I’m pretty excited to announce a new long term DC Rainmaker Partnership. One that I’m certain will actually bring you real value. But first, a bit of back story.
Over the past year or so, I’ve been approached by a lot of companies wanting to develop a partnership with the site, but none of them really put any skin in the game. In other words, they wanted the traffic and visibility, but didn’t really want to offer you (my readers) anything. And in many cases, didn’t offer me anything either. It wasn’t exactly a win-win.
In my mind, if I was going to enter any partnership with any organizations, it had to meet the following requirements:
1) It couldn’t be a company whose products I review: Plain and simple, I don’t see how you can review a product if the company is sponsoring the site. I’ve never understood it on big sites, and certainly not on small sites.
2) They couldn’t just offer me something, you had to be in it to: The first question I asked any company was what you (DCR readers) got out of it. Preferably something monetarily valuable, or at the very least, absolutely unique and unachievable elsewhere.
3) It can’t take any more of my time: This one may sound minor – but at present my biggest constraint is time in the day. Between a full-time job, tons of travel, training, and life – I have virtually no time remaining. Whatever it was, I didn’t have the time to manage.
4) And it had to be of value to me too: Obviously, if I’m going to enter a partnership – it has to work out in my favor and be worth being excited about. Life’s too short to get excited about non-exciting things.
With that, after meeting with Clever Training – I was pretty impressed with their management team. And, the fact that they understood where I was coming from. In particular, on #2 above. Thus, we sketched out a partnership that benefits you – DCR Twitter followers, Facebook friends, Google+ followers, RSS subscribers, and YouTube channel subscribers.
Here’s what’s of note:
1) You get 10% discount on everything you buy at Clever Training. They focus on sports technology products (just like me). And thus, they have all the brands you want – everything. Yes, you can do the math – if you’re buying a $1,000 trainer – $100 off is pretty sweet. This is exclusively for DCR readers. Oh, and US shipping is free for anything over $75 (which is basically everything I review). And they ship internationally as well.
2) Anything they don’t stock that I want them to, they’ll get: This is important to me. Ultimately, if I’m reviewing a product, I want you to be able to get a discount on it. They’ve already taken every product I’ve reviewed and are working to get those products in-house. Since then they’ve signed agreements with companies like Wahoo Fitness and others to stock those products (Woohoo, Wahoo KICKR Trainer!). You’ll see the handful of products not yet on their list coming shortly.
3) They’ll take care of all my giveaways: I love giving away stuff. But over the past few months with the move to France this has become a bit more complicated than I expected – mostly since I haven’t quite mastered the French post office (as some of you have found out unfortunately). Going forward, I run the giveaways like I normally do – picking whatever (usually expensive) product floats my boat, and then I just simply tell them an address anywhere in the world and they take care of it. Donezo. Clearly, this means more giveaways in your future.
4) Really sweet DCR-specific deals from time to time: We’re still working on this – but one area you told me about in the survey I did last year was that you’d be open to exclusive deals if I could arrange them. The challenge for me has been figuring out a way to do this that’s non-compromising from an editorial standpoint. This solves the problem, as no product company is involved. Don’t worry, I’ll make it obvious when something like this is happening, and it’ll be off a separate page you can go to.
5) They cover the cost of my gadget re-purchases: As you probably know, I return all products to companies after review, and then buy them back myself. The returning part doesn’t change – everything always goes back to the respective company. They’re helping out here on the product buyback front. This is a huge expense for me, even more so now that I’m in France (where things cost far more to obtain).
Here’s a few more items of note:
1) They don’t have any control over the site or content: None, zippo, zilch, zero. If they don’t like something, tough nuggets for them.
2) Don’t expect any posts with advertising: The site isn’t a platform for Clever Training to push out a post to you with the deal of the week or anything in its own post. If there’s some sort of DCR-specific deal, it’ll likely go in the Week in Review post. Unless it’s something crazy – like 50% off the hottest gadget just released. But not 20% off a gizmo from three years ago.
