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Rank: Serious Thing Flinger
Joined: 1/19/2007
Posts: 2
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thelagerman wrote:King of Fling wrote:
1) Timer every other day?
2) Timer for part of the day?
3) Automated email or text message as a new item comes up on the site?
4) A new item everyday for the first 12 hours and then the repeats?
1&2) Too confusing. Especially if the whole point is to get new customers. 3) Some of us work for a living and cannot get a bunch of personal e-mails each day (WE ALSO PROBABLY CANNOT INSTALL WIDGETS, WHATEVER THE HECK THEY ARE.) 4) Please not for the FIRST 12 hours every day. Be original. Some people don't want to sit around until midnight. # 4 sounds like the best choice here. What makes ThingFling original is the format not the timer. This site is coming into a market already flooded with DOTD sites, people prefer consistancy with shopping, not random chaos.
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Rank: Royal Flinger
Joined: 2/27/2007
Posts: 2,312
Location: Florida
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big77 wrote:angelsvintageattic wrote:I don't think there's any problems with revenue or the site..they're just wanting to make enhancements like all other websites do periodically. Perhaps, but removing features nearly all of us like hardly qualifies as an enhancement! I don't really understand -- a whole slew of the most loyal customers are expressing displeasure at the changes. What can be more clear than loyal, money spending customers' opinions? How will removing these features help to attract new business as King of Fling suggests? How will pissing off existing customers help? It's all a mystery to me! As for constructive suggestions: how about showing quantity and time remaining if you are logged in? Then if somehow King is right that it scares away new customers at least existing customers can log in and see the stuff we want. OH I agree..I liked the timers and quantity box myself..all I'm saying is they're asking for our opinions...and we're giving them...most shopping websites don't consider asking their customers in a public forum what they think. If they are going to consider the customer in any way..they make them fill out an annoying survey with multiple choice answers chosen by them which still doesn't ask for our personal opinion..just options that they chose for themselves! Now they know we all would like the timers and quantity box back...I'm sure they're looking for a compromise so we all will have what we want. I know where they're coming from by needing to keep items up longer to generate new customers...When google spiders the internet it picks up existing pages and places them in order by keywords/size ratio...by the time ThingFling moves to the top with the existing item..and someone clicks on it..the item ended and the person is not happy they didnt' find what they wanted so why stick around and register. Usually by the time Google does spider the web..it's probably picking up on the Past Fling keywords since they're sitting on the front page for a much longer period of time..Also it's picking up the forum keywords....but if it's spidering when the items are changing too fast and it can't catch the keywords for the current item when it hits TF..it will move on pass the item up and they need to wait till the next sweep...picking it up as a past fling. If it does catch the item on a sweep..by the time it hits google..it's already changed and can only be seen on the cached page and can't be ordered..again...the potential customer will move on if they can't order the item they found in their search. All other search engines feed off of Google so Google is important to be picked up by if you're going to be found and generate more registered customers. "Registered" customers being the key here..not just clicks to the site and moving on to find the items they were originally looking for. Remember.. more registered buying customers..more revenue...more buyouts...more items for us. If you're tired of looking at the same Laptop Combo Lock...then generating more revenue is important to obtain a larger variety of items for the site...and the more revenue..the better the items will become as well. I like Scaredwitless's idea of the shadow items..this way the one item for the day gets to stay up for the length of time needed for Google to pick it up ..but in the background behind another tab will be the moving items with timers and quantity boxes....the best of both worlds and Google will pick all of it up. Kind of like two different styled TF sites piggy backed. This would definately make this site more unique than the other DOD sites. The Big deal of the day..and the rest behind it! As TF gets bigger and better..I would like to see different sections as well...such as Electronics, Computers, Home, Kitchen and Bath...etc...all in tabs with moving deals (with timers of course) in each department. This definately can't happen until they generate more registered buying customers and more revenue. What may not seem like an improvement now to some..will definately become an improvement in the long run.
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Rank: Power Flinger
Joined: 12/13/2007
Posts: 105
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surratt wrote:You can see how much time is left by hitting this little page that I setup: http://www.surrattweb.com/tf/
It is really bare right now, but I'll work on getting it styled and making the timer count down, if anyone things they may use it. Right now it has to be refreshed to see how much time is left. Looks like everything worked smoothly with the transition to the Linkys TNC Connectors!  Looks like they will be up for another 2hrs and 39mins.  Gotta go to work now. I hope you guys who are missing the timer can use this.
