http://www.groupon.com/learn

Steve Wendt got the ball rolling here:
http://ozreport.com/1288625440

http://www.groupon.com/richmond/deals/blue-sky-hang-gliding-richmond

http://www.groupon.com/deals/paradise-hang-gliding

www.groupon.com/merchants/fly-texas/deals/fly-texas

Scot Trueblood <<paradisehanggliding>>
writes:

Groupon is a brilliant concept and seems to work quite well. Our
Groupon offer is still running, and I have sold fifty tandem intro flights so
far, with two days yet to go. Many are buying as gifts for the holidays as I
already have several requests to substitute the recipient's name for the
purchaser's. The Groupons have a six month lifespan.

The down side is that the net is less than 25% of the retail price, however I
raised our prices in anticipation of this so the damage is not so great.

The up side is that:

Many Groupons never get used, but you are paid for them anyway.

Many purchasers will bring friends who missed out on the Groupon offer but want
to buy, or who want other services. For instance, we will still charge the
standard $25 for a non-flying passenger.

We can up-sell other products, such as video of the flight, at regular prices.

Our marketing efforts of brochure distribution, memberships in the Chambers of
Commerce, listings on third-party websites such as the visitors and convention
bureaus, pay-per-click such as Adwords, Facebook ads (very expensive, I don't
recommend this), phone directory ads, old fashioned politicking and handshaking
with hotel concierges, etc. all cost money and/or time. Two years worth of this
has resulted in a steady average of about twenty visits per day on our website.
On the first day of the Groupon offer we had 336, and the phone has been ringing
steadily. It cost no cash out of pocket, and just a bit of time to coordinate
the offer with their city planners.

In addition, it has come to my attention that there are plenty of copycats to
Groupon. The Naples Daily News has a service which is nearly identical, I'm sure
every area will have plenty of these imitators. Groupon is also going to soon
open up an online "store" where merchants can control their own content, and pay
less of a commission. This sounds good, but I think it will be watered down
compared to the in-your-face value of being the daily featured offer on Groupon.

Groupon is advertising and marketing.