'Net Features : tippr

TIPPR Expands Affiliate Network

Michael Garrity — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:00:00 GMT

The white-label daily deal platform creator TIPPR has recently announced an expansion of the TIPPR Affiliate Network, which attempts to drive incremental sales for publishers who use their platform.

The company's affiliate network helps to increase the exposure levels of merchant daily deals beyond their existing publisher audiences; the network includes about 1000 different websites in the United States, inlcuding blogs, deal aggregators and social media sites.

Their platform is currently the only white-label daily deal technology that is able to provide publishers with amplified exposure for their offers, free opportunities for customer acqusition, technology innovation, deal sourcing and distribution.

TIPPR's Affilite Network is in place to act as a "megaphone" for their users by broadcasting offers through websites and apps to over 100 million unique visitors every month, allowing publishers to earn up to 15 percent or more in incremental revenue. The combination of TIPPR's white-label platform and affiliate network means advertisers have the ability to reach targeted new customers and turn them into loyal subscribers at a reduced cost, which provides an advantage over more expensive direct branding initiatives.

According to a press release by the company, "The value of white-label platforms is bypassing that of the branded, deals only sites, due to the extended offer reach and unique connections with loyal audiences."

Among the many publishers currently using the TIPPR platform and leveraging their Affiliate Network are companies such as Belo Corp, FOX and Univision.

Today’s Daily Deals Explosion

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:48:00 GMT

It seems as if every time you turn around there is some new announcement in the hyper-local daily deals space. Groupon expanded its Groupon Now service to New York and San Francisco and partnered with Expedia to launch a travel deals site. Google announced last night that its Google Offers product will start today in Portland, Oregon (adding to a few other cities). And this is in the last two days. There’s more.

Group buying solution Tippr, which operates the white-label daily deal site PoweredByTippr, announced the acquisition of WhitePages’ social buying website, DealPop. Tippr immediately gains access to a national sales force and a technical team skilled in group buying infrastructures – both of extreme importance in the competitive daily deals business.

So here’s the question – are daily deals a saturated market? Is the only way to grow (Groupon expanded into over 400 cities in the past 12 months) by acquiring others? Are we entering an age of daily deals consolidation?

“Our growth will continue to be fueled by acquisitions as we look to consolidate our leadership position,” said Martin Tobias, CEO of Tippr. “We were the first company to deliver a complete white label platform for daily deals and we believe our publishing partners now reach a greater audience through the PoweredByTippr platform than all other white label platforms combined. We welcome the DealPop team to the Tippr family and are bullish on the impact this acquisition will have on our publisher’s business.”

PoweredByTippr Launches Marketplace

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 02:30:00 GMT

White-label group buying platform PoweredByTippr™ today announced the launch of the PoweredByTippr (PBT) Marketplace, an online market for merchants, sales agents and publishers to exchange daily deal offers.

Users of the PBT Marketplace can post available deals, search for deals, negotiate pricing, reserve inventory, purchase vouchers, report deal issues, and process payments all from one location; providing a streamlined approach to daily deal offer exchange.

“Publishers know that optimizing the right deal mix for their audience is a key ingredient for success, and we have been helping PoweredByTippr Publishers manually with this task for a long time,” said Tippr CEO, Martin Tobias. “Now we have created an online marketplace with our patent pending, industry leading targeting technology, DealRank, for sales agents and publishers to exchange offers and simplify all of the complex logistics. This allows them to focus on what they do best – aggregating a passionate audience and providing context around the most relevant deals.”

The PBT Marketplace relies on some interesting technology including Dynamic Offer pricing, DealRank scoring, and Open Deal Format (ODF) compatibility. Deals in the Marketplace have a “buy it now” price in addition to a "bid/ask" process to allow for Dynamic Offer pricing between buyer and seller.

