In 1999 I registered CouponsAndDeals.com. In the years that followed, the search arbitrage era, it did very well, well enough that I never quite got around to updating it. For nearly twenty years it sat frozen: Netflix DVD promos, Buy.com links, a sweepstakes for a DVD player. A museum with my name on the deed.
This year I'm bringing it back, and I'm going to document the whole thing here: what works, what doesn't, and what it earns. This page is the first entry in the build log.
Why revive it instead of starting fresh
The domain is the asset. It's been registered and live since 1999, it earned real links in its day, and it has an exact-match name in a category people never stop caring about. You cannot buy that history; you can only inherit it from your own past self.
The 2026 rebuild, in short
- Not a coupon-code site. Google torched that category. The new site is about ways to actually save: cashback apps, stacking strategies, honest reviews.
- Stack: plain static HTML drafted with AI assistance, hosted free, domain at the registrar it's lived at for decades. Monthly cost: effectively zero.
- Monetization: referral programs for the savings apps reviewed, disclosed plainly on every page.
What 1999 me would find unbelievable
[MIKE: this is the fun section. The site that took months and real money then now takes an afternoon and $0. AI writes competent first-draft HTML. Hosting is free. The hard part inverted: building is trivial now, attention is the scarce thing. 3-4 paragraphs of your actual reflections; this is the part readers will quote.]
The numbers (updating as we go)
| Date | Traffic | Email subs | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2026 (relaunch) | [BASELINE] | 0 | $0 |
| [Next update] | — | — | — |
I'll update this table as real numbers come in. No screenshots of Lamborghinis will ever appear on this page.
Follow along
The rest of the portfolio is getting the same treatment: two fan sites from 2000, two music sites, two concert calendars, and this site itself, which I first put online in 1998. Each revival becomes an entry here. Visit the finished work at CouponsAndDeals.com.
Want the next build log entry when it ships?
Join the Mogul Memo