GottaDeal v3 Suggestion Thread

[Brad]

We are in the early stages of designing the next version of the main GottaDeal site. We launched the site on 1/1/04, and then had version 2 ready to go (along with these forums) on 6/1/04. We anticipate launching the next version sometime this spring or early summer.

 

We have received great feedback on the current site, and we know that our visitors like the clean layout, photos of the deal items, and the fact that we don't have any advertising whatsoever. Those 3 things will remain the same. We're not going to do a dramatic overhaul where you can't find your way around the site. Things on the site will for the most part look similar - just a little more polished with some new features.

 

That is where you, our loyal visitors, come into play. We have our own thoughts, but we want your ideas for things you would like to see in the next version. No suggestion is off-limits. Even if it seems impossible, post it anyway. If you like something on one of our competitor's sites, let us know and and we'll steal it and make it better (they steal our deals all the time - might as well as take something from them, ).

 

Some new features that we're already planning on including:

• new layout graphics (logo & color scheme will be staying the same)
• better search results (including main site and forum threads)
• detailed rebate information for each deal (URL to form, amount, expiration date)
• ability to customize the deals shown - pick a specific store, category, rebates (yes/no/either), date range, etc... or any combination of those and then sort the deals by date posted, item price, etc... for example, "show me all flash drive deals at buy.com that don't involve rebates sorted by final price"
• better labeling of expired deals (to the best of our efforts)
• forum stats box on the main site with things like # of users, threads, posts and online users (to hopefully encourage more people who just visit the main site to join us here)
• less text with the deal descriptions - will allow for more deals per screen and faster load times
• single page listing all retailers with affiliate links to help support the site

Those things will definitely be in the next version. I have plenty of time to code a bunch of other features, so just let us know what you want. Some ideas - deal e-mail alerts, better ways to comment on deals, more customization options, forum enhancements, regularly scheduled deal chats, contest ideas, types of deals that we should post more/less of, possible merchandise to offer, ways to help you spread the word about the site.

 

We just want ideas. We'll leave this thread open for a few weeks and see how things go. Once the new design launches, we'll randomly pick someone who gave us at least one idea in this thread and they will win a $25 gift certificate to a mutually agreeable online retailer :)

[Scott]

- A nice easy format to find affiliate links. The easy it is to shop at your affiliates, the more money you make.

 

- I like the idea for the ability to customize the view of deals.

 

You guys are doing a great job.

 

I find myself coming here more and more. Even if it is just to see what Ross is up to for the day.

 

:)

[RossMAN]

- A nice easy format to find affiliate links. The easy it is to shop at your affiliates, the more money you make.

Excellent suggestion and this is already in the works. I'd also like to customize the forum and add some "shopping" or "support GottaDeal" links near the top. Let's say you want to buy a 1GB MP3 Player from Buy.com and want to see if there are any coupons? Instead of going to the sitemap it would be at the top of the forums.

 

- I like the idea for the ability to customize the view of deals.

So do I.

 

You guys are doing a great job.

Thank you. Brad and I make an incredible team and we're always looking for ways to improve the site and forums. So feedback is always welcome.

 

I find myself coming here more and more. Even if it is just to see what Ross is up to for the day.

Hehe you may be onto something. We could introduce a GottaDeal blog service where people can post about their day including what they bought (complete with affiliate links of course) and how much they saved.

 

Please keep the suggestions coming.

[Scott]

If I think of more, I will post them.

[Brad]

Well as you can see we now have a little drop down menu in the upper right corner of all forum pages. Just select a store, hit the "Shop" button and you will be taken to that store through our affiliate link, if we have one for that retailer.

[Guest beatmix01]

How about e-mail notifiers of what is the hottest deal of the day. You could sign up by product category. Say I only want to hear the coolest tech geek toy but nothing else.... etc etc.

[Scott]

Well as you can see we now have a little drop down menu in the upper right corner of all forum pages. Just select a store, hit the "Shop" button and you will be taken to that store through our affiliate link, if we have one for that retailer.

YES

 

I love it....

 

now I have to figure out what I'm going to buy....

 

:)

[Brad]

How about e-mail notifiers of what is the hottest deal of the day. You could sign up by product category. Say I only want to hear the coolest tech geek toy but nothing else.... etc etc.

How would you define "hottest"?

[Scott]

How would you define "hottest"?

How about instead of signing up for the daily deals...

 

You could sign up to watch for "A" deal.

 

Say I'm looking for a Dell LCD monitor (which I am)

 

Instead of being mailed daily deals and checking them each day, I could be notified when a deal that included my key words was posted.

 

That would ROCK

[Brad]

That would be considered a "deal e-mail alert" which is one of the ideas I gave in the first message. Something like that could be possible...

[nourdmrolnmt1]

Customizable home page where the user can select which stores deals he wants on the front page/ which coupons.

 

ie: he wants all deals on Apple ipods on front page, he can do that. or all dell deals, or all CUSA deals, or all deals from amazon.

 

of course i dont think thats easy to integrate.

 

MIKE

[Brad]

A customizable home page could be an option, but it would be a matter of deciding how to do it. We could have a cookie, which means each time you access the site you'd have to customize it again.

 

Another option is a user login system (which could be tied in to the deal alerts, daily deal update mailing list, maybe the forum as well). That would be a little more complicated, but is still possible. Maybe have a universal login. You login once and you are logged in to the forum, your customized home page shows up, you can change alert & e-mail settings, maybe get your own gottadeal.com e-mail account, etc... We'd like more feedback on this - would you use something like this or would it be a waste of my time to code something like that.

