[trustful88]

I'm curious how sites like CouponCabin and others get their coupon codes. Do they enter each one MANUALLY? Do they get a constant feed? Any insight? Thanks,

-Albert

[loxly]

Each network has a deals/coupon feed. Large sites do automate the process. If you want to start a coupon site, consider the number of sites already out there and think about whether you can offer something with more value or not. And if you have the time and resources to keep the site up to date.

Even with automation it is not easy to keep a coupon site fresh and updated.

[Working Mom]

Even with automation it is not easy to keep a coupon site fresh and updated.

Truer words have never been spoken...by now most of the coupon sites make use of an automated feed whenever possible, but for the products that still have to be updated manually, it's labor intensive to maintain.

-WM

[Uncle Rico]

If you really want to start a coupon site, don't! You can thank me later.

[Julian]

forget it. There is a lot of money to be made without building a coupon site. Find a niche that can be profitable

[John Powell]

Originally Posted by Working Mom

Truer words have never been spoken...by now most of the coupon sites make use of an automated feed whenever possible, but for the products that still have to be updated manually, it's labor intensive to maintain.

That sums it up. For me CJ and LinkShare require the most labor with a lot of junk to sort through for a few good coupons.

[trustful88]

Originally Posted by John Powell

That sums it up. For me CJ and LinkShare require the most labor with a lot of junk to sort through for a few good coupons.

Thanks guys for the input. I wanted to integrate it onto my webpage, but it seems quite labor intensive... maybe a few coupons here and there would help?

[Julian]

build a decent site around a topic that you are interested in (or one that you think you can work with)

Then find the right merchants to compiment the site you build. Then add coupons if those merchants offer coupons.

You can build very good sites with tons of merchants, and never need a coupon. Some merchants never offer coupons, and obviously do very well.

[glittered]

There are thousands of coupon sites now and there is little chance of doing well as the competition is fierce. If you use network feeds then you will be competing against thousands of others who all use the same feed and same content etc... Unless you are extremely good at Adwords or a a genius at SEO and are prepared to spend a lot of work then I would suggest trying something else. A year ago you might have had a chance to make a few sales with a new coupon site, how much has changed in a year as there are more competitors than you could imagine now.

[simcat]

Thread reminds me of that yogi berra quote
“No one goes there anymore - it's too crowded”

[silvias]

Why can't people reply to the question asked?
Running a coupons website may not be profitable, understood.
But why not first answer the question and then give your thoughts?
Isn't this like diverting the topic away to something else?
I'm interested and determined to run a website focused to coupons with the automated RSS Feeds or simply the feeds that I download from Advertisers.
Can someone answer which CMS to use to have the coupons displayed?
I'm in search of something like couponcabin.com or couponalbum.com
I'm sure, they are using some automated methods, but if someone can guide properly, I'm sure, its not rocket science to setup a site and promote it just like any other website.
Thanks in advance for the help.
Silvia.

[silvias]

Originally Posted by glinted

There are thousands of coupon sites now and there is little chance of doing well as the competition is fierce. If you use network feeds then you will be competing against thousands of others who all use the same feed and same content etc...

Where is the competition less? Focusing a niche may be profitable and you may be lucky to find one with less competition, but what about the 'number of searches'? Come on, there is no reason for you and me to sit before computer and create websites if you think that the 'competition is too high' and you need to be exceptional to drive sales. We are all here to learn and gain, not to defeat the idea of having this forum here. 'Survival of the fittest' holds good in EVERY phase of life. And who decides you or me or anyone else is exceptional? Without implementing what you know, you can't jump onto conclusions. Lets take it this way. I'm TOTALLY new to affiliate marketing and a lot of people may tell me that its too tough. What do you recon? I guess, I should turn off the computer and forget about affiliate marketing?
Here is the bet, you tell me the CMS or feed organizing scripts, I will show you how to compete with sites like couponcabin.com .. After all, there has to be someone to give them hard time. Why not me?

Regards,
Silvia.

[silvias]

Originally Posted by trustful88

Thanks guys for the input. I wanted to integrate it onto my webpage, but it seems quite labor intensive... maybe a few coupons here and there would help?

