If you've paid attention to national news lately, you have probably heard that Groupon has become the fastest growing company in internet history. Google also offered to buy Groupon for $6 billion dollars which they quickly turned down. Groupon stands for "group coupon" and it requires a certain number of people to purchase the "groupon" before it becomes a coupon. Most of the coupons are for around 50-90 percent off a product or service that is in your specific geographical area, and are for restaurant discounts, spa discounts, hair salon discounts, and just about any business you can think providing the product or service.

When I heard about a company called The Customer Advantage and that they were doing a similar discount coupon type program, but was to be better and offer you to get paid to use the coupons, it struck my interest and thought I would join and check it out and write a review for those who had an interest but didn't want to immediately jump into it without knowing more about it.

When I joined after watching a video about it, I got the confirmation email, which is something that you have to do before becoming a member, nothing other than the same email that most sites send you to confirm your membership. After I did that, I started looking at some of the things it had to offer, other than the fact that I would start getting daily offers for up to 90 percent off for businesses and services in my neighborhood.

The concept of The Customer Advantage appears to be about the same as Groupon, as far as the business splitting profits aspect. A business will offer a 50/50 split to whoever offers the savings and brings them new customers. So, if The Customer Advantage offers its members a coupon say for 50 percent off of a haircut, then half of the profits the haircut outfit makes they will split with The Customer Advantage.

That part of it is just like Groupon. But then I looked at some of the training videos that The Customer Advantage offered, and unlike Groupon that gives a one time referral to members that send other people to them, The Customer Advantage has quite a different business opportunity to people that choose to refer members. The Customer Advantage is completely free to join, and the income program includes anyone that you would refer as a free member as well.

When your friends and family join as a free member under your free membership, any coupon that your friends or family choose to use, 50 percent of that coupon goes back to the merchant that offered it and 50 percent of it goes to The Customer Advantage. Out of that 50 percent, 5 percent will go to the member that originally referred the member to The Customer Advantage, and another 5 percent will go to the member that referred you to The Customer Advantage, and so on, up to 5 people. To make it sound a bit easier, if you happen to refer our friend that ends up using a $100 coupon, you will get $5 just because you told your friend or family member to join with you.

So the income opportunity of The Customer Advantage appears to be an easy way to make some additional money, and it costs you nothing as well as costing your friends nothing as well. As most businesses on the internet often do, The Customer Advantage also allows you to pay a Market Co-op fee if you wanted to make a more lucrative income, and the way it works is to buy shares to be a part of the co-op, and for each share you buy, you will be guaranteed a minimum of 20 members that confirm that they want to be a part of The Customer Advantage, and those 20 members will go in your downline. All members that are in the co-op take turns receiving members which have joined until they have at least 20 members under them.

What I see with The Customer Advantage is very similar to Groupon as far as being a "group coupon" type business. I do see a very promising opportunity to make a good income that is not near what Groupon has to offer. But, as all business opportunities, it completely depends upon whether or not the people you refer, whether it is your family, friends or anyone else uses the coupons that are offered. Whether or not The Customer Advantage can grow quickly and beat Groupon at becoming the fastest growing company in internet history is something that no one can know.

For the review of The Customer Advantage, I saw no pressure to be anything but a free member, and no invest for anything to receive daily offers for 50-90 percent off businesses or services. And for those that are looking for a way to make money, I saw no cost for referring people and making money when those you refer that use the offers. The newest approach that businesses are getting customers in the door seems to be the group coupon approach. Since this doesn't cost people money to join, and because the economy has affected so many families and businesses, it is a way to save money for everyone involved, and also is a way for businesses to get new customers. I don't know that anything can beat Groupon, as they became big and did it very quickly, but the idea they came up with was obviously a good one and is catching on quickly as an opportunity for others to jump on board with the same approach in mind.