Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Make money finding and sharing discounts
Isobel Lawrance
21st Jun 2021
Are you a keen coupon connoisseur or detect discounts whenever you shop? Do you have a budding affiliate marketer within you, ready to make extra income? What if we told you, that you can actually make money from finding and sharing discount codes?
We all love going shopping from time to time, treating ourselves and loved ones to a new frock or pair of shoes. It feels all the better when you use a coupon or discount code, bagging yourself a bargain.
Almost 87% of brits have used an online coupon code at least once, and 1 in 4 people go on the hunt for a discount code every single time they shop.
Websites that specialise in sharing discount codes with consumers, such as Honey and VoucherCodes, work in tandem with businesses. They promote the discount codes and drive traffic to the businesses’ website and, in return, receive a percentage of any sales made using said codes.
Affiliate links work in a similar way. Affiliate marketing is a popular tactic used by businesses to drive sales and generate online revenue. So beneficial, in fact, that as of 2020, a whopping 81% of businesses in the UK have started implementing affiliate marketing into their networks.
Now it’s your turn to use these techniques to make money. It’s easier than you may think…
- Become a discount code hunter
- Become an affiliate marketer
- Create your own website or social page
- Use cashback websites
Become a Discount Code ‘Hunter’
Back in May of this year, NHS Discount Offers were recruiting five shopping experts to search the internet high and low, in order to find the best deals, discounts and offers for NHS staff to use. ‘Discount code executives’ were to be paid up to £120 a day, depending on how many offers were redeemed and, on top of this, were given £1,000 to spend on whatever they wanted. Although they aren’t currently recruiting, make sure you keep an eye out on their page to ensure you get in first when they next recruit.
Similarly, Bark.com, a website which allows you to find professionals in every vocation you can think of, has previously put out a call for professional ‘coupon hunters’, offering pay of £15 an hour to those passionate about finding good deals. Keep an eye on the website for future opportunities. We previously wrote an article on this opportunity, and how you can find out whether couponing is your true calling.
For our readers in the US, websites such as Coupon Chief pay you to find and submit coupons for others to use. When you share working discount codes to the site, you will receive 2% of all sales made using that particular code, which will be sent to you monthly by cheque. You can join here.
How to find discount codes online
“Where do I find discounts to share online?”, we hear you ask. The Balance Everyday suggests seven different ways in which you can scour the web for online discount and promo codes. These include visiting as many discount code websites as you can find, such as VoucherCodes and My Voucher Codes, as well as visiting retailer websites directly for exclusive deals. Recently, a secret trick to find discount codes on Facebook’s Ad Library was also revealed by an internet user.
Become an affiliate marketer
Being ‘an affiliate’ sounds a a bit formal and boring, but really it just means making money by advertising products for other companies.
You can earn commission from marketing a company’s products, generating a passive income that allows you to earn whilst you walk your dog, potter in the garden, and even whilst you sleep. Below, we discuss some affiliate schemes, and how to use them.
Yazing, Amazon and Awin
yazing
Yazing not only pays you to shop by offering amazing cashback deals on your purchases, but they give you cash rewards for promoting discount codes and generating traffic which leads to sales. Whether you share your unique promo codes with your friends, family, colleagues or on your social media platforms, you get commission for every sale made through your affiliate link. Yazing pays your earnings directly into your PayPal account, with no minimum earnings required. Quick, easy and very little fuss. You can sign up here.
amazon associates
Perhaps one of the most well-known affiliate schemes is the Amazon Associates program. One of the largest affiliate programs in the world, it helps people to capitalise from the products they love. As you likely know, Amazon has millions of products for sale, from which you can create affiliate links, and share them on your social media platforms, or with your loved ones.
Do you have a blog, website or create content in any form? For example, do you have a Youtube channel? You can share your links on there! This is great for content creators who have a specific niche. If you blog about vintage cars you could promote a particular book about it, or if you’re a beauty blogger you could create an affiliate link for your favourite products. Creating links which are targeted to your audience specifically is very beneficial. Sign up here.
awin
Awin is an affiliate marketing platform which allows you to begin your journey and start earning money. They work with companies including Marks and Spencer, B&Q and Very. If you happen to have a blog, a following online (no matter how big or small) or a website, Awin welcomes you to join their affiliate program and start generating affiliate links to share with your followers. Not only do your followers save, but you earn! Sign up here.
Create your own website or page to promote discount codes
If you have the time, you could also create your own website or social media page to share, promote and create traffic for your affiliate links. This way, all of your codes and links are in one place, and you can earn commission from each use of them.
To begin with, you need to decide a niche you want to focus on – we say this because it’s often easier if you narrow down on a certain niche rather than try and attract everyone. For example, you may choose to focus on discount codes for women’s fashion or, perhaps, homeware. You can always expand the width of your subject matter later but attracting specific followers who you know are interested in the deals you are promoting is a great way to start getting conversions. Following this, you’ll need to choose a website name and URL – try and choose something catchy and memorable, whilst bearing in mind people should have at least some idea from the name what your website is all about. Then, you can begin to build your website or social media page, making sure to add an email sign up link, so your clients can be notified when new deals are uploaded.
Remember, it’s important to market your website, sharing it wherever and whenever you can to encourage traffic to your site and increase the likelihood of your codes being used – trust us, building traffic is hard work! If your website picks up, you can also approach businesses yourself, negotiating your own deals and exclusive codes. We’ve previously written an article citing lots of useful tools for both freelancers and those setting up their own businesses.
You can find more guidance on how to start your own coupon website here.
Cashback Websites
Cashback websites do exactly what they say on the tin – when you spend money online, you get a percentage of the sale back, thus saving money on your purchases and being rewarded to shop. Not only can you save money, but some cashback websites give you cash rewards for referring your friends.
TopCashback’s ‘Tell-a-Friend’ scheme rewards you with £7.50 of free cashback for every person who signs up to the website using your personal referral code. You can share your code via Facebook, Twitter and Email. The only catch is that each person you refer must make £10 in cashback before you receive your reward. However, with some companies offering a whopping 15% cashback, this shouldn’t take too long to accumulate.
Now that you have the tools you need; we hope you will be inspired to have a go at making money through sharing discounts codes and affiliate links. Go forth, share, and earn!
Here are some useful links:
- Guide to voucher codes: being clever with codes
- Free stuff, top vouchers, freebies and discounts
- Best discount code sites for Christmas gifts
THANKS!
MY DEAR FRIENDS, BE CAREFUL WITH AMAZON!
IN THE ERA OF THE FESTIVITIES ARE EXISTING TOO MANY FAKES!
KIND REGARDS,
TEODORA
28.12.2023
SOFIA
Thank you for the information.
Yazing only seem to deal with American sites not British. With the Amazon program you need to have a blog