Expiring deals & tips for getting the best discounts
Since 2011, I’ve invested thousands of dollars in business software deals like the ones below. Below these current deals (which expire soon) I share my advice and tips for getting the best discounts on tools that will grow your business, including why lifetime deals are my favorite deals for business tools and where to find these kinds of discounts.
Why invest in business software deals like the ones above?
I invest thousands of dollars in business software deals — especially one time fee lifetime deals — every year. And I do consider it an investment, somewhat similar to investing in the stock market.
Here’s the thing: the best deals on business tools, particularly lifetime deals, will be for tools and software that are relatively new and unproven. So you don’t exactly know how good they are, how good they’ll become, or how long they’ll even be around.
Every year I invest in some duds that are useless or go out of business. But most of them have some degree of utility.
And then there are those gems, the absolute winners that significantly save me time, effort, and money and help me scale my business in ways I never considered possible. That is the main reason for investing in business tools deals. But also…
Checking out deals on new business tools sparks creativity and business growth
Entrepreneurship and creativity go hand in hand. You’re always looking for new ways of doing things that can grow your business.
If you take a look at the tech tool deals on this page, you’ll probably find some interesting, helpful tools that you never even knew existed. And you might not have even known that it was possible to do some of the things these tools can do.
That’s a huge reason why I keep an active watch on business tool deals: you never know when you’re going to discover that new tool that sparks your imagination, gives you capabilities you never dreamed possible, and helps you scale up your business in ways you couldn’t have possibly predicted.
What you’ll learn in the rest of this guide to getting discounts on business software
- Key lessons I’ve learned from investing in business tools since 2011
- Why lifetime deals (aka LTDs) and new, unproven tools make some of the best investments
- An introduction to the crazy world of tech deals for entrepreneurs (a crazy world you might not have even known existed)
- Pitfalls to avoid when trying to get bargains on tools
- Tips and tricks for getting the best deals and discounts, including LTD discounts
Pitfalls to avoid when getting deals on business tools
In general, I’m a fan of investing in business software deals because of the potential for tremendous rewards. That said, there are some pitfalls to avoid when it comes to getting deals on business products, which I think are important to address.
So let’s cover those first.
Don’t spend money you don’t have (save, save, save, especially at first)
I cannot overstate the importance of this. Even if the flashiest new tool looks really interesting to you, if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it.
When I first started building a business online, I started with just the basic business tools. And I mean just the basics.
For example, I started with the cheapest web hosting I could find. And then, when I finally made more money each month and could afford it, I upgraded to better web hosting. But I didn’t start out with the best web hosting money could buy from the beginning. Ok?
So I don’t care how good a “deal” is. If it costs more than you can comfortably afford right now, then it probably isn’t a good deal for you. And the whole point of this page and guide is to help you find good deals — scratch that, great deals — that will help you grow your business and save you time over the long haul.
Beware of SOS: Shiny Object Syndrome
It’s kind of funny that “Shiny Object Syndrome” and “Save Our Souls” have the same acronym: SOS.
In case you don’t know what Shiny Object Syndrome is it’s the idea of constantly being distracted by the flashiest new toy out there, just as easily as a cat’s attention might be immediately hijacked by dangling a shiny new toy in front of it to chase.
The problem is that if you’re always focused on the “next great tool” to chase down, you’ll never be focused on actually growing your business, and in such a way your focus on always hunting for new tools and deals can backfire and work against you.
I speak from experience on this. I find new tools so interesting and useful that I can sometimes get wrapped up in just the fun and exploration of new tools to the detriment of my actual business!
I wish I had the answer for you on how to 100% avoid this issue. The best I can do is tell you to just be aware of it, and when you’re aware that it’s happening, return your focus to your actual business. Okay?
Beware of FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out
FOMO, which stands for the Fear Of Missing Out, is a huge problem when it comes to getting deals on business products.
To show you how powerful it is, you might recognize that a certain business tool is of little or no use to you, but if you purchase it today, before the deal ends tomorrow, you could save a fortune, and you might never have the chance of getting this kind of deal again — so you go ahead and buy the tool.
You see how sneaky FOMO is? It can often get you to buy business tools that aren’t relevant at all to you or your business!
So when you’re checking out a particular sale or discount that ends soon, take one second to ignore that the sale is about to end and ask yourself the following question: is the tool actually of use to you and will the tool help you save money, time, and effort growing your business?
If it won’t help you grow your business in these ways, then… You’re not really missing out by not purchasing it, are you? Maybe somebody else is, but not you.
Beware of buying addiction & buying to get the “high” of scoring a deal
I’ve seen people joke in online communities about being “addicted” to buying deals for online tools, but I haven’t seen too many people talk about this topic seriously. And I’m convinced that it can be a very real problem.
