coupons

I've said before, and not too long ago, that only people with poor impulse control buy things at retail prices. But I've recently come to understand that deal-seekers, people who habitually try to save money by using social-shopping sites like Groupon or coupon directories like RetailMeNot, may actually be even more valuable to the retail industry than people who buy stuff at list price. Because they spend more.

Cotter Cunningham, CEO of WhaleShark Media, which runs RetailMeNot, explained to me recently why his straightforward coupon site is working well, and how the Internet is changing how pricing and consumer marketing is done.

Affiliate marketing--paid links to commercial destinations--is the third-most efficient way for consumer goods and services companies to get online business, after e-mailing existing customers and doing good SEO. Coupons make for very effective and trackable affiliate links, because users have to click on them to get the deal, not just visit the site selling the product they want.

And coupon sites succeed because the business of aggregating coupons is very strong: each link is a CPA, or cost-per-action link, which pays out at a much higher rate than CPC, or cost-per-click advertising links.

The goal is to become the big site with the most coupons, as getting into that position makes for a virtuous SEO cycle: the more coupons you have, the more people link to and visit the site, and the higher you rise in the search engines. RetailMeNot pursues this strategy by including even nonaffiliate coupon deals in its listings. Unlike some of the original coupon sites, where each coupon has an affiliate or CPA link attached to it, RetailMeNot encourages its users to submit coupon codes they find around the Internet. These coupons don't generate direct revenue for the site (although pages they're on do serve ads), but they do serve the incredibly important function of improving RetailMeNot's depth and thus its SEO juice and its traffic, making its paid links bigger revenue drivers. … Read more

Apple teased the media earlier this week about an important announcement about iTunes, and after several hours of tech pundits forecasting the news, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has finally come to an agreement to offer the works of The Beatles for sale in iTunes. Yes, that's it. No cloud-based content, no 90-second previews, and definitely no new hardware.

The iconic band's entire catalog is available for purchase, however, for $149 and it comes with exclusive video of the band's first U.S. concert, "live at the Washington Coliseum, 1964."  You can also purchase single albums for $12.99, double albums for $19.99, and individual songs for $1.29 each, ending the long litigation between Apple Inc. and Apple Corps, The Beatles' record company

Did you know that Apple will also refund your money if you're unhappy with the purchase of an app in the iTunes Store? We didn't know either, but Apple lets you do just that in a few simple steps: just log into your iTunes account, click on "purchase history," "report a problem" with the lackluster app, and Apple will refund your purchase price. You do need to fill out a form detailing the reason for the refund, and "this app blows" won't fly, so get creative!

If you're as much of an Apple fanboy as Wilson is, then you should probably buy a ticket for London ASAP, because an original Apple-1 computer hand-built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak will be auctioned off at Christie's in London on November 23. It's one of 200 original computers sold out of Steve's garage in 1976, and even includes an invoice from the salesman and a typed letter from Jobs to the original owner.

The bill for the sale reads $666.66, although the Apple-1 motherboard, 8KB of RAM, and a series of interfaces is expected to grab anywhere from $160,000 to $250,000 and beyond.

Thanksgiving is a week and a half away, which means some bargain hunters are already packing their sleeping bags to camp out for Black Friday, the infamous day after Thanksgiving when retailers advertise heavily discounted prices on a variety of products. Wal-Mart has already posted its list of Black Friday items on sale, but you can also get free shipping through December 20, if waking up at 3 a.m. and standing next to Wilson for four hours doesn't sound like fun to you.

Join us after the break for Kenley's rant on the Wiimedia Foundation's plea for public donations, and don't forget to leave us a call-back at 1-866-404-CNET. Jeff's back on the show tomorrow, so we can't guarantee yours will sift through his filter of hate, but your chances will definitely increase if you send a video voice mail instead! Use this one as an example, and send yours to the404(at)cnet(dot)com when you're finished!

As a bona fide cheapskate (and author of the eponymous blog), I'm a longtime fan of the Entertainment Book. For about $30 (a little more in some states), it provides substantial discounts for thousands of local stores, attractions, restaurants, movie theaters, and the like.

In my experience, the book pays for itself within a month or two, then offers additional savings (often major savings) throughout the rest of the year. Killer deal.

Just one problem: a lot of coupons go to waste because we don't know where the deals are. We might be out and about, looking for … Read more

What's with the late post today? Simple: I couldn't find a deal worth posting. So I thought I'd dip into my cheapskate bag of tricks and talk about coupons.

Specifically, eBay is home to a bonanza of coupons for stores like Home Depot, Kohl's, Lowe's, and J.C. Penney. If you're planning a major purchase (and you can put it off long enough for your coupon to arrive in the mail), you stand to save a bundle.

For example, this auction is for 10 Lowe's coupons, each good for 10 percent off your … Read more

One way to deal with all of those pesky competitors in the online daily-deals market is to buy them. And likewise, one way to expand overseas is to acquire the European version of yourself.

Both apparently made sense to Groupon, which announced Sunday that it has acquired European-based CityDeal, "the world's largest Groupon clone," as it was described in a press release.

"That means we're operating in 18 countries, 140 cities, and we have over 900 employees in about a dozen offices across two continents," Groupon founder and CEO Andrew Mason, said in a … Read more

Mobile coupons are coming to mega-retailer Target, which will allow shoppers all over the U.S. to use their mobile handset to get discounts on all kinds of products.

The bar-coded coupons are available now. Shoppers interested in getting the mobile coupons must "opt in" and register on Target's Web site. They can also text the word "COUPONS" to 827438.

Once consumers are registered they will get text messages on their phones with links to a Web page that features various coupons. The program works with any phone that has a mobile browser and data … Read more

Web commerce has made it possible for the corner store to compete with giants for consumers' attention. Small businesses are increasingly able to offer enticements, such as rebates and coupons, previously limited to big sellers. Developer Cathy Edwards' Coupon Creator is a free tool that creates unlimited electronic coupon codes and discounted order pages for your Web site or blog.

Coupon Creator downloads as a compressed file but installs easily via a Windows installer. It's freeware so it opens with a page of ads for other Cesales products, but you can click through to the main application, which features … Read more

Hey, has anyone seen 2009? It was here a minute ago. Under the sofa cushions, maybe? No? Dang, guess it's gone for good. That was fast!

Because this is my last post until 2010, allow me to share some of the things I learned this year:

1. Never overpay for HDMI cables Actually, I learned this in 2008, but it bears repeating. If you pay more than a few bucks for an HDMI cable (you know, the kind that connects HDTV to receiver, Blu-ray player to HDTV, and so on), you're getting screwed. Witness this deal from Buy.com: a four-pack of 6-foot HDMI cables for $9.91 shipped. If you just walked out of Best Buy with a $30 Belkin, take it back!

2. Always look for coupon codes Do you often find yourself wishing for a big, juicy coupon code for the checkout page? A quick bit of Google searching may produce one. Or hit up Web sites like DealLocker and RetailMeNot to browse their coupon collections. I can't tell you how many times I've scored an unexpected discount, free shipping, or some other savings.… Read more

If you're not the type of person not to say "no" to discounts, then Cellfire's mobile coupons application could help preserve your savings bit by bit. The deals include local restaurants and retail services in the U.S., as well as national chains. Many coupons have multiple offers, and Cellfire makes it easy to both text coupons to other customers and find locations nearby. Handily, you can also save coupons in a separate tab for later use. When it comes time to present the coupon, you'll simply show the mobile clipping at the register.

Unfortunately, … Read more