Maybe you’ve seen some ads on the web. Perhaps you heard about it on the local news.  I don’t know about you but I’ve been hearing about Groupon everywhere!  So what is this Groupon all about?!?

Groupon (group+coupon) is a site that offers up a daily deal on some of the best attractions, eateries, and shops in your area (well, in lots of areas so far).

How it works:

-Every day Groupon offers of a great deal.  These deals can easily save you 50-90%!

-When enough people sign up for the deal then you can get the offer.  I guess if it isn’t popular then it isn’t worth it for the retailer or Groupon.  You can get your friends involved and shoot the deal on social networks to get more people excited.  From what I’ve seen it doesn’t take that many people to sign up for a deal to be on and you can see whether the deal is happening on the deal page.

-If you buy the deal you get a coupon to print out for use at the establishment advertised.  Done!

-The next day a new deal is offered and the whole process starts again.

Pretty easy and pretty cool!

Signing up to see deals is easy. You basically give Groupon your email address and they send you the daily deal each day.  If you don’t want the clutter in your inbox you can try setting up a rule where the email goes right into a folder (this is pretty easy to do with Gmail).

Groupon also has a deal to get your friends involved. If you get a friend to sign up you get $10 in Groupon bucks once your friend gets their first Groupon.  According to the site, there’s no limit to the amount of friends you can sign up (well, the limit is how many people you know).

Intrigued about Groupon, I poked around to see what kind of deals they actually offer.  I mean, it’s easy to say there’s good deals but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Guess what?  The deals are actually good!

What I really like about the deals is that they are from real local establishments. This isn’t all name brand stores.  It’s really a great way to see what’s what in your area and try out something new at a good discount.  And it’s fun seeing the deals each day!

Besides getting to know your area, using Groupon could be a great way to stock up on gifts for birthdays or the holidays. When a great offer pops up, why not use it as a gift or to buy gifts now?

I’ve also seen lots of deals for attractions which can save you a ton if you are looking for something to do with the kids (movies, museums, arcades, bowling).

Check out this idea – If you are traveling you should look up the city you are going to and see if there are great deals there you would be interested in.  Check out the local flavor for less.

Groupon also helps local communities by featuring local charities and by organizing support for local causes.

What do I think? In all I think Groupon is pretty cool.  I’m going to keep an eye out for things to do, shop and eat in my area and see if I can save some dough and have some fun too.