Make Bank; Keep 100% of Commissions Earned

Sqoot helps publishers & developers make money & keep users happy.

While Sqoot publishers & developers see amazing user engagement, making money is still the most popular benefit. Duh! Given we strive to deliver unparalleled value to customers, we're now allowing publishers & developers to keep 100% of commissions earned (previously it was 50%).

It just got even easier to make money. After all, why should Groupon have all the fun? Better yet, we apply the 100% payout retroactively. Once your balance reaches $100, we'll email you with payout instructions.

In case your wondering, the 100% payout applies to the new API too. If you're itching for early access email us.

Much love.

 

Sunsetting the Widget on June 1st

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Back around Christmas of 2010, we introduced a widget that made adding deals to your website as simple as a few lines of JavaScript and HTML. We wanted to make it easy for site owners to add daily deals without needing to write any code.

Sady, on June 1st we're sunsetting the widget. Why?

  • Deals are not a drop in replacement for AdSense. Many customers that installed the widget (or the WordPress plugin we built on top of it) expected CPMs to compare with traditional display advertising. But ads payout on every click. Deals don't (even though they generated much higher CTRs).
  • Our API is amazing and we're actively improving it. It requires a bit more upfront effort to get integrated, but the results are much better (monetarily and experientially).
  • As a small scrappy team we can't afford to maintain everything. Instead we focus on doing just a few things really well.

If you're currently using the widget, you'll want to figure out another solution ASAP. We may eventually come out with a JS SDK but don't hold your breath. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Sneak Peak at Our New API

We've been busy. Over the last month, we moved into 500 Startupshired employee #1, and demo'd at Daily Deal Summit East. We've also been cranking on a new API for you. It's in private beta but we want to give you a taste of what's coming (hope you're hungry):

  • Loco for Local: Almost all deals are local so we're treating them that way. One deal = one location. It's simple and intuitive and will make for faster queries and more deals per response.
  • Duplicate Deal Detection: Deal providers often have duplicates in their feeds. Even worse, the same deal can appear in different feeds. It's a hot mess that you should never have to worry about. Soon, you won't have to.
  • Brand New Backend: We started from scratch with an emphasis on reliability and visibility.
  • More Providers: We're quickly adding paid & unpaid advertisers (Amazon Local, Google Offers, TravelZoo, and more).
  • New Attributes: Deals will have new fields you've been waiting for (e.g., number of deals sold, market, untracked URLs, fine print, voucher expiration date).
  • Cleaner Attributes: Unusably long titles and descriptions cluttered with terrible HTML are just a couple examples of things we're taking care of so you don't have to.
  • URL Verification: When URLs break, your customers suffer. Now, we verify each deal's URL to make sure it resolves before exposing it in our API. No big deal.
  • New Affiliate Tracking: One of the biggest reasons to use Sqoot is that we handle all the affiliate tracking for you. Simply put, we're revamping how we handle affiliate links to be more reliable and more flexible.
  • Merchant Data: We're adding star ratings, hours of operation, comments, and social helpers to make your life easier.
  • ID Matching: Use Foursqure, Yelp, Factual, CitySearch or another local data provider? Now you can find Sqoot deals with the IDs you already use.
  • Accurate Categorization: To date, the categories for our deals have been good, not great. That's all about to change.
  • New Endpoints: Everything is namespaced and RESTful. Nothing will break with our current API.
  • JSONP: You asked for it.
  • SDKs: We've got a Ruby gem in the pipeline. iOS and JS SDKs to follow.
  • SSL: Say goodbye to that pesky non-SSL warning message.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be talking more about each of these improvements and how they're going to make your integration with Sqoot easier and more awesome. Stay tuned.

For early access, please email us.

And Then There Were Three!

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At Sqoot, we believe that great products are built by great people. Today, we're beyond happy to announce that Brandon Weiss has joined our team.

Hey everyone! I'm really excited to be on board. Avand and I go a little ways back, and I've worked behind the scenes on Sqoot for a few months now. I'm stoked to join the fold and participate in 500 Startups with such great people.

A little about me: I'm originally from Chicago, but moved to San Francisco to build better products, enjoy the awesome weather, be near the ocean, and learn to surf. I work on products and businesses holistically, but programming is my primary medium. I also write occasionally and tweet.

We're going to build some amazing stuff in the coming months; I can't wait to show everyone. If anybody happens to be in SF, I'd love to meet for food/drinks/surfing. Don't hesitate to hit me up!

