How to make merchants aware of Bitcoins advantages?

[check_status]

Reading another thread I had a brilliant idea (All my ideas are brilliant at the time.). Basically, I was thinking about a way to spread the word and get people involved when I had a light bulb moment that could hit a lot of the valuable points for BTC use.

Create Bitcoin awareness with low value item retail merchants!

That's it. It's that simple. And what better low value item for sale than coupon clipping services.  

1. Exposes decisions makers to Bitcoin
2. It fits into the micro-payment architecture
3. Will expose Bitcoins to large groups of conscientious and aware people
4. Simplifies purchases for an existing market
5. Gets people involved with very little expense, sharply reducing risk for participants
6. Will be utilized frequently, weekly if not daily

Examples of Coupon Clipping services:
http://www.couponsthingsbydede.com/Categories_s/22.htm
http://www.lorihas3kids.com/
http://couponcarryout.com/

Here is a sample of what I sent:

Subject: Payment processing choices?

Hello,

Do you accept Bitcoins for payments on coupons?

Bitcoins are a digital currency designed to be a micropayment system for the internet. I think it would be a perfect fit for coupons because of their low value cost. I have included some links about the value of Bitcoins in the Bitcoin world.

Trading - https://mtgox.com/ (This shows the current market price for 1BTC)
Merchants - http://bit-pay.com/  https://bit-pay.com/faq.html (Similar to Paypal or Credit card processing but for BTC)
Buying Bitcoins -  https://www.bitinstant.com/  (Deposits can be made at many banks to fund Bitcoin accounts like Mt. Gox)
What is BTC - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo

I stopped banking and using credit cards online because of the amount of theft going on, I have been a victim. My bank account at one point was even used as a transfer station for stolen funds. Currently I buy prepaid cards if I have to do any shopping online.

I hope you would consider using a service like this, it would make my shopping safer.

Cheers

Who I sent this to:
dede at coupondede dot com
lori0479 at cfl dot rr dot com
info at couponcarryout dot com
admin at kuntryklippers dot com
lucinda dot wolford at gmail dot com

There may be other coupon clipping services I didn't notice. There may be other low value item retail merchants that sell online and could benefit, like seed sellers or small parts suppliers.

Spread the word, make our Bitcoins more valuable!

Cheers

Edit: Added coupon clipping services examples.

[julz]

Ok.. introducing bitcoins to more merchants sounds good..   now perhaps you could introduce the coupon clipping part to any bitcoiners who might be as bewildered as I am.

Why do coupons need to be 'clipped' and why is it so difficult that there are services to do it?  (scissors??)
Is a 'coupon clipping service' a peculiarly US thing?

[hazek]

There may be other low value item retail merchants that sell online and could benefit, like seed sellers or small parts suppliers.

Yes there are. F2P games relying on microtransactions. Why? Because the game designers are IT literate and more importantly their customers are fairly IT literate.


I recently contacted http://worldoftanks.eu/:

Posted on: 13 March 2012 01:59 PM
Hello,

I don't know if you're up to date on developments on online payment processors but if you aren't I'd like to give you a heads-up about something relatively new you might want to look into.

If you, like me, really hate outrages fees, you or your clients hate giving out personal information for fear of ID theft and you hate their almost dictatorial control over your funds via charge backs or account freezing this is really going to interest you.

Personally I got rid of all those problems by using Bitcoin. It's a new thing that was recently invented. It's kind of like a digital commodity currency people trade online but the cool thing about it it isn't owned by anyone. It's one of those open source projects, where a bunch of programmers developed it completely openly for everyone to see how it works but because of it's ingenious design it's still very secure and very private to use.

It's protected by military grade encryption and practically impossible to counterfeit. There are no bank accounts, no giving out info if you don't want, no company imposing their will on your transactions, and no charge backs possible. It's much like cash on the street but on the internet.

I know this sounds highly spam-worthy but people actually use this and value bitcoins at about $5 a pop right now.. There are several online exchanges where one can buy them and it's pretty easy to get or sell some.

Here are a few links if you'd like to find out more:

www.weusecoins.com
www.bitcoin.org
www.mtgox.com - online exchange
www.cryptoxchange.com - online exchange
www.intersango.com - online exchange
www.bit-pay.com - payment processing

I'm not an expert, just an enthusiast but I would be more than happy to help you find answers to any questions you have.

And got only this as a reply:

Posted on: 14 March 2012 11:52 AM
Dear Player,

thank you for the information. We'll pass it to our leads.

