David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

There has been a series of voucher code bloopers as reported by e-consultancy lately: Threshers, Sainsbury's, Hamleys and Littlewoods.

Furthermore, what with sites like Tesco are stopping voucher codes from being displayed on websites and affiliates reporting voucher code theft, is this the beginning of the end for voucher code websites?
 
They were a great idea to begin with when they were smaller. Then, the bandwagon became crowded. I sometimes search for voucher codes but feel the search results aren't worth going through anymore. Dead pages, pages with dead codes and holding pages fill up the majority of the top 10.

To prove my point, I'll choose a retailer at random on an affiliate network (let's make it easy - HMV). Now I'll search Google for "hmv discount code" and show the results below.

There are 280,000 results for the term "hmv discount code" so that's not looking good already :-)

1 - HotUKDeals - Voucher and Discount Codes

Promising results with 2 codes found - £2 off the Sopranos if I fill in a survey though there's nothing on the page to say I will get this discount (unverified) and £82.01 discount if I spend £17.99. This one is to do with referring people to the site. Both of these therefore are not instant discounts that I can use right now.

1a - HotUKDeals - Main Page

A supplemental result in this search and only appears because HMV is in the select box on the side.

2 - Free Discount Vouchers and UK Coupon Codes

HMV is listed on the home page - so far so good. It lists a voucher code which shows as "unrecognised" on HMV's site so it's safe to assume this £5 off £35 HMV code is dead.

3 - HMV Discount Codes, Promotional Code, Discount Vouchers, e-Coupons ...

This site looks very promising with 8 codes down the side. Click on "View codes" and an IFRAME loads the HMV site using a Buy.at affiliate link - unethical in my eyes (worth reading this by Jason Dale).

Nevertheless, 12 codes appear and all of them are "unrecognised" on HMV's site.

4 - VoucherCodes.com - Free Voucher Codes, Discount Codes, Coupons ...

HMV is listed on the left hand menu and again I'm directed to "view codes". This opens up a popup with no address bar with the HMV site embedded into it, with a separate popup for the codes. This to me should be frowned upon by merchants as any shopping site where you cannot see the address bar is bad for business. As a shopper, how am I supposed to know that's the genuine HMV site and not a rogue site farming for credit card details? In this case, this example is damaging the HMV brand in my opinion. This is also a buy.at affiliate.

15 voucher codes were found and all of them are "unrecognised" on HMV's site.

5 - Vouchers Threads A-Z - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums

This links to a forum topic from 2005 so I won't check any of these codes as they will all be dead. This is a case where Google rewards age over content. The forum topic includes a link to a dedicated HMV thread but this contains old codes too.

6 - HMV Promotional Code

No voucher codes displayed, just a link to the HMV site. Congratulations Barry on keeping an up to date website, clear of old codes!

7 - http://www.rsspad.com/HMV-Promotional-Code.htm

This is a feed republishing website and the page in questions links to My Voucher Codes - a site included in Jason's report and not in the top 10.

8 - Discount Codes | Voucher Codes | Coupons | Special Offers | FREE ...

Whilst My Voucher Codes is not in the top 10, it's sister site is. The page above lists every company imaginable with "voucher codes" appended to the company name. Clicking on HMV takes me over to the Safe Buyer website. Clicking on view voucher codes loads up the HMV affiliate link in a new window (I'd call this a popup) plus the codes in an original window. When you click on a voucher, it loads up an IFRAME with the code at the top and the HMV site at the bottom. Not ideal but I did click on the voucher code so I think this is a reasonable solution.

The 3 codes listed all return "unrecognised" on HMV's site.

9 - High Street Voucher / UK Discount Vouchers Code Sites ...

This advertises My Voucher Codes plus a few others but no actual voucher codes

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(Important note: A couple of these codes were for specific products and some sites said I had to log in before I could redeem these vouchers. Nevertheless, the codes that came back as "unrecognised" I have presumed are inactive.)

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So what have we learned? I have spend over 30 minutes going through the top 10 results in Google for HMV voucher codes and all the codes found are dead. A lot are repeated codes.

On top of this, some coupon sites are still riding on the boundaries of ethical affiliate marketing.

It won't be long before people stop searching for voucher codes if this is the state of the results. Not only that, merchants like HMV may stop issuing voucher codes for the reason that a few affiliates are spoiling it for the rest of us. At the end of the day, with some affiliates stealing codes off each other, and others unethically dropping cookies, and with a minority launching websites without address bars, the brand misrepresentation that occurs may not be worth the trade these vouchers can bring in.

Vouchers are an excellent way to create a buzz, even when the voucher distribution goes wrong. But merchants may stop using codes, networks may remove affiliates breaking the rules and voucher code website may die a terrible death.

We'll see.