/Brandon

The Three Musketeers, the Three Stooges, and the Marx Brothers: indomitable trios that changed the world. We're out to do the same!

Sqoot is 500 Strong

500
We're ecstatic to announce Sqoot's acceptance into 500 Startups' Spring Accelerator. A big thank you to our customers, investors, mentors, advisors, friends, family, and foe. We couldn't have done it without you.

What does this mean for you? In a word: awesomeness.

We rebuilt our API with a laser-focus on quality. Expect more deals, improved monetization, and even easier integration. We'll also launch an incredible data tool that connects motivated, local merchants with service providers. We can't wait to show it to you.

We spent 2011 on a quest to better connect consumers with merchants. And it's working. Yesterday we served our 11th million deal across web, email and mobile. We've been around, too, having conquered Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, New York, and now beautiful Mountain View, CA

By the way, Google bought our largest competitor for $100 mm (not too shabby) and shut down their API (typical). Location-based technologies have never been hotter. To say there's a huge opportunity now, is an understatement.

Awesome things to come. We're beyond excited & hope you are too.

Much love,
Mo & Avand

 

 

We Can Do Better: An Apology from Sqoot

Recently, we decided to host a hack-a-thon in Boston. Our goal: to bring developers together with the community and new technologies to build amazing things. Like any good party, we wanted great music, great people, and great food. We wanted to do better than pizza and soft drinks, and truly wanted everyone involved to benefit in a big way. We didn’t want developers to leave in the same cliques they came with because of a lack of cross-pollination nor did we want sponsors to spend thousands of dollars yet still miss connecting with ideal users. We really wanted to do better.

Unfortunately, we did worse. When we put together the original event page, we used language that we now realize was reckless and hurt efforts to diversify gender in tech. We immediately and deservedly received an enormous backlash. While we aimed to call attention to the male-dominated tech world through humor and intended to be inclusive, the gravity of our wording was just the opposite. Our words completely undermined our intentions and went further to harm the world we're trying to have a positive impact on.

We apologize unequivocally to our sponsors, customers, friends and family, and community. We'd like to thank everyone for being so outspoken. As a young startup, we learned a lot today and are better people and a better company for it.

As we decide whether to continue with the event, or reschedule for another time, we will focus efforts on making sure that our event marketing is inclusive to all. We will do better.

If you have any questions, or want to chat, don't hesitate to reach out.

Sincerely,

Mo, Avand, & Sqoot

50 Daily Deal Stats, Facts& Quotes (eBook)

Nostradamus
Expected to gross $15 bn by 2015, the daily deal space is on fire. But what happens when deal emails get old & spamy? How many spa treatments does a gal really need? Why are publishers sitting pretty? Learn everything you always wanted to know about the past, present, & future of deals and how you can capitalize - 50 Daily Deal Stats, Facts& Quotes

 

Maintenance Window Update: No Downtime, We'll Do it Live!

Yesterday, we reported that tonight we'd need to bring Sqoot down for maintenance. Good news! We've figured out a way to do the maintenance we need without downtime. Instead, for a few hours today the Click and Commission APIs will return limited (or no) data, while we copy data from one database to another. Once the copy is complete, all data will be returned normally. All this should be complete by later tonight.

All other services are unaffected.

UPDATE (Mar 2nd, 2:30PM): All click data has been migrated over. All web services (clicks, APIs, images, etc.) should be operating at 100%.

Scheduled Downtime Friday, March 2nd around Midnight

We try our best to minimize downtime, whether it be unexpected or planned. However, tomorrow night (Friday, March 2nd) we'll be down for a few hours while we do some system administration. We're copying a bunch of data from one server to another and to prevent data loss we're shutting down the site, API and all other services.

Check @sqoot for up-to-the-minute updates or status.sqoot.com for platform status.

Your Very Own Yipit, in a Minute

In October, we announced that we were working on our best feature to date and today we unveil it to the world! Introducing...

Email Subscriptions!

Engage users with curated deals via email without spending a fortune on development. Send us a list of subscribers and we'll send them a branded, daily deal email on your behalf. It's like becoming your own Yipit (without raising $7.5 mm). So what's in it for you?

Mind-blowing Personalization

We partnered with SimpleRelevance to make sure your users receive the most relevant local deals. Users can change their preferences at any time.

Managed Opt-in & Opt-out

Users can opt-in to (and out of) daily emails through a slick hosted landing page. You don't have to build a thing.

New Subscribers

Why should Groupon have all the fun? Grab your visitors' email addresses before they bounce to a 3rd party deal site.

Email us to get started using Email Subscriptions today!