Idea For A Giveaway-Suggestions Needed Please

[Spendacoin]

Hello Everyone

So we put together this website where people can Buy & Sell just about anything with Cryptocurrencies. Prices are in USD and transactions in USD are possible as well because we're sure that nobody wants to put all of their eggs in one basket just yet. The site was put together in a hurry knowing that we would have to make many changes along the way. We just needed something functional to get it off the ground. That said we have a real nice update that's just about ready to replace what you see now and we're working on a few more things. As soon as those issues are covered and in place we can apply the update. Answers and comments to this post will help us greatly.

Listings are free unless a user lists more than 100 listings for 30 days at which time packages are available at very affordable rates. There are tons of categories most of which have a very low final value fee of 3% which is collected only when an item is sold. Relisting is free. (FYI ebay charges 10% Final Value Fee)

In general what we would like to do is for every dollar that is spent and/or earned on the site by users we will credit each registered user with 0.5% of XRP directly from our pockets at the end of each successful transaction. It doesn't matter which Cryptocurrency and/or Fiat currency is used to complete a transaction. The XRP will be theirs to keep to do with what ever they wish. We're going to call it something like: "Free Cryptocurrency Reward Campaign"

In other words if someone lists an item and it gets sold for $100 we will give a 0.5% credit in XRP of the $100 to the Buyer & 0.5%  credit in XRP of the $100 to the Seller.

This will fall into play for all categories where  there is a Final Value Fee in place. For other categories like Cars & Trucks where the listings cost a flat $30 we will pay out $1 flat in XRP to each Buyer & Seller of a successful completed transaction.

What we would like to know first off is what you all think of this idea.

Does anybody have a better idea?

What would be the most cost effective way to accomplish this. In other words would it be more cost effective for us to hold the XRP back until a certain amount of XRP is accumulated by the users to cover any costs to make the transfer? I'm asking this because my head is spinning after spending over 30 minutes trying to read the threads and posts on what is the best way to open a right now. So I'll tackle that issue again later. This is more important right now.

The website is http://spendacoin.com

I hope to get some valuable feedback here because we are contemplating which Cryptocurrencies we should or could do this with. On our end using XRP for this Campaign is one of out top choices.

  

[zenkert]

1. Redesign the site, It is so old looking and just plain ugly. almost ridiclolous, to laung something 2018 looking like from a museum of the the WWW.

2. I do not beleive in the concept at all.

3. I suggest and think it is some kind of Scam behind this, really I do.

So for me that is 3 Thumbs down. Way low down, it is like a Weekend trap for the not so sober people to fall into.

 

 

Edited February 24, 2018 by zenkert

[Spendacoin]

Thanks! There's nothing better than constructive criticism

Yes we know about the site looks outdated. We put it together in one day. Just needed to have something functional. We're working on one that is more up to date and will move it over a soon as we have a few more things in place..

Ok the concept is not good. What would you do?

Why does it sound like a scam?  Maybe I wasn't clear enough with my explanation? 

[Sharkey]

 

Hmmm, I can't say that it necessarily looks like a scam, but I think if you are legit, you will probably have a steep learning curve to make this idea truly credible and functional.  Just a few suggestions:  

1. Get a proofreader because I found some typos/grammatical errors while skimming the website.

2.  Figure out a way to have multiple customer service contacts, not just "send us an email and we'll get back to you when we can" sort of thing.

3.  Be prepared for users to have issues and know how you will address them.

4.  Have a way to protect legit customers and yourself from scammers.

5.  Your urgency to "get it off the ground" makes me think you are ahead of your skis, and you are setting yourself up for a hard fall.  There is a lot to learn about operating a business.  I hope you get some good advisor(s). 

On the positive side, I like the idea of making an attempt to increase commercial functionality of crypto assets.  Good luck. 

[Spendacoin]

Thank you Sharkey for the comments.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what gives the impression of a scam but I'll forward that to the rest of the crew.

we know about the errors the grammer etc and I will point out now before someone sees it that there is too much going on that needs to be put in perspective and much of the content has to be cut shorter and placed better. This will all be reflected in the update.

Ok let me clarify a few things. When I said we put it together quickly because we needed something that was functional this is what I meant.