PoweredByTippr's DealRank™ however might be the most interesting aspect of the platform. The technology uses a predictive algorithm that optimize which deal a publisher should run against their particular audience at a specific time, in order to maximize relevancy, for the benefit of higher rates and margin.

Five Ways to Build Your Own Groupon

Mike Phillips — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Group coupon buying has overrun the Internet. A $6 billion buyout offer of Groupon.com from Google should be enough evidence of that. Now, Groupon is getting hit from all sides. LivingSocial has turned up the heat, Yelp.com has introduced group coupon buying, Google is working on their own solution, Facebook won't be far behind and even local websites and newspapers are in on the rush.

Why aren't you?

You can be, by using one of these group buying options below.

Chompon.com provides full-scale group buying functionality and, according the them, a site can be set up in under three minutes. That is, if you have deals ready. The software can be white-labeled for full branding, social widgets are available to help spread your deals, daily emails can be set up, analytics are provided and there's even the option of setting up an iPhone app.

DealCurrent.com not only provides group buying software for your website but also offers marketing and sales help and training, affiliate tracking, merchant agreements and customer service, among other options. Deal Current also handles payment processing.

PoweredByTippr is a little more labor-intensive but it might be the most brandable solution out there. They claim to have, "...the industry’s only patented white-label platform, providing the deepest branding options and widest array of configuration options such as three different deal types, incentive/sharing credit management, progressive account creation, Single Sign On (SSO), mobile and iPhone apps, Facebook connect, sales agent commission reporting, and advanced analytics." http://www.poweredbytippr.com

GroupDeals for WordPress is a group-buying widget for WordPress administrators. It can be implemented into your existing blog - a good option for those with an existing audience.

EnMasse for Joomla is an extension (just like a widget for WordPress) that just might put the Joomla CMS on the map. This extension was built from the ground up, specifically to handle group deals and even supports a multi-language pack.

Keep in mind that some of these solutions are more hands-on than others - particularly the widgets. So, expect a few bumps in the road. But the opportunities are there.

Yahoo! Local Offers Arrives - Worth a Look

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:42:00 GMT

Yahoo! has seen the future - and it's local.

The Web technology and content company announced the launch of Local Offers this week, a program (which is still in beta) in which Yahoo! has partnered with online and offline providers to build a repository of local offers on the Web. Sound appealing? Keep reading.

“The local landscape is exploding with new sources of content and advertising, and consumers want these experiences personalized just for them. Yahoo! is taking the complexity out of finding the great local deals that are most relevant to their interests and needs,” said Matt Idema, vice president, Yahoo! Local. “With more than 180 million unique visitors1 to Yahoo!’s sites in the U.S., we are uniquely positioned to deliver our local-offer partners the massive scale and targeting needed to reach engaged audiences, grow their businesses, and drive foot traffic to local merchants.”

Yahoo! launched the Local Offers program with more than a dozen partners including Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City, BloomSpot, BuyWithMe, DealOn, Zozi, CrowdSavings, Lifebooker, FreshGuide, Scoop St, Goldstar, HomeRun, Tippr, Coupons.com, and Valpak.

“Consumers are inundated with offers, both online and off. I think a service that aggregates several different special deals sources will give consumers great deals and make the marketplace much more transparent,” said Karsten Weide, research vice president, Digital Media & Entertainment, at IDC. “For partners in such a service, the audience reach of a large partner will give them a lot of much needed distribution.

Yahoo!’s Local Offers program is open to all "deal" providers, including local “deal of the day” partners and traditional direct-marketing partners.

So how can you get involved with Local Offers which is still in private beta? Tippr.com might be one option to consider. The group buying site is participating in the Local Offers program and its daily deals be available to Yahoo's audience, but sites using PoweredByTippr (Tippr's white-label, group buying platform) will also have the option to promote their own daily deals through the Local Offers program.

