Hello there, members! If I am completely honest with you all, I cannot quite believe I’m even writing this little article. I remember sitting down at my desk this time next year writing all about our 2022 plans and thinking to myself, ‘Wow, I really hope we can do everything we’ve said we will, it’s going to be a big year.’ And if I could go back to 2021 Maddie and tell her about the year that was coming, I don’t think she would believe me!

So, before I dive into our 2023 plans I just want to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you for supporting us. Whether you signed up 18 months ago when we first started this little club or if you joined yesterday, we are truly over the moon to have you on board and cannot wait for the year ahead.

2023 is going to be a big year! Image source: Shutterstock.

In 2023, we have a lot of exciting updates for you all…

Our 2023 version of the ‘Ultimate Seniors Discount Club Guide’ eBook

• Even more deals and discounts Australia-wide.
• Updated deals, discounts and locations. Sadly, due to COVID lockdowns and restrictions a lot of restaurants, cafes, bars, and retail stores had to close down. That means a fair few discounts in our eBook became redundant. We have done our absolute best to go through this eBook with a fine tooth comb to make sure there are no discounts or deals for stores that no longer exist. Although, please note that if you do come across a restaurant, cafe or shop that isn’t open but it is still in our eBook, it means at the time of publishing (December 2022) the store was still open or the closing down wasn’t public knowledge on the internet, social media, or state government discount websites.
• More deals and discounts for rural and regional areas – you spoke, we listened. We know our members are scattered all across Australia, not just in the cities! We have done our best to ensure we are covering even more regional and rural areas than ever before. Of course, there are always going to be more discounts in heavily populated areas, and not every local shop can provide a senior discount, but we have done our absolute best to ensure everyone can at least take advantage of one discount.
• Don’t like working with a PDF version of our eBook? No worries. We now have our entire eBook on our website for you to visit any time. You can find your state and every discount for that state here.

We are also working very hard on what we are calling ‘The Senior Discount Directory’. The one thing we have discovered talking to you all is that if Senior Discounts are offered, they aren’t very easy to find, or you have to ask for one. We are building a state-by-state breakdown for every Senior Discount that’s available as well as discounts we offer you. This will be built using a similar feature to our ‘cheapest petrol near you’ widget, so all you have to do is type in your postcode and all the discounts around you will appear in a list or on a map (we are still working on this part!) Our aim with this new directory is that you can always take advantage of the discounts around you AND you never have to miss one again!

The daily newsletters will stay the same, with a few exciting additions... Image source: The Seniors Discount Club

Our daily newsletters
Our morning newsletter will continue to land in your inbox between 6 and 8 am Sydney time, 7 days a week. Our afternoon newsletter will also continue to land in your inbox between 2:30 and 3:30 pm Sydney time, Monday to Friday. Our afternoon newsletters will continue to be entirely optional, so if you don’t want to receive two newsletters a day you can unsubscribe from it in your preferences or by emailing us here.

The content in our newsletters will stay mostly the same, with the daily news, trivia, ‘Yesterday’s Australia’, daily deals, grand(dad) jokes, ‘on this day’ facts, and the ‘photo of the day’ being featured as per usual, but we will be introducing a few more segments in 2023! They include a petrol pricing segment and (hopefully) a coupon/voucher segment. The ‘petrol pricing’ segment will work based on the postcode that you put in and will display the cheapest petrol in your area. Our ‘coupon/voucher’ segment is a work in progress, but we are looking into ways to get you access to more and more discounts every single day. We figured different coupons/vouchers could be a great way to get this started!

Finally, we really want to introduce a referral program in our newsletters. What this means is you get the opportunity to refer us to your family and friends and get rewarded for doing so. We want to make this as easy as possible, so you can invite whoever you want to join the club! The rewards will start with small wins like badges on our forum, but the more people you invite the better the reward becomes… So stay tuned for this one, folks!

Our website is getting a few new additions! Image source: The Seniors Discount Club.

Our website
We want to keep providing you with the best content we possibly can. We love keeping you all ‘in the loop’ with everything happening across Australia and around the world, but we want to bring you even more content than ‘the news’. Here are just a few ideas for new content that we want to introduce in 2023.

