Saving Money Online (why not?)

Why it might pay to shop online for your personal mobility aid needs

2011-07-30T23:10:00.000-07:00

I was recently helping an aged family member to deal with some of their personal mobility needs - helping them with stuff such as shopping around to get an idea of the prices out there for most power lift chairs and such. As almost an afterthought, I went and looked online at sites such as amazon and some other mobility aid sites just to see if they offered competative pricing and was somewhat surprised by the decent prices offered on some of them - and some even with very decent deals on shipping. That's why using power lift chairs can increase your motorized recliner. Take this guidance very seriously. This isn't unusual. It comes down to that as though in reality, "You can't judge a book by the cover." I don't need to come to a sudden ending. That was in wonderful condition. This is sort of lame. I'm not as slick as some but I try. I can get cold feet on looking like I'm unsure. This is how I learned this touching on powered recliner. You ought to make sure that you save your place. I may be a simple caveman, but your senior lift chair doesn't actually do that for you. This was as welcome as a skunk at a lawn party. Sounds snarky, doesn't it? You can do several things that will allow you to make the most of your recliner for seniors. You wonder what has worked for me? That is what electric lift chair teaches you. I am speechless. How do chaps achieve outstanding elderly lift chair catalogs? I did find that I got more from motorized lift chair after spending time thinking relating to lift chair recliner provided that by its own nature, foolish people say they want lift chair recliner, although rather few really do. It is wrong to think of senior lift chair as being irrelevant. I have sympathy for them because recliner for seniors hasn't always been a situation for use. I'd be in deep crap right now. What are you doing when electric lift chair happens to you? Let's seek a common cause. That is almost supernatural. This is how to end being nervous about things. There is a lot aces can do relevant to motorized lift chair. Maybe you've noticed elderly lift chair. That really does bring people together. We'll dig into recliner for seniors.

Because I know powered recliner so well, what I have is an offense fitting to elderly lift chair. If you feel that there is a reason to say what you mean when that provides so much wisdom in connection with lift chair recliner. A portion of top dogs take the lead by researching and developing lift chair recliner. Motorized lift chair wizards can be wacky or combine all of these conclusions to make your powered recliner the best ever seen. We should take a traditional approach. What is the supply of powered recliner in your local area? What were their results? This is a proven step by step formula. That works. It isn't helpful, although for motorized lift chair because you locate students for the job. All of these items could determine if you are capable of working with powered recliner.

Electric lift chairs: Just one more example of how wide-ranging the online marketplace has become.

2009-10-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

A few years back, an older senior gentleman that I had been helping to look after passed away, and of course in addition to all of the other issues that such a tragic loos entails, there was also the question of what to do with all of his physical possesions since there had been no real provision made for them by him in any will or any other sort of legal document while he was still living. One of the more sizable belonings left behind by this gentleman's passing was his three position electric lift chair. The lift chair recliner that he had used in his livingroom was not that old and was still in fine working order but no one in his small group of friends and acquantances had any real use for it. Ultimately, someone found a good home for it and all was well for those handling the disbursment of his household possesions. However, recently recalling this minor predicament had me wondering if there was now much demand for such items online, and, if such demand did indeed exist, whether or not it was being suitably met by online retailers of mobility aids?

Well it turns out that there is indeed a demand for quality used mobility aids and devices, especially with the recent downturn in the World economy. Also, not only is there steady demand for quality used electric lift chairs, it would appear that there is also sufficient and steady demand for other widely used mobility aids, both those used inside the home, such as electric lift chairs and stair lift chairs, as well as those used out and about in the neighbourhood, such as medical mobility scooters, electric power chairs and even converted vans that boast an installed wheelchair lift and swivel seating. It turns out that there are actually a fair number of businesses servicing the used mobility aids marketplace in addition to the expected personal classified ads (such as craigslist) that one would expect to find when searching for such things online. I was never really clued in or aware of this demand and how well it was being met before I started idly browsing. During my searches of used mobility device resellers, I came across retailers claiming that they were able to offer used household mobility items such as electric lift chairs for prices as low as half of the regular retail price in some cases and for lesser but still sizeable discounts in others. To me, this kind of online marketplace connection is one very strong example of how much of a difference the internet can make for all different types of consumers; even for those who would consider themselves to have no or very little internet savy, there are places out there that can accomodate their particular consumer needs quite readily.

I do not need to present you the reader with any specific examples: I am not writing this post to favour any one particular retailer of used mobility items here over all others. Besides, a simple search with Google will reveal the number of merchants catering to this demand in the marketplace. Also, because such things as results on a search engine can be quite fluid, changing from one day to the next, I feel the reader would be better served by finding these examples themselves instead of me naming any company that I came across offering impressive discount pricing on their inventory: what I found out there today may be gone or dropped down the result pages tommorrow, leaving you to discover other retailers in your searches. Why date the data? Sufficient to say, the demand for such discount items is out there and a corresponding or complimentary marketplace has developed around this online demand, ultimately creating yet another area online where the savy consumer has the potential to benefit from some significant financial savings.

