What’s the story?
Five years ago, my husband and I felt that there’s no one site which captures the promotions, sale, and warehouse sale around Singapore. During weekends, we often had to visit various websites to decide where to go for our shopping fix! Then an idea struck. We thought, since we were already doing research on sale, why not take an extra step and consolidate them in a blog? That way, our friends and families can also assess the information readily. This was how Tua Lobang came about.
What’s the niche you’re trying to fill?
This is a personal venture, so we’re not trying to fill any space in the market. We merely want to capture sale events which are happening in town so that people can just get information in one place. But my husband and I hold full-time jobs, and we can’t possibly capture all promotions and sale. We update Tua Lobang on week nights and weekends. And we don’t sell space to anyone. Everything we post are contributed by our readers, some vendors and our own efforts.
How did you come up with the name?
Tua Lobang wasn’t the initial name but we wanted something catchy. It’s especially apt, albeit unusual, for the site (since it meant big bargains in hokkien). People often ask us repeat the name in disbelief. It’s a name people will remember.
How do you pick the events you feature?
We started off featuring everything and everyone. But after one year, we decided to focus on mainly sale/discounts at a physical shops, especially brands we are familiar with, or online travel deals. We don’t advertise blog shops and lesser-known names as we are concerned if they are genuine. Our rule of thumb: if we will buy from the store, we will post up their sale. We also do not feature lucky draws or promotional campaigns to help others promote their website or social media page.
How many visitors so far?
We get an average of close to 2,000 visitors (not unique) daily. It’s encouraging for us as we are really using our free time to bargain hunt for our readers.
What’s been the most challenging thing about getting it going?
Time! Both of us have full-time jobs which do require OT at times, even on weekends, but we make time for the site wherever possible. People get upset with us when we couldn’t put up sale events in time. Some wrote nasty comments on our comments box, and it’s discouraging to read. We wanted to give up the site several times as we don’t make money out of it. But we press on for our regular (silent) visitors. Perhaps with the growing number of similar sites we just might call it a day, if we have no more visitors.