• Movie, book and TV reviews. We think introducing reviews could be a great way for us all to interact. We want to bring as many reviews your way, but we figured this will also give you the opportunity to give us, and other members reviews! Maybe you read a really great book recently? Watched an interesting TV show? Or maybe even an old movie that you forgot you loved. Either way, we want to hear about it. We hope introducing reviews will not only give you something other than the news to read about, but maybe a book to read, or a TV show or movie to watch!
• Product testing. We started testing products in 2022 and we LOVED it. We think it is so much fun and we know you all enjoyed it too. However, producing this content took a lot of time and effort, and with the small team we have, we found ourselves running out of time. So, we are going to try to do product testing ourselves once a month, but we also want to open up the opportunity to our members who are interested in product testing and writing articles to contact us at [email protected] about becoming an SDC Product Tester. We will, of course, pay for the products you test i.e. if you test a variety of honey, or different washing liquids we will pay for them, and then you can write a review about which product was the best and worst, their price and so on and so forth! We figured if our members test the products themselves, then we know the recommendations can be trusted. So if you are interested, get in touch with us at [email protected]! We only need a few, so first in best dressed.
• Games. We know you all love a game, so we want to keep building more and more for you all to enjoy. In 2023, you can expect more SDC games than ever before.
• Coupons/vouchers. I spoke about this in the ‘newsletter’ segment of this article, but we will be introducing coupons/vouchers to our newsletter and our website! These will differ week to week, and will be coupons/vouchers to online and bricks and mortar stores. We are still working on this new feature of the newsletter and website so the situation may vary.

SDC Premium Membership
We’ve been thinking about this one long and hard and we have decided that in 2023 we will launch a premium membership. This membership will be OPTIONAL and will provide ADDITIONAL content, games, deals, and discounts to paying members. This means what we currently offer to our members will always remain free and that will never change. Both free and premium members will receive our morning and afternoon newsletters as normal.

We don’t want to charge much and we know paying for content isn’t everyone's cup of tea and that is absolutely fine. The reason we have decided to launch a premium membership in addition to our free membership is that we currently make a little bit of money off the ads on our website, but we know they are annoying and we don’t want to keep putting more and more ads on our website. Offering a premium membership to members who have the means to pay, means we can continue to offer our free membership for free, without having to add too many ads that ruin the entire website and overall experience for everyone.

None of our decisions are ‘set in stone’ and we know the majority of our members really don’t have money laying around, but we don’t plan on making our premium membership too expensive. We are thinking either $4.99 per month or $49.99 for 12 months. We will be communicating with you all about this over the next few weeks! But we wanted to pop something in this article so you knew something was coming!

What’s to come in the future?
I am so glad you asked! Our biggest focus for the SDC’s future is definitely to build an app for your phones and tablets. We know ‘apps are where it’s at’ (very ‘hip’ of me) so we do really want to release one! The thing about apps is they take time to build, especially if you want to do them well which we do. We want our app to be super easy to use and something you can all use every day. We hope we can launch this by the end of 2023, or some time in 2024 if it gets delayed!

Other than the app, we aren’t too sure what the SDC’s future holds. Hopefully a lot more partnerships with stores that can offer you even better deals and discounts and more!

I hope you enjoyed this 2023 update and I cannot wait to see what this year brings! I hope 2023 is a wonderful year for you all

 

[Suzanne rose]

Hi I'm a new, 1month member and I love your daily newspaper!! Living in Bairnsdale it's great to read about Melbourne and Australian news, in a witty and informative email. My day starts with a cuppa and you.... thankyou

Hi Tania my day also starts with a cuppa and a read of the newsletter except I usually need a 2nd coffee before I'm finished reading

 

[Luckyus]

Hello there, members! If I am completely honest with you all, I cannot quite believe I’m even writing this little article. I remember sitting down at my desk this time next year writing all about our 2022 plans and thinking to myself, ‘Wow, I really hope we can do everything we’ve said we will, it’s going to be a big year.’ And if I could go back to 2021 Maddie and tell her about the year that was coming, I don’t think she would believe me!

So, before I dive into our 2023 plans I just want to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you for supporting us. Whether you signed up 18 months ago when we first started this little club or if you joined yesterday, we are truly over the moon to have you on board and cannot wait for the year ahead.

View attachment 10657

2023 is going to be a big year! Image source: Shutterstock.

