Its sad that MS and Intuit totally missed the boat on providing a service like this. User's fall over themselves signing up for 'free' services like this when really they are signing themselves up to be marketed to. Brilliant.

I thought this was gonna be about Mint.com making a ton of money.

It is coming eventually. I thought the formula was;

idea -> code something -> market it -> users -> ???? -> $$money

so they are at the "users" part, once the figure out the "???" then they make some money.

Well, mint.com has a "???" filled in. They'll make money from referral kickbacks for the services they recommend. Hence why I was expecting to hear about some revenue generated.

Yeah... their affiliate programs pay insane kickbacks, ING Direct is around $100 dollars per new account with an additional $50 bonus to the person that opens a new account and they offer the best savings account rate in the USA, so Mint should get lots of signups.

ING Direct pays out less than HSBC, and I'm sure a host of other e-savings account that spend less to advertise. That said, I think you're right about them having a lucrative referral program. When I spoke with Patzer about it last summer, they were one of the big ones he mentioned.

:) guess I fell for ING's marketing then.

"Interest in Mint.com spiked after TC40"

Mint LAUNCHED at TC40, so yeah, DUH, interest peaked.

Any response from buxfer?