So what is Woot?  Woot.com is an internet retailer base in Carrollton, TX and the originator of One Day, One Deal.  The concept is simple, a new item goes on sale (at a great price) every day at midnight.  The item is on sale until 11:59pm (central time) or until they are sold out of that item.  Woot.com’s focus is “selling cool stuff cheap” and they always ship for $5.  The woot! style of business became so popular that other retailers, including Amazon.com, Buy.com and Target.com have started their own One  Day, One Deal selling strategies.

A Normal Day on Woot.com

What makes Woot! such a great experience and tool is that it is so unique. In addition to the great deals, you’ll find an entertaining site and some of the funniest writing on the internet.  “Product descriptions commonly mock the product, the customer, or Woot itself.  Product drawbacks are preemptively acknowledged and buyers are advised to beware.  For those only interested in the serious details, the real information about the product is always listed below the woot-written description.  Community users often do their own research and post their opinions on the user forums.  The Woot staff identifies “Quality Posts”, or quality excerpts from posts, and features them at the top of the forum.” (taken from the wikipedia.com entry for woot)

Over the years, Woot has developed into several web sites.  In addition to the original “main site’” you can also get great deals at kids.woot!, shirt.woot!, sellout.woot!, and wine.woot!.  Each of the sites has it’s own identity, it’s own community and it’s own way of changing out items.  For example wine.woot! doesn’t necessarily change out the item on sale every single day.

Special Specials

Occasionally, the Woot strays from the One day, One Deal concept to bring you something a little different.  Catching one of these events is not easy, so you’ll have to check the site often.  You can also follow Woot on twitter or Facebook to get notifications on the latest and greatest item/event.  Here are some of the special events in question:

Woot-Off! - a series of products are sold for very short windows of time and designated with the “woot-off” lights and progress bar (just above the “I want one” button).  One product is posted until it sells out, then it is replaced by a new product.  Woot-offs typically last between 24-72 hours but are not announced in advance.  Surprise, surprise… There is a Woot-Off going on right now!!!

A Woot-Off is Designated with Lights and a Progress Bar

Woot Happy-Hour - a mini Woot-Off of sorts.  The happy-hour will pop up from time-to-time and last for, you guessed it, one hour.  These specials are promoted on Twitter and are not shown on woot.com’s main page.

Happy Hour - a mini Woot-Off

Bag of Crap – the most elusive deal on Woot! is the questionable “bag of crap.”  This is literally a brown paper bag with ??? inside.  You purchase the BOC and who knows what you’ll get.  It could be 5 small items valued at $5 or a couple of really nice ones worth far, far more.  When a BOC appears, thousands of people race to purchase and it usually sells out within seconds.  I have yet to win a BOC.

Woot's Bag of Crap is Hard to Get

Woot Tools

Woot and it’s specials became so popular that individuals really couldn’t keep track of what was going on.  A few programming types stepped in and we now have widgets, web sites and tools of all sorts to help us keep track of the latest and greatest woot deal.  As a bonus, many of these tools help keep woot.com running smoothly by reducing the “refresh traffic” from all those looking to catch the next item in a Woot-Off.

Web-based

• mywoot.net – this web-based Woot checker is my favorite.  A rooster crows when an item sells out and you can even run a “mini version” to keep the window open while you work away.
• woot.kishk.org:8080 – this web-based Woot checker helps you keep track of Woot-Offs and offers some different options on when audio will play and what you hear.  Choose from several different sounds.

Installs

• woot sidebar gadget – Windows users can get notifications on their desktop and choose from hundreds of options on notifications, sounds, refresh rate, etc.
• wootalyzer – This is a small program that tracks deals from several sites (inlcuding Amazon, Woot, Newegg,etc.) and allows for custom sounds, etc.

Mobile

• WootWatch – iPhone or iPod Touch users can keep track of the latest deal on-the-go.  Great features include “shake to refresh” and “tacky flashing lights” for woot-offs.
• WootWatcher – Android owners can keep track of Woot-Offs with this very simple app.  There are tons of options, including a special area for Woot-Off notifications.

Woot Watcher