GetSimple has just partnered with Envato to launch it’s very first contest! Enter to win win a $60 credit to be used at any of the Envato Marketplaces to anyone that helps get the word out about GetSimple CMS.

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If you are not familiar with the Envato Marketplaces, they allow anyone to buy or sell digital goods like WordPress themes, background music, After Effects project files, Flash templates and much more. The marketplaces are home to a thriving community of over 740,000 users, authors and buyers and every day hundreds of new files are added. The $60 credit can be used at any of the following sites:

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Note: All marketplace links above are affiliate links.

Update: This deal is no longer available, but for other deals like this, visit BuyDeals.

Group buy sites have been a hot topic over the last year, and last month I decided to get into the fray by creating a “Local Deal Aggregator” called BuyDeals.in. I am really happy with the way the site turned out, but aI realized early on that there were next to no articles describing any of the major “deal” sites, their affiliate programs and the best way to grab their deals.

HINT: I’ve created a great page that shows some metrics on how each of these deal sites stack up to each other. This page gets updated on a daily basis, just as BuyDeals.in does.

GROUPON

Far and away the largest of the group buying sites, Groupon has the most deals available in the most cities. The available deals is more than twice it’s closest competitor (LivingSocial).

Affiliate Program

Groupon has two competing affiliate programs. The first is through Commission Junction while the other is through their in-house API using a referral code(link to it is at the bottom of the page labeled ‘Developers / API’). Note: You don’t have to use their API to use the referral code you are given within your account – it just makes life 100 times easier when you use their API. Just using the referral code will net you $10 for every new signup you send to Groupon.

API

Groupon has a great API service that lists everything you will ever need to know about the deal you are pulling, but they are lacking one very important thing: You cannot pull every deal off their API in on request. You need to use their Divisions method to create a list of all their regions, then programically cycle through each division and pull their available deals using the Deals method. This takes a lot of overhead time, but it does work.

Payout

When you use CJ.com as the affiliate program of choice, you can get paid in cash using their default cashout method. If you use their in-house API/referral program, you only get paid in Groupon credit (Groupon Bucks) – meaning you can only use the cash you earn towards buying more Groupons.

LIVINGSOCIAL

LivingSocial is the second largest local deal site behind Groupon and is probably the second most popular service like this out there.

Affiliate Program

LivingSocial has two different affiliate programs as well. The first you have access to right away when you signup for an account: You get $5 for each new sign-up you refer to their service (called Deal Bucks). The second is an affiliate program that you have to be accepted into (link to it is at the bottom of the page labeled ‘Affiliates’).

API

LivingSocial does not have an true API, but when you are accepted into their affiliate program, you are given an RSS feed of every deal available in their database. You can then append a special string including your affiliate ID to make it an affiliate link. This way is great – it only takes seconds for me to fetch all the deals in their system. The only downside here is that they are missing a couple fields that I would have liked, such as “Coupon Expiration” date, but that’s a minor issue.

Payout

Deal Bucks are credit towards purchases of LivingSocial deals while their affiliate program gives you cash that you can then transfer out.

DAILY DEALSTER

Daily Dealster has a lot of deals within a good number of markets, and is pretty comparible to LivingSocial in size. Their deals seem to be the Sams Club version of the deal sites. Most deals allow you to get better discounts the more of that particular coupon you buy.

Affiliate Program

Just like most other programs, Daily Dealster has a referral link you can share as well as an in-house affiliate program.

API

Great service. Daily Dealster uses the same white-label service to handle their affiliate program as Tippr and LivingSocial. They too offer one feed that gives you all deals in their system. They also give you a string to append all deal links to turn them into active affiliate links.

Payout

As with most services, referral earnings can only be used on DailyDealster deals, and affiliate earnings can be cashed out.

HOMERUN

HomeRun, according to my data, has some of the best deals (discount %), but it has the close to the least of any service on my list.

Affiliate Program

Just like most other programs, HomeRun has a referral link you can share as well as an in-house affiliate program.

API

HomeRun has a great json feed that allows you to pull all deals in their system. This feed is easy to parse and has everything that I needed to post the deals to BuyDeals.in.

Payout

As with most services, referral earnings can only be used on HomeRun deals, and affiliate earnings can be cashed out.

TIPPR

Tippr was my third choice to sign up with after Groupon and LivingSocial, and they have good deals, albeit in a limited number of cities.

Affiliate Program

Just like most other programs, Tippr has a referral link you can share as well as an in-house affiliate program.

API

Great service. Tippr uses the same white-label service to handle their affiliate program as Daily Dealster and LivingSocial. They too offer one feed that gives you all deals in their system. They also give you a string to append all deal links to turn them into active affiliate links.

Payout

As with most services, referral earnings can only be used on Tippr deals, and affiliate earnings can be cashed out.

TOWNHOG

TownHog has a bad API/RSS feed service, but the one thing it does have going for it is it’s affiliation with a lot of CBS websites. I came across TownHog thru my local CBS station KDKA.

