Some areas of improvement for 4 deal aggregation sites in India

In my previous post I have mentioned various online ventures dealing with offers and deals in Indian context. In this post I am listing some of my observations, as an ordinary user. This is simple stuff. A little care can avoid these to surface.

It is unfortunate that human nature itself limits our ability to think from other’s perspective. It’s tough to know what’s wrong with what we are doing, until our well-wishers proactively tell us. Had some one told me the mistakes I was doing (but could not recognize), in my early entrepreneurship days, I would have saved a good fortune. I am seriously looking for some experts who are willing to criticize my blog (and suggest me how I can improve it).

If you observe why some online ventures fail, particularly if they require frequent user interaction, you can recognize some silly mistakes. They creep in wihout our knowledge. Great ideas, lot of hard work and commitment but fails to create good opinion in the public. If you want to know the areas of improvement, talk to people who can criticize your work and act immediately to correct your mistakes. You will win.

1. Giving wrong information to (or trying to fool ?) readers – http://www.ilaaka.com

The below statistics (showing how successful they are) never change – I may be wrong, every week they get exactly the same number of registrants (1377). If you want to know why, you can click the given link in the homepage of their site. If you understand the reason please let me know.

2. Avail deals of the past -- www.dealmaadi.com

Deals and discounts that last for ever (at least 3 -4 months) are not actually deals. On the home page (top 10 recommendations from the site) are at least one month old (on the date and time of writing this post). If they have conditions apply (like valid till stock lasts) they become useless and not worth trying.

I guess some more traction is needed.

3. Want to earn easy money? Or do you want offers that end after (valid till) 6 months?
– This site attracts you -- http://www.offersforshoppers.com/

Lot of powerful ideas, fancy words and design that can attract many (teenagers ?). The site is incomprehensible to me. But I understand that content do not change often. In the last two months I see the same offers in Bangalore. They will expire in another couple of months. The funny thing is, they recommend users to Hurry!!!!! to avail these discounts.

Come on guys, you have powerful ideas.

4. Search fails -- http://www.saleraja.com

There is a search button with an example. I tried the same example ("janak puri", "koramangla") and found that there are no results. Initially after seeing the example, I thought they have a powerful search engine that can also correct the spelling mistakes. In the above example Koramangla spelling is incorrect. After seeing the results I tried using correct spelling, but no results found.

Whats stopping them in giving an example that works.

If my opinion hurts some of you or the founders / people behind these ventures, please pardon me. I feel happy if my criticism is taken as an area of improvement. If you are looking for praise, there are many tech startup review sites that can up lift your spirits.

I encourage entrepreneurship and creative ideas. I hope my readers will take my comments in the right perspective.

My best wishes to you all.

Is any one out there willing to criticize(share your opinion) my blog? Thanks in advance.