The 411

Keep up to date on what your competition is doing. Create a strategy. Increase your odds of winning.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

DealDash 411: Hints, tips, strategies and commentary - Well, Well, Well, What do we have here?

Some of you may have received this gem in your email inbox today:

today, DealDash will reveal groundbreaking news.
The event is rumoured to be:
“the best savings opportunity in Penny Auctions this year”.

To see what the buzz is all about, be alert and watch the
site today at 4PM Pacific time. When the timer on the front
page runs out, an unmatched offer will be made available
for a very limited time only.
 
The offer will run on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Only the fastest buyers will be able to take advantage of
the offer.

The offer will open at exactly:
4PM (Pacific Time)
5PM (Mountain Time)
6PM (Central Time)
7PM (Eastern Time)

Click here to see tonights upcoming auctions on DealDash.
Today’s special auction lineup includes Apple Macbook Pro,
iPad 2 with 3G, Kitchenaid Mixer, dozens of gift cards,
40-Inch HDTV, gaming systems, toys, household items and
overall more products auctioned off in one single evening
than ever before.

PS. Remember that DealDash offers free shipping on all items!

The DealDash Team

As we know, i typically focus on the minute, non-important aspects of things. That is just how my brain works. So here's what i thought right after i read their email.

1) I did have an in-appropriate tee hee hee (that was a giggle) at "groundbreaking news." So i only in-appropriately laughed because i am pretending that they chose "ground-breaking" because of the perfect timing of the east coast's lovely earthquake (tee hee hee). Calm down everyone, natural disasters are awful and people lose things and get hurt and sometimes die and it is a tragedy. Yes. But it is also awesome that there were tons of news reports about how the West Coasters are laughing saying "You ain't felt nothing yet" and all the east coasters were running into the streets and crying on their cell phones. And then every news station brought in their expert trying to explain how the earthquake in the east was the entire plate moving so lots and lots of people felt it all over the coast, and therefore west coasters should realized this was a "big" earthquake. While our empathy level is high for the situation, please stop trying to convince us with experts that this was different, scarier, and worse than a California earthquake, a Japan earthquake, etc. I don't care how many experts you bring on the news, you aren't going to convince anyone of this. So quit trying to justify everyone freaking out because it was "worse." It is just an earthquake, and you can be upset about having an earthquake, but don't try to prove it was some "groundbreaking" (hahaha) event. Seriously though, you have way bigger problems out there. They are called hurricanes and tornadoes. They destroy everything. You should be happy to have a little ground shaking instead of one of these storms. Now those are worse and scare the poopies out of me.
(FYI, a friend was a beach in jersey (i guess technically that is the jersey shore) and lots of girls were shrieking and running from the water yelling "there is going to be a tsunami!" Must i give a lesson in plate tectonics and tsunamis? I will if helps.

2) Love that DD is building suspense. So much fun! Everyone is wondering "what are they going to do? i must set am alarm at my the exact time to make sure i don't miss out of the greatest offer ever!" Good marketing ploy guys! Pat on the back for DD marketing team. Very creative and you know what, it will work.

3) I love the this is "rumoured" to be the best savings in all PAs this year. You know it is totally legit to say stuff like this. It probably is rumoured somewhere, maybe like the DD office. Just like it is rumoured that i have a million dollars, a yacht, and am a super cool person.  i noticed that they chose to say "rumoured" and not "rumored." yes, both are generally accepted as correct spelling, however, the American English version is "rumor." "Rumour" is preferred spelling among Canadians, Austrailans and Brits. So, the real question is, who is the canadian, brit or aussie over there at DD? i wish in emails, you could preface stuff with an accent call out. like (accent: Australian) and then you read the email with an australian voice in your head. Or the Accent: English so you know to say al - u - MIN -i- um instead of AL- uminum. oh well.

