From $30.00 to $90 million: RetailMeNot | Hacker News Reader

From $30.00 to $90 million: RetailMeNot

zdnet.com.au

56 pointsbootload13 comments

A classic pivot. They used BugMeNot's audience and reach to slingshot RetailMeNot into a huge site.

You would be forgiven for having written them off from where they started with BugMeNot. You look at that site and say, "How in the world can you monetize that traffic?!" I mean, Reddit users may be a tough audience, but at least most of them registered!

But they had good resources and obviously had the resourcefulness. Resourcefulness and resources. What else could you need?

It seems like these two really earned what they got. They got ahead of a trend and developed a useful and popular real product.And that they know that their developers are responsible for the success of the site speak highly of them as quality entrepreneur in the best sense

Retailmenot is the best. They even have a time based graph of whether the coupons worked or not, so you can tell if a coupon has genuinely expired by looking at the graph.

"helping start the coupon movement over half a decade ago"

Whoa, that's incorrect.

Coupon sites aren't a new development and go back to at least the late 90s. One example is FlamingoWorld, started in 1998 and by 2001 was reportedly earning its owner over a million dollars annually. And it was hardly the first such site.

Edit: I should add that RMN was innovative in its design--it was like "Coupons 2.0" and I'm sure this helped a lot in growing its user base.

RetailMeNot was not their first attempt. RetailMeNot was based on BugMeNot if i recall correctly (for bypassing mandatory login systems).

Out of curiosity, anyone know their revenue model for bringing in $30 Million a year?

Linking the coupon codes to affiliate links via onClick so that you're forced to click on them in order to copy/paste the code.

That's pretty ingenious. Though if I were a company offering affiliate links I am not sure I would put up with this process. I imagine the majority of customers are already committed to buying from a specific company and just want to check if any coupons exist.

There are many many times that I choose not to buy something from a new vendor after going to retailmenot.com and finding no relevant coupons available. There is definitely a value-add there.

I agree, definitely customers who do that, but it is a numbers game. Is enough "new" traffic generated from RetailMeNot to sustain the affiliate links? I am not sure there is any way to know for sure at the scale affiliate programs are typically used.

You could raise similar doubts about most affiliate links that aren't precisely equivalent to a banner ad. For example, a blog with a review that uses affiliate links for monetization? Well, I usually look for reviews when I'm thinking of buying a product anyway.

At any rate, the heavy coupon shoppers I know tend to be more malleable than average based on what deals they find, so I doubt this is a low-quality referral source.

Most companies know that there will always be inefficiencies and even seriously dubious stuff wrapped up in affiliate programs, but accept them anyway.

I think there are is a counter-argument to be made because price discrimination is almost always sloppy, yet better than none at all. But your point is basically right -- most companies wouldn't want to do this. And yet the craziest stuff happens in affiliate programs...

Actually, I would love to hear more from folks out there (spez?) who have a perspective on affiliate programs. I ran experimental campaigns with Commission Junction and Expedia a few years back and found insight on the affiliate marketing business hard to come by. Any readings on this topic are appreciated.

"King and Clark can lay a fair claim to helping start the coupon movement over half a decade ago."

This is the money quote for me. It just shows the sheer speed at which the internet works, or maybe it is just me getting old...

Here's a link to WhaleShark Media, the Austin, TX company that purchased RetailMeNot: http://www.whalesharkmedia.com/

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