I would like to welcome a new addition to our collection of popular bargain hunting sites which is due for an update later this month. This new web site has been just a few months in the wild and yet it seems to be attracting plenty of attention. Lets us see if this is a long lived fame. ;-)
The concept is similar to Digg in the sense that people can submit links and then get them Trezr’d (voted for). When you submit a link you pick a category (no tags folks?). They also distinguish deals, coupons, and money saving tips as 3 major categories. A single vote equals to a silver coin. Several silver coins is a golden one. Only links with a golden coin are kept in the system (for up to 3 months according to their FAQ). The smaller unpopular items are removed after a while (a sort of garbage collection). Naturally the top picks (7 of them from each: deals, coupons and tips) get to the front page.
The web site is very nicely designed in Web2.0 style with rounded corners and a lot of gradient colors. I opened an account for a test drive and had a very nice impression overall.
When you submit a deal you are currently not allowed to attach an image. There are also no special fields for the item price or discount. You are basically limited to several sentences to describe your item. In that respect Trezr is behind dealspl.us or other web sites specialized in on-line shopping.
A very smart move on their part is the incentive program Trezr offers to the people submitting links. It is a revenue sharing via Google advertising. I personally think there is a major conceptual difference between sharing ad revenue and allowing people to use affiliate id in the links they submit (read more here about monetary side of it). With the first approach you as a submitter are more rewarded for the attention the link generates. With the second approach your incentive is closely connected to the shopping transaction. Due to this fact the second approach is more easily abused (read dealplumber review here for an example). Why? You click on the link, your id is stored in the URL, then you forget about the original web site and continue browsing the merchant’s shop. Nevertheless your id is preserved in the URL and when you make the purchase the referrer gets their commission. This naturally stimulates referrers to submit more links with their ids creating a network of low quality offers.
deals from trezr.com
One more twist to the Trezr story is the weblet they promote (see it on the right side). The weblet is essentially a web widget that you can install on your web site to display the links you submitted to Trezr (or just any links from their web site). It looks like widgets now are “must have” for a successful web site.
Also read this Trezr review from our Australian friends. As for the fame… I think even if Trezr doesn’t become a shopping destination due to the limited visual presentation of items for sale it has a good shot at staying afloat as a social portal where people can exchange money saving related tips. The time will show.
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