As a person who shops online, hunting the internet for promo codes to save a few dollars, I wondered how this business model works. What is the purpose of these major sites that offer these coupons? Also, most importantly how we can earn money with them (apart from using them).
The real purpose of promo codes is to generate sales for a business. They do this by helping someone visit their website and creating urgency to buy a product with the coupon.
Keep reading and I’ll share 2 secrets with promo codes. I’ll also share 3 ways we can earn money from them and coupons. Plus a tool that simplifies the hunt for promos!
How do Companies Make Money from Promo Codes?
Companies make money from promo codes because they earn more money from the sale of a product than from giving a discount to it on the promo code.
I hate to admit this, but I used to be in the car business a long time ago, meaning I sold cars. This reminds me of a trick that the car business used to do where they mailed out a key.
The promotion was if you showed up to the car lot and the key opened a certain car, then it would be yours. Of course, you probably wouldn’t get the car, but while you were there why not take this other car for a test drive?
Marketing is a big portion of business and promo codes are a way for companies to sell more of their products.
If you’ve been thinking about a certain product and discover a promo code that gives 10% off then it just might push you over the edge and make the purchase.
When you make the purchase the company earns a commission. I hate to say it, but apart from being in the car business, I used to be in the telemarketing business. Now, you really don’t like me right?
We would call targeted lists and invite people to a presentation and then try to contact them afterward and make the sale.
If someone was on the fence one tool I had was to drop the price to get the deal done. Another tool I had was vacation vouchers that I would give away. You could purchase them for a very small amount of money and the perceived value was VERY large.
This is somewhat similar to promo codes, which really are online coupons. Coupons come from a French word meaning (to cut) and were mailed to consumers in 1887. It offered a free glass of coke if they tried it in a nearby pharmacy.
Oh, and at the pharmacy, they just might make a purchase. Usually, the money earned from the purchase was more than the free coke.
In 2020 online promo codes (A.K.A online coupons) surpassed physical coupons for the first time. Thanks to online shopping taking over, this trend just might continue.
The frustrating part (maybe you have experienced this) is hunting for promo codes and trying to use them. I mean trying because most of the time (from my experience) they don’t work.
There are browser extensions such as this one HERE that do the hunting for you and apply the code automatically when you want to purchase something online.
Even better is this tool allows you to save the item. Then when the price of the item has dropped the tool will notify you. Patience does have a reward.
You might be wondering what’s the catch with this extension right? The browser extension earns money from affiliate marketing. Since I’ve always thought affiliate marketing was one of the best tools to help the little guy get ahead financially I don’t like the extension.
Still, It helps people save money and is better than hunting for promo codes (since time is valuable). Affiliate marketing is still a wonderful way for someone to earn extra money around their schedule.
I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for over 10 years and I wrote an eBook that I feel can be very helpful you can learn more by clicking HERE.
The second catch or “secret” with using this extension is they collect your shopping data. According to the browser extension, they don’t sell the data or collect any data from non-shopping sites.
This is similar to Facebook (Meta) where they collect data and use that for marketing. Oh, doesn’t Google collect data and use that for advertisers as well?
If having these sites collect data is worrisome to you, an idea that might be helpful is to use a VPN. I talk more about what you can do with this tool in this post HERE.
Do People Get Paid for Promo Codes?
Websites earn money with promo codes using advertisements, affiliate offers, and kickbacks.
You probably know there is money in promo codes, but the million-dollar question is how can we earn money with them.
The easiest way to earn money in the promo code business (apart from using them) is by doing what Mr. Beast does. You know the Youtuber who gets millions of views from videos such as putting a million Orbeez in his friend’s backyard (I don’t even know what an Orbeez is).
He creates content and then promotes the extension that finds coupon codes. Every time someone downloads a free extension he earns money.
This is called affiliate marketing and I’m giving away a free eBook on how to do it by clicking on the link HERE.
You’re probably not going to make millions of dollars like Mr. Beast, but even if you have fun creating content around stuff you’re into and earn money then that’s a win right?
The content could be with Youtube, Tiktok a blog, podcasting, or all of the above. The second way to earn money with content is with ads. Ads are a tricky business and I’ve found they can pay more money on a blog than on a Youtube channel.
Another way is to find REALLY good coupon codes. Just make sure they work right? Then go to Forums or Quora and search for that product and tell people about the coupon code. Oh, and then mention you find coupon codes using a browser extension like this one HERE, that you earn money for when someone tries it out.
Apart from promo codes, there are some people who sell coupons on eBay. I’ve seen a burger king coupon code that they mail to people being sold on eBay. A popular one is Home Depot and the company was giving them out to people attending the Home Depot training webinar like this place HERE.
Since the coupon provides 15% off on anything up to $200. The person buying the code can save $200 and might be worth it to spend $40 to save $200.
Another way is to clip coupons that you don’t use and then list them on eBay. Heck, there might be even coupon books that you can buy and you could sell each individual coupon on eBay.
This reminds me of a funny story about dolphins. There was a dolphin in a tank and sometimes garbage would collect in the tank.
The trainer didn’t want to collect the garbage so he or she trained the dolphin to collect the garbage and in return would get food. Turns out dolphins are smart, maybe smarter than some humans. The dolphin would hide garbage and tear off chunks of it for food, this way he could get lots of pieces of food with 1 piece of garbage.
I hope this post on promo codes was helpful, to learn more ideas on saving money check out an eBook I’m giving away for free at this link HERE.
Bye for now.