Find out how to save a lot of money online by looking for coupons, getting free shipping, comparing prices, and doing research on the brands.
Many people think that online shopping is more expensive than shopping in a store because they don't have to pay for shipping. They have no idea what you're about to learn.
Did you know that there are a lot of websites whose sole purpose is to give you coupons for online stores? Did you know that there are sites that let you compare prices and features of different brands? Or that there are forums and networks where people can talk about a product or service? Did you know that many stores use their online portals and email newsletters to quickly sell overstocked items at prices below their costs? Did you know that some stores let you combine deals like free shipping with deals like dollar off, percent off, buy-one-get-one, etc.? Did you know that some companies have affiliate programmes that let you sell their products yourself and save hundreds of dollars? I know of one that lets me buy a hosting package for $95 (taxes included), and then a few months later, they put $100 back into my affiliate account. In fact, they're paying me to buy their product. The contract I signed doesn't say that I can't do this, and as far as I'm concerned, it's a case of "don't ask, don't tell."
Most of these sites didn't exist five years ago, or at least they didn't make as much money or offer as much value as they do now. Affiliate Marketing is to blame for this, as you will see in the next section.
The Coupon on a Computer
Last year, when I was looking for a Christmas gift for a relative, my mother saw me go to a coupon site. It was www.thecouponmatrix.com, whose logos have little dashes that look like coupons, and she asked, "Are you going to print out that coupon?" Then I realised that maybe not "everyone" knew what an affiliate programme was or that thousands of merchants pay bloggers and website owners in every industry to distribute online coupons using special codes that the buyer types into a field during the checkout process: "Save 25% on everything, but only today! At Checkout, enter the code: 12345." Some sites just automatically use the code when you click on the link: "Get it shipped for free. Click Here." If you want to buy widgets made by Blue Widget, for example, you can go to Google and type in "blue widget coupons" or "blue widget coupon codes." You won't believe how many there are!
Double Dipping
Most e-commerce systems are smart enough these days to let stores make coupons that can't be used with any other offers. But the person who works on this million-dollar ecommerce system doesn't always have his coffee in the morning, and you can often find online stores that accept so many coupons that you can almost get something for free: Free shipping, 25% off, $10 off, and buy one get one free is a great deal. Try typing "you can use multiple coupons" into Google and seeing if any of your favourite stores come up.
Compare Prices
There are a lot of websites that will check the databases of thousands of online stores to find the cheapest price for the product you are looking for. Some of them, like Amazon.com, PriceGrabber.com, bizrate.com, and Nextag.com, you may already know.
Brands
Brand comparison sites are less common than price comparison sites, but they are just as useful. Before you look for places to buy, you need to know what you want to buy. Sites like http://www.comparethebrands.com can help with this. They look at two brands (e.g., Treo vs. Blackberry smart phones) and compare their features, prices, and consumer feedback from other review websites. Then, they give you an unbiased opinion on which brand is the best buy, saving you money in the short term and giving you a better product in the long term.
Sign up for emails and feeds.
Get a free Hotmail or Gmail account and only use it to sign up for the newsletters of the stores you like. Soon, you'll have a large collection of emails that you can use to find coupon codes, limited-time offers, and deep, deep discounts on items that are overstocked. I often see that the price listed in the email to the newsletter group is half or less of what everyone else can see on the website. Feeds are slowly replacing newsletters, and they also have the advantage of being less obvious. You can sign up for Compare The Brand's 10 Most Recent feed of product reviews by copying and pasting the URL into bloglines or Google feed reader. You can also get a widget and put it on your desktop.
Sell Yourself and Win Twice as Much
Affiliate programmes made this type of service and utility possible in the ecommerce industry by letting regular people put a link on their own website or in an email. When someone clicked on the link and bought something from the merchant's site, they got a percentage of the sale. Most merchants' affiliate agreements don't say that you can't use the discounts to buy things for yourself. This is something that people who are new to affiliate marketing don't know. Just sign up for as many programmes as you can, keep a page online where you can put all the links, and the next time you want to buy something, just use your own link. When you use the coupon code, you not only save money, but you also get a percentage of the sale. How much cash back does Visa offer, 0.02 percent? Hop over to Commission Junction, Shareasale, or Linkshare to get up to 25% back every time.
Remember to compare brands, sign up for newsletters, check prices, and use coupons twice to get a Great Deal. You will be your best customer ever. I promise.
