Happy New Year. It’s that time of year again where we decide to make more of an effort with blog posts and then completely forget to do so for the remainder of the year. To be honest we didn’t do too badly with posts during 2022 but the last “Loquax Newsletter” was actually in April, which is pretty terrible. We will endeavour to do better in what will be our 25th Anniversary year and also our 10th Anniversary year. It’ll be 25 years since we launched and an amazing 10 years since we closed, then didn’t close, then became the Loquax you know today. Not bad going for an old dinosaur of a site that was given “8 weeks” before it’d be gone by some esteemed posters on forums elsewhere.
Advent Competitions
In the immortal words of Paul Daniels “not a lot”. Or at least not a lot that’s different from the usual Loquax service. Advent season has thankfully now passed and whilst we’re pretty sure we didn’t get every single one we think we did pretty well. At last count we’d amassed around 1200 competition links across around 900+ different sites (some had multiple entry routes). Considering that some thought they’d be less giveaways due to the cost of living crisis and strikes, this actually turned out to be the biggest year of advents – well more 12 days of giveaways – to date. Disappointingly many were on Instagram which actually negates listing services because you can always count out the middle man and go straight to social media. You also don’t need to pay – but still compers pay out money for other services – maybe we need to charge next year (or this year). One thing we will do for 2023 is explain how to use our tracking facility better as it’s obvious we’re not very good at explaining stuff to you guys. We just assume that you’ll figure it out but that’s not always the case.
Win A House Update
The hype surrounding house prize draws and raffles has subsided considerably since 2020. The number of individuals deciding that it’s a good idea to giveaway their homes on sites like Raffall has fallen dramatically. However at the same time we’ve seen the rise of Omaze and their million pound homes plus raffle platforms like McKinney, Bear and Bounty all successfully creating property winners. Tramway Path have also managed to continue their success whilst other platforms like FrogHopping and Raffle House haven’t even got close. We suspect that a bouyant property market may well have negated the need for individuals to look at raffles but with house prices expected to fall and a difficult financial year ahead then people may look at them again. After all if you can get the ball rolling then selling your home via a prize draw could bring in more income. However would-be hosts have to remember that any extra profits may be offset by marketing costs and time involved. At the moment there’s just 7 live house competitions which is the lowest number since we started Win A House Watch back in 2017. Hopefully they’ll be more additions but at the moment it’s hard to see the sector growing to the dizzy heights of previous times.
Loquax Update
As mentioned above, Loquax is 25 years old and whilst we’re running pretty well on the surface the code behind the scenes has seen better days. The forum lacks a lot of modern features and is something we do need to upgrade. Up to now we’ve managed to “get by” but we have little choice now but to make some necessary changes. Project Upgrade Loquax is well underway behind the scenes although we have no definitive time period laid out for it to be rolled out. We had hoped to do before advent season, but felt any changes were better to be released at a quieter time and not when the site’s at it’s busiest. When the changes arrive it will be as one big hit, not a gentle bit by bit approach. Now we know any kind of changes are often met with a lot of concern from users who fear the unknown so our aim is to do things as seamlessly as possible. If we get things right – and we’re pretty confident that we will – then Loquax will feel familiar and maintain all the things we currently have in place but be powered with a better infrastructure. Where we can improve things we will. We also want to make sure there’s some elements of future proofing so that we’re not having to fix code that we cobbled together years ago on the fly.
Loquax Bingo Update
When we’re not busy working on Loquax old and new, we’re also tending our other site over at Loquax Bingo. Now regulars will know this used to form part of the comping site but now has it’s own home. It’s fair to say 2022 hasn’t been a good one for this part of our business. The gambling sector is changing considerably due to tougher regulations, compliance and taxes upon taxes. The bottom line is that affiliates like ourselves tend to get the raw end of the wedge. For example big brands Betfair and Paddy Power decided to stop working with us in 2022 after 10 to 15 years together. Now did they do this with professional courtesy and respect? No of course not. Betfair gave us no notice and Paddy Power, their sister brand but managed by the same affiliate team who promised better communications, gave us one day’s notice. We don’t expect affiliate relationships to last forever but when you’re treated like rubbish by big brands – or at least their affiliate management – then you have to wonder whether this actually reflects on their attitude towards customers. You’ll be unsurprised to find out we don’t recommend Betfair or Paddy Power to anyone now.
New Year Resolutions
So what are your resolutions for 2023? One aim for this year is to that we hope to be a little bit more engaged with you guys via our blog and forum. Whether that’s by posting articles or creating new discussions we’re hoping to build on the current comping community. We do have social media presence on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram but find there’s little to no engagement and posting content there is only good for those platforms. Whilst we’re not going to stop posting on those platform you probably won’t see too much going on socially. We have thought about creating Facebook Groups but to be honest Di’s Lucky Learners is so good we don’t see any need to recreate the wheel and besides it’d take us – and you – away from Loquax. We know not everyone loves social media and with Loquax we have a platform where compers can come together to chat about comping, get some advice about anything they want or just have a chat. We’re also pretty decent when it comes to listing prize draws and competitions. Here’s to a happy, healthy and successful 2023 for all.