Easy cash back shopping online has a name: Mr. Rebates.

2009-09-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

Even if this is your first visit to my site, by getting as far down this page as this post that you are reading, you have probably already noticed the little advertisement on the upper right side of the page. The reason that I have put it up there is because it really fits with the theme of this site: namely the idea of trying to save money online while doing what you were going to do anyway, regardless if that is shopping, filing your taxes, searching for a decent online DVD rentals siteor whatever. Whatever it is you are doing, if it involves any financial transactions then it is my hope that I can help you to save a few beans along the way.

I recently became aware of another source that could potentially help you to both save money while doing your online shopping as well as give you the opportunity to earn an online cash back rebate for doing that shopping. The way to do this is by signing up (for free, of course) with a site called Mr. Rebates. I have already made mention on here in the past about how to file your taxes online for free, how to double the free trial period of your online dvd rental membership, and how to save money when shopping for replacement parts for your trusty Crock Pot slow cooker. This time around I want to let you know about this cash back website. I checked it out to see what their pitch is and it seems pretty decent; you sign up for free, shop through their site at any merchant on their lists - and they have many to choose from with many offering online discounts through them, and then earn acash back rebate from any purchases that you make. I don't think that there is a'catch' per say, but you do have to earn $10 in rebates by shopping through the Mr. Rebates site before you qualify to receive your rebate payment. However since they offer up to a 30% cash back rebate on your purchases depending on the merchant, it should notr take too long to make that total. When you do, you can choose to receive your payout by either cheque or by paypal. that makes it very easy for most to receive their payments. Another thing to keep in mind is that they include in their lists a number of major retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Sears, Toy R Us just to name a few, who you might have been planning to buy from anyway. Really, after looking through their merchant lists, it is clear to see that you stand to get a lot back on your purchases. Say you buy a $60 Crock Pot there that you were going to buy online anyway, then you could be looking at a couple of bucks back just for buying it through Mr Rebates. They even have an extensive list of medical and mobility aids available through their merchants. these of course can run you quite abit of money so any money back on those sorts of items is always going to be appreciated. If you should be in the market for something like a lift chair, for example, that could run you easily over $500. why not get some money back on the purchase?

Anyway, with this kind of thing being free to peruse, I cant think of any reason not to at least sign up and check it out and see what they might have to offer. Who knows, you might even see something that you want and had already made plans to buy online somewhere else - without getting any money back in your pocket...

Some online film rental advice - plus how to (maybe) get FREE DVD RENTALS for a month.

2009-09-01T01:02:00.000-07:00

I want to start by making it clear that this post is not an attempt at a fake review of one particular online DVD rental service in which I will try to promote one company over the rest as being the best online dvd rental service around. In fact, even though you will find a link to a DVD rental offer or promotion that has an affiliate link for me in it, I won't be pressuring you to go with them over anyone else. Instead I will just be giving you some facts that I have become aware of over time. Let me tell you upfront where I stand on the subject of online movie rentals. The fact of the matter is that I have been a regular paying customer of Zip.ca for almost two years now (I signed up in November of 2007) and since that time I have been satisfied enough with the service provided that I have had no reason to consider canceling service with them and switching to any competitor's service. Does this mean that I think that everybody should choose Zip as their provider for online movie rental Canada wide (remember I live in Canada, so experiences are based on life North of the 49th Parallel) over everyone else? No. I think that what you should do is try Zip and a few of the other major online film rental services that are available out there at the same time just to see which company (or companies) appear to be able to supply you with the fastest or most efficient dvd rentals by mail in your local area.

See, this is a point that I cannot stress strongly enough: depending on where you live, some companies might be a better fit for you than others. This comes down to nothing more than a simple case of geography. If you live in a metropolitan center, than the odds are more likely that you will be closer to a distribution hub for many of the online dvd rental delivery companies, such as Zip, Blockbuster, Rogers, Netflix or whoever. In this case, the differences in delivery times will likely be slight to non-existant between companies. I myself live in Vancouver and as a result, i am close to the delivery centers of more than one dvd rental service. Zip, for example, has distribution centers in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa so I get most of my requested dvds fairly quickly. However, if you live in a more remote location, than you might find that one company might actually have a distribution center closer to you than most other of the companies, resulting in faster, more efficient delivery service to your door. See, if I had not been satisfied with the speed of Zip's delivery service, I would have made an effort to find out which other dvd rental companies service my area and then chosen some of them at the same time for a free trial to compare which of them gave me the speediest delivery of my requested dvds. Simple and pretty effective, and it would have been of at no cost to me because I would have made sure to cancel my dvd rental free trial with any companies I did not choose to go with before the free movie rental trial period was over. True, the two-week free trial period offered by each company is probably not quite as long as you would like for a test spin, and I have a way for you to try one company free for a month, but I will get back to that.

