 | Froggybank Spawns Another 100% Cashback Site |
Two months after Rpoints and Greasypalm joined the 100% cashback arena with their new offerings, eDeals have entered the fray by spawning a new site called Froggybank. The words 100% cashback and Jason dancing for joy don’t go hand in hand, so the news of another passenger on the 100% bandwagon doesn’t fill me with much excitement.
For consumers Froggybank offers quite an array of features, including “guaranteeing the highest cashback and buying 250 kgs of carbon offset for each member who joins”. There’s also a nice slant on dealing with charity programs, and unless I’m mistaken gambling programs are not included on the site. In this respect it’s a highly impressive set up, especially when compared to the other established sites.
But what about an affiliates view?
The good news is that if you decide to promote Froggybank “you will earn £2.50 when a member earns their first £5 cashback”. This is higher than other 100% sites, but is it really that attractive?
Firstly you need to get promoting, but referrals are not limited to siteowners, so as soon as the chance of earning £2.50 off a friend is in the open, then there’s really no long term incentive for affiliates. Many people who use cashback are moneysaving types, and they will happily prefer £2.50 referrals going to them rather than you.
Secondly, let’s say you refer 5000 users - how many will actually go on and earn £5? If it’s say 1000 then you’re earning £2500, which means the cost of each person registered is 50p. Plus remember each of those 5000 sign ups are potentially competing with you for the £2.50 referral commission as well!
Eventually referral systems become saturated, and that means that it’s not a long term source of revenue for your site.
Therefore another point worth considering is if your 1000 users (of the 5000 above) were to shop via your own <100% cashback site, you'd earn slightly less commission on their initial £5 earnt via cashback, but you then have the potential for further revenue longer term. Well, that's if 100% cashback sites don't swallow up the entire cashback and affiliate industry.
So should you promote Froggybank?
The question you have to ask yourself is - could you earn more from your users by pitching offers and promotions to them direct or with a lifetime revshare cashback option, or do you gamble and promote a 100% cashback site to them instead. Could you do both but achieve a reasonable balance?
On paper obtaining a referral commission for a 100% cashback site sounds a good deal, but remember that once your user has been seduced by 100% cashback it might be difficult to earn from them again and that’s not good for your longevity in the industry. Froggybank may well be ok, but it’s your business that will croak!
Popularity: 4% [?]
on April 17, 2008 at 1:50 pm bob wrote:
Sigh….. oh no not another cashback site , its getting silly now , there are too many , there are a main few that most cashback users use then there are all these other smaller sites popping up which to me is a waste of time.
, now you look for cashback sites on the net and all I seem to find is clones of edeals that all look the same except for a different logo.
then edeals offers a whitelabel cashback site , great i thought , easy way to get in on the action
leave it to the real big boys and move on to something more original
on April 17, 2008 at 2:50 pm Chris Johnson wrote:
It’s a nice site, with a nice idea in their attempts to cover green and ‘clean’ issues.
I’ve no doubt that eDeals know what they’re doing, i’m just not seeing a way to get hold of the market, or even a big enough slice to compete. The problem factor for me is the discussion on MSE forums, cashback forums etc - all users talk like you wouldn’t believe! Users always get reverted to Quidco someway or another.
With Cashback as a whole, the target audience is mainly going to be your money savers, imo if i wanted to be ‘green’ i would donate money as and when, or set up a D/D, so i would not need to move over to a new cashback site when im already with one..
Will be interesting to see, and I wish the guys luck
on April 17, 2008 at 3:23 pm jdmobile wrote:
You make some good points there Chris!
on April 17, 2008 at 11:09 pm Senthil wrote:
Thanks for your complements about the site itself Jason - and thanks for signing-up. Yes, we have deliberately excluded gambling merchants and so called “free clicks”
I agree with you that some may not want to refer anyone from their sites to cashback sites, but many do. For people who want to refer sign-ups to a 100% cashback site, it is an option.
The sums are a bit conservative, the number of people reaching £5 and earning affiliates £2.50 on a 100% site would be higher.
There will be a recurring commission option, about which we posted on http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/independent-programs/77363-earn-generous-2-50-commission-each-member-you-refer-new-100-cashback-website.html
For people who prefer to just get a referral commission without any minimums, we are launching a program on CJ soon.
@bob - Some eDealsUK whitelabels do look the same, for now, only because these partners chose to get the sites live soon and customise the design later. There are many whitelabels which you won’t even know are being powered by us. BTW - We are one of the “real big boys” and there are some unique features on froggybank.
@ Chris - Good to hear that you think the site and idea is nice and thanks for your wishes. Yes, you are right about what some people talk on forums - we once saw someone auctioning a script which logs in to ALL the cashback sites daily and do “free clicks” automatically!
More than 90% of online shoppers are still cashback virgins, so we estimate the market is not close to saturation. So, we don’t aim to “convert” people from other sites, eventhough we believe many will, as we provide quick customer service.
Yes, some may want to donate out of pocket to charities, but many people would donate more when they can do it from their cashback earnings without effort on their part.
on April 24, 2008 at 12:38 pm yildi wrote:
One could say that the market has become saturate, but i don’t think so. People into Sites like MSE, or Affiliate Marketer’s, will be fully aware of Cashback Site’s. But there are million’s upon millions of people out there who haven’t really heard of them.
If one is going to sit there and just optimise their site, to rank high in google, then it can definately be seen as saturated. But then again, couldn’t it be seen that for years if someone did a search for “dvd rental”.
You just go to be more creative when it comes to finding ways of telling the story.
Froggybank is an excellent idea, with 3 extra string’s to it’s bow, the guarantee, the green stuff and “the charities”.
And remember all it takes is for one of the other sites, not to payout on something and people with jump ship. So it’s not important how member’s a site has, buthow many active member’s a site has.
Excellent blog by the way.