Getting Started with OzBargain

OzBargain is a community for sharing and discovering bargains. As a user, you participate in determining all site content by discovering, sharing, voting for, and discussing the latest deals, promotions and freebies. To ensure things run smoothly, there are some Rules & Guidelines, and the site is moderated by a small team.

Please register and contribute to help your fellow Aussie bargain hunters to find the best deals!

Check out hot deals. Visit the OzBargain main page to discover the latest popular deals as voted by our community.

Discover upcoming deals. The New Deals page has the most recent submissions. You can vote them to the main page! When you are on the store's website, you can also use the bookmarklet to discover new deals from this store.

Follow OzBargain. All new deals are broadcast live via Twitter, Facebook, and RSS feed.

Browse OzBargain Wiki. The OzBargain wiki aims to create a comprehensive guide for all shoppers in Australia. Please help by contributing to the Wiki and improving it. Notable pages currently include the List of Birthday deals/freebies and a list of useful free software.

Quick-links at the top of each page allow you to see the New Deals, the most Popular deals, the Freebies, or view deals by Tags. Categories are another way to browse deals. You can even follow the deals your friend or another user has voted on.

Submit hot deals. Have you discovered an amazing offer that others will appreciate? Please let us know by submitting it! Your contribution will immediately appear on the New Deals page, and with enough votes will be promoted to the main page. There are a few things to check before you post (e.g. is it a duplicate?), along with some tips on what will go over better (written as guidelines) so please see our page on How to Submit Deals for more information.

Occasionally a deal can disappear from the deals page, but generally speaking deals are not unpublished.

Tell your friends. Help to spread the word about OzBargain and inform your friends of deals and freebies they might be interested in. Click one of the SOCIAL MEDIA buttons to quickly share the deal via Twitter, Facebook, or Pintrest.

• Vote positive. By voting you participate in the collaborative bargain-hunting process that is central to OzBargain. If you like a deal, voting positive is a way to thank the contributor and encourage others to post similar bargains. Votes contribute to the popularity of each submission, and enough positive votes will promote the deal to the front page. You also build a history of voting that you or your friends can view.

• Vote negative. To vote negative you must first leave a comment with your reason. Please use negative votes cautiously and sparingly, as they can often discourage others from contributing. It is often better to not vote instead. The Voting Guidelines give some further explanation.

• No vote. This is where you don't vote at all. Often appropriate instead of a negative vote.

If it could be perceived you have a vested interest in voting or commenting for a particular deal, don't vote and remember to state your possible vested interest at the start of any comments or posts that you leave.

Some examples include:

• if your reason for voting, commenting or posting on a deal is purely because you were asked to by someone else
• if you work for or own the business, even if the business is a client rather than a direct employer
• if you have some sort of relationship to people involved in the business
• if it could be perceived that your vote, comment or post is influenced (eg working for the business of the daughter of the owner)
• any of the above but it involves a competitor as opposed to the business mentioned in the post

While voting is not compulsory, the entire system relies on user votes, so make sure to do your part and vote for the deals you feel are good!

Comment. Share your thoughts by commenting on submissions, or thank the contributor for the great deal they enabled you to get. Read other users' comments to get an idea of opinions on the deal and whether the product is worth purchasing.

Ask. For other discussions you can create and participate in threads in the OzBargain Forums. Many users have been able seek help in the Find Me A Bargain category.

Positive and negative votes can also be cast on individual comments. Offensive or inappropriate content can be reported (i.e. click report) for deletion by the moderators. Please refer to the Commenting Guidelines for more information.

OzBargain has been a fast growing online community of shoppers since it first launched in November 2006, and bargains from all over Australia get posted here everyday. Check out our site statistics for more information on number of visitors, page views, number of subscribers, etc.

What does that have anything to do if you are a merchant, operating an online or a shop-front store? Would you like to offer your products and services to be examined by our team of bargain hunters?

• Frequently Asked Questions for Merchants

• Deals are not unpublished, generally speaking