Affiliate Program

Just like most other programs, TownHog has a referral link you can share as well as an in-house affiliate program.

API

Townhog doesn’t have an API or all-deal feed service, but they do offer RSS feeds for each city. The problem is that their RSS feeds give you next to no fields that you can really use when creating a mashup.

Payout

From what I can tell, all earnings at Townhog give you credit to buy more TownHog deals.

BUYWITHME

BuyWithMe seems to be in the top 5 or 6 of local deal providers, but their affiliate programs and feeds way below par here. I rate these guys easily last in all my comparisons.

Affiliate Program

BuyWithMe only uses Commission Junction as their affiliate provider. They do also have a referral earning program that is not in CJ – $10 for each new signup and subsequent purchase.

API

They do not have an API, however they do have RSS feeds for each region, but there is no easy way to cycle thru and pull each city’s feed. On top of that, their feed is next to useless because it only has a link, title and description; not the kind of specialized data that is needed to create a good mashup.

I’m going to try and do something a little different for my business model here: I’m giving my WordPress expertise and service away for free. That’s right, FREE. There is a catch (there always is though, right?). This is only for newcomers to the internet world.

The reason for this stipulation is I plan on making at least a couple bucks from affiliate sales of hosting and/or domain name sales. It’s not going to be much, but since I enjoy working with WordPress so much, I also want help promote it.

The process will work like this:

1. Contact me via my web form, and let me know you are interested in the Free WordPress Installation.
2. After I receive your email, I will email you back letting you know that I’ve gotten your request and we will start right away.
3. You will need to purchase hosting from one of the providers listed here.
4. After you’ve confirmed your purchase with one of those providers, please email me your new account’s username and password.
5. You get in return a newly setup WordPress site with plugins, themes and ME… I will be there to answer any questions on how to use WordPress. (Having a site means nothing if you don’t know how to work it)

I pre-install a ton of essential plugins and themes with your setup, but they may not be everything you need to get your idea/business off the ground. So in the meantime feel free to peruse WordPress Extend for other plugins and/or themes you want included with your FREE package.

If you already have wordpress hosting and/or domain name, contact me via my form anyway. It won’t be free, but we can always work out something.

When I started my home business, I had no way of checking my email unless I was physically at home. This worked for about a year, but after not responding to some important emails in a timely fashion, I knew I had to change something.

In came my first Blackberry Curve.

I loved it, and it was a breeze to setup using the setup wizard that came on the device. The only problem, I noticed, was that there was no easy way to sync emails between my Outlook 2003 (insert your desktop client here) and my Blackberry. Actually I read on many forums that it was virtually impossible without a BES server.

Blackberry apparently only allows you to sync your tasks, calendar and contacts though the Desktop Manager – nothing else. The important thing to me were to have the emails synced, but forum after forum, I found people telling me it couldn’t be done.

Moving to Gmail

I lived with the fact that my Blackberry had no idea what my Outlook was doing and vice versa for almost 5 months until I was forced to move my whole email setup from GoDaddy’s servers into Google Apps because of GoDaddy’s horrible email limitations.

Moving my admin @ cagintranet.com email address was pretty simple using Google Apps for Business. It is a free service, and all it took was setting up a couple new CNAME entries within GoDaddy’s domain control panel (which Google had tutorials walking me through the whole process).

Outlook Setup

Setting up Outlook was pretty easy too, and I originally settled on connecting to my new Gmail account via regular old POP3 access, but later switched it to IMAP. I did this because by using IMAP, I was able to keep what I did in Outlook synced with what Gmail saw. If I moved an email into a folder within Outlook, it was moved into a corresponding “label” within Gmail. When I sent an email, it was placed in my Outlook’s Sent Itmes folder as well as the Sent Items in Gmail. Anyway, you get the hint, so after taking the next hour or so moving all my old emails from Outlook into my new Gmail account, I was ready to reset up my Blackberry to connect to Google’s servers.

Disclaimer: You can use any desktop client (Mail, Thunderbird, etc.) to interface between Gmail and your computer – I have Outlook, which is why I used it in this example.

Blackberry Setup

Because I switched email servers, I had to go into the “Personal Email Set Up” icon on my Blackberry and delete the admin @ cagintranet account that was already there.

Using the default setup wizard when adding a new account to the Blackberry, uses the POP3 connection protocol. POP3 is fine, but it is what was stopping me from having any sort of two-way email sync with Outlook. I decided to poke around the internet for an alternative, and lo and behold, I found a Google article detailing the steps needed to setup a Blackberry via IMAP.

The steps in that article are a little long (22 in all), but they were easy to follow and the outcome was perfect. I now have my Outlook desktop client syncing with my Gmail account which also syncs with my Blackberry – all in harmonium. I realize that this only helps a select few of you out there, but I thought it could be helpful enough that I wanted to post it here.

When sending out a proposal for any of my work, I state that I offer a free month’s worth of maintenance and training on the finished site from the date of it’s completion. I do this for multiple reasons.