Great, one competitor less
I see it was easy to convince you to stay away from Coupons related sites.
Try other sectors and you will find things equally tough.
Silvia.

[John Powell]

Originally Posted by silvias

Here is the bet, you tell me the CMS or feed organizing scripts, I will show you how to compete with sites like couponcabin.com ..

There is no CMS that will create a couponcabin.com that is available to the public. They built there own as did I. The scripts that handle the gathering and input of scripts are also custom made. You may find otherwise and prove that I reinvented the wheel, but I have never seen what you are looking for mentioned here.

It sounds like you are only interested in replies that offer a preconceived answer.

[silvias]

Originally Posted by John Powell

There is no CMS that will create a couponcabin.com that is available to the public. They built there own as did I. The scripts that handle the gathering and input of scripts are also custom made. You may find otherwise and prove that I reinvented the wheel, but I have never seen what you are looking for mentioned here.

It sounds like you are only interested in replies that offer a preconceived answer.

Thanks for the reply John,

I'm not looking for replies that offer a preconceived answer, however, I'm just trying to defend the idea of giving up since something is 'too tough'. Even learning A,B,C was too tough for most of us when we were kids. If our parents had ever said, it is too tough to learn English Alphabets, some of us may have really given up the idea of learning things. If things weren't tough, there won't be fun achieving them. My request is, whenever someone asks a question, a proper reply should be given. Even if it is refusing to give information. Rather than, it is too tough, forget about it.
Now I have one vote for 'design it yourself', so, I will start searching my way to design things. I'm currently learning Wordpress, I guess, I will be pretty careful when it comes to learning the RSS feeds. Anyway, I will keep posting my achievements.

Regards,
Silvia.

[Julian]

you missed the point of those replies. Finding less competetive areas is not giving up. Building a coupon site will be difficult, but then any site will be difficult.

It is the competition that will be tough, not the actual project itself

[silvias]

Originally Posted by Julian

you missed the point of those replies. Finding less competetive areas is not giving up. Building a coupon site will be difficult, but then any site will be difficult.
It is the competition that will be tough, not the actual project itself

I fairly understand the competition will be tough, however, I can bet, it is going to be equally tough in other sectors.
Any ideas what script is used on couponalbum.com? I'm sure it is some script because I have seen other sites with exactly same script.
Silvia.

[Julian]

Originally Posted by silvias

I fairly understand the competition will be tough, however, I can bet, it is going to be equally tough in other sectors.
Any ideas what script is used on couponalbum.com? I'm sure it is some script because I have seen other sites with exactly same script.
Silvia.

No I don't. The key to success in affiliate marketing is NOT doing what other people are doing.

[Working Mom]

Silvia,

I couldn't help but notice that the first and only posts you've made on abestweb were combative, critical and sarcastic about the responses already posted. Do try to keep in mind that generally speaking, asking for help in that manner doesn't make people with knowledge feel you'd be someone good to share it with...

However, I am sorry to read that you evidently you didn't get what you expected when reading through this thread...Perhaps what you are really searching for is a "magic bullet" for coupon sites? (And if you don't know what we mean by the "magic bullet" then please carefully study this thread:

http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=79507

But I will try and answer your question -assuming I understand what you are looking for. You'd like to know if there is a software that will will go through the coupons available on the big networks like CJ, LS, Clickbank etc, then automatically pull the coupons of the merchants you are affiliated with, keep them updated them on your site- (and preferably with pre-written SEO for the profitable keywords...)

Well, if such a product exists, I'd be happy to buy one myself. But at this point, I know of no "magic bullet" software that will replace the tedium of maintaining various coupon feeds for each merchant you're affiliated with. If you should happen to find one for sale, or if you can get a programmer to create one for you, then please let us know about it! You'd really have a very, very popular software among affiliate marketers.

