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I am weary of these alternative currency systems. You are giving away "money" to people for signing up and posting offers; you are giving new users other people

by Flankk 17y ago

I am weary of these alternative currency systems. You are giving away "money" to people for signing up and posting offers; you are giving new users other peoples' goods for free and creating fake money as compensation.

aaronbrethorst 17y ago
There's no arm twisting or deception. Everyone who signs up is aware of what's going on. Lots of the businesses on Dibspace think of it as a marketing expense that happens to provide very real and tangible side-benefits. We've had a number of incredible customer success stories with Dibspace, like this company: http://ecomoversmoving.com/ http://ecomoversmoving.com/ The founder, Grant, started his business with nothing more than a borrowed moving truck and a couple thousand bucks in his pocket in Spring 2009. He learned about Dibspace through a Seattle Times article, joined up, offered his services and had more customers than he knew what to do with within a couple months. Last fall, he told us that his biggest concern with his business was how to manage the growth he was seeing. Grant was able to offset thousands of dollars of capex/opex by trading our virtual currency for real stuff and services. Sure, if he'd been able to get US Dollars, he could've used them for the same things, but he was dealing with the same chicken and egg problem every new business wrestles with: how do you acquire new customers to pay for things like a website or a logo when you're just starting out and don't have any customers? You have no reputation on Yelp. You have no cash to get your name out there. You don't have a network of existing customers to lean on for referrals. Getting those seed customers can be incredibly difficult. Grant totally lucked out: turns out people are far more willing to spend 'funny money' than real money, especially during a down economy. He acquired his first batch of customers, got tons of positive reviews he could point prospective customers to (http://dibspace.com/businesses/667-Eco-Movers/reviews http://dibspace.com/businesses/667-Eco-Movers/reviews), and got tons of word of mouth referrals. When Grant was ready, he just turned off his offers on Dibspace. When his business gets slow (which happens occasionally), he creates new Dibit offers and fills his schedule back up. Whew, that was more long-winded than I intended it to be.

by Flankk 17y ago

aaronbrethorst 17y ago

There's no arm twisting or deception. Everyone who signs up is aware of what's going on. Lots of the businesses on Dibspace think of it as a marketing expense that happens to provide very real and tangible side-benefits. We've had a number of incredible customer success stories with Dibspace, like this company: http://ecomoversmoving.com/ http://ecomoversmoving.com/ The founder, Grant, started his business with nothing more than a borrowed moving truck and a couple thousand bucks in his pocket in Spring 2009. He learned about Dibspace through a Seattle Times article, joined up, offered his services and had more customers than he knew what to do with within a couple months. Last fall, he told us that his biggest concern with his business was how to manage the growth he was seeing. Grant was able to offset thousands of dollars of capex/opex by trading our virtual currency for real stuff and services. Sure, if he'd been able to get US Dollars, he could've used them for the same things, but he was dealing with the same chicken and egg problem every new business wrestles with: how do you acquire new customers to pay for things like a website or a logo when you're just starting out and don't have any customers? You have no reputation on Yelp. You have no cash to get your name out there. You don't have a network of existing customers to lean on for referrals. Getting those seed customers can be incredibly difficult. Grant totally lucked out: turns out people are far more willing to spend 'funny money' than real money, especially during a down economy. He acquired his first batch of customers, got tons of positive reviews he could point prospective customers to (http://dibspace.com/businesses/667-Eco-Movers/reviews http://dibspace.com/businesses/667-Eco-Movers/reviews), and got tons of word of mouth referrals. When Grant was ready, he just turned off his offers on Dibspace. When his business gets slow (which happens occasionally), he creates new Dibit offers and fills his schedule back up. Whew, that was more long-winded than I intended it to be.