First, I believe it sets me apart. This is usually something that many other designers shy away from because they are afraid that it will lead to a month of continual nightmare changes from a client that should have been off their books weeks ago. I have not found this to be the case — yet. Of course, some clients have taken slight advantage of this grace period and after the one month I was happy to see either the emails stop or new invoices go out.

Second, it helps build goodwill. With the month-long grace period, the client is given the added security that they know they are not going to be left with a broken site or one that they don’t know how to use once it is done. Most updates to a site in the first month are usually small tweaks such as minor text changes or a fixing bug that didn’t initially appear during the testing phase.

Building Goodwill

Goodwill: noun; A favorably disposed attitude toward someone or something.

Goodwill is not something that comes automatically from doing good business with a client. It is something that needs to be earned. There are so many reasons to build quality goodwill between you and your clients, that its benefits cannot be overstated enough.

• Goodwill is what makes a client sing your praises to colleagues, even when they might not be in the market for a website.
• Goodwill is what makes a client work for you without any hesitation.
• Goodwill is what makes a client believe that you are the only business out there that truly understands their needs.
• Goodwill is what brings that client back to you time and time again with repeat work, regardless of your price.

Goodwill is an extremely major factor in bringing in quality referrals and repeat customers. Even though politely answering emails, doing quality work and giving a free month of maintenance make the client happy, it doesn’t necessarily create the full effect of goodwill. The unequivocal good stuff comes from the small things I do without hesitation — usually well after the month-long grace period has ended.

Examples of the “small things” that can quickly help build goodwill are…

• Installing or explaining how to install an extra WordPress plugin for a client. It only would take a few minutes no matter which option you choose.
• Drastically cutting the price of a non-profit website for what you believe is a great cause
• Creating a blank template with “do this” comments to show a client how to quickly create new web pages for his or her site without needing to pay a designer. This type of empowerment comes with it’s obvious caveats, so choosing when to do this is key.
• Quickly changing a phone number on a client site to reflect new contact information. Any type of small fix/change like this will take you 5 minutes but endear you to your client.

There are so many “small things” that can be done to grow goodwill – there is no excuse not to. Because of the minimal extra work I put into these “small things” in I have been offered free advertising multiple times and I now get more referrals than I ever have before.

I wouldn’t chalk all my success up to the goodwill I have built up, but I do believe that it definitely has played a major part in building my small business from nothing into a successful venture.

When I first started my business, my clients were so few and far between that I knew everything that was said between us by memory. I knew exactly how much and when I was paid, what I quoted them for the project and what the project’s inner details were. Needless to say, it was a much easier time back then.

Now, with business as good as it is now, things are different. While I still give each of my clients the dedication and attention they deserve, I have so much more on my mind. Each project is different. Each one has different terms, different deliverables, different specifications and different details. It got to the point where I couldn’t keep it all straight.

Obviously…

Standardized documents have made my life 100% easier. I started using standardized documents in November 2007 and the stability it has brought to my business is phonominal. Aside from making my life easier, they have so many other benefits as well.

• They break down the project and force the client to focus on what he or she really wants the direction to be.
• They keep the project on track as it progresses though it’s growth cycle.
• There is no longer the ambiguity that comes with terms and details only written though various email conversations. Email conversions get lost, misinterpreted and worst of all — give so easily that you can never rely on them for a true scope of the project.
• With no ambiguity comes the sense of security for the client. Detailed documents allow the client to become comfortable with agreeing to a complex project that they may not even realize was so complicated to begin with.

Using the Documents

First, I start off by asking my future and/or potential client to complete my Site Planning document. A document such as this should include, at the very least these basic questions:

• Contact Information. What is your preferred contact method? Who has the final say on this project?
• Industry Information. Who are your competitors? What do you want to do different?
• Directional Information. What will be the main goal of your site? What are must haves in your new site? Do you need to update the site regularly?
• Design Information. What other sites do you like the design of?

These questions give me a great start at determining the scope of the project. Some clients have gone into great detail while others write short one word answers for everything. The document has been a very telling exercise at finding the dedication of the client to the project they are looking at creating.

Second, after the scope of the project has been determined – I offer up my Proposal Planner document. This outlines in great detail:

• Exactly what the project will include.
• My quote for the project and the hourly rates if any overages or additions should arise.
• What I expect from the client (vector logo, FTP information, content for the site, etc.)
• General timetable for the project. Timetable is a bad choice of word here, but it fits. I have found that the timetables vary so widely between various projects, that the timetable is much more effective in showing my procedures and processes of the project than it’s actual time schedule.
• Terms & Conditions. Here I explain that I reserve the right to showcase their project in my portfolio and also, where appropriate, include a “Web Design by Cagintranet” link at the bottom of their site. (Which is my only form of advertising by the way…)

These documents have saved me time and frustration many times over since their inception 3 months ago. I will probably continue to tweak and change them as my business evolves, but right now, they fit me perfectly.