That is what I believe is the most effective way to compare online dvd rental services in your marketplace. This especially because it seems like when you compare all of the different dvd movie online rental services out there, they all seem to pretty much be catering to the same potential customers by offering the same dvd rental offers, and if one of them comes up with something different then the others usually seem quick to follow step. (hey, in business, nobody wants to get left behind, right?) For example, it wasn't long after the first company started offering unlimited dvd rental plans to customers that the rest of the companies followed suit - they would have been stupid not to. My point is that the unlimited dvd rentals or any other plans are probably mirrored by most if not all of the other companies so it should really come down to service. That seems obvious, right? So with zip, I have been satisfied with the speed of delivery to me, I have been satisfied with the size of their movie library - they offer lots of foreign films, animated films and other diverse catagories as well, and I have also been relatively satisfied with the availability of most movies that they offer in their library. As for the shape of the dvds that they send me: only a few times have I received a dvd that was scratched to the point where playing it became frustrating - usually a decent cleaning of the disc solved the problem. In fact it was only in the last week that I received an unplayable dvd in the mail: the disc had acrack in it when it arrived and I didnt even notice it for over a week and ahalf because I didnt get around to trying to play it until then so it had sat in its sleeve, damage unnoticed, until the time I pulled it out to play it. I notified zip about the damaged disc online via a form on their website and they were pretty quick in dealing with it, offering me a priority replacement at no extra cost to me which was in the mail the next business day. They also said that the rental would not count against my monthly totals if I had that kind of plan but I am on their unlimited rental plan so that was not a factor for me. To be honest, if I were living in the United states, then I would most likely be using Netflex dvd rental for my dvd rental needs - in fact, I have even seen advertising that promotes Zip as Canada's Netflix.

One thing that I do like about Zip (don't worry, this isn't meant as an upsell) is their member incentive program; they offer a rewards program where members get points for doing simple point and click things that they probably should be doing anyway: things like rating movies that you received, reporting on their website when movies arrive at your home in the mail, when you mail a movie back, points for writing a review of a movie, and even for rating other users reviews of any movies. These points collect in your account, and when you get enough of them you can then trade them in for things like a free priority rental (Zip calls them "gotta have it" rentals), a free slot on your unlimited rentals plan (so, for example, if you have a two disc at any one time plan you can upgrade it to a three disc plan for a month for free) or even a free month of rentals. (effectively giving yourself a free one month membership) It is actually surprising just how fast these points can build up if you are at all active on the site. Just to be clear, I dont know if the other companies offer similar member incentives; it would not surprise me if they did. Heck, they would be stupid not to be offering their members some kind of incentive to keep then from switching to a competitor like, say, Zip, lol. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

So earlier on I mentioned a way to maybe try out one company for a month's free trial instead of just the usual two weeks. The company is Zip (big surprise) because they sometimes send their members such as me occasional promo codes to pass onto their friends and associates to get them to try the service in hopes that they will like it enough to stay.

Anyway, I am happy to supply whatever latest promo code I have to anyone who wants it. Remember this is only going to be of use to people living in Canada. I offer no guarantees that it will work because these things can be cancelled at any time by the company without warning.

Here is how I will do this: if you want a promo code, just leave me an email address and a first name in the comments section below and I will get back to you with an email from Zip.ca with a link to the sign up page where you can enter your code and a message from me telling you the latest promo code. If you don't feel like leaving your email in the comments section, just email me at the contact email listed on this page and I will get back to you.

It doesn't matter to me if you stay with zip after trying them out or not, I just figure that a month will give you a better feel for the service and abetter idea if they are right for you. By all means you should consider trying out other companies at the same time, too.

Okay, I have rambled on enough here. I don't know if this post will help you save money or not; I suppose if you are with zip and you take my advice on the membership points incentive program you might end up saving a few dollars each month like I do - I switched from the 3 disc unlimited to the 2 disc unlimited plan because I get enough points each month to upgrade my plan back up to the 3 disc option for free. Well there you go then, I did find you a way to save some money after all. Yay me!

Stephen

Rival crock Pot replacement parts: Some more thoughts on this potentially money-saving alternative.

2009-07-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

I know it was not that long ago that I posted on here about the value of maintaining your slow cooker with the appropriate replacement parts, but I believe that the current state of the world Economy has led me to have some neweer feelings on the subject that I would like to share here. Really, nobody is holding a gun to your head to read this blog(at least I hope not) so you always have the choice of moving on if this does not appeal to you. (but please feel free to stay!)

Recently, it has come to my attention that more and more individuals are going out and buying for themselves and for others as gifts varying types of slow cookers, such as the many different models of Rival crock pot brand of slow cookers. A lot of occasions that I am in a shopping center on the weekend, roving through a retailer downtown, or even just riding the bus, I notice people carrying their newly bought Crock Pots. I cannot help but wonder if this apparent increased volume of CrockPot sales is a biproduct of the recent economic downturn or full blown recession, or just all in my mind because of my own increasing awareness of slow cookers as a viable meal preparation option.

