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i recently made a post about using php to run a price comparison site because most of the merchants that are in the market i'm trying to target don't have data feeds. while i was reading about feeds in general, i thought of an idea that i wanted to run by everyone. what if i contact the merchants and persuade them to join a data feed site? i can inform them of the benefits at get the ball rolling for the both of us.
oh, and i forgot to mention that a lot of these merchants don't even have affiliate accounts. so, i guess i can tackle both problems at once. the reason why i'm going to such great lengths is that i really enjoy this niche, and i've always wished that someone else would create something like it. now that i have the skill set, i figure i'll do it.
i just wanted to get some advice before i start sending out emails. any caveats?
If you sent me an email suggesting that I join a particular "datafeed price comparison" site I'd suspect you of recruiting for them.
marcia, so what's the solution? i see your point but would i be wrong to assume that these companies stand to benefit from the data feeds?
sure, if i was a merchant and somebody told me to join up with a data feed site, i would probably think it's spam, especially if i didn't know the first thing about them and how they could help me. that's why i made this post. i know there is an answer to every problem. maybe i'm knocking on the wrong door, but eventually i'm gonna find the right one, and that's what i'm here for...to find that door.
judging from the incredible amount of posts that you've made, i can see that you definitely know what you're talking about. so, i really do appreciate the insight. but, marcia i need detours, not roadblocks. what's the detour?
what if i show them that i'm very passionate about the subject by creating the niche "price comparison" site completely by hand and inserting every product in their line using just html and css. then, getting some traffic to the site and ranking for a few good search terms. then, tracking all of my outbound links to see how many clicks i'm sending to their website. finally, i would email them and say: "hi my name is,(fill in the blank). i own the website (fill in the blank). i've been sending you x amount of traffic every day. why don't you take a look at what i've got." once i open up dialog with them, and they see that i'm not taking any business away from them, and that i'm actually bringing them business, wouldn't they think that i'm the "real-deal" at that point? that's when i can suggest the data feeds to make my life a whole lot easier, and to make the site much more efficient.
if i did that to you, would you still think that i'm a recruit for the datafeed service?
again, i want you to know that i'm not trying to step on your toes here. you are probably far more experienced than i am in this field. but i've always been a solution oriented person. i know there's always going to be a problem...that's a given.
thanks for revealing that problem.
Before you'd do that, though, I assume you'd have a price comparison site set up for the merchants in the niche who do provide a datafeed (hopefully there are some?) so you can invite the others into a game that's already going on and they can take a live look at. If there are absolutely no merchants in your niche that you can use, you could try to get some that are at least related. Personally, I'd be very leery of going to the trouble of setting up a datafeed for one price comparison site that isn't even up and running.
Of course, some merchants have business-related reasons for not wanting to provide data feeds or, specifically, for not wanting to be included on price comparison sites. Putting merchants' product lines on your site without their permission could end up doing more harm to your "cause" than good. If you do decide to go that route, be meticulously careful of copyright and trademark infringement, because they will notice. But having an operating site with at least some merchants on it might keep you from having to go that route.
[edited by: Beagle at 7:43 pm (utc) on Aug. 6, 2007]
i did find a couple of the bigger merchants that have data feeds, so i could definitely start with them. the copyright issue is actually what i was thinking about for a few hours today. i know that i can't use any pics without permission, so there isn't really a way around that. i'd have to contact the site owners and obtain permission from them individually. i also agree that some of them aren't going to want to get involved with price comparison sites for their own reasons, so that's just something i'll have to deal with.
the one thing that i think i have going for me is that it's a new niche, and the whole industry is a bit chaotic right now. everybody is trying to get involved, so you have a bunch of "low-budget" sites trying to get a piece of the market. i've literally seen about three sites that look almost identical using OScommerce as their interface. not that that's bad, but it just goes to show that nobody is standing out at the moment.
as a consumer of such products, i want to organize all the information, so the rest of us can find what we need at the right price without getting lost in the madness.