In 2023, we have a lot of exciting updates for you all…

Our 2023 version of the ‘Ultimate Seniors Discount Club Guide’ eBook

• Even more deals and discounts Australia-wide.
• Updated deals, discounts and locations. Sadly, due to COVID lockdowns and restrictions a lot of restaurants, cafes, bars, and retail stores had to close down. That means a fair few discounts in our eBook became redundant. We have done our absolute best to go through this eBook with a fine tooth comb to make sure there are no discounts or deals for stores that no longer exist. Although, please note that if you do come across a restaurant, cafe or shop that isn’t open but it is still in our eBook, it means at the time of publishing (December 2022) the store was still open or the closing down wasn’t public knowledge on the internet, social media, or state government discount websites.
• More deals and discounts for rural and regional areas – you spoke, we listened. We know our members are scattered all across Australia, not just in the cities! We have done our best to ensure we are covering even more regional and rural areas than ever before. Of course, there are always going to be more discounts in heavily populated areas, and not every local shop can provide a senior discount, but we have done our absolute best to ensure everyone can at least take advantage of one discount.
• Don’t like working with a PDF version of our eBook? No worries. We now have our entire eBook on our website for you to visit any time. You can find your state and every discount for that state here.

We are also working very hard on what we are calling ‘The Senior Discount Directory’. The one thing we have discovered talking to you all is that if Senior Discounts are offered, they aren’t very easy to find, or you have to ask for one. We are building a state-by-state breakdown for every Senior Discount that’s available as well as discounts we offer you. This will be built using a similar feature to our ‘cheapest petrol near you’ widget, so all you have to do is type in your postcode and all the discounts around you will appear in a list or on a map (we are still working on this part!) Our aim with this new directory is that you can always take advantage of the discounts around you AND you never have to miss one again!

View attachment 10658

The daily newsletters will stay the same, with a few exciting additions... Image source: The Seniors Discount Club

Our daily newsletters
Our morning newsletter will continue to land in your inbox between 6 and 8 am Sydney time, 7 days a week. Our afternoon newsletter will also continue to land in your inbox between 2:30 and 3:30 pm Sydney time, Monday to Friday. Our afternoon newsletters will continue to be entirely optional, so if you don’t want to receive two newsletters a day you can unsubscribe from it in your preferences or by emailing us here.

The content in our newsletters will stay mostly the same, with the daily news, trivia, ‘Yesterday’s Australia’, daily deals, grand(dad) jokes, ‘on this day’ facts, and the ‘photo of the day’ being featured as per usual, but we will be introducing a few more segments in 2023! They include a petrol pricing segment and (hopefully) a coupon/voucher segment. The ‘petrol pricing’ segment will work based on the postcode that you put in and will display the cheapest petrol in your area. Our ‘coupon/voucher’ segment is a work in progress, but we are looking into ways to get you access to more and more discounts every single day. We figured different coupons/vouchers could be a great way to get this started!

Finally, we really want to introduce a referral program in our newsletters. What this means is you get the opportunity to refer us to your family and friends and get rewarded for doing so. We want to make this as easy as possible, so you can invite whoever you want to join the club! The rewards will start with small wins like badges on our forum, but the more people you invite the better the reward becomes… So stay tuned for this one, folks!

View attachment 10659

Our website is getting a few new additions! Image source: The Seniors Discount Club.

Our website
We want to keep providing you with the best content we possibly can. We love keeping you all ‘in the loop’ with everything happening across Australia and around the world, but we want to bring you even more content than ‘the news’. Here are just a few ideas for new content that we want to introduce in 2023.

• Movie, book and TV reviews. We think introducing reviews could be a great way for us all to interact. We want to bring as many reviews your way, but we figured this will also give you the opportunity to give us, and other members reviews! Maybe you read a really great book recently? Watched an interesting TV show? Or maybe even an old movie that you forgot you loved. Either way, we want to hear about it. We hope introducing reviews will not only give you something other than the news to read about, but maybe a book to read, or a TV show or movie to watch!
• Product testing. We started testing products in 2022 and we LOVED it. We think it is so much fun and we know you all enjoyed it too. However, producing this content took a lot of time and effort, and with the small team we have, we found ourselves running out of time. So, we are going to try to do product testing ourselves once a month, but we also want to open up the opportunity to our members who are interested in product testing and writing articles to contact us at [email protected] about becoming an SDC Product Tester. We will, of course, pay for the products you test i.e. if you test a variety of honey, or different washing liquids we will pay for them, and then you can write a review about which product was the best and worst, their price and so on and so forth! We figured if our members test the products themselves, then we know the recommendations can be trusted. So if you are interested, get in touch with us at [email protected]! We only need a few, so first in best dressed.
• Games. We know you all love a game, so we want to keep building more and more for you all to enjoy. In 2023, you can expect more SDC games than ever before.
• Coupons/vouchers. I spoke about this in the ‘newsletter’ segment of this article, but we will be introducing coupons/vouchers to our newsletter and our website! These will differ week to week, and will be coupons/vouchers to online and bricks and mortar stores. We are still working on this new feature of the newsletter and website so the situation may vary.

