Coupon sites are, by far, the largest segment of affiliate marketing. The coupon site business model begins by aggregating coupons, sales, and promotions available on a retailer’s website or provided via other marketing campaigns (e.g. e-mail, search engine marketing). The coupon site then creates a separate page specific to each retailer highlighting all known promotions. In exchange, the retailer pays a commission to the coupon site for every customer who clicks on these promotions and then buys something on the retailer’s site. To be blunt, our advice to our clients is these coupon sites (note: we assume somewhere a coupon site adds value, but we haven’t seen one yet) are literally just diverting traffic already destined for their site and cutting into their profit like a toll booth on a highway.
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