We've definitely done some shopping around when it comes to web hosts :) Believe it or not, the SDC gets about 4 million pageviews per month! While we could definitely find somewhat 'cheaper' hosts, they tend to be a lot less reliable.

@Kawi At the moment, we don't plan to put any SDC Rewards revenue towards salary increases. For the time being, it's all going to go into continuing to enhance our offerings and maintain what we already have. To be perfectly honest, we'd like to pay ourselves more, but we don't have the means to do that while simultaneously launching all the extra stuff we've promised. I suspect the majority of any extra revenue we get from SDC Rewards will go into funding member submitted product reviews, like the one we just did here: https://seniorsdiscountclub.com.au/...ers-vicks-vs-anihana-vs-essential-oils.30198/

@peteloo We don't get any government support, unfortunately... We're not associated with any of the official state or territory programs, though we've got a link to them in the footer of every page of our site - we don't want people to think we're pretending to be something we're not.
Asking questions like these are good to clear the air l suppose, but disappointing to think some people may be of the opinion this membership money may be used to your personal gratification.
Well handled in your reply & please keep doing what you & your team have proven they can do well.
 
SDC Rewards - What is it, and why are you doing it? Get the full scoop here!

Dear Members

We’ve had a couple of questions about our SDC Rewards program lately, so I wanted to clear a couple of things up (and open the floor to comments). This will be a bit of a long read, but please bear with me.

The first—and most important thing—is that everything that is currently free will remain free. We’re not going to start charging you to use our discount directory, play trivia, read our news articles, or receive the daily newsletters! If you don’t have the means to join SDC Rewards (or just don’t think we’re worth the money), don’t worry because nothing will change. You’ll continue to have access to all the things you already have access to.

Secondly, I’d like to explain why we’ve launched SDC Rewards. As you can probably imagine, a lot of time, effort, and money goes into running the SDC. Writing the newsletters and articles, building new games, giving out prizes for our competitions, etc… Just the costs of hosting the website alone costs us thousands of dollars per month.

Up until now, we’ve paid for 100% of this out of advertising revenues. These come in a couple of forms, and you’ll see them dotted around the website and newsletter. However, the simple fact is that advertising revenues alone aren’t sufficient for us to pay the bills anymore. The online advertising market is highly volatile, and reflects the wider economy. A lot of businesses are tightening their belts at the moment, and, simply put, that means less of them are willing to pay for ads.

To be frank, we also find some of the ads that appear on our site to be a little annoying or obnoxious - also not to mention, occasionally ‘scammy’. We use an external ad agency to source advertisers for us (we don’t have the resources to do this in-house), but we’ve manually blocked or blacklisted quite a few of them because we don’t like the products they’re selling or they give us a ‘dodgy’ feeling.

Getting a portion of our revenue from member subscriptions will allow us to largely move away from the advertising model. Currently, SDC Rewards members see about 95% less ads on the site, which makes for a much more pleasurable browsing experience.

Having reliable subscriber revenue will also allow us to continue improving the SDC in other ways. Here are just a few of the things we have planned:
  • Paid product testing (where we pay members for the products they test as well as their time)
  • Health tips / Q&A from a GP or other health professional every month
  • Discounts on travel related activities and products (cruises, travel insurance, etc.)
  • Brand new brain training games, like crosswords, code crackers, word searches, etc.
  • Video courses on IT skills, like removing malware, avoiding scams, purchasing things online safely, etc.
  • Discounts on prepaid gift cards for popular retailers like Coles, Woolies, etc.
  • An app/downloadable version of our discount directory that you can use on your phone/tablet
  • Ad-free versions of OzWord, Sudoku, Trivia, etc. that you can use on your phone/tablet
Most of these will be open to SDC Rewards members only (at least for the foreseeable future), simply because we’re depending on the revenue they bring in as a way to fund these developments.

Finally, I’d like to mention that we’re hugely thankful for having you all as members, whether you join SDC Rewards or not. We’ve tried to price our offering so that nobody is excluded (our monthly plan works out to 20 cents per day, and our annual plan works out to 14 cents per day), but we know a lot of people are doing it tough out there and if you’re not in a position to be able to support us financially, we’re still eternally grateful to have you as free members, and there are plenty of ways to help us that involve no monetary cost, like telling your friends about us and engaging in conversations on the forum.

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, please let us know either by posting here, or emailing me privately if you prefer.

Cheers

Jonathan and the SDC Team.
Very happy to pay and how do I do that?
 
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Just a throwaway line from Jonathan "ads dotted around the website" OMG Jon, overwhelmed would be a lot more accurate mate. Been around from when the ads started as a few here and there, now you cannot read articles more than a line or two at a time due to the intrusion. As for the "news" articles they are obviously collected from other web sources such as TicToc etc.
I recall warning you that advertisers were targeting members by obviously having access to their posts... it is happening still.
One thing in your favour would be that if you make SDC your only social media contact you'd be a lot safer than roaming.
 