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Rank: Royal Flinger
Joined: 2/27/2007
Posts: 2,312
Location: Florida
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big77 wrote:As for constructive suggestions: how about showing quantity and time remaining if you are logged in? Then if somehow King is right that it scares away new customers at least existing customers can log in and see the stuff we want. OH..by the way..this is a GREAT idea!
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Rank: Uber Flinger
Joined: 1/17/2007
Posts: 216
Location: Margaritaville
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COKEMAN wrote: King, I fail to see how the timer will prevent new users from coming to the site. Even if you have to list items for longer periods of time so they "propagate through the internet," the timer has nothing to do with that. Oh well, good luck.
I agree with this, and as I wrote in the other thread: Until I hear a better explanation, I'll have to believe the theory that the timer is gone to increase advertising dollars via more hits. Personally, I doubt it will work, but I'm no expert. I'd still like to hear an explanation of how absence of the timer will help ThingFling or anyone else, other than the advertising $$$ theory. Sorry if I missed it, but I haven't heard one yet. In other words, I just want to know WHY? Type your signature here.
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Rank: Uber Flinger
Joined: 1/17/2007
Posts: 216
Location: Margaritaville
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angelsvintageattic wrote:big77 wrote:As for constructive suggestions: how about showing quantity and time remaining if you are logged in? Then if somehow King is right that it scares away new customers at least existing customers can log in and see the stuff we want. OH..by the way..this is a GREAT idea! I second that. Type your signature here.
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Rank: Royal Flinger
Joined: 2/27/2007
Posts: 2,312
Location: Florida
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I'm not sure if the absence of the timer will or will not scare customers...but I do understand that they need to keep the items up on the page longer to be picked up by Google...12 hours is most likley the right amount of time to be picked up by the spider and posted on the searches so when a customer finds the item in the results, clicks..it should still be on the front page. So I'm thinking...the timer saying there's 12 hours left kinda bites..but if it had a count down towards the end with a quantity when the quantity is getting low would do the trick also..but I do like the idea of having to sign in as a registered user to see the actual timer and quantity no matter how much time is left and I definately like the idea of the shadow items in the tabs so we have more to choose from with rotating shorter term items behind the main long term item. It would definately be nice to have both. Plus it would cause new visitors to stay on the site longer since they will need to click the tab to see other items and not just look at the front page and leave if they dont' like what they see up front.
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Rank: Power Flinger
Joined: 12/13/2007
Posts: 105
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angelsvintageattic wrote:I'm not sure if the absence of the timer will or will not scare customers...but I do understand that they need to keep the items up on the page longer to be picked up by Google...12 hours is most likley the right amount of time to be picked up by the spider and posted on the searches so when a customer finds the item in the results, clicks..it should still be on the front page. So I'm thinking...the timer saying there's 12 hours left kinda bites..but if it had a count down towards the end with a quantity when the quantity is getting low would do the trick also..but I do like the idea of having to sign in as a registered user to see the actual timer and quantity no matter how much time is left and I definately like the idea of the shadow items in the tabs so we have more to choose from with rotating shorter term items behind the main long term item. It would definately be nice to have both. Plus it would cause new visitors to stay on the site longer since they will need to click the tab to see other items and not just look at the front page and leave if they dont' like what they see up front. They currently are not leaving the products up for 12 hours. The current one was only up for ~3hrs 40mins. It only has 1hr 6mins left. So, I'm not entirely sure why they removed the timer? I'm going to assume it is a part of some bigger plan. 
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Rank: Royal Flinger
Joined: 2/27/2007
Posts: 2,312
Location: Florida
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surratt wrote:angelsvintageattic wrote:I'm not sure if the absence of the timer will or will not scare customers...but I do understand that they need to keep the items up on the page longer to be picked up by Google...12 hours is most likley the right amount of time to be picked up by the spider and posted on the searches so when a customer finds the item in the results, clicks..it should still be on the front page. So I'm thinking...the timer saying there's 12 hours left kinda bites..but if it had a count down towards the end with a quantity when the quantity is getting low would do the trick also..but I do like the idea of having to sign in as a registered user to see the actual timer and quantity no matter how much time is left and I definately like the idea of the shadow items in the tabs so we have more to choose from with rotating shorter term items behind the main long term item. It would definately be nice to have both. Plus it would cause new visitors to stay on the site longer since they will need to click the tab to see other items and not just look at the front page and leave if they dont' like what they see up front. They currently are not leaving the products up for 12 hours. The current one was only up for ~3hrs 40mins. It only has 1hr 6mins left. So, I'm not entirely sure why they removed the timer? I'm going to assume it is a part of some bigger plan. I definately agree..there is definately a bigger plan..this is just the beginning. I'm just glad they're interrested in what we have to say and will definately come up with a plan to make everyone happy I'm sure. I guess they're tossing the 12 hour idea around since they do need to leave their items on that front page longer for Googlebot..but I don't think Midnight to noon is a good idea if that's the case..like someone said..sitting around till midnight isn't an option for some and people do work during the day and some can't access TF during the day...so ..if they have to do the 12 hour thing and then the shorter term items..I would probably look at 9pm until 9am...this way all day until the 12 hour item hits...there are rotating items..and at 9 and for the next 12 hours over night and early morning..the main item is there...you'll have the evening shoppers...the insomniacs and the early morning people able to shop before work to see the main item. Then all day and part of the evening after work the rotating items. But..I still like Scaredwitless's idea of the shadow items best...the best of both worlds...and they can do TWO 12 hour items a day and keep the rotating shorter term items running for those who prefer that...with timers of course! 