I personally doubt that it is the latter, but at any rate, this widespread popularity of the slow cooker generally has me wondering about how the proponents of the slowcooker will cope with the care of their trusty appliances now that we have entered a time of uncertainty for the economy; that we are now at a period when so many are fairly uncertain of where their own personal economic futures lay - whether they will have a job a few months from now, that I wonder how they will handle the important decision, whenever it should arrive, of what to do when the slowcooker stops cooking? In other words, will household cooks merely contuinue to get a new appliance when the current one shows serious signs of its age, or will more and more dedicated Crock-Pot users begin to hunt for more budget-minded alternatives such as shopping/hunting around for decently priced Rival Crock Pot replacement parts, or possibly try harder to find used slow cookers available in good condition at reasonable prices? Many individuals are already aware that buying used appliances in very well-maintained condition is a viable alternative to spending more money for a brand new appliance for the home, and that in some cases you can even find people offering for sale near or like new appliances, still in the box, which have been barely used and were probably an unwanted gift to the seller in the first place. Still nowhere near as many people seem to be aware that many of the possible problem areas of the crockpot can potentialy be addressed by the timely use of replacement parts. Whether it is a lid handle or a stoneware crock liner or something else, your typical crock-pot can be maintained almost indefinitely by the purchase of the relevant replacement parts when or if needed. It just seems that people have only lately started to become more aware of this reality, but - as the saying goes,'better late than never.' And really, if you have the choice, you stand to save quite a bit of money by choosing to purchase a replacement part such as a replacement crock pot liner for say $20 to $30, instead of shelling out $50 or more for a completely new crock pot.

Clearly, the current state of the economy can only help to encourage both the practises of buying second-hand and buying replacement parts whenever applicable. Even if the economy should turn itself around sooner rather than later, these two trends are ones that I do not see abating anytime soon.

How to (maybe) file your Canadian Tax Return online for free this year

2009-03-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

In Canada, we have the option of filing our Income Tax Returns ourselves or having a tax preparation specialist do it for us. If we choose to file our taxes ourselves we have a few choices of how to do it: either by mail, over the internet (called Netfile) or by telephone. (called telefile) For the last few years I have been taking advantage of the telefile service which is free, while my wife has been using the netfile option which is not free to the majority of Canadians. Filing over the internet basically involves using third party software to prepare the return before you can file it with the Federal Government. So the Government doesn't charge you to do this but the needed preparation software doesn't come free. Depending on which software you buy it can set you back anywhere from $20 to $30 (Canadian), and if you choose to prepare it online instead of buying the actual software in store, it will still cost you at least $15 to $20 per person.

One thing to mention here is that filing online is free for anyone with a net income of $20,000 or less, which rules out a lot of people. This is a provision put in place by the Government to make sure that low income households can have access to this filing option but .like I said it still rules out a lot of people who are still not well off by any means but make more than $20k a year.

Now, there is a way around this - a loophole if you will - that leats many more people file for free.

To do this you need to qualify in the following ways:

1. You have to be using the Ufile online tax preparation software (ie use it on the internet because I dont know if the store bought version allows for this)

2. You have to be a student who will be claiming some student deductions for the past tax year (2008).

Here is how it works. You get a promo code and enter it in the special offer codes section of the tax return and make sure you are claiming some tuition fees and then the software should end up letting you submit your return for free even id your net income is over $20k for the year. Basically, you are supposed to be a member of the Canadian Federation of Students to use this but there is no way for them to check this if you satisfy the other requirements of tuition and entering the right code in the right spot. The code for the 2008 tax year is FAY1493

Here is the blurb for it straight from the Ufile site:

File online on time -- for free!
The Canadian Federation of Students and UFile.ca, Canada's online tax preparation Web site, have joined together to provide FREE online tax preparation and filing for all Canadian post-secondary students.

To be eligible for this special offer...

You must be a resident of Canada, have tuition fees and have attended school for at least one month during tax year 2008. You must also be designated as the FAMILY HEAD (the primary member of the family) for purposes of your tax file in UFile.
To take advantage of this offer...

Log in to a new or existing UFile account for tax year 2008.

Enter your tuition fees and months at school and click NEXT
Locate the "Special offer" form in UFile's QuikClik Navigator. (You may need to scroll down the screen.)
Enter the following Canadian Federation of Students "Free for Students" special offer code:
Click NEXT.

Enter the rest of your tax information and then you can print or NETFILE your return whenever you are ready -- free of charge!

To see this for yourself just visit: http://www.ufile.ca/home/cfs.asp and follow the instructions.

My wife who is a member of the Federation of students was able to use this promo code to file here taxes for free this year and I realized while helping her with her taxes that there is really no way that this stipulation is being enforced so ... I'll let you decide if you want to save some money online at tax time this year.

Site Build It and Newbies = Me feeling kinda sad...

2009-03-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

Hey,

I kind of feel like a hypocrite, since here I was proclaiming that I would maybe revive this here abandoned blog and turn the focus away from online marketing to more of a focus on small and easy ways to save your self some money online.