Here’s the thing: the “high” you get from scoring a supposedly great deal on a business tool (or anything else for that matter) can be compared to the “high” that a gambler gets from hitting a jackpot on a slot machine. There’s a dopamine rush that feels good, and then you can want that feeling again, and again, and again…
Bottom line, if you find yourself buying lots of business tools you never use just because you get a rush from it and you don’t actually use the tools you buy… Then my advice is to step away from the bargain hunting for business tools and focus on your actual business for your own good.
Moving on: tips for saving money and getting the best discounts on business tools
I spent some time covering some key pitfalls when it comes to bargain hunting for tech deals because I’ve barely seen anything on this topic, and if you’re interested in growing your business and being more productive, then I think it’s important to be aware of these issues.
But now that I’ve covered this, I’m assuming you just want to know where and how to find the best deals possible on business tools that will grow your business.
So this is what the rest of this guide is about.
I’ve been doing this kind of bargain hunting since 2011, so I’ll just drop everything I know about this on you so that you can boost your learning curve and hopefully do more, earn more, and save more with the following tips and advice below.
New tools = more potential rewards & opportunity for growing your business
If you’re looking to save money on business tools and grows your business faster, my top advice for you when it comes to looking for tech deals on products is to focus on new, emerging business tools and products.
Some people view this strategy as high risk / high reward since the products are unproven and might not last.
However, I feel that you can lower the risk by getting a sense of the quality of the product as well as getting a sense of the reputation and trustworthiness of the founder.
Furthermore, you can invest in a broad range of lifetime deals similar to how you can invest in an index fund, knowing that within the index fund there will be some winners and losers but overall you’ll tend to win in the long run… And this approach reduces the risk even further.
So for these reasons, I approach investing in new business tools as low risk / high rewards overall and well worth doing.
New tools = more access to founders and creators = more opportunity for your business
The other great thing about investing in new products and tools is that their creators tend to want you to use them, test them, give feedback for them, and discover use cases they’d never considered.
So if you find a new tool very interesting, and you’d just love for it to do “x” to scale up your business… Well, guess what? Lots of tool creators will be open to helping make that happen especially if they discover others are interested in the same way.
In such a way, you have a tremendous influence on the early development of the tool in question, and you can literally help customize it to do exactly what you want for your business needs… Which is a huge overlooked win by so many people.
The best kinds of investments in tools are lifetime deals (aka LTDs)
If you’re an entrepreneur and have spent time in deals communities on Facebook or elsewhere, you might have heard the term LTDs thrown around. So what the heck is an LTD?
LTD is an acronym for Lifetime Deal, which makes it a kind of silly acronym, if you think about it. Because it’s not Life Time Deal, which is 3 words, but instead it’s Lifetime Deal, which is 2 words. So LD would be a better, more sensible acronym for this kind of special deal.
But anyway, LTDs are lifetime deals that are supposed to be valid for your entire lifetime. Basically, you pay once for a tool, instead of paying MRR fees (subscription fees) each month.
How do lifetime deals save you MRR / subscription fees?
The point of lifetime deals are to save you from spending MRR / subscription fees each month. But what the heck are MRR fees?
MRR stands for Monthly Recurring Revenue. The way SaaS tools generally work is that they charge you a monthly subscription fee each month, and that monthly subscription fee is – you guessed it – monthly recurring revenue for the founder of the product.
So MRR and subscription fees are kind of the same thing. As a consumer, you pay a monthly subscription fee (like for Ahrefs, Dropbox, Evernote, or whatever else), and from the company’s perspective, that subscription fee is monthly recurring revenue.
While MRR is great for keeping businesses and products in business, it’s not so much fun for a consumer who wants to save money each month. This is what makes lifetime deals especially attractive, whenever you can find them.
Are lifetime deals really valid for an entire lifetime?
This is where things can get a little contentious, because I’ve bought LTDs only to discover they’re valid for 20 years or something, which has left me scratching my head a bit. Who on earth thinks of 20 years as a lifetime?
Even worse, I’ve bought some LTDs where the founder had the nerve to “update” his product and try to resell me the exact same product – that I already bought a lifetime deal for!
So there are definitely some unscrupulous people in the LTD game. BUT, overall, LTDs are generally really valid for the user’s lifetime, or 99 years, or until the business or product goes kaput. Which happens, too.
So they can be kind of a gamble, but they’re a good gamble, in my opinion, because the rewards and savings can be so high.
Where can you find lifetime deals besides OSG?
What? You want to score an awesome lifetime deal on another site besides Online Success Genie? What’s wrong with you?
Okay, I get it. It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do, now that I think about it.
Look around and you’ll find other lifetime deal sites like: AppSumo, StackSocial, Pitchground, Deal Mirror, Deal Fuel, and Saas Mantra. (FYI, if you come across SaaS deals and you wonder what an SaaS deal even is… It means Software As a Service, so it’s yet another way of talking about business tools).
There are plenty more deal sites, so I’ll either add more of them to this list later, or perhaps write an article just focused on the different kinds of deal websites there are out there, so you can get the best deal you can find no matter what.
What do you do if a lifetime deal has already come and gone?
Oh, the heartbreak. You hear about an amazing tool and a lifetime deal for it, but… The deal already expired. Been there.
