Promotions to be Relegated at End of June
Posted under: At the end of the domestic football season it seems kind of fitting that Promotions.co.uk, a revolutionary discount code website solution, has decided to relegate itself and close down. According to an official announcement the service will cease to be at the end of June. This means an end to all white label and feed services. The reason given is that the “economics of the business” don’t work.
This leaves affiliates and white label partners a few weeks to sort themselves out with new voucher code feed services or come the end of June having a void in their service. The alternative is probably iCodes, at least for feed users, or to “go it alone” and try and use the data feeds provided by the networks.
We like the idea of third party code solutions, and we like doing our own thing.. but which one is best?
When we started looking at listing voucher codes we did look at both promotions.co.uk and iCodes. Neither really jumped out and said “this is going to make life easier”. So, in the end we opted to go it alone!
The advantage of “going it alone” is you keep control of content and can keep things unique. Well as unique as you possibly can explaining that XYZ Merchant has a 5% discount. It also meant our only dependency was on the networks providing feeds in a reasonable format. The fact that we currently only import Affiliate Window’s feed, and even that needs regular edits, tells quite a big story. Any other codes are added manually.
The disadvantage is that it’s time consuming, especially the non-automated bits, and if you just use the feeds you’re limited to what’s put in them. Many merchant don’t add their codes, so you need to find them via the endless streams of emails. The network feeds need some standardisation too, e.g. everyone with 5% Discount should just say “5% Discount”, not “Save 5%” or “Get 5% OFF” or “It’s May and you can get 5% off by jumping through hoops and yodeling She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain”.
This is possibly where using something like iCodes could be useful. The advantage is that the codes are sorted for you and I’m guessing they’ll be special deals included too. On the downside you’re relying on a third party for updates, a third party server and there are some costs involved.
iCodes do offer free content units and offer units for those not wishing to pay, but are these sustainable long term? Especially as they aren’t run on an 80/20 split like the free Easy Content Units. If Promotions.co.uk can’t make a feed/white label codes service work economically then what’s the future for iCodes? Will they need to raise prices therefore making it uneconomical for some sites to take up the service?
It’s a conundrum and a half, that could be added to further if the networks sort out their voucher code feeds then the need for 3rd party services would possibly be reduced.
Still, if you’re looking for an alternative to replace promotions.co.uk come the end of June then iCodes.co.uk is probably your first port of call. However, when you using 3rd party solutions, it’s always worth being mindful about “what if this service changes in the future”. Will it have a major effect on your site? Is there an alternative available to fall back on?
Having a vague back up plan will mean your site won’t be relegated when a site like promotions.co.uk comes to an end.
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It’s a shame about promotions.co.uk as I loved the banter between Doug & Leeky when they both set up shop.
They both offer(ed) a good service as they removed a chore for affiliates so that affiliates could continue publishing unique content or build additional websites without the daily drudge of updating vouchers.
I hope the networks continue to support the likes of icodes and even persuade Doug to continue with promotions.co.uk
addendum…
The demise of promotions.co.uk is also a quick way to eliminate lots of competition for the likes of http://www.discountvouchers.co.uk/ or http://www.vouchercodes.vc
Promotions relied on rev share and the amount of traffic couldn’t generate enough revenue to justify keeping it going.
iCodes relies on affordable monthly subscriptions which are increasing daily and does not rely on how well the individual affiliate makes.
Promtions had to pay staff to enter codes and offers, iCodes does not have those overheads as all the codes / offers are entered via users together with time saving network import tools.
Promotions sent all their links via their own system so now they have packed in then the users have to start from scratch.
iCodes uses the actual affiliate urls unique to that user, so if we pack in (which we will never do), then the user still has all their data which doesn’t require us to function. (unless they run their site live that is)
We can provide the units completely free because it doesn’t cost us any more to do so, nor does it increase our workload, but it does generate us more paid subscriptions via the ‘powered by icodes’ links and from the free accounts upgrading to paid subscriptions.
Believe it or not I would prefer promotions.co.uk to keep going for quite a few reasons, with it being another option certainly didn’t do us any harm, infact quite the opposite.
I miss our banters also.. the forum is not the same without it
This is going to massively inconvenience a lot of affiliates.
I am not surprised that the half-baked promotions.co.uk is being closed down. Doug Scott and Gareth Robinson of ASAP Ventures have a track-record for entering sectors they know little about, hyping up their activities, virulently bad-mouthing competitors on the Affiliates4u forums in that field, and then shutting up shop when the going gets too tough.
I, for one, had no faith in Doug and Gareth becasue of their track-record over years and years and therefore didn’t go anywhere near promotions.co.uk nor will they have me get sucked in by their other ventures.