So I go and make this decision public and what is the next thing that I do? I decide to comment here about a recent post I came across by an acquaintance by the name of Lissie; now Lissie has a blog about how to earn passive income online and I have to admit that I dont frequent it as often as I should (my bad) but this time I was tipped off to a post that she had recently put together concerning an IM package called Site Build It, (Site Build It Scam Review )that basically gives you the tools to build a website, host it and help promote it. All of this for around $300 per year. Now my natural inclination is to always do things on the cheap as much as possible because I am not a wealthy man and the idea of signing on to a commitment like that would therefore never appeal to me. I had barely even heard of SBI before, so Lissie's post was interesting to me - especially because I read it after she had added a few updates to it.The short of it is this: SBI as a program does offer you a website and hosting and support to help you market your single site, but that all comes at a cost of around $300 like I said. I just can't help but feel a bit sad, knowing that there are a large number of people out there new to internet marketing that would see advertising for SBI early on in their entry into IM and figure that that is as erasy and painless as it is going to get for them; I cant help but wonder if there are too many people out there willing to throw away their last $300 to spare hoping and praying that this is going to work for them when really what would work for them is just sifting through some of the garbage that is clearly out there in the IM or 'make money online' field to instead learn from some of the real gems in the business - and by gems, I mean those who would rather teach you to fish than just keep selling you the fish each year, year after year. It also doesn't help an organization's rep when their members continuously spit venom at the poster in the comments section for offering up her opinion; if it is such a great thing then surely it should speak for itself and the members should not feel the compulsion to attack so ferociously. Admittedly, some offered reasoned rebuttals to Lissie, but too many were just there on the warpath which had me wondering about what were they defending other than their affiliate sales?

I have come to learn that anything that you need to do to be successful online can be done for a lot less than $300 per site. Heck, for less than a third of that you could probably have a number of sites up and running and self hosted and properly marketed by following free advice that is out there. Seriously, you don't need to be putting that kind of money up when you are still getting your feet wet!

You can ask me if I have made lots and lots of money online to date and I would honestly answer you: no, I have not. But - and this is a bigee: I have definitely made more than I have spent so far, and I know what needs to be done - even if too often I have just been a wee bit lazy in the doing. What's that saying? The mind is willing but the flesh is weak...

Next time I will get back to my original intent, and share some tips about how to save money online - or to be more precise, how to save some money on filing fees if you have chosen to file your taxes online.

Consider using crock pot replacement parts to lengthen the life of that slow cooker in your kitchen

2009-03-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

I had the idea of discussing Rival Crock Pot parts kicking around in my head for awhile now with this blog and something I recently experienced pushed me to finally do so; Everybody and their Cousin know about slow cookers in general and Rival Crock Pot slow cookers in particular. Indeed, the rival brand of slow cooker, their crock pot, is likely the most widly used brand of slow cooker out there. Everbody knows how slow cookers can free up many hours that would otherwise have been spent slaving away in the kitchen and instead can be spent doing something - anything else that you may wish to spend that new found time doing.

Okay, we are all on the same page when it comes to the idea of crock pot slow cookers - or any other brand of slow cooker for that matter, but I don't believe that we all share the same level of awareness when it comes to the subject of maintaining your trusted slow cooker appliance. A slow cooker is like most other kitchen appliances in that if you maintain it properly, you can expect it to have a long and useful life in your home's kitchen. Of course in the case of crock pot slow cookers, this means that over time you might end up needing to replace one or more parts of the crock; whether it is the crock pot lid, the knob on the lid, a handle on the outside of the crock pot, or even the stoneware crock pot liner, there are a number of areas that might need replacing and that without too much trouble can often be replaced by the purchase of a new part. To some, the idea that you can replace these parts of the crock pot when necessary is a relatively obvious one, but to many others that idea just doesn't occur to them. Unfortunately this means that many times an appliance such as a crock pot is simply discarded when it could easily be maintained. Here is an example: the other day I was taking the garbage down to the dumpster at the back of our building; when I got there I noticed that someone had left a well used crock pot sitting next to the bin with a sign attached to the top of it that read:

"Free crockpot that still works - help yourself. Handle on the lid is missing."

I didn't take it because i already have aslow cooker, but I thought that somebody would probably grab it since it looked like it was still in decent shape despite missing the handle on the lid. I thought that it was actually too bad that it had not been left at a charity shop instead of at the back of our building but I didn't think much more on it - after all, people give up and give away things all of the time. It was later that day when I went down to the dumpster for a second time with another bag of garbage and looked in the dumpster that I saw it: someone had taken the crock pot and thrown it in the dumpster as if it were garbage.

This really bothered me as I thought about it on my way back upstairs; I realized that people had given up on that appliance twice just because it needed a simple part replacement! A simple handle for the lid and it would have been nearly as good as new. I went back down and rescued it from the trash, wiped it off and took it down to my nearest charity shop the next time I was passing by. I guess the message that I am trying to get across here is that sometimes, in this consumer society, people are just too quick to discard what they have got for something new and shiny when maybe they shouldn't. It might take abit more effort to track down an appropriate replacement part for an appliance but it is almost always going to be the cheaper alternative and in the long run it is probably going to save you money.

