Who wants to pay full price? Vimu is a discount club where members can find and share local deals, discounts, bargains, and sales.
Every deal shared on Vimu earns a free week of membership and access to all the other deals, or it's possible to pay a small amount for membership instead.
Find out where to discover deals to share.
You can also use your Vimu membership to help bargain for deals from businesses who are not yet listed. Mention that you belong to the Vimu discount club, that you'll share any discounts they can offer with thousands of other members, and you'll be amazed at the deals you'll be given. Plus bargaining is fun!
Share more than 10 deals and you can earn a commission.
Deals can be discounts, sales, special offers, or freebies. Anything that allows Vimu members to save money.
You might see one on the TV or radio, on a website, in a newspaper or magazine, or hear about one from a friend.
You can also arrange deals with businesses that you use every day and get a discount for yourself as well.
Mention that you belong to the Vimu discount club and ask for a discount with a promise that you'll share the deal with thousands of other Vimu members.
You'll be amazed how often you'll be able to arrange a discount this way.
Once you've arranged a deal, make sure that you remember to share it!
You can even order membership cards to help impress and dazzle.
Any source is fine, as long as it's a genuine offer, discount, or sale. If you are not sure if the deal is genuine, try to check it out first or put a disclaimer in the text when you post the deal.
Click on the "share a deal" link at the bottom of the page, or at the top of city pages.
If you've not already registered with Vimu you'll be asked to do so before you can share the deal. It's free to register and share deals.
Remember to state how the Vimu member should obtain the deal. For instance should they just visit the shop and mention Vimu, do they need to print out the Vimu deal page, or ring up over the phone?
All deals need to be approved by Vimu staff before being posted on the site, and free membership granted.
We try to do this as quickly as possible, however please allow up to 24 working hours.
Vimu is free to use as long as you share the occasional deal.
Otherwise it costs as little as $10 for 1 month, down to $6.70 per month if you sign up for longer.
We're confident that you'll save much more than that by taking advantage of all the bargains.
Some deals are found or arranged by the Vimu team, many are shared by Vimu members, while others are listed by businesses directly.
Some deals are exclusive to Vimu, while others are generally available.
Our aim is to bring you the best deals we can find, however we come across them.
We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the deals listed on Vimu. Always check the details first before buying, and leave feedback for other members.
We are always looking for talented scribes.
Perhaps you found a local park that's great for picnics, just discovered a nice walk in your local national park, or have stumbled onto a great restaurant that everyone should know about.
If you have an idea for something fun or interesting to do on the weekend please share it, and help us build a great collection of weekend ideas which everyone can enjoy.
You can submit articles for fun, or if you are a more serious writer it's possible to earn a commission for quality articles and reviews.
For more information read the idea FAQ.
You don't need to be a member, or pay anything, in order to share a deal.
You can register without becoming a member using the "register" link at the bottom of the page, however you will not have access to other deals on Vimu.
Businesses are welcome to register and share deals for free with Vimu members.
A review of a particular business (such as a restaurant) cannot be submitted by anyone associated with that business. All WeekendNotes articles are written by independent writers.
If you would like an existing WeekendNotes writer to write an review of your business or event submit the details here.
You can however promote your business, website, or blog in your signature which is displayed above your articles.
Once you've got a few reviews under your belt, you can think about submitting articles.
Articles are more involved than reviews, require a higher standard of writing, and you'll need to learn how to use the article publication system. In return it's possible to earn up to $40 per article.
To find out more about articles and the pay involved, have a read of the writer faq.
Just about any kind of deal can be shared on Vimu, although they'll need to be approved by admin before they go on the site.
Discounts should be genuine reductions from the actual sale price. Sales are fine, along with offers and other promotions.
The better the deal, the more prominence it will be given on Vimu.
Vimu members who've shared more than 10 deals receive a commission, the size of which depends on how many subscribers click on deals they have shared.
To check your Vimu account balance login and click on the "control panel" link at the bottom of the page.
Note that your account balance will only be shown one you've shared and had approved 10 deals.
When the account amount reaches $100 click on the "contact us" link to request a pay-out which will be made via PayPal or Electronic Funds Transfer (in Australia).
