You know how new websites have a “Placeholder Page” ask you to submit your email address in their pre-launch phase, and they try to lure you in with promises of exciting stuff happening soon, soon, soon?

It often works, but sometimes it just doesn’t. We all suffer with email overload, and most of us think twice before submitting our email address for anything.

But this site has a way around that! They give you just ONE MINUTE to sign up. So you better hurry! You have no idea what will happen if the one minute expires BEFORE you sign up, so you just do it in case. And since the site is called “Minute Race“, I suspect that the one minute deadline is an integral part of what they are going to be offering as a service. Which means that if the deadline hooks you into signing up, it means that you are probably the ideal target user. So double score!

(By the way, if the one minute DOES expire, you get to “Try Again” :-) )

(And if you want to put in your own Placeholder Page, check out these 25 Placeholder themes for WordPress)

Last year, I spent a bit of time researching the Groupon model, and I liked it. It wasn’t for everyone, neither was it definitely sustainable. But it did offer the small business some very attractive advantages. Specifically, the way I understood the Groupon model was like this: You (the small business) would offer a product at a significant price cut. Groupon would keep about half of that, BUT it would give you all the money upfront (or at least within weeks). So you, as the business, had the advantage of acquiring new feet through the door (possibly), and you would also get a cash injection at a a time when you presumably needed it most.

For example, if you needed to make R50,000 fast to meet your obligations, or to invest in new stock etc, you could offload some existing stock now, and make it worth your while. Or, if you offered services rather than products, you could collect your R50,000 but only service it over the next couple of months, thus spreading your exposure.

There were still great risks, the biggest of which were that you would sell so many vouchers that you would not be unable to service them all, and that the customers buying the vouchers would be existing customers, not new ones.

Boy, was I WRONG.

A merchant who used Groupon recently, gave me the following mind-blowing insights:
- She only got about 43% of the voucher value (50%, less VAT)
- She only gets the money once the voucher is REDEEMED!!! (so much for spreading your risk)
- For those vouchers that are not redeemed, Groupon keeps the FULL 100% of the voucher
- She had NO idea when the offer would be featured by Groupon, only that it would be “within 6 months” !!!!!
- The full deal was done via email

So: You don’t get your money upfront, you don’t actually know how much total money you will get since you get paid once vouchers are redeemed, you can’t run the deal in your “quiet” time, and you only 43% of the voucher that is redeemed.

In the US, it works very differently: you still get very little per voucher sold (in fact, I believe that if the value of the voucher is less than $10 you get NOTHING), but at least you get the money irrespective of whether vouchers are redeemed or not (the payment is spread over 6 weeks or so, I think).

So, ironically, I think Groupon SA must be doing very well, if they can insist on such conditions and STILL have a viable business. Bizarre.

So what happens? Nothing. As in…no blog post. Because suddenly the topic that you thought would-be-fun-to-blog-about suddenly seems silly and irrelevant. And of course, this just meakes matters worse. Because even MORE eons go by without a post, and the need for that significant topic rises – exponentially, I think.

But ha! I’ve got an evil trick up my sleeve. And you are reading it. So forget the significance and the importance. This blog post is about NOTHING. And it’s been posted. So I am back in the game. Irrelevant, as always :-)

I’ve just downloaded mine, and can’t wait to get into it this weekend!

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