Galactic Deal Alerts

An email marketing service that scrapes e-commerce sites for discounts on sci-fi books and merchandise, notifying subscribers of the best deals.

Inspired by the scarcity and high value of information in 'Nightfall' and the thrill of acquiring crucial resources in 'Star Wars: A New Hope', this project leverages e-commerce pricing scraping techniques to create a highly niche email marketing service. 'Galactic Deal Alerts' will focus on the passionate community of science fiction enthusiasts. Subscribers will opt-in to receive personalized email alerts when specific sci-fi books (like classic Asimov or new releases), related merchandise (e.g., Star Wars figures, model kits), or even digital content (e.g., game sales) go on sale at participating e-commerce retailers. The system will involve a simple web scraper that monitors designated product pages and price drops. When a discount threshold is met (user-defined or pre-set), an automated email is generated and sent to the subscriber. The niche focus on sci-fi makes it low-cost to implement by an individual (minimal hosting, a free/low-cost email marketing platform like Mailchimp or Sendinblue's free tiers). High earning potential comes from affiliate marketing commissions on sales driven by the alerts and potentially premium subscription tiers for early access or more advanced filtering. The project is easy to implement as it requires basic web scraping skills (Python with libraries like BeautifulSoup or Scrapy), basic email API integration, and a simple database for managing subscriber preferences.

Project Details

Area: Email Marketing Method: E-Commerce Pricing Inspiration (Book): Nightfall - Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg Inspiration (Film): Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) - George Lucas