OpenAmazing

Every day Groupon sends out a daily deal to their email subscribers. Some percent of those subscribers opt to purchase the deal and go to Groupon's website and pay with a credit card. That's where the money comes from. Groupon then distributes some of that money at a later date to the merchant offering the deal.

So their success is very much dependent on the size of their email list, because that is the maximum number of potential customers (payers). Zero subscribers means zero money. If all the merchants dropped out that subscriber list could still make money via affiliate or other partner revenue.

I was moments away from completely writing off AngelList when I read the parent comment. Now they seem cool. Disaster averted.

We get to work building some really awesome space ships and start colonizing other planets. Seriously.

Simply puting some images of human faces on your site near the call-to-action button helps. The Facebook widgets that show who has "liked" your site work great for this. Our eyes are drawn to pictures of faces and a group of faces next to a button says "these people tried it, what is wrong with you?"

Some more: * Pictures of faces * A testimonial (one face and one sentance) * A number indicating usage (4,243 downloads today!) * Expert reviews (TechCrunch loved it!)

On an older site I ran we discovered the same thing and exploited it. We made it easy to find coupons for our product via Google. Interested visitors would land on our buy page, see the coupon field, search Google, find one and buy the product because they felt like they were getting a great deal. The conversion rate went up. The original price took in to account a lot of users would be using a discount. We split tested having the field and not, and we made more money with the coupon code field and giving out a lot of coupons.

Yes, some users that would have paid full price may take advantage of the discount. But, potentially, you will get a lot of customers that only buy because they find a discount. My guess is that this works better for lower cost "consumer" type purchases (not larger, business purchases).

Making coupons / discounts easy to find is a marketing strategy. Why do you think half the apps in the app stores have "Limited time discount offer!" as the first line of their description.

That's an interesting thing to say, especially after recounting the emotional impact the internet trolls have had on her.

It seems she may be struggling with how best to react to her new internet fame.

Everyone is piling on them for screwing up the initial reaction to EJ, by not going far enough in offering to help her. But AirBnB didn't do much to help Troy (from the TechCrunch post) 2 months ago, and that story didn't blow up in to a PR disaster. They simply gave him a few free nights and he was happy.

So, it is impossible to tell if any given customer support issue is a potential "PR-nightmare". If AirBnB had over-reacted and offered Troy thousands of dollars (as was being suggested for EJ), they would have lost out - because Troy was happy with just a few free nights in AirBnB credit. How were they supposed to know that EJ (1) wouldn't be happy with what Troy received (2) Would make a scathing blog post and (3) That blog post would go viral. They couldn't have.

So, if you are a wagering person, it seems like the best course of action is to do exactly what AirBnB did: offering minimal support and grow until something really bad happens. Then come out swinging with a big apology and a big offer of support and restitution.

Since it seems like the media and public are willing to forgive AirBnB (judging by the reaction to today's announcement), this course seems like it may have been optimal compared to over-helping people like Troy.

Put another way: PR distasters are recoverable if you say you are sorry and ask forgiveness. Being too careful upfront and limiting your growth curve is not forgivable.

Does Hasbro (owner of Scrabble) have any IP protection on the wooden letter tiles with a number in the corner? Seems like a small thing, but it wouldn't shock me. And could be an issue if this gets big.

"Oh hi there, Hacker News. Someone apparently submitted this and it's doing pretty well. Some sort of HN or reddit flare-up happens with more of my posts than not, and it always has me wanting to find a way to capitalize on it and become some professional writer-philosopher. One with muscles and a serious artist face. Hey, a boy has got to dream. Anyways, I can write stuff. I'm a little bit smart. You should totally hire me or something. kenmyers@gmail.com. Or what if I wrote a book? Would that work? If I've got, like, 140 RSS subscribers, but 50,000 hits a month through sites like HN and reddit, do you think that's enough of a following to get me somewhere? Talk to me."

That's how you capitalize on success.

And if you think the way EJ feels is not similar to what a rape victim feels, you probably haven't talked to one before.