Deals which are exclusive to Vimu are given more prominence on the site, resulting in more clicks.
Deals shared by more experienced and trusted Vimu members are also given more prominence.
Members who share fake deals, or who do not include all the conditions of a deal, may be barred from posted deals or have payment withheld at Vimu's discretion.
For a limited time members in Sydney who've shared more than 10 deals can join the paid deal sharing program which guarantees a minimum payment for each deal. Click here to find out more.
Upfront payments are designed to reward writers according to the quality and popularity of their articles.
They are calculated for each article according to this formula:
payment = (page_view_score/max_page_view_score) x (article_length/max_article_length) x (editor_score/10) x max_payment
This formula is displayed on each article's preview page once it's been published. The elements are outlined below:
page_view_score: Your page view score is the average number of page views (readers) your articles attract per year. Your page view score is displayed on your writer page, along with a link to compare your scores with other writers from the same city.
A new writer's page view score will be zero until they've published at least one article and is updated every 24 hours. For this reason the minimum payment for a writer's first article is greater than the usual minimum payment. Make sure you share your first article with your friends so you've got a good page view score for your second article.
Find out more about your page view score, and how to increase it here.
max_page_view_score: The maximum page view score possible for a given city. This is lower for newer WeekendNotes cities as there are less readers and it's harder to generate a high score. Click on the "score table" link on your writer page to view your city's max page view score.
article_length: The length of an article in characters. Extra characters are also added for each original image (photo) in the article.
max_article_length: The maximum length of an article, currently set to 2500. Articles can be longer than this however it's the maximum length used in calculating the upfront payment.
editor_score: A score (out of 10) given by an editor to each article reflecting how much editing was required, the quality of the idea and the quality of the writing. The average score given is 5. Click here for more details.
max_payment: The maximum payment available. This is set on a per-currency basis as outlined here.
Note that as the payment reflects the effort you've made in creating an article, a low payment does not necessarily reflect on the quality of your writing. Quicker articles which rely on the guaranteed payment are OK, and can be just as productive in terms of amount earned per hour of writing. Shorter articles detailing upcoming events or listing restaurant information are good examples.
Prize Points are used to win weekly cash prizes.
Points are awarded to each article that selects the "Prize Points" payment type.
The top three points holders each week are awarded a prize - the amounts are displayed on your writer page and vary between currencies.
If you are awarded a prize your points count will start again at zero. If you do not receive a prize your points carry over to the following week. In this way everyone should eventually earn a prize as long as they keep submitting articles.
Points are awarded to each article in the same way as Upfront Payments, however instead of a maximum_payment a maximum_points value of 1000 is used. The minimum number of points an article can be awarded is 100.
These prizes are a little bit of fun competition to keep things interesting. How long it runs will depend on how many people take part. If it's popular I'll up the prize amounts.
If the points program ends any left-over prize points will be converted into cash and placed on your general account.
Vee-moo is the standard way to say Vimu.
Why? -- we took a vote, and then tossed a coin.
By submitting articles to WeekendNotes you agree that you are writing as a contractor for WeekendNotes and will need to submit your own tax return.
Australian writers will require an ABN (Australian Business Number). You can read more about the ABN and apply for one on this page. It's a quick and easy process. You can start submitting articles while waiting for your ABN application to be processed.
You can submit a payment request to WeekendNotes whenever your account is greater than $50 AUD, £50 GBP, or $50 USD.
To submit a payment request click on the "Request Payment" link on the writer page. Payment requests are processed on the 4th working day of every month, and reflect your account at the time, rather than when your payment request was sent.
Payment is made via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) to a bank account for Australia writers, and via PayPal for writers in the UK and USA. In the future we may also pay UK and USA writers via bank transfer.
UK and USA writers can obtain a PayPal account at PayPal.com, and should quote their PayPal email address on their payment request.
An article is payable once it has been "accepted" by a WeekendNotes staff member. You do not have to wait until it is actually published.
Each writer is allocated a Page View Score.
This score is the average number of page views (readers) your articles generate over a period of one year (page views per article per year).
