Tag Archives | deals

10 Years of +961 and 10 Days of Giveaways!

Today is a special day for +961 as it marks the 10th anniversary since I started it!

I can’t say I saw this day coming when I first registered the domain name… at first I just started the blog to share cool finds with Lebanese online community and see how much traffic I can drive to it, but I have to admit that later on I even started enjoying the attention that media and businesses was giving to me. And here it is now, part of my everyday life and celebrating its 10th year online.

A lot has changed since February 2008 and +961 definitely had a lot of ups and downs. I got heavily praised for some posts that received thousands of hits but also heavily criticized for inappropriate or silly stuff that I shared. At times I was posting on a daily basis but also got inactive for a relatively long duration more that once (blame it all on having babies but family comes first!). However, what changed the most is actually how blogging is in general done in Lebanon. Back in time most of the posts contained original content generated by the blogger himself/herself, but nowadays society and lifestyle blogs are more like news aggregators that feed on bits and pieces collected from various sources with a lot of sponsored content in between (a special thanks to the Lebanese subreddit for being a huge inspiration for us bloggers by the way! 😀 ), and as long as this appeals to the people then you just go with the flow! I’m being just plain honest here.

Right now I have no idea if the blog will stay around for another 10 years, but what I’m certain of is that I enjoyed the past 10 thanks to you guys being part of it, and will definitely keep posting for as long as I simply enjoy doing it.

Now on to the really big news!

To celebrate this 10th anniversary, I decided to host a series of 10 giveaways in collaboration with very well known businesses and brands in town. So get ready as of tomorrow for some really cool freebies! The giveaways range from restaurant vouchers, to movie tickets, clothing, toys and gadgets, and fine dining.

To qualify for the draws you will only be required to interact with the giveaways’ posts on Facebook, so just make sure to follow +961’s page.

photo via jerseybites.com

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Yamammy.com

yamammy

My wife and I recently had a gorgeous baby, and if there’s anything I really agree on with Darine Sabbagh, the founder of  a new website called “Ya Mammy“, it is that your house will quickly be filled with baby gear that were sometimes used for a month or less and you no longer need.

And that’s what Ya Mammy is trying to solve by serving as a parent to parent network for exchanging baby gear and toys and getting great bargain deals.

I’m sure it will be of good use for you whether you’re already a parent with some items you no longer need, or even a parent to be and looking for some good deals. So make sure to keep on checking the website or the Facebook page as it will be launching soon.

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Beirut’s mobile phones guy

apple-iphone-5

I was recently on the hunt for a new mobile phone and decided to first go check Amhaz prices since they’re known to be among the lowest in the market. Their branch at Beirut Mall was selling the iPhone 5 for a reasonable price at $689 but I got so irritated when the sales guy tried to sell me the A1428 model which doesn’t support our 4G network instead of the A1429, claiming that a software update has resolved the issue and made the A1428 compatible with our network!

So I started searching for another place until @CAbN mentioned a guy called Mohamad selling mobile phone at a similar prices as Amhaz if not lower, and based on several people’s feedback, Mohamad was quite reliable. The guy turned out to have a profile on elmazad.com under the name of “mhdskr” where he maintains a pricelist of all the models he deals with, and the iPhone 5 A1429 was listed for $680 (sealed in its original box), so I immediately called him and agreed to meet up somewhere so I can pick up my phone as he doesn’t operate a shop.

Upon meeting Mohamad I found him to be quite nice and friendly, and never trying to bullshit you with stuff like “khod l A1428 w byimsheh 3a mas2ouliyteh”. He also offers to deliver you the phone wherever you are in Beirut, in addition to granting a 7 day trial period after which you get your money back if the phone turned to have any glitch. So I totally recommend that you contact him in case you’re looking to buy some new mobile.

You may check his pricelist here, and call him on 70 686406 to either agree on a place to meet or simply give him your address to get your phone delivered to you.

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Updated list of group buying websites in Lebanon

I already published a list of group buying websites a year ago, but I thought of compiling a new list now since several new websites have been launching lately, and you can find some pretty nice deals on them sometimes. So here you go:

  1. Living Social Out of business.
  2. Makhsoom
  3. goSawa
  4. ScoopCity
  5. Grofferon
  6. Living Lebanese
  7. Awfar
  8. Deal
  9. Deal Booking
  10. MarkaVIP
  11. Sukar
  12. Cobone (They’re currently posting travel deals only)
  13. Waffeer
  14. Go For Low

Did I miss any other website?

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Group buying websites in Lebanon

Have you noticed the rise of group buying websites in Lebanon?

In case you don’t know what group buying is, it’s getting good deals at discounted prices on condition that a specific minimum number of people would make the purchase. For example, one of these websites can offer a discounted dinner at some restaurant (say $20 instead of $40) on condition that a minimum of 20 people purchase the deal. And usually you won’t be charged unless the minmum number of buyers is attained.

You might also be wondering how do these websites make money. To my knowledge, it works like referral programs, which means they get a small amount of money for each customer they refer to the deal.

While not all the discounts might seem tempting, but some deals are really good, I personally bought two entrance tickets to Laguava resort for $22 instead of $44 from one of these websites!

Here’s a list of the websites that get deals in Lebanon:

Any other one I forgot to mention?

By the way I’ve noticed that you don’t necessarily have to use a credit card on websites that use Bank Audi’s payment gateway, you can actually input a debit card number on condition that it is issued from Bank Audi. It worked for me on goSawa.

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