Happy April Fool's Day!
It's 3PM AEDT and we are pulling the plug now. Yes OzBargain Premium is our April Fools Day joke for this year. Many who can spot it from miles away but it appears that some still fell for it.
See our April Fools post in 2018, 2017 #1, 2017 #2, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.
OzBargain was started in 2006 as an extension of a hobby of mine — finding bargains and sharing them. Over the years this website and its community continues to grow, and I myself have also transitioned from running it as a side gig, to working for OzBargain full time, to employing a small team of community managers and developers. It has always been free for anyone to join, and even free for merchants to participate and share their offers. Today, however, marks a new milestone in the history of OzBargain. Let me introduce the new subscription based membership plans — OzBargain Premium.
It is actually not something "new", but OzBargain Premium membership has indeed been around for a few years. It has been hinted many times on the site by some pre-alpha testers, and some of them might even pop in here today to share their reviews and experiences with Premium. What changed is that Premium is now available to ALL OzBargain users, starting from a small cost of š100/month, which is around a medium cup of Flat White (or 5 cups of 7-Eleven coffee). More about the new currency later. There will also be multiple levels of membership at different price point — Premium, Premium Plus and Premium Ultra — which would suit even the most hardcore OzBargainer and retail business.
So, what will you get from your Premium membership? Here are some highlights:
Premium Deals / Premium Competitions preview
This has got to be one of the most frequently requested āfeatureā due to increasing popularity of OzBargain. Often by the time the deal gets on the home page it has already been ozbargained — either caused by out of stock or retailerās web servers catching fire. We are now able to spot some these Premium deals in advance, and release them to the Premium members for up to 30 minutes before making them available to the general public. Premium members get to broden them first!
Premium Lounge access
Premium members will have exclusive access to member-only forum, where they get to check out upcoming features, discuss the latest conspiracies and unlock other hidden OzBargain secrets. Not to mention the elitist feeling of exclusivity. Unfortunately we are not able disclose what has been discussed in the Premium Lounge, as first rule of Premium Lounge is — you do not talk about the Premium Lounge.
Limit increases
Too many people disagreeing with you and 5 comment -ve votes never enough? Worry not as Premium members can -ve vote 20 comments per 24 hours to shoot down those trolls! If you upgrade all the way to Premium Ultra, you will be empowered with unlimited -ve for comments — including those marked as Moderatorās! There are other limit lifts, for example number of Classified, number of Store Rep deals, etc. Feel the power — get OzBargain Premium!
Premium support
Premium members also get Premium support from the moderators. As per our guidelines, consider yourself lucky if your TWAM is ever answered by a moderator within 24 hours (Monday to Friday only). However TWAM and support tickets from Premium members get special priority. Premium Ultra members can even dial 1800 OZBMODS to gain direct access to the moderation team to get your account issues resolved!
Spammer Business friendly
Premium Ultra membership provides you unlimited potential to dump your rubbish onto other OzBargain users with unlimited Store Rep deals. OzBargain users donāt appreciate your offer and neg vote it? One click & itās gone! What if your sockpuppet account accidentally got caught and sin-binned? Premium Ultra members just need to spend š1000 and it will be out of gaol in no time! Perfect for Business users — retailers, wholesalers, service providers or marketers.
But thatās not all. You can see the full membership comparison on the OzBargain Premium page.
šEneCoins
To subscribe to the OzBargain Premium membership you will need to pay with our new virtual currency — EneCoins. It was first announced on this very day 2 years ago, and then after much research and intense development, EneCoins has evolved into a virtual currency backed by crypto, blockchains and other hot buzzwords. Right now it can be used to pay OzBargain Premium subscription, or transfer between OzBargain members (for example paying for a Classified item). You can acquire EneCoins with Australian Dollar, starting from $4.99 for š100. Check out all the details at the EneCoins page.
Thatās it — the new era of OzBargain. I will be answering questions regarding OzBargain Premium here today. Ask me anything.
help me Scotty