First of all there is only so much testing you can do on an intranet so some of the testing has to be done live. That said since we were incorporating the Cryptocurrencies as a payment method we needed to go live to to see how many things would work from beginning to end. For example we didn't notice that some of the emails that get generated because some action took place were not reaching inboxes until we took the site live. That's just one example but there were plenty

Next is our target audience is the main stream that (and trust me when I say this) doesn't have a clue as to what is going on. I've just gotten here but I'm willing to bet that most of what goes on here has to do with buying, selling and trading XRP and other Cryptos. The average Joe, if you ask them what a Cryptocurrency is, might be able to tell you it's a Bitcoin and that's about all they know. So since we are targeting an audience that doesn't know too much we had to fill the site with all this information that most of you know.

Here's something you'll find interesting. (and keep in mind that we're in the NY/NJ area which  are pretty up to date States as far as current events go!) We put up a flier in a local supermarket and invited people for free coffee and cake to learn about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies at a local community center. We got a pretty nice turn out.

If we hadn't put the word Bitcoin on the flier I'm sure we would have had half of the people that showed up. We gave very general information but still got swarmed with questions because they were so vaguely informed.  Those who knew something heard about the volatility, they heard about hacking and scams but nobody knew anything about tokens and hardly anyone knew about many of the benefits Cryptos have besides just trading them like you would a stock.

While we were explaining Wallets, Exchanges, the market, trading and of course what a Cryptocurrency is and what a token is, you should have seen their faces when we told them that there are over 1500 of them and that new ones are popping up everyday.

So our problem is that the audience we are targeting is scared and uninformed (Talk about an uphill battle! We've got our hands full)

But on the lighter side to those that we are able to get the message to (which is very hard because it seems like we're in this alone, we don't even have hardly any places where we can send people to for reference because most of what you see on twitter, reddit, Steemit and places like this is only talk about investing in Cryptocurrencies and not too much about using them in everyday life.) they are fascinated by all this new technology and how they can save money on bank fees, get medical records between doctors with a few clicks etc. I don't have to tell you guys all of this stuff that you already know. Just want you to understand where I'm coming from and why I'm here asking you to give me a hand creating some incentives to get people involved in using XRP as a payment instrument in everyday life

Since we are targeting such an uninformed audience we made the site look very fundamental and over did it with information because that is pretty much the only place we could send them to get the information where we were relaying.

I see that you have this thread of giveaways and such. So what would be a good incentive to give away some XRP for us to use with this site where all I'm trying to do is get people to transact with one another on it using XRP, or other Cryptocurrencies

 

 

[TheHyena]

Maybe a couple things to think about.

-Be careful of using godaddy (they will sell your data) - maybe created an LLC and use that to register the site and not make the whois private.  (Also, a lot of consumers like a company's transparency.)

-If you'd like to use an easy site build, look up companies like Shopify, they have app you can add on for Alibaba etc.

Having the ambition is key  

Edited February 24, 2018 by TheHyena
https://help.shopify.com/manual/payments/alternative-payments/cryptocurrency

[Spendacoin]

Here's another thing just to show you what we're up against. I have no choice but to agree with everyone in that things are so volatile that investing in these Cryptos is very risky when I pitch things to them. Can't lie and make promises about anything at this point you'll have to agree. BUT on the other hand such a move could also be rewarding depending on how things go. Nobody knows for sure. So I tell people to go into their basement, attic, shed or wherever and look for stuff that they don't need and wouldn't miss. Things that on any given day they would probably just throw away. I tell them that instead of doing that they should list it on the site and maybe someone will buy it in exchange for Cryptocurrencies. This way if they end up in the sewer they wouldn't have really lost anything, but on the other hand if things go well they will have made a nice little move.

[Spendacoin]

23 minutes ago, TheHyena said:

Maybe a couple things to think about.

-Be careful of using godaddy (they will sell your data) - maybe created an LLC and use that to register the site and not make the whois private.  (Also, a lot of consumers like a company's transparency.)

-If you'd like to use an easy site build, look up companies like Shopify, they have app you can add on for Alibaba etc.