If you don't know where to look to find replacement parts for your crock pot then let me give you some suggestions. One place to look is on the crock pot home page (crockpot.com); this site has a variety of rival crockpot replacement parts available for order. As well, a simple search on Google or Yahoo will yield up a long list of retailers offering replacement parts for many different models of crock pot slow cookers. Other online alternatives are to search on ebay or amazon or any relevant forum for someone offering a used crock pot for sale cheap. You can also consider posting in the relevant forums that you are looking for a cheap used crock pot to use for parts.

If the traditional brick and mortar storefront is more your cup of tea then you can always try an appliance parts store. Other options are to consider actually buying a whole new crock pot for parts if you are lucky enough to find one for cheap at an auctioneers or overstock retail location. Sometimes you can find a whole one for almost the same price as a replacement part and it will give you asource of replacement parts for the future if they should be needed. Of course don't forget your local charity or used goods store, you might find a used appliance that is mising a different part from the one you are seeking which is good news for you.

Same name, new goal - to save you money online!

2009-03-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

I'm just going to come right out and say it: whether it was my intention or not, I have pretty much abandoned this blog. I started this blog just over a year ago and after a few months of enthusiastic posting I pretty much lost interest in it - or to be more precise, I lost interest in publicly discussing the subject of this blog. Really, if you are at all serious about learning how to make money online, then i would just suggest you check out a very informative (read useful) website created by a fellow who goes by the name of grizzly. Seriously, his site will impress you with its matter of fact approach to making money. With the likes of Grizz and so many others out there blogging on the subject, I just didn't feel like swimming in those crowded waters - my amateur voice wasn't needed.

However, I thought about it and decided that instead of just giving up on this blog and starting over I would instead make use of it and give it another shot. But if I lost interest in the subject matter then why would I use this blog anymore? What has changed this time around is the nature of the online opportunities that I want to discuss; instead of looking at strictly money-making and marketing issues, I instead want to discuss online opportunities of another kind. I want to look at things that I have come across in the last while that might help someone else to save money on the web. Things that come to mind are such things as how to save money while booking travel online, how to make your kitchen appliances such as your trusty (Rival crock pot) last longer with the timely use of replacement parts (Rival crock pot parts in the case of the crock), and things like that.

I might not post frequently (its just not usually in my nature) but I will try to post regularly. Well, at least we will see...

SEO on a (non-existent) Budget.

2008-03-17T23:25:00.000-07:00

SEO.
SEO Tools?
Free SEO Tools ?!?

Yes they exist, and some of them are actually useful.

I am a recent entrant into the world of niche blogging and SEO practises. I guess it would be safe to say that I'm really only about six months into my education of this whole 'blogging thing'. I think it's a little bit funny, but I would have to also admit that I became aware of the idea of blogging for money at the same time as I became aware of just how big blogging on the web really was. Before this I was aware of the terms 'blog' and 'blogging', but didn't really have a clue as to what it was really all about.

Now don't worry, this isn't going to be another 'how to make gobs of money' regurgitation rant: I know that there are enough people out there still wet behind their blogging ears but still thinking that they know enough to tell the rest of us how we should be making our money online that you don't need another newbie like myself contributing to this mess.

I have spent the last few weeks trying out a number of different 'SEO tools' , and because I am a newbie blogger on a pretty much non-existant budget these tools and sites all had to have one thing in common to be 'worth' my time:

they all had to be free.

A guy who knows so much more about all of this SEO stuff than I ever will once told me that if you are not willing to put your own money into this kind of endeavour right from the start then "you are doomed to fail from jump street". Maybe, but I just don't feel quite ready to put my own money into this just yet. Maybe sometime soon I will see some positive enough results from all of my efforts and I will feel differently enough about this that I'll decide to go out and make the investment in buying my own new or used domains ( I currently use Blogger), and purchase software such as Bookmarking Demon, SEO Elite and Keyword Elite, but for now I am choosing to make do without them.

So without further ado, allow me to share with you some of the neat-o tools and sites I have found to be worth my time so far. I like to consider this list my personal 'Top Ten' list of SEO freebies - but in no particular order...

1. STATCOUNTER.COM - this website is a freebie godsend! In a nutshell, this site allows you to put some HTML code on your site and then begin tracking your traffic to see which keywords or links are actually bringing you your visitors.. You can view your results by keywords used to find your site and by a 'came from' option that lets you know how much of your traffic is organic. It also tells you the IP addresses of your visitors.

2. DIRECTORY SUBMITTER - the maker of this calls it an auto-submitter, but I prefer to think of it as a semi-auto submitter. This downloadable tool supplies you with a sortable list of website directories to which you can submit your sites for free, but it doesn't do the submitting for you; you have to click on each site manualy and submit the site yourself. The submitter does save you time though in two ways:

first, it saves you time by compiling a list of 350 directories for you to submit to (each with its PR ranking listed), and

second, it automatically fills out the submission forms for you to the best of its free tool ability.

