When you shop online, it’s a smart idea to first check to see if there is an online coupon code available for the product or service you’re purchasing. I was offered a chance to review couponshack.com, which started as Coupon Monkey in 2003 and was founded by two friends with a $2.00 investment! Those friends, John McAliley and Sok Verdery, still run the company, and are providing online shoppers with multiple ways to find any and every deal that exists for a wide variety of stores and brands.

I like Coupon Shack’s layout. The blog-type format is familiar to me, my eyes immediately went to the tabs at the top and the social media links in the sidebar, and I really appreciate the HUGE search bar that goes almost all the way across the homepage.  It drives me nuts when I go to a consumer website and the search bar is teeny tiny and hard to find.  The homepage has featured deals, popular stores, and Hot Deals, which are mini blog posts that focus on one retailer and their offerings.

As a social media-savvy blogger, I appreciate that Coupon Shack is using Twitter and Facebook to reach out to users and reward them with exclusive coupons. Unfortunately, I ran into a major problem when I started clicking links on the site.  Almost every link I clicked from the “browse by brand” tab at the top went to a page that says An Error Occurred.  I also found links claiming to be a savings on a particular product that went to a page with nothing on it except a suggestion that readers share any coupon codes they knew of.  I hope John and Sok are working on making sure links work properly, as this could definitely turn away potential site users.

Please visit the site if you like saving money! This post was brought to you by my friends at CouponShack.com.