SDC Premium Membership
We’ve been thinking about this one long and hard and we have decided that in 2023 we will launch a premium membership. This membership will be OPTIONAL and will provide ADDITIONAL content, games, deals, and discounts to paying members. This means what we currently offer to our members will always remain free and that will never change. Both free and premium members will receive our morning and afternoon newsletters as normal.

We don’t want to charge much and we know paying for content isn’t everyone's cup of tea and that is absolutely fine. The reason we have decided to launch a premium membership in addition to our free membership is that we currently make a little bit of money off the ads on our website, but we know they are annoying and we don’t want to keep putting more and more ads on our website. Offering a premium membership to members who have the means to pay, means we can continue to offer our free membership for free, without having to add too many ads that ruin the entire website and overall experience for everyone.

None of our decisions are ‘set in stone’ and we know the majority of our members really don’t have money laying around, but we don’t plan on making our premium membership too expensive. We are thinking either $4.99 per month or $49.99 for 12 months. We will be communicating with you all about this over the next few weeks! But we wanted to pop something in this article so you knew something was coming!

What’s to come in the future?
I am so glad you asked! Our biggest focus for the SDC’s future is definitely to build an app for your phones and tablets. We know ‘apps are where it’s at’ (very ‘hip’ of me) so we do really want to release one! The thing about apps is they take time to build, especially if you want to do them well which we do. We want our app to be super easy to use and something you can all use every day. We hope we can launch this by the end of 2023, or some time in 2024 if it gets delayed!

Other than the app, we aren’t too sure what the SDC’s future holds. Hopefully a lot more partnerships with stores that can offer you even better deals and discounts and more!

I hope you enjoyed this 2023 update and I cannot wait to see what this year brings! I hope 2023 is a wonderful year for you all

While I don't necessarily have a problem with a subscription if gives some benefit and people have the means and where with all. I do have a problem with the bullshit pricing of 4.99 makes more sense to just make it straight $5.00 per month or $50.00 for 12 months.

 

[Maddison Dwyer]

Wow! You have all made my day with these comments! Thank you so much. I am so glad you start your day with us and of course a cuppa. It's my favourite way to start the day as well (Even though I often write them, edit them or help build them )

@Luckyus thank you so much for the feedback! Do you think you would rather $5 rather than $4.99 purely because $4.99 is $5? And that having the $4 at the front is kind of misleading because it makes you think it's cheaper than it is? Or is it something else? Keen to get your feedback on this!

 

[Luckyus]

Wow! You have all made my day with these comments! Thank you so much. I am so glad you start your day with us and of course a cuppa. It's my favourite way to start the day as well (Even though I often write them, edit them or help build them )

@Luckyus thank you so much for the feedback! Do you think you would rather $5 rather than $4.99 purely because $4.99 is $5? And that having the $4 at the front is kind of misleading because it makes you think it's cheaper than it is? Or is it something else? Keen to get your feedback on this!

 

[Luckyus]

Hi Maddison: No I just generally dislike the 99 cent idea when everybody knows there is no such thing unless you are happy to save a dollar in the 100?, the cent being accumulative Maybe I'm just some old ratbag venting. Maybe I should just stick to the jokes?

 

[Maddison Dwyer]

Hi Maddison: No I just generally dislike the 99 cent idea when everybody knows there is no such thing unless you are happy to save a dollar in the 100?, the cent being accumulative Maybe I'm just some old ratbag venting. Maybe I should just stick to the jokes?

@Luckyus not at all! Do not be so harsh on yourself. This is very helpful feedback I don't think you should just stick to the jokes at all! I'll take this all on board because I tend to agree with you... If there's no actual cost difference between $4.99 and $5, then why not just say $5!