Sometimes you want to run your own promotion independently from Groupon, LivingSocial and other daily deal sites.
You just want to hand over coupon codes from a predefined list that you create.
How to create random coupon codes?
It is very simple using Microsoft Excel formulas.
1. open a new blank spreadsheet in Excel.
2. copy&paste this formula in the A1 cell:
=CHAR(INT(RAND()*26+65))&CHAR(INT(RAND()*26+65))&CHAR(INT(RAND()*26+65))&CHAR(INT(RAND()*26+65))&CHAR(INT(RAND()*26+65))&CHAR(INT(RAND()*26+65))
This will create a coupon code that is all uppercase letters, 6 characters long.
If you want to make the code longer, simply append &CHAR(INT(RAND()*26+65)) at the end of the formula. Every time you append this bit of text, an additional random character will be generated, making the coupon code longer.
3. using the mouse, click on the little black square in the bottom right corner of the A1 cell, and keeping the mouse button pressed, drag the mouse down. This will copy the formula to other cells in the first column.
4. Once you've generated your coupon codes, save the spreadsheet. You can now import it in your promotion.