3) It won’t change my review content: At the end of the day, you’ve always been able to support the site via buying products I review through Amazon. As you know, I’m happy to slam products in reviews as applicable for failing to live up to the hype or being bug ridden. It doesn’t matter the company. You’ll see that again tomorrow…
4) Speaking of Amazon.com: This isn’t going away, nor being phased out. Supporting the site through Amazon.com is absolutely appreciated. Ultimately, there isn’t a discount on gadgets there, but feel free to buy anything you like there (I get credit for everything you pick up after clicking the Amazon link). In fact, most folks that support the site simply click on the big Amazon logo on the sidebar, and then do their shopping as usual. Normal stuff like boxes of Kasha bars, Dixie cups, and even corn holders (all on the list from last month). And nope, I can’t see who ordered what. Just a total list of items.
5) Using the Clever Training links and code supports me: This is probably obvious, but I wanted to point it out. In case you’re curious – yes, it’s a better deal for me than Amazon. So gadget purchases through Clever are appreciated.
Ok, phew, I think that’s it. Sorry for being so detailed in this post. I want to make sure everything I do is transparent and clear. Plus, I really think the discounts are pretty sweet, since most discounts out there don’t apply to cool gadgets. And I only do cool gadgets.
So here’s how you take advantage of it.
You can use this link here. You’ll need to add the 10% DCR reader exclusive deal coupon – DCR10XBK – to your cart upon checkout to get 10% off everything in the cart.
Alternatively, anytime, you can click on the sidebar and the info is right there:
And, it’ll eventually make it’s way to the end of each review as I update them over the next week or so. In the meantime, you can simply click the logo above and then search after that on their site and apply the code.
As always, thanks for reading!
Nice deal for you!
Sadly it won’t help much people living outside the US or Canada… I’m living in Germany and even with the weak dollar and the 10% discount it costs 29$ S&H plus the import taxes one will have to pay.
But at least you will finally get a bit more for your hard work!
Thanks, Ray, but:
“You can use this link here.”
EQUALS
“Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to http://www.shareasale.com“
FYI
Great for you! Also very usefull for the readers from The States and Canada. I hope you’ll get another sponsor for European readers. I guess we will get “our” share through your posts and it is more than enough for me!
In the UK I think import duties are the same as VAT i.e. 20% you don’t have to pay both VAT and import duties.
You do have to pay the VAT on the postage and other fees though.
Nice! I am currently the founder of eFreeme.com and had contacted you about our product. We will create a custom marketplace that integrates with your current blog, just for your users to buy and sell, and you’ll take small transaction fees from the buying and selling of items. This will help your site grow while remaining product neutral in your content, and in addition your users will be happy to be able to sell or buy items to like minded individuals.
Consider this as an option and contact me for more details. As a follower of DC Rainmaker and also as an avid cyclist I think the benefit for both you and your users would be enormous.
Cheers!
Mark
The links works perfectly fine for me, as has been all day btw.
I will be supporting you in any way I can with my purchases. Triathlon is so much better with cool gadgets!
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http://www.shareasale.com
appears to be non-functioning at least in USA with IE or Chrome
It links to link to shareasale.com
And says link is not active (using an ipad)
I second other voices from Europe… Including all the discounts, for us, US shops became too expensive with weak euro (when adding all the taxes and duties). However, when i’ll be in NY at the end of the year, i’ll surely order some stuff to my hotel
I’m also getting the “The link is not currently active.” error when clicking on the two different links on the main page.
links now work for me…
Sorry all for the link issues – I’ve been told they’ve been resolved and that it shouldn’t happen again (changed the process).
A bit of growing pains, but I appreciate the support!
ok, one quick question for clarification:
If I click through the amazon link on DCR and then do my regular amazon shopping DCR can get credit for all of my shopping???
If this is correct, then you just become my new amazon access portal!