 

Something like that is easier if you use a 3rd party CMS system, but since the main site is custom coded, something like that would have to be created from scratch.

[Aaron]

If you were doing something like free email accounts, I wouldn't use the main domain (@gottadeal.com) because people could use it and say "Yes, I work for GottaDeal and this, etc." I would offer something like gottamail.com, or something like that.

 

I think a homepage with a login feature would be great, but what would you offer on a "homepage" besides the deals?

[vertigo]

I think a "free stuff" forum would work well. A place to put free samples and all that good stuff. Everyone likes free stuff right? I saw this idea from another forum that I frequent just because of that feature. You guys are doing a great job, keep up the good work!

[RossMAN]

I think a "free stuff" forum would work well.

Agreed and thank you for this suggestion.

[ActuaryTm]

Some excellent ideas here. I like the idea of the customized view, and the detailed rebate information (it appears to my detail oriented nature).

new layout graphics (logo & color scheme will be staying the same)

As long as the design somewhat resembles the straightforward, clean, and minimal design present now, have no problem with this one either (I doubt it could be anything else, but wanted to mention I like the style of design being employed now).

 

Am certain I speak for many in saying we are very appreciative of both of you, Ross and Brad.

[Brad]

Everything will pretty much be in the same place it is now, just a few minor changes to the look (more blue and orange accents to go with the logo). For example, there will still be the drop down menus on the left column, the same links on a horizontal bar across the top of the page, etc...

 

As the site gets closer to being done we are thinking about asking a few of you to beta test it and see if you can break it or offer even more suggestions. We'll let you know more about this when the time comes.

[Guest beatmix01]

How about taking on a bit of a Woot Idea and having a photoshop contest. Who ever could make the funniest photoshop creations with a specific hot deal could win a gift certificate of sorts.

 

In addition, how about the forum navigation at the bottom the the thread too. (telling yu what forum you are in.

[Brad]

Do you mean these kinds of links:

 

GottaDeal.com Forums > GottaDeal.com Off Topic > Discuss GottaDeal.com ?

 

That wouldn't be a problem

[Guest beatmix01]

Do you mean these kinds of links:

 

GottaDeal.com Forums > GottaDeal.com Off Topic > Discuss GottaDeal.com ?

 

That wouldn't be a problem

That is exactly what I mean.

[Brad]

That is exactly what I mean.

OK, there should be a bar right above the Quick Reply box with the links. Let me know if you think it should be moved or changed in any way.

[Aaron]

OK, there should be a bar right above the Quick Reply box with the links. Let me know if you think it should be moved or changed in any way.

Brad, I think it looks great. If you wanted it to go along with the top I think I would not center it, but the alignment really isn't a big issue. As long as its there.

 

BTW, did you find a way to add Skype in to the Instant Messaging field area? Just trying to keep up.

[Brad]

OK, I aligned it to the left like the top one, and added the little folder icon as well to keep things consistent. If anyone complains, it's Aaron's fault :)

 

I'll look into the Instant Messaging/Skype thing right now.

[Aaron]

Hehe, don't blame anything on me.

[Brad]

OK, I made some changes to the Skype thing. You still have to enter your Skype username under the "Additional Information" part of your profile (changing that would have been too much work), but once you do, it will show up to everyone else on your profile with the rest of the IM links, with a cool Skype icon as well, like this:

 

http://www.olsonnet.com/images/im.gif

[ActuaryTm]

As the site gets closer to being done we are thinking about asking a few of you to beta test it and see if you can break it or offer even more suggestions. We'll let you know more about this when the time comes.

If there exists a way something can be broken, I nearly always find that method sadly. One of the few gifts I have in this life.

[RossMAN]

OK, there should be a bar right above the Quick Reply box with the links. Let me know if you think it should be moved or changed in any way.

Jared - Thank you so much for this suggestion, I wonder why I didn't think of this sooner?

 

It makes navigating the forums so much easier and faster, so thank you again!

[Scott]

Jared - Thank you so much for this suggestion, I wonder why I didn't think of this sooner?

 

It makes navigating the forums so much easier and faster, so thank you again!

Nice I like it...

 

I've always wanted that too, but I've gotten so used to just scrolling back to the top of the page, I forgot that I wanted it!

 

:)

 

What a great thread.

[Brad]

Just an update... work continues on the new site. Here is a sneak preview:

 

http://www.gottadeal.com/images/sneak.gif

 

LOL. We can't give everything away just yet.

 

A question for everyone: We currently have the last 50 deals on the front page of the site. What are your thoughts about that number? Should it be raised, lowered, stay the same? Should we go by time instead of number and have all the deals posted in the last X number of days/hours? Having less deals means the page will load faster, but (obviously) there will be less deals to browse on the page.

 

We will be having "next page" links on all deal pages, so once you get to the bottom of the page, there will be a link to go to the previous batch of deals, all the way back to the beginning of the site.

 

Thoughts???

[ActuaryTm]

Just an update... work continues on the new site. Here is a sneak preview:

 

http://www.gottadeal.com/images/sneak.gif

I see it's already optimized for PocketPC/Palm users.

A question for everyone: We currently have the last 50 deals on the front page of the site. What are your thoughts about that number? Should it be raised, lowered, stay the same? Should we go by time instead of number and have all the deals posted in the last X number of days/hours? Having less deals means the page will load faster, but (obviously) there will be less deals to browse on the page.

Is this perhaps something that could be customized on a per-user basis?