ever posted. Too bad I posted it late on Saturday night. It'll probably languish and die over on the Fresh tab.
Correct on ABC. Merlot is actually my favorite (I eat a lot of lamb, and they go REALLY well together). I bit on the Amavi wine woot deal a while back, and that's what I had tonight (although with curried bay scallops and basmati rice).
@shrdlu: Die on fresh, never. It is woot time. So I checked-in just to see what is up. I put up the fifth vote and suddenly it is no longer on fresh. It is immortalized on popular.
@bsalusa: Hooray! Yeah, I noticed it had moved. You know, it's funny that they can ship to all fifty states, and wine direct won't even ship to WA (among others). BTW, I swear that those are low-calorie chocolates.
@shrdlu: Oh to find a deal that cool! It went to popular very quickly. While it was certainly well deserved I think that there must be a lot of people voting tonight. I never expected the Genome Poster to go anywhere (but it was too cool not to post).
Have you checked out the Maker's Mark Ambassador program? I think that Glinda might need to be inscribed on a barrel.
@glindagw: I am a Maker's Mark Ambassador, and am happy with it. They send regular emails (I'm sure you can opt out) with various recipes using MM and invitations to the several activities they sponsor such as their horse race and distillery tours. There is also an ambassador-only website and they send me gifts occasionally, albeit Maker's Mark promotional items.
@shrdlu: Low-calorie chocolate with booze, interesting thought. Guilt-free indulgence.
@bsalusa: Oh, no no no. Booze and chocolate and pecan, all with zero calories. I swear.
@shrdlu: Pecans, yummy. One of my favorite nuts, along with cashews and macadamias. While it appears that the best chocolate is dark chocolate, I like Belgian milk chocolate or even See's truffles.
@snapster: Are you safe? Did the Woot black hats come by and get you for threatening to reveal state secrets. Wait a sec...someone's at the door...
"Oh look, it's a monkey in a cape." {sound of door smashing, arm breaking, muffled cry for help...rumpled pile of wootvan lies in the house's entryway with his poor dog wimpering, then walking away with monkey}
The ability to leave reviews, and read and write reviews of specific merchants would be quite useful. For reputable sponsored vendors, it would help drive more traffic to their site and allow buyers to buy with confidence.
@wootvan: or doctors?
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