First, an admission: I’m cheap.  To buy nice versions of those few physical items I care about (namely a car and a house), I’ve saved and stockpiled in just about every way possible.  So I realize that telling businesses to hand out coupons looks a little self-serving.

That said, Jennifer Laycock notes, “Google introduced the idea of Google Coupons more than a year ago and yet, so few businesses are using this feature to market their business.  Seems silly when it only takes a few minutes to upload an offer and when that offer might be the catalyst driving someone to your business instead of the one down the street.”

(Or walking to your business.  Saves gas, y’know, and city traffic’s no fun to drive in, anyway.)

Laycock’s walkthrough is best seen in full – she has screenshots over at Search Engine Guide – but “[i]t’s important to note that unless you’ve confirmed your business account with Google (via phone or postal mail) your coupon will not go live.  That’s not a bad thing by the way,” she adds, because “you certainly don’t want the competitor across town putting up a 50% off coupon for YOUR business.”

Admittedly, creating coupons could be a waste of your (three or four minutes) of time.  But “[t]hat could give you an idea about the effort you need to spend on beefing up your business data or your local paid search campaigns,” writes Laycock.

So go on.  For the sake of your business, and for the sake of stingy people like me, create some Google Coupons.