Coupons are huge these days. Why wouldn’t they be when people can get something cheaper for the same thing offered by other stores sold at a regular price?
Personally I love coupons and online deals! I hate to admit it but I have developed a habit of ‘accidentally’ buying something online whenever I see it’s offered at a cheaper price. Well wouldn’t you? Especially if the deal ends at midnight, right? LOL.
I bet every one of us can relate to being an impulsive buyer whenever we are offered with irresistible deals. Even more if that deal expires in a few hours. The ‘now or never’ deal has pushed some of us to spending money, even if that money comes from our well-kept savings.
Well friends, that’s how coupons work. And they can be very effective when it comes to getting buyers and gaining more sales.
Most of us are familiar with printed coupons or those that you normally see printed in magazines or newspapers.
These days, you can also see a lot of sites offering online coupons for their customers. In fact, there are already a lot of websites dedicated only to distributing online coupons for customers looking for price discounts.
My post today focuses on online coupons and how affiliate marketers can benefit from it. So let’s get all the juicy facts shall we?
How popular is couponing these days?
I feel enthusiastic today and thought I provide you with some interesting facts about coupons’ emerging popularity online and found this:
A survey from CouponCabin, a dedicated online coupon site with huge database of online coupons from different brands and products in United States, Canada, and UK revealed that in the US alone, “nearly all, (95%) said they had ever used a coupon. 46% said they use coupons very often or often, while 30% said sometimes and 18%said rarely. “
Additionally, the survey also revealed that “nearly one-third (29%) of U.S. adults who ever use coupons said they are ‘opportunists;’ they have zero loyalty when it comes to shopping and only buy products that are available with coupons or daily deals.”
These data show how people now regarded coupons as a necessity when it comes to buying. Obviously coupons have become a huge advantage to customers.
The advantages of coupons in affiliate marketing
Apart from this, coupons are also good money-making tool for affiliate marketers. How?
- Coupons serve as a powerful marketing tool to attract customers. Many affiliate marketers find success in using coupons in their marketing campaigns. Coupons attract a lot of buyers, making more sales in return. The same thing can be said for vendors who also find coupons useful in increasing their product sales.
- Affiliate marketers may use coupons to gather user information. If you have purchased and used an online coupon before, you may have noticed that websites offering coupons ask customers to fill-up a simple form first before availing the discount. The fill-up form may contain user information such as age, gender, location, etc., which marketers use to improve their marketing efforts in order to increase their product sales.
Well, I have to say that building your own coupon site may be a bit overwhelming not to mention a huge risk considering you are competing with many already established coupon sites out there like FatWallet, CouponCraze, and CouponSurfer.
However, I’m the type of person who chooses to be confident and positive all the time. So looking at the bright side of this, believe it or not some of the huge coupon sites started out (and some still are), one-man operations.
That said it is not impossible to have your very own successful coupon site. It may be challenging and a big risk, yes. But still, coupon sites can provide you with good income when successful.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” –Lao Tzu
Take it from the famous Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu who said: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
Do not try to compete with huge coupon sites and pour all your money and effort trying to build the same site as theirs. Instead start at the very bottom and work your way up. As Lao Tzu says, taking singles steps will eventually get you there (in time).
You need to know that a successful affiliate marketer is not just earning money fast; it is also about gaining a stable income with affiliate marketing.
Sure thing it is a good to earn money fast but most of us still prefer to manage to earn a stable income and be able to last longer in the business amidst all the challenges that may come along the way.
What are the options?
Fortunately, you can still run your own coupon site without the worry of competing with huge coupon sites out there. You have the following options:
- Build a niche coupon site.
Since there are tons of coupon sites out there, chances are you will definitely find it hard to compete with them starting from the keyword selection. Good keywords like coupons, online coupons, online deals, and so on are all high in competition.
You may however, start with a niche coupon site wherein you can get long tail keywords that are of less competition. In time, you may then build more niche coupon sites and before you know it, you are earning as much as what the big players in the industry are also earning.
Who knows, if you already have the money and have gained enough knowledge and experience in building coupon sites, you can start building the same huge coupon site of your own.
- Start a blog that offers coupons.
Building a blog that is dedicated to customer information is another good option. You can blog about local shopping malls or provide readers tips in finding good deals online. There is a lot of information you can share out there. Then you can post coupon banners on your blog page or insert coupon links in your article.
What is great about this is if you pull this off, meaning you successfully established your blog as an authority site (with really a lot of useful content), you do not need to compete with huge coupon sites at all in the SERPs since good content will always attract direct visitors.
- Register on ForMeToCoupon
The biggest hurdle for coupon site owners is to keep their site updated properly. This means making sure that they receive continuous feed and updates and at the same time check if their coupon codes are all live and working.
Of course as the site grows, so is the maintenance job becomes harder, making it almost impossible to concentrate in their marketing campaign. This is also the reason why some affiliate marketers don’t want to get into coupon affiliate marketing.
Luckily, there is now a solution to this: ForMeToCoupon. This website provides affiliate marketers ‘automation’ of data feeds and coupon codes, making it easier for owners to run their coupon sites.
Added Tips:
When it comes to building a coupon site, you should also consider the following pointers:
- Choosing your domain name- I have previously mentioned that there is a lot of competition when it comes to keywords like coupons or online coupons. Just search online and you’ll find tons of coupon sites with ‘coupons’ in their domain names. Thus, instead of using keywords in your domain name, try to create a name that is familiar, easy-to-remember, and most of all brand-able.
- Set-up a newsletter- Always have a newsletter set-up in your site. This helps you build your list in time by constantly updating your subscribers with good deals.
- Quality content- You do not need to promote or earn in every post you make. What’s more important is you provide your readers good and quality content all the time- keeping them interested. Thus, it is okay (from time to time) to make a content about something that is relevant to your site/niche and direct your visitors to another site.
- Inform your readers properly- Although coupon sites are becoming a trend, there are still a lot of customers who do not know how to use coupons online. Thus, it is very important that you have your FAQ page. Additionally, a short video tutorial also helps a lot in explaining things better.
Others may consider coupon affiliate marketing as a super saturated market. But let’s face it: Reality points out that economy is tight these days and many people find it harder to juggle the problems with higher taxes, tighter credits, and so on.
Despite all these, we have our basic necessities. Thus, it is inevitable to make purchases. And the one good relief we can do to save money is to search for coupon codes. So yes, despite being an oversaturated market, there is still room for coupon affiliate marketing as long as there is high demand.
Well, I hope I have shared something new with you today. If you really want to step up and stand out of the competition, I highly recommend you try AffiloBlueprint 3.0. There are tons of video lessons there that will teach you how to build a quality website.
Also, feel free to let me know your thoughts by dropping your comment below. Cheers!