Best regards,
Michael Swan

World of Tanks Support Service
http://support.worldoftanks.eu

[BadBear]

Using phrases like dictatorial control is just gonna turn most people off, and they'll just think of you as "that guy".

[check_status]

Ok.. introducing bitcoins to more merchants sounds good..   now perhaps you could introduce the coupon clipping part to any bitcoiners who might be as bewildered as I am.

Why do coupons need to be 'clipped' and why is it so difficult that there are services to do it?  (scissors??)
Is a 'coupon clipping service' a peculiarly US thing?

In the US coupons come in the mail and inside newspapers, are sometimes region specific. The only way to get these coupons is via others who collect them and resell them. For instance, search for "coupon source mailer" on Ebay. Some services offer bulk purchase options, like 10, 20,40, or 60 at a clip. Coupons help people save money when shopping for items. Extreme Coupon shoppers can save $300-$400 per trip, sometimes walking out having paid nothing for their order. People who are raising children and are looking to save money for their family use coupon clipping as a way to help out, especially when you can save 40%-50% on the food bill with little effort.

This type of retail business is the perfect fit for Bitcoins. It will put Bitcoin information into key consumers who can help improve Bitcoin value. This group of people is already active in doing something and are already more knowledgable. The Bitcoin community can tap into this to help grow the value of BTC.

[hazek]

Using phrases like dictatorial control is just gonna turn most people off, and they'll just think of you as "that guy".

I said "almost dictatorial control" which is a big difference. I'm exaggerating, sure, but I didn't go overboard by saying something crazy like "I hate those fascistic vampire dictatorial banks". So if they share the sentiment at all with me I think my message should hit home pretty good.

[rjk]

Using phrases like dictatorial control is just gonna turn most people off, and they'll just think of you as "that guy".

I said "almost dictatorial control" which is a big difference. I'm exaggerating, sure, but I didn't go overboard by saying something crazy like "I hate those fascistic vampire dictatorial banks". So if they share the sentiment at all with me I think my message should hit home pretty good.

I appreciate the effort, but unfortunately that message has too many trigger words and phrases that make me think spam right away. It would be ideal if you could partner up with a copywriter or someone that would polish it up into a fine sales piece. I'm pretty sure my email filter would block it based on heuristic analysis, but with some tweaking it could sail right to the top of an enterprise and become gold.

[hazek]

I just sent another one a bit revised to eveonline.com:

Hello,

I don't know if you're up to date on developments on online payment processors but if you aren't I'd like to give you a heads-up about something relatively new you might want to look into.

When I shop online I really hate outrages fees, I hate giving out personal information for fear of ID theft and I hate almost dictatorial control over my money via charge backs or account freezing.

So I got rid of all those problems by using Bitcoin. It's a new thing that was recently invented. It's kind of like a digital commodity currency people trade online but the cool thing about it it isn't owned by anyone. It's one of those open source projects, where a bunch of programmers developed it completely openly for everyone to see how it works but because of it's ingenious design it's still very secure and very private to use.

It's protected by military grade encryption and relying on the laws of math practically impossible to counterfeit. There are no bank accounts, no giving out info if you don't want, no company imposing their will on your transactions, and no charge backs possible. It's much like cash on the street but on the internet and completely legal too.

I know this ticket sounds highly spam-worthy but people actually use this method and value bitcoins at about $5 a pop right now.. and I really wanted to share this with you.

Today there are several online exchanges where one can buy them and it's pretty easy to get or sell some.

Here are a few links if you'd like to find out more:

www.weusecoins.com - independent introduction site
www.bitcoin.org - official site
en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page - official wiki page
www.mtgox.com - independent online exchange
www.cryptoxchange.com - independent online exchange
www.intersango.com - independent online exchange
www.bitinstant.com - independent instant fund transfers
www.bit-pay.com - independent payment processing


I'm not part of the project nor am I an expert in how it works, I'm just an enthusiast who follows it regularly but I would be more than happy to help you find answers to any questions you may have.

[check_status]

Using phrases like dictatorial control is just gonna turn most people off, and they'll just think of you as "that guy".

I said "almost dictatorial control" which is a big difference. I'm exaggerating, sure, but I didn't go overboard by saying something crazy like "I hate those fascistic vampire dictatorial banks". So if they share the sentiment at all with me I think my message should hit home pretty good.