For articles which are less than one year old this figure is extrapolated before being included in the final score.
The extrapolation is adjusted to cater for the fact that most articles gather a high number of page views when first published which then drops off.
For articles older than one year, the greater of the page views from the first or last year of publication is used.
Each article's individual page view score can be seen on your writer page. Click on the "score table" link to see scores from other writers in your city, and click on their name to view their profile page and see what they've been writing about.
The page view score is used to calculate the upfront payment and can be interpreted as a measure of the general popularity of your articles.
To increase your page view score try to write articles which will attract lots of readers through the email newsletter, the website, facebook, and via the search engines.
It's possible to allocate your articles to different Page View Channels each with its own Page View Score used to calculate payments. Read more about Page View Channels here.
New writers will have a page view score of 0 until they've published at least one article, and will therefore have to rely on the guaranteed payment for at least their first article. Be sure to share your first article on Facebook, and email it to all your friends to get your page view score off to a good start.
Page view scores up updated once per day. So new writers may wish to wait 1 day before publishing their second article.
Page View Channels are used to separate different articles which you think may generate different Page View Scores.
The Page View Score of a Page View Channel is used to calculate the payments of any articles allocated to it.
A channel's score is not used to calculate a payment until it contains at least 10 articles, before which the writer's overall score is used.
To create a Page View Channel (or to view your current ones) click on the "Page View Channel" link on your writer page.
Once you've created at least one channel, you'll be able to allocate articles to it using the article's creation/edit page. Once an article has been published it's not possible to change its channel.
One use for Page View Channels, is to separate out different kinds of articles (say restaurant reviews from picnic spots, or long articles from short ones) to see what kind of Page View Score they generate on average.
You are then able to concentrate on the article types which generate the highest Page View Scores.
All articles are treated using the same formula. Most have a burst of higher traffic (not just events) when they're first published because they go out in the newsletter etc. so this needs to be adjusted for.
For articles older than one year, the greater of the page views from the first or last year of publication is used.
The formula for all articles less than 365 days old is this:
Take the raw number of page views.
Divide by age in days.
Multiply by 365 to get the estimated yearly page views.
And this is where we compensate for the early surge in traffic.
If age < 7 days limit to 0.5 * max page view score (for that city).
If age < 30 days limit to 0.6 * max page view score.
If age < 60 days limit to 1 * max page view score.
If estimated page views are greater than 1.5 * max page view score, limit to 1.5 * max page view score.
If raw page views are greater than what we've calculated so far, use the raw page views.
Each day for each city the average page view score of the top 10 writers is calculated and multiplied by 2.
If this is greater than the max page view score then it's increased by 10.
If it's less, then it's decreased by 10.
So basically it represents how easy/hard it is to get page views in a given city. New cities start out at 200 which is the minimum.
It's currently set to max out at 3000, at which point more and more writers in that city should be able to achieve the top score.
Paid comments are being tested and are worth $0.30 each for comments longer than 200 characters, and $0.50 for greater than 500 characters. One comment per article per writer, only on other writer's articles, and with a limit of $15 over each payment request.
Remember that if someone comments on one of your articles, it's good form to return the favour.
Lots of comments on your articles will result in more visibility on WeekendNotes as well as more search engine traffic, resulting in more CPM page views.
Contact the editor if you have questions.
Vimu membership cards are a great way to dazzle business owners and convince them to give you a discount which you can enjoy yourself and share with other members.
Cards are free for members who've shared more than 100 deals, or you can order them for $10. A bargain at twice the price.
Contact us to place an order.
Articles which focus on one particular business are discouraged unless they are business listings, or there is something very unique or different about that particular business.
Instead it's better to review an entire industry segment.
For instance if a writer suggests a long article on a food tasting tour of the Hunter valley by a particular company, suggest that they do a review of all the companies they can find which offer similar tours.
So instead of the title "Sue's Hunter Valley Food Tour" the article title would be "Hunter Valley Food Tours".
If a writer has actually gone on a particular tour and they would like to write about it, then that's fine as long as they do a one paragraph round up of other companies at the end.
WeekendNotes is owned and run by On Topic Media PTY LTD.
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