3. ARTICLE SUBMITTER - brought to you by the same guy who gave you Directory Submitter; This is just as it sounds, a tool that makes it easier for you to find Article submission sites and efficiently submit your articles to them with a submitter tool.

4. GOOGLE ADWORDS TRAFFIC ESTIMATOR TOOL - this is one of those tools that probably not everyone knows exists or at least how to find it. this tool is meant to let an adwords customer see how much it would cost to list their keyword at the top of the serps. Not an Adsense tool, per se, it still can be used to give you an idea of how much a potential keyword target could be worth.

5. Get Paid To (GPT) SITE SHOPPING SECTION - many of the GPT sites now include a shopping section that offers its members cash-back on purchasese made using the site's links. So, just how is this considered SEO relevant? Well, if you are considering a niche blog or two (or ten), then it doesn't hurt to have a list to look at just filled with potential consumer niches; I consider such lists a fountain of ideas, somewhere to start a search for a new niche if nothing else is coming to me. Some of the more extensive sites with such a section include swatcash.com, Treasure Trooper.com, and cashcrate.com

6. GTRENDS TOOL FROM WORDTRACKER - I like to consider this 'Wordtracker plus' . Not only does this keyword tool offer you the traditional keyword popularity results,
it also tells you roughly how much competition ther is for that keyword on the Google serps.

7. SEO FOR FIREFOX - this firefox extension claims to have much SEO and serp functionality; including instant PR rating info, the different types of links found on a page and also the option of having any and all 'no-follow' links highlighted in red on the page (this should save you from wasting your time on sites where the backlinks would be of little value).

8. BLOGGING ZOOM - I have included this newer and rapidly growing site because I have seen how well it can work; More than once I have seen my Blogging Zoom listing for one of my Blogger posts index higher than the actual Blog from which the post originated, even when both have made page one of Google. In addition, those times when it seems as if I have been dropped into the 'Google sandbox', BZ has still kept me in the serps to the point where it almost seems like I'm not sandboxed at all ( this blog, for instance, has been sandboxed for a few months now but I am confident that it might show up in the serps under the Blogging Zoom banner )! Also, it seems as if by adding more keyword tabs to my BZ posting, I have seen multiple BZ results for the same post on Google. Just speculation at this point though.

9. FREE MONITOR FOR GOOGLE - this tool has so much potential but its flaws are ultimately what stop me from using it more often. This download lets you see where your websites rank for any given keyword of your choosing. Sure this is a great SEO tool but there is one very infuriating drawback - and even the developers acknoledge this - that you can only use the search a couple of times in one sitting before Google potentially labels your IP address as a possible source of spam or spyware and temporarily blocks you from accessing the Google search engine with this software unless you enter a randomly displayed code on the actual Google site. The developers deal with this snafu by claiming that nobody should really be checking their own serp rankings too often anyway because it can piss off the big G by skewing their data on what the general public (ie organic traffic) is looking for. Yeah, whatever. I'm sorry, but that isn't enough of a justification of a program's shortcomings considering other software out there doesn't seem to have a reputation for having these kinds of issues or side effects for the user. Still, if you do use it sparingly it really can give you some useful serp info.

10. ONTOLOGY RELATED KEYWORD FINDER TOOL - last but not least, is this tool which helps you find synonyms for words in any given subject or field you might be wanting to target with keywords.

So there you go, there actually are some free SEO tools out there that can make adifference for you.

Well, I hope that this list is of some help to other niche bloggers out there that are currently working without any real budget. Who knows? Maybe soon I will be one of those using paid for software to target valuable keywords and to tweak the SEO on my self-owned niche blogs.

Really, anything is possible. It could happen, someday...

A SWATCASH REVIEW

2008-03-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

I have decided to offer this SWATCASH review after trying out the site for the last four and a half months. I have only made around $150 at this point, but that is in part due to the fact that I have been conservative in completing the higher paying offers, and in large part because I am not living in the United States. The importance of this I will explain shortly.

Swatcash is a GPT (get paid to) site and like all such sites it has its advantages and disadvantages. Swatcash is the only GPT site that I spend any time on at this point, mainly for two reasons:

1 It is one of the highest paying GPT sites that I have come across ( especially the offers requiring a credit card ) and,

2 It is hands down the GPT site that I have had the most fun spending my time on.

When I say high paying, I mean that I registered at a number of sites and compared the payouts for the same offers at each site: for almost EVERY SINGLE OFFER swatcash offered a higher payout! One example I can offer you is this: I joined an online DVD rental service and received $18 cash back from swatcash - the highest payout I could find. The other sites offered from $12 to $15 for the exact same offer. this kind of difference can really add up after a while.