“Our partnership with Yahoo! means more consumers are getting more deals, and more merchants are getting more customers,” said Martin Tobias, founder and chief executive officer of Tippr. “The best part is that any publisher using the PoweredByTippr platform can expose their own branded group buying site to the Yahoo! audience with the proverbial flip of a switch. This is something no other group buying site can offer its partners.”

Group Buying Platform for Publishers

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:12:00 GMT

Group buying site Tippr has launched PoweredByTippr, a white-label group buying platform for publishers interested in providing their own branded group buying offering.

"What started out as a cool viral buying phenomena has turned into a huge revenue liability for publishers," said Martin Tobias, founder and chief executive officer of Tippr. "Group buying sites are encroaching on the same local marketing dollars that a publisher's sales team is fighting for. Publishers without a group buying strategy risk losing a meaningful monetization mechanism."

With the immense popularity of GroupOn and LivingSocial, expect publishers to flock to the Tippr's new offering - thanks in part to the white-label aspect (the only one we've come across), and supported by other powerful technology features such as a credit/incentive system, social sharing, mobile support and one-click purchasing.

"Most group buying solutions currently in the market require the publisher to turn over their customers, their brand, and ultimately, the long-term viability of their group buying business to the partner," said Samy Aboel-Nil, president and chief operating officer at Tippr. "PoweredByTippr allows publishers a way to build their brand, increase customer loyalty and drive revenues without having to build and maintain their own technology platform."

Cashing In On Daily Deals -- Groupon, LivingSocial, Tippr

Linc Wonham — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:35:00 GMT

Daily deal sites, group buying sites and coupon sites are taking the Web by storm. It comes as no surprise that in an uncertain economy consumers are going to great lengths to save every penny they can. But the fever-pitch enthusiasm with which shoppers are devouring daily deals offered by sites such as Groupon has reached a level that few could have predicted.

Less than two years old and already valued at over $1 billion, Groupon owns the space with more than 40 percent of the overall traffic according to Experian. But the startup’s historic success has spawned an entire industry filled with competitors, aggregators, innovators and imitators. The final word on who stays and who goes is left to the users, who are knocking each other over to find new deals and make more transactions.

This kind of excitement and buying activity generally creates a rich affiliate environment, and the daily deals affiliate market is still developing. Below are five of the leading sites that pay affiliates for referring users to their daily deals and coupons:

Groupon
Daily deals are now distributed in more than 100 cities and can earn partners up to 20 percent commissions through the Commission Junction affiliate network. Affiliates can simply install geo-targeted widgets or smart links onto their sites. The company’s now famous Gap coupon, its first national deal, reached more than 800,000 sales and was going at a rate of 10 per second at one point.

LivingSocial
Widely referred to as Groupon’s closest competitor in the space, LivingSocial receives about 20 percent of the overall traffic from daily deal-seekers. Affiliate partners can choose from an assortment of links and banners provided by LivingSocial and have them customized to match the look and feel of their own pages, earning cash for every sale made from their site.

kgbDeals
The next two sites have been recognized recently for moving themselves ahead of the pack that has formed beneath Groupon and LivingSocial. Both are looking at about five percent of the total traffic in the space and have managed to engage users with their deal-making capabilities and affiliate partners with their earning abilities. KGB’s program is run through the Google Affiliate Network.

Tippr
Tippr provides a full range of services for its partners so as not to compromise the uniqueness of their own sites and content. From the technical to the creative to merchant coordination and payment processing, Tippr’s team does most of the work so its affiliates can run their businesses and websites.

Coupons.com
Coupons.com offers a daily deal on products and services from major brands and local businesses around the U.S. and has a network of thousands of affiliate marketers that can publish the actual coupons on their sites. The coupons are chosen to match the partner’s content, site design and geography, and a payout is earned for every coupon printed.

Groupon created the business model and started the trend in late 2008, and these are some of the companies having the most success with it today. Others worthy of a look for their own daily deals and subsequent affiliate offerings include OpenTable, Yelp, Travelzoo and Woot, now part of Amazon.