Having the ambition is key  

Thank you so much for that. Didn't know that about godaddy,..... interesting. When you say sell my data can you be more specific? You mean contact information? Yes we have the whois private right now but will be changing that to reflect the LLC information. When we set up the site we used a godaddy account that gave us a free additional domain and website papckage and didn't want them to be confused as to the ownership. So we will separate this one and put it in the name of the LLC and take off the private whois. (maybe that's why that other fella said it could seem like a scam! very good point! glad I made this post!) As for Shopify if you look at the site you'll see it's divided into an auction/buy it now section and what we called a shopping Mall. The shopping Mall has Shopify and Alibaba products. Incorporating that into the site was a challenge in itself!! We got around it with Woocommerce  and that's almost at 100% done. We are having a few issues with shipping costs, that gets a bit tricky because we have to guess the weight of most items and update them individually.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Spendacoin

[TheHyena]

15 minutes ago, Spendacoin said:

Thank you so much for that. Didn't know that about godaddy,..... interesting. When you say sell my data can you be more specific? You mean contact information? Yes we have the whois private right now but will be changing that to reflect the LLC information. When we set up the site we used a godaddy account that gave us a free additional website and didn't want them to be confused as to the ownership. So we will separate this one and put it in the name of the LLC and take off the private whois. (maybe that's why that other fella said it could seem like a scam! very good point! glad I made this post!) As for Shopify if you look at the site you'll see it's divided into an auction/buy it now section and what we called a shopping Mall. The shopping Mall has Shopify and Alibaba products. Incorporating that into the site was a challenge in itself!! We got around it with Woocommerce  and that's almost at 100% done. We are having a few issues with shipping costs, that gets a bit tricky because we have to guess the weight of most items and update them individually.

Search Godaddy selling information.  Personally, I used to use there services, and while I am on the no call list for my state, I started getting a metric *** ton of auto calls on my cell.  (The ones that no one says anything for about five seconds then click.)  Grr 

Anyways, one link I quickly found but I suggest searching a little more.

https://www.godaddy.com/community/Managing-Domains/Are-They-Selling-Our-Personal-Data/td-p/2542

Edit: Also, when figuring out the weight of your items, add 2-5% to your gross weight.  This helps account for random fluctuations.  (Yep, weather, short on packing material used this instead, etc - really depends on what you are selling)

Edit2: Invest in a really good scale.  Shipping costs can really suck any profits out of commodities. 

Edited February 24, 2018 by TheHyena

[Spendacoin]

5 minutes ago, TheHyena said:

Search Godaddy selling information.  Personally, I used to use there services, and while I am on the no call list for my state, I started getting a metric *** ton of auto calls on my cell.  (The ones that no one says anything for about five seconds then click.)  Grr 

Anyways, one link I quickly found but I suggest searching a little more.

https://www.godaddy.com/community/Managing-Domains/Are-They-Selling-Our-Personal-Data/td-p/2542

 

Wow! Thanks for that too. I already know about the alias email thing but spammers still find a way to bombard you when they want. Once you get on those lists it's tuff stuff!

[TheHyena]

1 minute ago, Spendacoin said:

Wow! Thanks for that too. I already know about the alias email thing but spammers still find a way to bombard you when they want. Once you get on those lists it's tuff stuff!

If you can, get a phone number that you use just for this business adventure.  It'll also help separate work from personal later on   I think Google Voice is still around, may be something you can look into as well.  

[TheHyena]

4 hours ago, zenkert said:

1. Redesign the site, It is so old looking and just plain ugly. almost ridiclolous, to laung something 2018 looking like from a museum of the the WWW.

2. I do not beleive in the concept at all.

3. I suggest and think it is some kind of Scam behind this, really I do.

So for me that is 3 Thumbs down. Way low down, it is like a Weekend trap for the not so sober people to fall into.

 

 

I really hesitated to post a reply to you.  I have always enjoyed your posts in the Zerpening and loved the overall rapport you have with others.

However, here we have an ambitious person that is looking for constructive criticism, ideas and suggestions, which in all honesty, took some gumption to post here.  Why not help with your knowledge instead?   Or just not post a reply at all?  

I feel ideas and businesses like these can help bring more liquidity to the table..  And that will help us all in the end.

[XRPHdlr]

IF you're not a scam..you really need to change your front page layout..it looks like a template.