So we are all sitting at the edge of our chairs to see what glee and delight will befall us at the specified time. If it's an ipad someone get one for me! I'm thinking this could be a solution to just offering all those bid specials and that we all were bummed on.  maybe this is more exclusive, or just a new way to present it so it doesn't always look like they need to have a bid sale. If so, it's working. Here are my guesses:

First guess: Bid Special, limited to the first few. people (or hundred people, who really knows).
Second guess: Free Ipads for first 5 people (i call dibs!)
third guess: snoopy snow cone maker.
fourth guess: free tours of the deal dash headquarters.


Fyi I'm throwing out my "get out grammar" free card on this one. I had about two seconds to type this sucker and i know it's not pretty. Did i mention that as long as you call out that you know you are butchering the English language, then it is totally acceptable? Though later today i'll go back and fix it. nails on a chalkboard people. That's what it feels like to me. I know i have issues.

9 comments:

  1. I knew it!!!! fakey fakey super secret intriguing way to have another bid sale...60% off...oh deal dash, i thought we were going to all have a treasure hunt or something else cool, not just another bid sale. Are we celebrating the last day of August? i though it was Sept 1st all day today, so maybe that's why it didn't occur to me.

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  2. i forgot to add my "WAH Wah wah" disappointment sound in that last comment. So here it is now.

    WAH Wah wah.

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  3. ooh ooh deal dash guys! I have some much better ideas. maybe you should hire me...hint hint. How about cool surprise stuff, not just bid sales? Like mystery items that have a dollar value but you don't know what it is. Or like mystery items that only appear in the last 30 seconds of the auction so you have to wait and see if it is awesome or what. I have so many ideas. I want you to want me. i need you to need me. darn it. Here i go again on my own...with song lyrics.

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  4. I expected they would have another bid sale; too many big items have been going for very little.

    It said this offer would never be repeated. Who knows, maybe it will be 70% off next time.

    I noticed there didn't appear to be a limit to how many bids could be purchased at this discount. I bet some bidders really loaded up.

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  5. 411 - This is just getting a little weird because we really do think a like... Last year I wrote and told them a bunch of ideas I had to make the site more interactive and fun for the bidders. Ideas to make them money, get us deals as well as keep the current customer base but also be able to gain new ones in the process. I've told several sites that I really like some similar things and they always seem to really like the ideas but NEVER try them out - even for a trial period to see if they would work for them.

    I have to give DD credit though because Will has taken a few suggestions I've given him and put them to good use and it seems to be working for him. I just wish the other ideas I shouted out would have been attempted because I think they would be FUN... it sure would keep the site more entertaining even if you were just watching and not bidding...

    Anywho's wanted to stop in and say Hi, I'm still reading - I may be not bidding for a bit until the frenzy dies down... if it does!

    I think it was last year just about this time or late Oct when the last big sale of the year was done too...

    ANON - I noticed no limit on the purchases too and I bet you are right in assuming a few of the bigger boys and girls bought multiples and are just sitting on them. I'll be honest - I Didn't! There is no reason to be greedy and the way I look at it - they just cheaponed ( is that a word?) my other bids so I've lost out already!!!! I'll just be sittin on my perch waiting for either an early worm or a late night snack...

    8)

    PS... 411 - I told Rigman about your shout-out and gave him your URL... Don't know if he will drop by but I told him it was a funny read!

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  6. I guess you did not like my last post - you deleted it! Hmmmmmm

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  7. QUOTE: i wish in emails, you could preface stuff with an accent call out. like (accent: Australian) and then you read the email with an australian voice in your head. Or the Accent: English so you know to say al - u - MIN -i- um instead of AL- uminum. oh well.

    ^ = LOL. That made me laugh.

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  8. i deleted a post? It most certainly was an accident! free speech for all! re-post!

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  9. Yay ProtoProtoss i said something that made you laugh. You know every time i post something i think is funny, i wonder, "will ProtoProtoss give me mad props for this one?" I'm glad you are selective with your praise. it makes it so much richer to receive.

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