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Wikidealz.com launched recently with the hope of bridging the social networking and online shopping worlds.
The site's been in the works for about six months, says co-founder Joe Farrier. The concept is that deal-savvy consumers share bargains they've found around the Internet. Members can earn cash when they post deals that lead to sales from participating Wikidealz retailers.
“Most shopping sites work through the affiliate model. They get paid based on commission for any sales that they lead to,” Farrier says. But, he adds, not everyone works with affiliates — and this is limiting for consumers.
Farrier and partner and co-founder Josef Salerno looked at the Craigslist model. That site makes money from job postings in seven cities and apartment postings in New York, but most of its content is free.
“They've created an extremely usable and useful system for the people they're directing product to,” Farrier notes. “We want to create something that's very useful for consumers, whether they post items that are with an affiliate program or not.”
Salerno adds that the community aspect will really come into play when rating the sites where deals are offered.
“We want the community to compete and post the best deals they can find,” he says. “Everyone is rating each other's deals and posts. It adds a level of trust to what you buy.”
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