If this happens, there are at least two workarounds you could pursue.
The first option is to contact the founder / company and see if they will still sell you that lifetime deal, even though it expired. Some won’t, but some will. I speak from experience.
The second option is that you can find Facebook communities dedicated to trading and reselling past lifetime deals, so you can post what you’re looking for in one of those groups. Just be super careful with this option, since scammers could try to sell you a deal you can’t actually redeem. So see if you can investigate the reputation of the seller first.
Can you trade and resell lifetime deals?
I look at purchasing lifetime deals as investment for my businesses, but other people take the concept of “investment” in deals to a whole other level, where they buy lifetime deals, wait for the offer period to expire, and then hopefully sell those same deals at higher prices.
I have never done this, but I know that other people do it all the time in Facebook communities and groups dedicated to this very sort of thing.
The tech deals for entrepreneurs world is a crazy, crazy world than many people don’t even know exist, and within this ecosystem are people who literally buy, sell, trade, and flip lifetime deals to make money — a kind of business in and of itself. (Kind of like the industry of ticket resellers for concerts, athletic events, etc.)
So, just know that this is something that people do and that you could possibly do if you’re interested, but I have no experience in this arena, so I don’t have anything to offer in the way of advice on this subject.
Beyond lifetime deals: tips & tricks for getting deals & discounts in general
Lifetime deals for entrepreneurs are a kind of special deal I haven’t encountered in other contexts (as demonstrated by all the groups and communities that spring up around these kinds of deals), so if the concept is brand new to you, hopefully I’ve given you a better sense of what it’s all about and why the potential rewards tend to outweigh the potential risks.
For the rest of this article, I’m going to share with you some tips and tricks for getting better discounts for tools and services for your business in general (meaning they are not tips specifically related to lifetime deals).
1. Do a Google search for Tool Name + coupon (or discount, promo code, sale, ltd etc)
It blows my mind that some people just purchase products without quickly searching first for a discount online.
No, it might not be worth your time to spend hours searching for a discount, but if you have the attitude that you’ll spend 1 minute or less looking for a discount before purchasing, this is a great strategy.
For example, if you were interested in Sheets Genie and were looking for a discount, why not just type Sheets Genie discount into Google and see what happens?
Worst case scenario is there’s currently not an available discount. Right? And the potential payoff could be huge if there is one.
2. Google the product name and see what comes up in Google’s paid ads
Generally, I’m not a fan of all the paid ads before the Google search results, but when it comes to hunting for discounts and deals, I love them.
Think about it: if you’re searching for a certain product and expressing interest in it, and that company runs paid Google ads for their product… They’re probably going to make you a good offer in their advertisement to get you to try it and buy it.
For example, type in GoDaddy discount, and there’s a good chance you’ll see a paid ad from them enticing you with a discount for their products and services.
3. Sign up for the company’s email list
If you’re really interested in a particular tool, go to the website for the tool, and you’ll probably quickly find a way to sign up for that company’s email list.
And guess what? Of course they’ll naturally try to market to you after you sign up, and very often, that means offering you a special discount or coupon if you decide to act sooner than later. So it kind of gets served to you on a platter that way.
4. Use the “exit intent” strategy on the company website
This is kind of a secret pro tip which will sound completely obvious once you hear it.
If you’re on a website page and move your mouse away from the page and towards your url bar, that demonstrates “exit intent”. Very often companies will have a special offer or special email signup pop up to get your attention again before you leave.
So, it might sound crazy to go to a website, poke around for a few seconds, and then pretend to leave to get an offer, but this can definitely work. In the real world, it’s kind of like walking away from some guy on the street trying to sell you his wares, and he tries to call you back and get your attention with an offer you can’t refuse.
5. Email the company founder and see what the best discount he can offer is
You can often just cut to the chase, especially if the company is small enough and the founder is accessible, and tell him that you’re interested in the product, and you’d like to know the best deal you can currently get on it.
They’ll probably be honest and straight up tell you one way or the other.
6. Ask the founder if there is anything you could do to get a discount
If you’re really strapped for cash and you want to use a product but simply can’t afford it, you could tell the founder that, and ask him if there’s something you could do to help him that could get you a discount.
For example, tool founders love it when people get out the positive word about their product. That might be useful to him and a discount would be useful to you… So win win.
I haven’t gone down this path, but the idea seems sound to me, especially when you consider how many tool creators already offer discounts and freebies to incentivize reviews.
Do more, earn more, and save more with these tips
The entire goal of OnlineSuccessGenie is to help you do more, earn more, and save more, so the deals and tips on this page would probably fall more in the “save more” category. However, the whole point of investing in business tools is to help you do more and earn more.
So the way I look at it, the point of this page and all the tips in it is to really help you do more and earn more, but do it more affordably. Make sense?
At the end of the day, I hope this article helps you save money, helps you grow your business, and helps you avoid some of the common pitfalls along the way that are rarely discussed when it comes to deal hunting.