I have to admit that there is definitely an art to learning how to make sure you complete your offers correctly, and I am just lucky that I cut my teeth on some of the other sites ( such as Treasure Trooper and Cash Crate, for example ) and made my mistakes there before going for the offers at Swatcash where I completed the offers successfully and benefitted from getting credited for more $ than other sites would have given me.

Swatcash has the usual types of offerings that you will find on most GPT sites, such as:

free and credit card required offer completion,
cash back shopping,
paid surveys

Something else to keep in mind is the referral bonus that swatcash offers its members: members of swatcash receive a 20% cash bonus of any money that members they referred to the site earn. That level of referral payout can really add up over time.

However, in addition to these, Swatcash also has a recently started game, called "the World Map", which is a turn-based military strategy game which gives members the chance to attack other members and win items that have some practical value. Successful play on the map results in members being rewarded with

bullets,
grenades,
battle points, and
"swatcash" ( the currency of the site that is used to purchase things such as 'weapon' upgrades, 'real' referrals for your down line - ie. unreferred members whose earnings you will receive 20% of , and even tangible rewards such as gift cards, $100 paypal deposits or even a video game system such as a Wii or Xbox )

To be honest, you could even play this game regularly and earn enough to buy some referrals without ever completing a single offer.

Other sites (such as Treasure Trooper) also offer incentive games but they don't seem to have the easily attainable payoff of the swatcash world map game.

Another thing I like about the swatcash site is the prompt reply I have received from the site Administrators on the few times I had to contact them for whatever reason.

Swatcash = scam?

Simply put, no.

I have received two payments as of this time and received both via paypal when I was supposed to.

Swatcash also boasts a very active forum which is home to a very supportive community of swatcash members from around the world who are always willing to offer some timely advice to newer members. You should never undervalue the importance of an active and happy forums for a site such as this: the happier the members the more likely that they are getting their due rewards on a regular basis!

Of course like all GPT sites, Swatcash has its own disadvantages; most offers are for US members only so that can be a point of frustration for us non-US members.
As well, until recently the two daily free surveys (each worth $1 once a day) were open to us non-US members, but not anymore. Sadly, this has cost me more than a few bucks a month in potential site earnings.

See? Nobody's perfect.

So there you have it. If you do want to dip your foot in the GPT waters for some extra income potential you couldn't do much better than Swatcash.

So what are you waiting for?

To go to the Swatcash site now and see for yourself how rewarding it could be just click here.

Need Referrals for your GPT or PTC DOWN LINES? Get Ref!

2008-01-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

We have all been there.

You have just joined this really neat web site's program and are hoping to make a real go of it. Your efforts seem to be paying off, but you know that if you could just get a few people to join under you as your referrals and see your own down line start to develop, things could really take off! Maybe you tried promoting the program on your own but haven't really gotten anywhere with your efforts? Now you are feeling just a little bit frustrated and wondering 'what next?'

Well your next step should be to head on over to GetRef.com and start promoting the heck out of your program and start building your down line!

If you need quality referrals, you need GetRef.

So why this Getref review?

I stumbled upon GetRef a few months ago and I haven't looked back. Getref is free to join and I would advise you to start out by signing up and giving the site a good look over. One of the first things you will notice is that the homepage menu gives you a number of choices to click on; I recommend clicking on the "earn" button to get right to the heart of this site. From here, you can choose between checking out (A) the list of programs which you can join under someone else for Getref site 'credits', (B) checking out the list of referral links being promoted by fellow getref members that you can click on for credits, or (C) checking out how you can earn credits by referring others to the getref web site.

You will soon see that A LOT of different programs are included in this site's listings.
The sheer number of programs available could have been somewhat overwhelming, however this has been avoided by some basic - yet effective categorization.

Members also have the option of greatly improving their site credit earnings by purchasing a premium or 'gold' membership. Unlike many other sites, here you are given the option (should you so choose) of paying for only a one month membership with no future obligation to maintain it. Of course you can also purchase upto a year's membership as well. Members also have the option of buying site credits which they can use to promote their preferred programs and gain new referrals.

It has a members forum that is a good place to go to find answers to many questions new members might have about the site and to also get some good advice about how to go about maximizing your referring efforts while on the site.

Of course no website is perfect, and this includes Getref. A common complaint that I've noticed in the forums is the fact that some people seem to be trying to claim credits from other members for claiming to have signed up under them in their programs without actually properly completing the sign-up. However this issue can be largely avoided by just making sure that you offer a reasonable amount of credits for completing an offer in the first place. There are some checks in place that make it easier to block these would be scammers
once you earn a higher ranking for promoting your programs through the site, such as having the ability to screen potential new referrals based on their earnings ranking.

So, there you have it. It might sometimes seem like it's a dog eat dog world in the on-line domain of finding new referrals, but now GetRef is there to throw you a bone.

Good doggy...

To visit the GetRef website and start seeing for yourself what it's all about, just click HERE.

BTW, if you do decide to sign-up through my link and would like some helpful tips or advice on how to navigate your way around the GETREF site, please feel free to message me through the onsite messaging service they have there (remember it is located to the upper right of the member's homepage)!