To answer the original question (and yours) as succinctly as I can:

Coupon sites get their coupons by feeds or by manually searching and updating them per product. The big coupon sites probably automate the maintenance as much as possible with custom created scripts that can handle it. If you want one created for you, try rentacoder.com

-WM

[rematt]

Originally Posted by silvias

Why can't people reply to the question asked?
Running a coupons website may not be profitable, understood.
But why not first answer the question and then give your thoughts?
Isn't this like diverting the topic away to something else?
I'm interested and determined to run a website focused to coupons with the automated RSS Feeds or simply the feeds that I download from Advertisers.
Can someone answer which CMS to use to have the coupons displayed?
I'm in search of something like couponcabin.com or couponalbum.com
I'm sure, they are using some automated methods, but if someone can guide properly, I'm sure, its not rocket science to setup a site and promote it just like any other website.
Thanks in advance for the help.
Silvia.

Silvia, please don't take this the wrong way, BUT SHUT UP! You need to spend more time reading and learning then offering your advice and complaining. Don't you consider it somewhat rude to berate those that are trying to offer help? Especially when they weren't offering It to you.

You are however absolutely correct, it is sometimes easy to get distracted from the original question.

For instance, you didn't answer the question either, however you didn't hesitate to give your thoughts. You then proceeded to divert the topic to something else, namely YOUR QUESTION. You did exactly what you complained everyone else was doing.

Members may not always give the advice you're looking for, however they are trying to give what they consider valid advice. Help is help. Take it or leave it.

Oh and BTW, welcome aboard. Read, learn and become a contributor, but lose the attitude.

-rematt

[MichaelColey]

You might want to check out ForMeToCoupon.com. That's about the only way I know of to get coupons without having a extremely labor-intensive process of finding them, testing them, etc. Most coupon sites have full time staff dedicated to maintaining their coupon databases.

[flamingoworld]

Originally Posted by loxly

Each network has a deals/coupon feed. Large sites do automate the process.

Nope, we still manually enter each and every coupon. The network feeds help but often are inadequate, have information missing or incorrect. We use them as guides but we don't have it automated. We have to validate the info and many times email merchants and or networks to find out the missing pieces.

[silvias]

Thanks for all the replies,
I can see we have good information on the board 'which is actually a lot helpful' than what we had before.
I apologize if I hurt anybody with my aggressive replies, but that wasn't the intention. Yes, I know I'm an aggressive person, but rude .. ??
Secondly, people only shell out valuable information when I get a little aggressive. I have become the person I am. I'm 28 and have two kids to feed. No man to look after me or kids, so, yeah I like to save time and work out things that can save me time. I will try to hold my horses in future, for sure.

I'm astonished, there is a HUGE thread on GoldenCAN and everyone has been there to leave a reply (Carolyn, John, Asif, and others contributing members). I believe, we could have suggested GC here to the original 'question asker'?

Guys, I searched on Google and thats how I landed up on this specific post. However, when I searched around and saw other threads, I was really happy to find a lot of useful information. AWB is a lot better than other forums, including DP and I'm happy to be a member here. Hope I will be able to help someone, someday.

Here is my input to the question asker .. I have been using NTK HTML (search google, you will find the link) script so far which delivers PURE HTML pages and extremely customizable. I'm using ONLY ShareASale coupons feed since it is free for downloading. CJ and Linkshare charge fee for providing feed, which I think is bad, but I have to move along since its their policy and I'm just a new affiliate.

Originally Posted by flamingoworld

Nope, we still manually enter each and every coupon. The network feeds help but often are inadequate, have information missing or incorrect. We use them as guides but we don't have it automated. We have to validate the info and many times email merchants and or networks to find out the missing pieces.

Oh my, I guess, you must be investing a hell lot of time and energy to keep your site updated. Do you use a few coupons on your site or you have thousands? If you have thousands of coupons to manage, hats off to you. I have tried doing that, but I gave up since most coupons have validity less than a month.

Regards,
Silvia.

[BurgerBoy]

Go to this network. They have free coupon feeds that will update automatically when the coupons change each month.

http://www.avantlink.com/

Use their - dynamic html - codes for coupons for each merchant that they have there.

[Geno Prussakov]

In addition to what Michael and BurgerBoy have suggested, you may also want to look into GoldenCAN's Coupon Integration.

Geno