Also the fact that you just registered after completing the site is suspicious. A normal dev or entrepreneur would have registered when the idea was conceived.

Just some heads up cause, you're gonna get a lot of people to hesitate..

Typos is a basic idea. People don't forgive...  

[Spendacoin]

OK Gang I got the message about the site and not offended in the least.

I said it from the beginning that the site is not done yet and that we have an update that we are putting together that will be more professional looking. We don't want to do any more testing once we do the update.

I really appreciate all the criticism and pretty much everything that has been said has already been addressed in the update, and then some.

So to avoid any confusion, and to eliminate the thought that this might be a scam, I just put a notice across the site saying that we're still under construction and in out final testing phase. But please don't stop the criticism. If you see typos or things you don't like please let us know.

I don't see a need at this point to redesign the whole site you see right now, however there are few things that I'm going to do over the weekend to it to make it look and feel better than what you see right now for the meantime.

It's not a template but a Word Press child theme that needed a lot of testing on the content and plugins we used. We had a ton of conflicts with plugins and that's why things don't look so uniform. Each plugin has it's own attributes and getting them all to look and function together is quite a job.

As for what we are actually doing you're very correct in saying that we bring something to the table. In fact we're one of the few that are doing something like this, which is getting the mainstream educated in Cryptocurrencies and actually using them in everyday life. Everybody knows how volatile this market is and we are a firm believer that in order to have stability these Cryptocurrencies need mass adoption to survive and thrive on. We also believe that the first ones to pay attention move in this space will be the ones strengthen their foundation and withstand the volatility. You see it all over the place that Bitcoin is being accepted at many places. Reach out to these places and ask how many interactions they've had with Bitcoin. We did and it's so close to zero its not funny. These Cryptos are in the hands of investors and they're not really letting them go. I think XRP has a much better shot at achieving this than most because there are more of them, 100 of them is very affordable and the platform seems very safe and secure. I'm not sure about the costs to transact with them but even if it's high right now I'm sure that will fall into place soon enough. That seems to be a problem with almost all Cryptos at the moment. For example I like what Litecoin is doing with Litepay.

 

[Spendacoin]

On 2/24/2018 at 2:11 AM, TheHyena said:

I really hesitated to post a reply to you.  I have always enjoyed your posts in the Zerpening and loved the overall rapport you have with others.

However, here we have an ambitious person that is looking for constructive criticism, ideas and suggestions, which in all honesty, took some gumption to post here.  Why not help with your knowledge instead?   Or just not post a reply at all?  

I feel ideas and businesses like these can help bring more liquidity to the table..  And that will help us all in the end.

Hi Again All

Sorry but my real-life job needed me for a few days so I had to put this aside. Any Thank you TH for those thoughtful words. You are right I truly believe that Ripple and XRP can be one of the strongest survivors in this Arena so long as they cover all the bases. IMHO The ones that do that will succeed and whoever gets there first will led the pack. This is not going to take efforts of one person or entity but a a lot of talent working together. Sure it might take time but it has to start somewhere and why not sooner than later.

So for my part I am ready to take on and work with whomever to get things moving on the outside, with the mainstream, if you will. Sure I'm a small entity but so is the area that I'm focusing on. Since it's most likely going to take time and I will have to take baby steps to get from level to level so be it!

I said it before and I'll say it again. I firmly believe that the Cryptocurrency that builds the strongest foundation and gives it's coin or token something substantial to thrive on will be the winner here especially, with the mainstream that looks for substance like meat and potatoes. Win their confidence and you win the game. Pretty easy to figure this out.

So here is the question again. I have a few things that I'm working on before I do the update on the site that I am well aware it needs. I don't want to do the work twice so what I'd like to know form this forum is what I asked in the first post of this thread about the giveaway I have in mind, if you think it's a good idea and if not what other way do you think I should do this.

So far I got a few thumbs down which is fine. If its a bad idea then I'll toss it and put my thinking cap back on. I just need to know if that is truly the case and why the idea is bad. It's easy to say something is good or bad but there should be a reason behind it so we can come up with a better idea

Thank again for all the comments we are taking everything that is said here seriously and into consideration

Finally I truly hope that what we're doing can in some way, shape or form add value to Ripple and XRP, hope you all feel the same