Just a throwaway line from Jonathan "ads dotted around the website" OMG Jon, overwhelmed would be a lot more accurate mate. Been around from when the ads started as a few here and there, now you cannot read articles more than a line or two at a time due to the intrusion. As for the "news" articles they are obviously collected from other web sources such as TicToc etc.
I recall warning you that advertisers were targeting members by obviously having access to their posts... it is happening still.
One thing in your favour would be that if you make SDC your only social media contact you'd be a lot safer than roaming.
And that's why I'm happy to pay the $5 or $6 each month. I just don't see any adds at all.
Unfortunately they can't run this sight for free
 
What percentage goes towards your wages?
I don't believe this is our business to know. This is certainly a question many members would not ask & don't wish to know. I don't!!!
The PRIME MINISTER gets paid much more for doing nothing l can assure you.

If you have ever been in business you will know that for the first few years every cent earned is channelled back into the business to improve what is offered.

What is being offered to us here is a great product:- many interesting topics & interesting facts with the option of exchanging comments on those topics & together with humour, games, quizzes & the sharing of recipes. I enjoy every day with is site.
 
I have been thinking: the adds each member sees are the adds of things they primarily want to buy online (like many of us). Therefore all that appears are not initiated by SDC but simply the result of your own searches (I for example look for shoes and as I write this, there are shoe adds appearing everywhere) :D
 
Hi @Flash you can pay an annual fee and choose not to be an active member, that is absolutely fine! But honestly, if you don't want to pay and just enjoy what you get for free right now there's no need to sign up for SDC Rewards. We don't want any of our members feeling pressured! This is entirely optional and up to you :) If you want to chat a little more feel free to message me here or email us at [email protected] and ask to chat to Maddie!

We appreciate the support everyone, how lucky we are to have such lovely members!
And we appreciate what information you bring to us.
 
Good afternoon @"Flash" according to our system, you upgraded to an SDC Rewards membership on September 22, 2023. A week before your membership auto-renews this year, you will be emailed and asked whether you would like to continue your membership with us for another year, or whether you would like to cancel your membership. We understand everyones circumstances change, so we would never auto-renew without emailing our members to confirm that is what they would like to do.

If you do choose to auto-renew your membership, your card will be charged on September 22, 2024!

Please let me know if you have any other questions or issues. We'd be more than happy to help!

Thanks,
Maddie.
 
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I had wondered whether this was connected to kmart as almost every article talking of a specific wonderful "hack" always is about a purchase supposedly made there and by a female who just got the most wonderful and unusual ideas and the solution and then when i read onwards then solved all the problems and they presented more like a commercial spiel for KMart and then occasionally Aldi seemed to be mentioned as well for other reasons... but never a comment on purchases made or fantastic ideas from products purchased from Target .. curious.

These are my observations and my personal thoughts and which ive intended to express them from my observations and as the notion of a page for seniors had a appeal to me and as i see clearly from numerous comments we do have our full facilities and exercise them in the commentry section..And mostly are very interesting .. and then the org Coupon 65 is forever promoting products i confess i actually succumbed once and bought what i understood to be mobile flip phones by the blurb and photo but it was for wifi only that you could carry around instead of paying roaming fees and purported to be local call costs only... has a prepaid amount of SIM cards for the 5 items off $30 each credit which in fact i paid for in the purchase price. Then it turns out you need to top it up i felt excessively because it was meant to be the cost of local calls no matter where you traveled overseas The fact that i spent well over $300 Is on me for being so foolish and tech ignorant. So I've learnt my lesson and now i know better I'll do better😊

But the seniors page itself has a problem because numerous times posts i intend to respond to as i type them freeze and get locked and I'm unable to complete and send. Happens when I've deleted a word an start to go backwards with the key strokes and it freezes then.
That never happens when i use my phone for sending or receiving emails and messages or doing research. Nir no matter how many typos i adjust. Perhaps that is a glitch in the system of Seniors Discount page. Perhaps as a recent member I'm not fully aware of the setup or it's purpose .. perhaps it is to make us aware of amazing purchases but is it possible that its only set up to target seniors for KMart products and by KMart. If so if I've erred please clarify for me as i certainly dont intend to bad mouth any company.. and i would prefer a visit You the store then be a senior cit whose been foolish and made incorrect assumptions. 😊😵‍💫 Ty
2024 and these glitches are still happening today.🤣
 

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News, deals, games, and bargains for Aussies over 60. From everyday expenses like groceries and eating out, to electronics, fashion and travel, the club is all about helping you make your money go further.

Seniors Discount Club

The SDC searches for the best deals, discounts, and bargains for Aussies over 60. From everyday expenses like groceries and eating out, to electronics, fashion and travel, the club is all about helping you make your money go further.
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