Let’s say you open a car wash and you want to drum up some business. Well your first step is to market your car wash in an effort to bring attention and customers. Lets consider two strategies:

1. You send out one of your friends to hand out flyers that say “50% off a carwash if you bring in this flyer.” He/she walks around town and hands out 100 of these flyers.
2. You place a big sign on a major intersection that tells people “Come to my carwash, its at 50 Main Street.” People drive by and see this sign, and you hope they will come visit your car wash.

Now, its easy to see which of the above marketing plans is more measurable. You can count the number of customers that show up holding the 50% off flyer, and get an idea for how effective the strategy was. The billboard though is harder to measure. How do you know if a customer came on their own accord, or whether it was due to the billboard? You are probably seeing the picture now.

On the internet, businesses want to track how you found them, what brought you to their site and what interested you. This is where discount codes come into play. There are excellent websites all over the internet that collect and organize discount codes that can be used at a variety of online retailers. These codes, when submitted on a retailers website, will give you access to special savings and deals that other people are not privy to (think the people above showing up with the flyers versus those that show up without the flyers).

Let’s say you are looking for Littlewoods discount codes hoping to save some money on your next online purchase of clothing, shoes or anything else the retailer has to offer. You would start by browsing through the specials these directories currently have organized and then write down the codes that you are interested in. Then, go to the Littlewoods website and enter these codes in the shopping cart area. Viola! You’ve just saved yourself money just by locating the write online coupons. This is the new form of coupon clipping. No more paper cuts or newspapers – you can save money and be more environmentally friendly all at the same time. Millions of shoppers utilize these discounts each year saving hundreds of billions of dollars. Its time you put down the paper and head straight to the real source of savings.

Step one: start by generating a list of products you need. For example, if you’re grocery shopping, grab your grocery list. If you typically don’t purchase a lot of name brand products, make notes next to the items that you need coupons for.

Step two: do a search for specific brands. Finding coupons online using the brand names is a great place to start because many manufacturers have their own links to coupons listed right on their websites.

Step three: visit the big coupon printing websites. These are Smart Source, Red Plum, and Coupon Network. There are thousands of other websites listed online, but finding coupons online generally leads you to one of these sites. Another popular site to find coupons online is Coupons.com.

Step four: utilize social networking. Thousands of manufacturers are tapping into the Facebook.com craze, and offering up coupons on their pages. Simply search for the manufacturer (or specific product), and see if they’re offering a coupon. If not, sometimes there’s a form you can fill out and they’ll send you one.

This is just the beginning toward finding coupons online. Some grocery stores also offer store specific, as well as printable coupons on their websites. If you are not interested in grocery coupons, finding printable coupons for services or other products is a simple as doing a search for what you need.

Printable coupons are not just limited to saving on grocery shopping. Consumers have found printable coupons for auto repair, home décor, holiday gifts, personal care, and so much more. With all that’s available on the Internet these days, consumers can find printable coupons for just about anything.

Are you interested in becoming an extreme couponer? There are a number of ways to go about this, including using printable coupons. The first thing you need to do is plan your shopping trip. Let[s consider if you[re grocery shopping, and what’s involved. Some couponers will do extensive planning to include inventorying their food stock (perishable and non-perishable), as well as creating meal plans. If you decide to do this, cross reference your meal plan with your inventory, and generate your shopping list that way. Then, search for printable coupons if you don’t have any manufacturer coupons for the items on your list.

Keep in mind that many manufacturers offer their own links for printable coupons. So, rather than sticking to one site for all your printing, surf around in order to maximize your savings opportunities. Many consumers don’t realize this, but manufacturers are also creating Facebook pages with printable coupons on them. Some of these offers are also for coupons you can fill out a form for and receive in the mail.

Once you have your list and your coupons, you’re almost ready to hit the aisles. The last thing you need to do is check your grocery store’s coupon policy. If they don’t have the policy available online, request a copy from customer service.