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Rank: Royal Flinger
Joined: 2/27/2007
Posts: 2,312
Location: Florida
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Another good reason why Scaredwitless's idea is a good one by the way.... "Google analyzes the content of other web pages on your site to ensure that your web page is really relevant. That means that you should optimize different pages of your web site for different but related search terms. The more web pages of your web site are optimized for keywords about a special topic, the more likely it is that you'll get high rankings. " so a sub tab with more items to look at would rank TF higher in the search results. And of course...I would still love to see different departments in tabs on the site for even MORE stuff to look at! Maybe a deal of the day by department as well! Of course you'll need to buy a bigger warehouse to do what I want! 
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Rank: King of Fling
Joined: 11/20/2006
Posts: 759
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I think I really like the idea that if you are logged in you get to see the timer !!! It also gives new viewers a reason to register.
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Rank: Uber Flinger
Joined: 5/2/2007
Posts: 968
Location: Northern VA
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I also really like the idea about logging in to see the timer. Great idea! And to Surrat, great work on your time page! But it seems to me from my interpretation of the kin's OP, he's saying they're looking to have items stay up on the listing for longer periods of time, indeed, it seems as if he's saying minimum of 12 hours each. Given that outcome, I don't think the timer is any longer a bi issue, it's a great deal of time. And I do see how longer listing times would help in drawing in new customers, but I think the fast rotation of multiple items a day is a big crux in keepin customers once they actually are customers. So I am still in support of the dual listing (shadow listing) idea, or perhaps any other ideas that come about that would bridge a compromise between the need for slowing listings and yet somehow otherwise still provide faster listings too at the same time. Just my opinion, but the many multiple items a day thing was a big draw for me to stay a regular existing customer that checked the site frequently after I already was a customer. And the thing that drew me to TF in the first place most definitely was one of the MBs.
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Rank: Uber Flinger
Joined: 2/23/2007
Posts: 43
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King of Fling wrote:Dear loyal Flingers,
We have just celebrated our first anniversary and now we are looking into the future. ...
So here are some ideas, but I really need some feedback from you guys and gals.
1) Timer every other day?
2) Timer for part of the day?
3) Automated email or text message as a new item comes up on the site?
4) A new item everyday for the first 12 hours and then the repeats?
...
KINGFLING LADYFLING--I HAVE A GOOD COMPROMISE BASED ON YOUR LATEST newsletter (where you mention the difficulty of selling one product for a while vs many for a short time)-- bring back the large variety of products during the day--this is what set you aside from the other DOTD sites--you can have those up for a short period of time, and have a separate thing fling store, where past items are up till the sell out (or until the king fancies) and are OFFERED at a premium of 15% for this convenience... keeps the spirit of TF season one with a plus! let me know what u think Loyally Flinging since Feb '0ught 7
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Rank: Casual Flinger
Joined: 5/5/2007
Posts: 1
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King,
As for the timer, let me put it this way...
When you had the timer available, then I
knew exactly when to check back to see
if you had an item I wanted to purchase.
Leave the item on as long as you need to,
I'll come back after it's done and see the next
item. If I like it, I'll buy it. If I don't know how
long the item I don't want or just bought it on
the site, then I might decide it's not worth my
time to periodically check back and be disappointed
when it's grill lighters again. Another positive of the
timer is that I know how much time I have to e-mail
friends and tell them that an item they wanted is up
on the site. That way, you get extra sales. I really don't
see the downside to having the timer posted.
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Rank: Serious Thing Flinger
Joined: 10/20/2007
Posts: 1
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no no no, don't go to one item for 2 hours. when i found you guys you were a break from the woot on deal a day sale they have. i love checking out to see what's new throughout the day. stay with the original format, please.
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