Monday, November 23, 2009
Celebrity status
I was in Rite Aid one evening last week, and there was an elderly lady in line in front of me. Well, when I heard her total ($22.xx), I offered her a $5/$20 coupon to use since I had some extra. She was very gracious for it, and thanked me several times. The cashier who was ringing her up, proceeded to tell the woman about how I am known in there for getting a cart full of merchandise for little to no out of pocket expense. The elderly then turned to me again and asked "Are you the one with the blog?" A smile came across my face, and the cashier busted out in a laugh, not knowing anything about the blog (I enlightened her later). I answered the lady "Yes, yes I am" and kind of chuckled to myself, because that was the first time that an outside individual had mentioned my "celebrity status" without knowing who I was.
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5 comments:
I think it's quite cool! Think of it this way, you are not a blog that is being read as some big social commentary of gossip like a certain 'Bury Blog-Author....you are providing a valuable service. Didn't I once tell you I thought you should offer classes?
Chris, thanks for the kind words. I have considered teaching a "coupon class" but can't seem to get enough interest to get one going. Maybe I should post about it on here to see if there's more interest after the first of the year.
If you're "known" at Rite Aid and in your community, contact the local paper and tell them you would like to offer a coupon class to their readers. They will usually jump at the chance to boost subscriptions through folks who want to get the coupons.
Good luck!
Thanks for the idea....I definately have a possible "in" at the newspaper since I'm still in contact with the individual who wrote the piece about me. Should I charge (a small, nominal fee of course, nothing extravagant) or do it free of service?
You'll have to work that out with them, but here are some options:
1. A flat fee as the expert they're bringing in (might be hard for them to justify at first)
2. A per person fee (this could also be hard to justify for folks who desperately need to save money, but you could go $5 per person and allow them to bring one friend for free; at the very least you want to cover the rental of the space, and allow extra for your time, which IS worth something)
3. You could ask for a commission on subscriptions you sold (this will probably be more palatable to the paper at first, but if you do like we do and suggest multiple papers for largers families, they may eventually decide it's cheaper to pay you a flat rate)
You could also do a combination of these. You'll need to test different scenarios, but in the beginning, establishing yourself as someone who can teach these concepts will be more important that making a profit.
Follow me on Twitter (@savingwcoupons) and I'll DM you an email address for some other suggestions. ;)
Blessings,
Jim Bob
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