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Lottery comparison site

zumcorpzumcorp subscriber Posts: 1
edited July 2008 in Website Critique

www.OnlineLotteryWorld.com


Hello all,
First of all, thanks for clicking on this link and reading this.

I am a lotteries fan, and I always wanted to have a site where the top lotteries and best online lottery ticket providers could be compared.

For those not familiarized with lotteries, here is a brief:


US lotteries (Mega Millions and Poweball) publicize big Jackpots, but based on a annual payment basis. When you choose a lump sum payment, the prize is cut easily by a half.

On top of that, you have to discount also Federal and State taxes. Taxes varies depending on whether you are a US resident, and in which state you (or someone in your behalf) purchased the ticket.
At the end, you receive roughly a third of the announced Jackpot.
Euro Millions, on the other hand, is a tax free - cash only lottery. The announced jackpot is what you receive. The problem with this lottery is that plays once a week, and therefore, its jackpot accumulation is slower.

Also, during these thought financial times currency exchange rates vary frequently during the day.



To complicate things, the jackpots of these three lotteries varies frequently due to the [b:29i987rl]rollovers[/b:29i987rl], so one day Euromillions can have a "modest"  £11 millions, and Powerball can be having US$50 million, and the next day Euromillions can have £15 millions and Powerball US$15 millions, and so on.  US lotteries plays twice a week, so this information is always changing.
The web page gather all that information and presents it in an easy-to-compare fashion. The data is captured automatically with no human participation. I made this using PHP parsing processes to get the information directly from the main source.


You may be asking... where is the business here?

This is an affiliate web page. The idea is to provide a free service (top world lotteries comparison), with the indication of which online lottery providers could provide you with the lottery ticket purchase service. The affiliate commisions should sustain this service.

What I would like is to receive critique on the following:
- Is the information useful?
- Is it too intrusive? (It requests country of residence for tax calculations)
- Is it easy to navigate?
- What may need to be changed?
- What is missing?
 

Please apologize if this post is considered spam. I`m not really expecting to get customers here, but sound critique to improve the web page.


 
Many thanks
Zumcorp
zumcorp7/15/2008 3:40 PM

Comments

  • VideographyVideography subscriber Posts: 401 Silver Level Member
    Is this a request for a website critique or are you trolling for business?  Your post seems like the latter because you only need to ask, and provide the site address.  If you feel that the business background and detailed "how it works" is necessary for the critique, then isn`t this information that should be on the site itself?Also have you read Title 18 of the USPS regulations? http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/ins ... lottery.ht m
  • Cheap2SellCheap2Sell subscriber Posts: 1
    Steve,
    I also wrote a bunch of info on my request because the admins asked us to do so. They wanted us to put some effort into the request as the readers would do the same for the critique.
    Zumcorp,
    First off, the 3 links for the lotteries in the front page go nowhere, just opens a new browser with the exact same info. These are the first thing that catch my eye and look inviting to click.
  • zumcorpzumcorp subscriber Posts: 1
    Hello Videography
    Thanks for your feedback. I apologize again if you consider this some sort of sales pitch. That was not my intention.
    Anyway, if I didn`t misunderstood you, the explanation I posted here could fit well somewhere in the web page. Noted.
    Also, thanks for the link. I always heard that sending a lottery ticket thru postal mail was forbidden, but never saw an official web page stating it so clearly.  For the sake of clarity, the lottery tickets providers I mention in the web page never send a ticket thru mail. They buy and store the tickets, and cash them if they win something. In the event of hitting the jackpot, the customer flights to the state where the ticket was purchased and claims the prize. I understand that no law is broke with this procedure.
     
    Regards
    Zumcorp
    zumcorp7/15/2008 6:08 PM
  • zumcorpzumcorp subscriber Posts: 1
    Dear Cheap2Sell,
     
    Many thanks for your feedback.
    I just fixed it. Many thanks!
     
    Regards
    Zumcorp
    zumcorp7/15/2008 6:27 PM
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