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Right, so, Vouchers then

unknown

Posted by unknown about 1 year ago
Last active about 1 year ago 4 responses

You may well have noticed that the front page now contains a section called ‘Latest Vouchers’. You might very well be asking yourself what that’s all about.

Well I’ll tell you.

When we were planning and plotting Fridaycities we knew three things: 1) noone likes to be advertised to, 2) people who run companies might have a very legitimate reason to mention their business in posts (e.g. if someone is asking about a bar, a bar owner might want to suggest their own place) but 3) if they’re going to do that second thing then they need to be upfront about it and preferably need to offer FC members a good reason to listen to them.

So we came up with Commercial Membership.

Commercial membership is just like standard membership except it’s for, er, companies. These companies can create profiles, invite friends, tag themselves and even participate in threads. But their profiles are clearly marked as being commercial profiles and any posts they make have a little footer at the bottom with some words about their business.

And – in return for being allowed to be on the site – they are encouraged to offer something exciting and cool to FC members. Preferably a discount but certainly a special offer. These work through electronic vouchers, which members can download for 15 Kudos.

Fridaycities gets to pay the bills through the small amount of money the companies pay when each voucher is downloaded; members get really good offers and no obtrusive advertising and the companies are encouraged to actually involve themselves in the community rather than spamming it.

Oh, and all vouchers can be commented on, so good offers get praise but bad ones get – um – constructive criticism.

The first voucher is live on the site now and there will be plenty more over the coming days. If you know any business that might benefit from being part of the community, you can invite them through your profile as normal and they just choose the commercial option when they get to the signup page.

Tell you what, to get the ball rolling, we’ll even waive any download charges until the end of the month.

Comments please!

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4 responses

Gizzard

Good work chap, I like it. I hope people don’t start posting complete crap discussions just for the kudos though, or this place could get messy.

Could it also be used for small businesses rather than companies? You have tags for where everyone lives, so non-chain pubs or pizza shops could offer fridaycities some money off vouchers, and p’raps you could have a tickable box on your profile allowing users to accept money off vouchers aimed at them in their borough, if they like that sort of thing? It would make this place feel a bit more local, plus fridaycities could get a bit of moolah for allowing for such ultra-local targeted advertising, that presumably no-one would be annoyed about, what with the off/on-able ticky box.

Posted about 1 year ago by Gizzard

unknown

Thanks Gizzard. And – yeah – we’re going to be extra vigilant for kudos whores. But I reckon it’ll be ok.

As for the small business thing – yeah – that’s really who it’s aimed at. The fact that it can be, as you say, so ultra-targetted means we can do really cool things with them. If you’re reading a thread about the best hangover breakfast in fulham, there’s a voucher to the right of the thread offering a discount on food in fulham. Y’know – that kind of thing.

Tick box idea is really interesting too. We’ll have a think.

Posted about 1 year ago by unknown

Carla

I don’t know if this should go here or in the ticks thread. I’m all confussed.

But anyway, y’know I can quick tick companies, like “I would recommend”...etc, well, what’s the point if only the company can see? No one can see my recommendation. So it’s not a recommendation at all, is it?

Posted about 1 year ago by Carla

BraveNewMaldenpremium

Can’t you or Graham get to re-write the copy for the Luncheon, sorry Latest Voucher advertisers? Make it a bit more…FC-friendly? It sticks out like a sore corporate thumb. Which may be a good thing after all.

Posted about 1 year ago by BraveNewMalden