I dont think the quality of the promotions.co.uk feed came anywhere near to the quality of the icodes feed (though I never looked at it in the last 6 months or so). Although I do think that discountvouchers has really become a force to be reckoned with.
There is no doubt that there is more money in owning a top voucher site like discountvouchers than there ever will be in doing all the leg work in syndicating vouchers like promotions, if I had the two – I know which one I would drop, it would be the less profitable.
I think Lee, although earning a bit from his vouchers sites, really aims his service as a service in itself. I think this is a winner for him and icodes will become something to be proud of – infact I think its a real jewel thats just not being recognised in the industry by networks and merchants at the moment. We’ve all been asking networks to get together and get a standardised product feed for years and years and its never happened – but effectively Lee has created a standardised voucher and offer feed crossing all networks within the last 2 years.
My site discount-voucher has been totally run by icodes input for the last year since I bought my smallholding and campsite and has generated over 1/2 million quid in commissions (I wont say how much over!) meaning a fair bit of override for networks – now I know much of this is down to the 7 years of input I have had in the past and my continued adding of merchants descriptions – but without icodes the site would have been dead by now. I can also see a few other large voucher sites using the feed – this must mean alot of cash that generated by his service.
As you say Jason, its an uncertain future relying on another service to back your website, but I dont think Lee will be quitting soon and I really hope that his service starts to be recognised within the industry without him having to get a smart pair of jeans, an open neck shirt and start backscratching others in the industry – which is where I think the industry is heading or has even arrived at. It maybe Lee is underselling himself slightly, maybe thats the problem, but I for one recognise what an ace service it is for many affiliates.
Ta
Baz
Cheers for that Barry… think Lee should get you to promote iCodes as it’s tempted me to take another look.
Jason, i’ve upgraded yours to a paid subscription so you can have a proper look and test it out for a few weeks.
Thanks for the trial… really appreciated.
Who said blogs dont pay
(we need a new emoticon for a friendly, sarcastic dig in the ribs whilst holding a pint and having a laugh)
sold…
Ta
Baz
I guess a 3rd option is to use a plugin that is able to get voucher codes from the networks and build them into your own database allowing you full control over that data and how you use it. So you aren’t building something from scratch nor using someone elses data.
Who would make such a thing? Yikes well I’ve been threatening to release such a plugin for a while that imports voucher codes and products for my “not so easy content units”.
At the moment its a bit buggy and uses the commercial “magicparser” so I can’t release it but sooner or later…
Am I the only person who has attempted to make such a (free) plugin?
I use the icodes wp-plugin on several sites, this is one.. http://www.onlineclothesshops.co.uk available through http://www.wpaffiliateplugins.com/index.php/about/icodes-wordpress-plugin-uk/
I am able to edit it, add feeds and make it totally unique.. I am not a programmer..
Barbara
“Who said blogs dont pay”… think that might well be a first for me on this blog, maybe it’s a sign of things to come? Will start blogging about stuff I need from tomorrow lol.
@ iCodes
re: “iCodes relies on affordable monthly subscriptions [b]which are increasing daily[/b] and does not rely on how well the individual affiliate makes.”
That’s a nice business model .. lol!! I think you mnean that you have new members joining daily rather than the subscriptions increasing daily. Ha ha ;o)
I never did like promotions.co.uk … couldn’t put my finger on it at the time, but maybe now Doug has set it out himself.
@Affiliate Stores – lol, I actually think the whole sentance was a complete balls up
Andy Burnham
Hi Andy no idea who you are or what you do but as I have never met you and I doubt Gareth has so how can you comment on what we do?
As far as I know the only 2 products we have ever offered to affiliates was the affiliate scheme with carrentals.co.uk and promotions.co.uk. Carrentals affiliate scheme runs quite happily with 1000′s of affiliates signed up. Promotions.co.uk was I believe a good idea, but as Leeky will tell you affiliates will not pay…..as I am not a registered charity to whining affiliates we packed in…..which is what I privavtely have told Leeky to do also, but he wished to continue. Sadly my view of many affiliates is they like to whine alot and looks like you do too. Please try to offer a service to the benefit of others and make it work and I will listen to your garbage.
We happily are willing to try lots of things, some work some don’t. This was one.
Over the years we have done 100′s of millions of pounds worth of sales direct to merchants and some via networks. I have a tendency to believe we can take over
the world and Gareth has the sad job, that he does brilliantly of trying to implement those plans. Since dreaming that you can hit the stars is not a sin we will continue:)
Good luck with your endeavours.
Doug