Couponing is a booming business. The growth in the demand for coupon blogs comes due to the preference of online shoppers seeking active coupons before making any purchase. These discount coupons or vouchers help the online shopper to save money.
So, you might question a coupon blog could make money when it helps the shopper to save money?
Couponing is one of the powerful niches in affiliate marketing. If you haven’t heard about affiliate marketing before, I recommend reading this Wikipedia page. In short, affiliate marketing is a field wherein the marketer (you) is paid by the merchant (online shopping sites) to bring them qualified buyers.
A lot of bloggers can earn a steady income from a coupon blog.
Here’s how.
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Research the Competition
The coupon niche is by no means stagnant but there is a lot of competition. Google and you will find a lot of competitive blogs instantly.
Therefore, before starting a coupon blog, it is a must to research the niche and understand how your blog can make an impact. While checking out the competition, monitor their web presence. See how their website is designed, how they promote coupons; check their social media footprint, the kind of retailers they work with and so on.
Your objective is to stand apart from the rest. In other words, how will your coupon blog be different from the rest? Unless you can answer this, keep looking.
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Identify Target Audience
A lot of coupon blogs fail to take off because they donât have any target. Most of the time, bloggers think it is sufficient to âcopyâ a successful coupon blog and money will start coming. No, it doesnât happen like this.
You need a target audience. It is not necessary that the coupon blog should be about coupons of every category like electronic goods, clothing and books. Yours could be selective. For instance, the market research might show that certain states have a high demand for low cost laptops. You could maximize the opportunity by creating a coupon blog for this purpose only. Be selective.
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Domain & Hosting
A great sounding domain is a must. Thousands of blogs start their first journey in web space daily. You need to be creative in finding a brandable domain name. Use keyword analysis tools like Long Tail Pro to find out profitable domains. Just enter some chosen keywords, the software will analyze and show the potential profitability of those keywords and even show available domain names! This tool is a must for your internet marketing journey.
Once you have a domain them, get it registered ASAP with popular registrars like HostGator, GoDaddy and BigRock. They also offer hosting. Buy a good shared hosting plan to start with and once the number of visitors hit an astounding 10,000 per day, switch to VPS hosting.
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Build An Awesome Blog
Building an awesome responsive blog is of paramount important. The blog shouldnât only load fast but have a really good responsive theme which is easily navigable by visitors. You need a custom theme. Start the blog of self-hosted WordPress and hire a theme designer to setup a custom blog. You can magnify user interaction by using various WordPress plugins. Search the WordPress directory for relevant plugins.
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Contact Online Sellers
Depending on the chosen coupon category, start approaching online sellers. Most of them have a dedicated affiliate platform. Just sign up with them. If not, you can contact them personally, writing about your intention and requesting them to partner with you. In return of your recommending sales to their website, a certain percentage in commissions is given to you.
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Build Traffic
Partnering with retailers and setting up a coupon blog is easier than building traffic to it. If the coupon blog doesnât have traffic, how are you going to earn? Building consistent traffic is the trickiest and time consuming part. Start off by submitting press releases and article directory submissions. Be active on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. With the right social media tools like Buffer and HootSuite, you can automate the coupon promotion process.
Most importantly, write keyword-rich blog content. However, keeping in mind the Google Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird updates, follow genuine organic ranking strategies. Since itâs a money blog, you cannot take risks with it.
Once traffic starts building, the money will start coming bit-by-bit. Have patience. It’s not easy to earn from a coupon blog but it isn’t impossible either.
Sanjeev Kumr is tech author and blogs about latest technology and internet, he works for IndianCoupons.com - a site that helps user to save money while shopping online.
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Hary Patel
January 10, 2014 at 10:57 am
In fact this is the best way if you are thinking to start blogging. It gives you fulsome amount if you offer lowest price products and high discount offers.
Kelly
February 19, 2014 at 11:39 am
Facebook is particularly good for coupon sites. If you create one for a particular company and share the latest discounts you can easily get hundreds of followers. They will usually then check out your site for more offers.
Tricia
March 15, 2014 at 7:07 pm
Like any other business, you can make money from a coupon blog. You need to do your homework well before embarking on the venture. Know your target audience, create time to build your business and market your blog appropriately.
Aman
March 20, 2014 at 1:28 pm
Blogging is the best way of making money online. I own 4 blogs and making money from it. Google AdSense is the giant of ads providers. You can make hundreds of dollars in a day from blogging.
Sunil Saharan
April 28, 2016 at 7:10 am
Definitely it would be a great idea to run from blog. Blog plays an important role in getting organic traffic whether its related to any of the business. And once if a blog acquires traffic, running ads on it could help to earn a lot from it.