I appreciate the effort, but unfortunately that message has too many trigger words and phrases that make me think spam right away. It would be ideal if you could partner up with a copywriter or someone that would polish it up into a fine sales piece. I'm pretty sure my email filter would block it based on heuristic analysis, but with some tweaking it could sail right to the top of an enterprise and become gold.

Lend us a hand rjk. Teach us thy golden pen methods that we can improve.
Why is it everytime I speak polish my arms get sore. 

[hazek]

At eveonline.com they already seem to be using something a bit fringe: http://www.wmtransfer.com/eng/about/

What the hell is that?

[rjk]

Using phrases like dictatorial control is just gonna turn most people off, and they'll just think of you as "that guy".

I said "almost dictatorial control" which is a big difference. I'm exaggerating, sure, but I didn't go overboard by saying something crazy like "I hate those fascistic vampire dictatorial banks". So if they share the sentiment at all with me I think my message should hit home pretty good.

I appreciate the effort, but unfortunately that message has too many trigger words and phrases that make me think spam right away. It would be ideal if you could partner up with a copywriter or someone that would polish it up into a fine sales piece. I'm pretty sure my email filter would block it based on heuristic analysis, but with some tweaking it could sail right to the top of an enterprise and become gold.

Lend us a hand rjk. Teach us thy golden pen methods that we can improve.
Why is it everytime I speak polish my arms get sore. 

Well, I'm not the best writer myself, I just can see how it might not fly the first time.

Maybe some of the following would help:

Referring to "I" and "personally", and offering to "share" it with me sounds somewhat similar to diet pill spam.
Noting that the email "sounds highly spam-worthy" isn't necessary.
Although fees are annoying, they are a part of daily business life and should be approached carefully. It is not fee-free for a merchant to use Bitcoin if they want to convert it to USD. And most merchants will wonder what they are missing out on service-wise if the fee is suddenly "eliminated". Who will answer the phone when there is a problem, if there are no fees to pay an employee to answer it? Get inside the business owner's head and think the way he does.
One of "those" open-source projects - sounds a bit dismissive, even if it wasn't intended that way.
Personal information - most businesses are trained to collect this anyway, regardless of whether you give it to the payment processor or not. They may feel outside their comfort zone not knowing who a customer is.

And so forth.

[BadBear]

Using phrases like dictatorial control is just gonna turn most people off, and they'll just think of you as "that guy".

I said "almost dictatorial control" which is a big difference. I'm exaggerating, sure, but I didn't go overboard by saying something crazy like "I hate those fascistic vampire dictatorial banks". So if they share the sentiment at all with me I think my message should hit home pretty good.

You see, I didn't even notice the almost part, when I hit dictatorial control my eye started twitching and I just skimmed the rest, and I'm sure he did too. Sure occasionally you might get lucky and find someone who actually agrees, but the average joe isn't.  He doesn't know how money works, he doesn't know about inflation or deflation, the role the banks played in the economic troubles we're experiencing, or even what economic troubles we are experiencing in the first place. Spend more time extolling the virtues of bitcoin itself and what it can actually do, and less bashing the banks.

[hazek]

Using phrases like dictatorial control is just gonna turn most people off, and they'll just think of you as "that guy".

I said "almost dictatorial control" which is a big difference. I'm exaggerating, sure, but I didn't go overboard by saying something crazy like "I hate those fascistic vampire dictatorial banks". So if they share the sentiment at all with me I think my message should hit home pretty good.

You see, I didn't even notice the almost part, when I hit dictatorial control my eye started twitching and I just skimmed the rest, and I'm sure he did too. Sure occasionally you might get lucky and find someone who actually agrees, but the average joe isn't.  He doesn't know how money works, he doesn't know about inflation or deflation, the role the banks played in the economic troubles we're experiencing, or even what economic troubles we are experiencing in the first place. Spend more time extolling the virtues of bitcoin itself and what it can actually do, and less bashing the banks.

You mean to tell me merchants don't realize how powerless they are when it comes to control of their bank accounts or paypall accounts??! How can Bitcoin ever compete then if people don't even feel like there's room for improvement?

[julz]

Ok.. introducing bitcoins to more merchants sounds good..   now perhaps you could introduce the coupon clipping part to any bitcoiners who might be as bewildered as I am.

Why do coupons need to be 'clipped' and why is it so difficult that there are services to do it?  (scissors??)
Is a 'coupon clipping service' a peculiarly US thing?

