[InfinityX0]

I don't buy the "don't have all your eggs in one basket" mantra here. I get that idea if you rely on SEO and you have risky tactics, but in RetailMeNot's case, they have the best user experience and also, up to date coupons and for that reason are the best result most of the time in the vertical.

If this was a publicly traded company that bought links and had a site with a shoddy user experience, I'd get the argument that there's significant risk.

In the history of Google there are very few, if any case studies of sites that A) did the right thing B) were the best result that ended up losing significant traffic. Most of it is "yeah, we were doing this wrong, but it's still not fair..". In Rap Genius' case, they clearly did something wrong.

The only exception to this rule is if Google moves in on the vertical and steals traffic, which is possible with coupons - but there's a significant difference between completely destroying a vertical and impeding on it somewhat. Google has moved in on the airline tickets vertical but the businesses there are still doing just fine (Expedia, Priceline), as shown by their considerable growth in the last year+. It seems likely that if Google moved in on this vertical, it would be a similar impact.

In this article, there's little to describe what RetailMeNot does wrong. Yes, they are somewhat of a parasite, but in many ways they do these businesses a service by lowering purchase friction by creating an elegant experience for users. If their UX was substandard, it's possible customers would get lost and never complete their purchase - this happens time and time again, which is why CRO professionals can get hundreds of thousands of dollars to optimize a conversion funnel. In many ways, RetailMeNot is a piece of that elegant conversion funnel, so they are rewarded as an extremely profitable affiliate for that reason.

Disclaimer: I haven't taken the time to evaluate their link profile so there's a possibility that they are doing something risky there, but from an on-page perspective, they are the best result.

[netcan]

There is a sort of arrogance in assuming that risk = factors outside of your control. Risk is also the likelihood and potential effect of your own mistakes. Think of it from the perspective elf an employee. What are the chances that current of future employees or executives will do something to make Google ban them. Add that to the risk that Google will penalise them for something not previously considered risky.

Anyway, the hole thing strikes me as fairly risky. That’s not bad, you just need to consider that this business is less likely to exist in 10 years than most businesses of its size. That's because of reliance on SEO. It's also the reliance on the coupon codes themselves. That’s not terrible in itself. Risk is allowed.