How Coupon and Deal Sites Make Money
A coupon site doesn't charge you to use it — so something else pays the bills. Here's what that is, and what federal rules say about telling you.
The business model in one sentence
Most coupon and deal sites — including this one — are paid a commission by the retailer when a visitor clicks through and buys something. It costs you nothing extra: the price you pay at checkout is the same whether you clicked an affiliate link or typed the store's address directly, and the commission comes out of the retailer's marketing budget, not your wallet. It does mean the site has a direct financial reason to want you to click through and buy — which is exactly why federal rules require that reason to be disclosed.
Why this has to be disclosed, by rule
The FTC's Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255, updated in 2023) set the standard. Under § 255.5, "when there exists a connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement, and that connection is not reasonably expected by the audience, such connection must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously." The rule's own Example 11 applies this directly to a blogger who earns a commission through affiliate links: the recommendation "should clearly and conspicuously disclose the compensation." A coupon site recommending "today's best deal" is making exactly that kind of endorsement, and the same disclosure duty applies. The guide is written to cover an endorsement "regardless of the medium used to disseminate it" — it was not written only with individual social media influencers in mind, so a deals website listing offers is inside its scope the same way a single blogger recommending one product is.
Affiliate commissions are usually only part of it
A commission on completed purchases is the revenue source most directly tied to which deals get featured, but it's rarely the only one. Many coupon and deal sites also run display advertising sold by the impression or click, unrelated to which specific offers are shown, and some accept direct payment from a brand for placement in a "featured" or "sponsored" spot — a different arrangement from an affiliate link, and one that carries the same disclosure duty under the same rule, since it's just as much a "connection... not reasonably expected by the audience" if left unlabeled. A few sites also monetize the visitor data collected through newsletter signups or account creation, which is a separate question from how deals get ranked — covered in this site's guide to what happens to your data when you enter a sweepstakes.
What a real disclosure has to look like
The FTC's own guidance for publishers is specific about placement, not just wording. A disclosure has to sit with the recommendation itself — not only in a site-wide "About" page, not buried behind a "more" link, and not folded into a string of hashtags where it's easy to miss. Plain language works: something like "we get commissions for purchases made through links in this post" is the kind of wording the FTC points to as clear. A disclosure a reader has to go looking for isn't one, by the FTC's own standard — it has to be sitting right next to the link or the recommendation it applies to.
Can a ranking itself be bought?
This is a fair question, and there's no single FTC rule that answers "does the highest-commission deal always get featured first" directly — but a related rule is squarely on point. The Consumer Review Rule (16 CFR § 465.6, in effect since October 2024) bars a company-controlled review or ranking site from misrepresenting itself as independent. Combined with the Endorsement Guides above, the honest answer is: a site is allowed to prioritize deals that pay it more, as long as it isn't pretending its rankings are unaffected by that arrangement. The disclosure requirement exists precisely because a reader can't tell the difference between "the best deal" and "the deal that pays the most" without being told.
What this means when you read a deals page
A disclosed commission is not, by itself, a reason to distrust a deal — the price you pay doesn't change, and the alternative to affiliate revenue for a free coupon site is usually more ads or a paywall, not no business model at all. What it does mean is that "featured" or "top pick" placement reflects the site's business arrangements as well as the deal's actual value, so it's worth comparing a highlighted offer against the full list rather than assuming the top slot is automatically the best one for you.