PS – I am hooked on your site. It has completely changed the way I train! Thanks for all you do!!
Great, I hope to be in the States in a month, so I might as well order it with 10% off. Sweet deal!
Hi JD-
Yup, that’s correct! So all you need do is simply swing over here, click on the Amazon logo in the upper right corner, which takes you to Amazon. At that point your tagged as coming from here for the rest of your visit to Amazon. All purchases made (be it toilet paper, a new diamond ring, or chocolate) get ‘credited’ to me.
So yup, many folks simply just use the above as a portal and then shop like normal. I greatly appreciate the support!
Thanks!
-Ray
Good info! I use Amazon often when Coach Alan tells me I need this or that. Might as well give you the credit so you can buy more mixers and ribbons for the Cupcakery!
Also, I will be checking out the Clever Training site.
Thanks Barb and Paul!
The link in the sidebar isn’t displayed under Google Chrome Linux and Mac.
Forgive the spam… another request to please consider setting up a similar partnership with a European retailer…
As noted above, VAT and Import duties (yes we do pay both in the UK, on some goods at least) & warranty/support make it impractical to buy from the US.
thanks much indeed…
Thanks for your hard work.
Here is a pic of the sidebar under google chrome linux : link to i50.tinypic.com
Thanks Horst – I appreciate the heads out.
Out of curiosity, do you see the same (but smaller) picture and links when in the product review itself (see the FR10 example below which has it added):
link to dcrainmaker.com
It would appear at the very end of the review (right before comments), directly above where the Amazon logo and instant pricing is.
Huge appreciation for helping me troubleshoot this!
The link and picture are displayed and working fine in the reviews.
link to i48.tinypic.com
Great, thanks! And what about on the sidebar now? I made a few minor changes to try and address that (and it seemed to fix some folks), but can make a few more.
Thanks!
Your modifications worked : the Clever Training image link in the sidebar is displayed correctly in my browser.
Cheers for this Ray.
Just ordered a Forerunner 910XT with a footpod.And thanks also for the heads-up on the $50 rebate. I was shamelessly hoping I’d win it from your 910xt giveaway.
I wanted to get another running watch ever since my FR 305 was stolen last year. Got the Xperia active with the liveview. But the liveview broke when I was trying to remove it from the watchstrap.
Was torn between 610 & 910xt, but lack of courses was a deal-breaker for me.I’ve used it in the past when I was visiting a foreign city & found it rather helpful.
All my amazon(& my friends) purchases go through you. But it’s no big deal compared to what you’re doing for the running/tri community. Keep going.
Cheers
Hi Santhoshknn-
Thanks for the support (both on Clever and Amazon), I appreciate it!
Hope you enjoy the watch!
Ridiculous global pricing by some companies.
A garmin footpod in my local sports store (national chain) was $110 (Australian dollars). Aussies dollar to American is 1:1 at the moment, so even with $30 on postage it was considerably cheaper buying from here with the discount ($45 plus postage, but split over a few items).
Thanks Ray and clever training.
Hi Emlyn-
Yeah, some of the stuff companies are doing to the AUS market is pretty ugly.
Glad at least Clever was able to make it slightly better!
It seems like the 10% is not necessarily an exclusive. When I went to the site today it offered me 10% off as a new shopper to the site. I ignored pressing that link and just applied the code for you at the end. Getting the Powerbeam pro with joule GPS and an accessory kit. Also I added a heart rate strap but now I am thinking one comes with the set up as the cadence sensor does. Cycleops is not very transparent about this.
OR maybe I messed up and could have got 10% off of a 10%…hmmm No idea.
Anyway love your reviews..
armyslowrdr
on MTBR and bikemojo and singletracks
Thanks for the support Pete! Indeed, sometimes it pops up a new user discount. They aren’t stackable though (so no 10% on 10%) – but it was a nice thought!
Enjoy the PowerBeam and Joule!