In the US coupons come in the mail and inside newspapers, are sometimes region specific. The only way to get these coupons is via others who collect them and resell them. For instance, search for "coupon source mailer" on Ebay. Some services offer bulk purchase options, like 10, 20,40, or 60 at a clip. Coupons help people save money when shopping for items. Extreme Coupon shoppers can save $300-$400 per trip, sometimes walking out having paid nothing for their order. People who are raising children and are looking to save money for their family use coupon clipping as a way to help out, especially when you can save 40%-50% on the food bill with little effort.

This type of retail business is the perfect fit for Bitcoins. It will put Bitcoin information into key consumers who can help improve Bitcoin value. This group of people is already active in doing something and are already more knowledgable. The Bitcoin community can tap into this to help grow the value of BTC.

Thanks for the explanation.
It seems a bit strange to me that this phenomenon exists and is worthwhile.. but I guess if multiple coupons could be used in one shop for a single checkout it could make sense.

I would have thought that the slice of the population who muck about with coupons are probably 'underbanked'.. and relatively more reliant on cash.
While that in some ways makes them prime candidates for Bitcoin usage, it also suggests to me that the currently required steps of transferring money via banks and intermediaries to exchanges such as mtgox might be a significant impediment.  (but perhaps I'm just being ignorant/presumptuous about who uses these services)

[rjk]

You mean to tell me merchants don't realize how powerless they are when it comes to control of their bank accounts or paypall accounts??!

This is pretty much the answer, unfortunately.

[N12]

You mean to tell me merchants don't realize how powerless they are when it comes to control of their bank accounts or paypall accounts??!

This is pretty much the answer, unfortunately.

Yes. Please stop this spammy and pathetic evangelizing. We don’t need any stupid merchants or people taking Bitcoins as donations, they are useless at the current stage.

What is needed are successful applications for Bitcoin like Silk Road, which are actually used by lots of people because they have NO BETTER CHOICE. I hope ogrr and coinworker will be such ones in the future.

[check_status]

You mean to tell me merchants don't realize how powerless they are when it comes to control of their bank accounts or paypall accounts??!

This is pretty much the answer, unfortunately.

Yes. Please stop this spammy and pathetic evangelizing. We don’t need any stupid merchants or people taking Bitcoins as donations, they are useless at the current stage.

What is needed are successful applications for Bitcoin like Silk Road, which are actually used by lots of people because they have NO BETTER CHOICE. I hope ogrr and coinworker will be such ones in the future.

Aren't you being a bit exclusionary and near sited?

I want the value of my BTC to rise, the higher the better. Developers, merchants, and charities all help to improve BTC's value. The more who use it the stronger and more valuable it becomes.

[BadBear]

You mean to tell me merchants don't realize how powerless they are when it comes to control of their bank accounts or paypall accounts??! How can Bitcoin ever compete then if people don't even feel like there's room for improvement?

A lot of people just don't know there are better alternatives, familiary is comforting. For some it breeds contemp and you'll reach those, but you could miss out on a lot of others just by including hot phrases. Bitcoin can stand on it's own merits. No need to tear the banks down, they're destroying themselves. 

[N12]

I want the value of my BTC to rise, the higher the better. Developers, merchants, and charities all help to improve BTC's value. The more who use it the stronger and more valuable it becomes.

1. Urging people to accept Bitcoin to make their value rise sounds like a pump and dump scheme.
2. The typical merchants and charities don’t do shit, noone would use Bitcoins with them instead of fiat. They also just cash out Bitcoins for Dollars, so that actually brings down the price.

Again, the only thing that really helps is to have applications which cannot exist without Bitcoin.

[BadBear]

I want the value of my BTC to rise, the higher the better. Developers, merchants, and charities all help to improve BTC's value. The more who use it the stronger and more valuable it becomes.

1. Urging people to accept Bitcoin to make their value rise sounds like a pump and dump scheme.
2. The typical merchants and charities don’t do shit, noone would use Bitcoins with them instead of fiat. They also just cash out Bitcoins for Dollars, so that actually brings down the price.

Again, the only thing that really helps is to have applications which cannot exist without Bitcoin.

1. Agree so much.

2. I wouldn't go that far, bringing awareness is a good thing, and more people using the better. How many times would someone see different sites that accept bitcoin before he wonders what it is? Anything that gets people closer to that number is a good thing, and it's better than sitting around waiting for the "killer app". Think mind share. People should know they actually do have a choice. Maybe there's a pr/marketing person on the boards who can help with advice about emails like this.