Cats and Coupons

When I shop online my goal is to get the lowest price possible. I always look for coupons before purchasing. I’ve noticed when searching for online coupons one name frequently appears - Coupon Chief.

The folks at Coupon Chief informed me in that they’re currently receiving upwards of 200,000 visitors per month and are continuing to grow. This statistic sounds staggering but it really is easy to understand once you try out the Coupon Chief site.

The site looks very understated when you first see it.  Don’t be fooled by the simple, pleasant design. It isn’t obvious from your first glance but the Coupon Chief offers access to more than 40,000 coupons from more than 8,000 stores. I know, WOW! Everything is well organized. The home page the newest and the most popular coupons, and other coupons can be searched for in a number of ways including by store and by using tags.

Coupon Chief offers a couple of ways to make finding and using coupons easy. The site offers an rss feed to let subscribed readers learn about the newest coupons. For those unfamiliar with using online coupons, there is an easy to understand “how it works” page as well as a video explaining how to use online coupons. Coupon details are clear and easy to read.

Something I learned while reviewing the site is that registered users can actually make money from Coupon Chief. The Pays-2-Share program gives users 2% of sales resulting from coupons they uploaded.

I really like Coupon Chief. I do have them bookmarked because I know if there’s a coupon to be had I’ll find it there, something proven by the number of times I’ve encountered them while searching for a coupon. It’s definitely worth the time to check there for money saving coupons next time you’re getting ready to make a purchase.

The Betty Crocker site offers a lot for busy folks on the go. By registering for the site you get free access to lots of features including recipes, tip, videos, contests, how to’s, charts and guides. You can also print coupons on the site. Three free newsletters are available - the Betty Crocker newletter, the Bisquick newsletter and the Dinner Made Easy newsletter. The site is easy to navigate and simple to use. A user forum is also available for members to discuss all sorts of food topics.

Sites just for pet owners are becoming quite popular. I recently learned about another community just for pet lovers called Animal Attraction. It’s free to sign up for membership. Once you’ve joined you can create a profile for you and your pets. There’s a search enging to help members find new friends with common interests. Members can communicate with each other using chat rooms, message boards and instant messaging.  On the site you can share photos and stories, as well as look for and offer advice. Every day that a member logs in Animal Attraction makes a small donation to an animal charity. If someone joins as a new member on your recommendation Animal Attraction will donate $1. The site is a terrific way to meet others with the same interests while helping animals.

PURRsonals is a social networking website designed to help cat lovers meet other cat lovers, whether it be for the purpose of networking, making friends or dating. It’s free to join.Upon joining members complete a profile survey summarizing their interests and preferences. Member profiles contain member information, as well as photos and videos of their cats. The site allows members to post messages, videos and pictures, chat using audio and video, create a blog, read cat news and join member forums.

I learned of a prepaid credit card called a Facecard. It can be used by anyone over the age of thirteen but it’s main target market is teens. It’s a prepaid reloadable MasterCard. It can be used internationally at ATMs and anywhere MasterCard is accepted. The minimum amount that can be added to a card is $10. The maximum balance that a card can have is $2,500. Funds can be added to cards from a bank account, from a debit or credit card, and from another Facecard. Retailers can send customers Prewards, which are deposits onto the card to be used in the store. What Prewards are received is determined within the customizable member profile. One thing I don’t like about it is there is a $4.95 fee if the account isn’t used for 90 days. The other thing I don’t like about it is that it may preauthorize more than you’re actually going to spend if you’re using it at a restaurant or gas station. I can see where this card could be useful, particularly for high school or young college students. It isn’t a credit card, so the user can’t spend money that isn’t there.

There are lots of people interested in selling things online, including people that sell regularly and people that are just looking to get rid of some stuff or make a little money. Ebay fees for selling can really mount up. Sell.com is a website that offers online classifieds as an alternative to online auction sites.Users can search using keywords or browse categories, and specify the minimum and maximum amount they want to spend. Results can be narrowed down to a geographical area. Sell.com is free to join. Buyers never pay any fees on their purchases. Sellers do not pay transaction fees and it costs between $1-$6 to list an item for sale. I found all sorts of items on the site, from antiques to watches (no Sector watches that I could find though). Have you ever used Sell.com? Were you pleased?

If you like music you might be familiar with Pandora free internet radio. Or, if you’re like me you might not be. Pandora creates a music channel (or multiple channels) based on the analyzing of songs by the Music Genome Project. I’ll spare the in depth details but what it means is that you enter a song you like and Pandora will find similar other songs. Pandora is free to use. Users can create as many stations as they want. If a song plays on your station that you don’t like you can vote it down and it will stop playing and leave your station immediately. I was impressed with Pandora.

I have this compulsion to do lots of research and price comparison before buying something online. I buy many things online, because as a full time working mom I don’t always have time to go to the store. Today I learned about a new website that offers lots of coupon and discount codes. The site is called Retail Me Not.

Retail Me Not is very organized, easy to navigate and pleasant to look at. It offers a browse by category option as well as the ability to search for whatever coupon or store you’re looking for. You do not need to sign up to be a member to use the site. Users can submit their own coupons and discounts to the site as well. Other features offered include printable coupons, user forums and a newsletter. They even offer a Firefox extension that will alert you if any coupon codes are available for a site you’re visiting.

Be sure to check out Retail Me Not during your online shopping trips.

I found another social network just for pets and pet owners, it’s called Zootoo. Zootoo content comes from regular people like you and I. Zootoo is free to join. Members can share photos of their pets. Users can find and submit reviews of services in your area such as vets, groomers, shelters and pet stores, amongst many others. Users can search for other pet lovers, events, groups and services by zip code or description. There’s even a section of nothing but free sample offers. One thing about Zootoo that you might not know is that it’s primary goal is to help pets. Zootoo runs different programs and promotions designed to help shelters and rescues. They just wrapped up a nationwide contest where the winning shelter received a makeover and the first and second runner up shelters received generous cash prizes. If you like animals, be sure to check out Zootoo.

Today I’m reviewing a blog called Lostland. The first thing that I noticed when the blog loaded was the green part of the design with clouds and a rainbow that begins up at the top of the blog and divides the blog in two. Pretty neat. I am not really a fan of dark themes, but the green seems to lighten up the overall appearance of this gray and black theme.  The  font is clear but could be made a little larger to make reading a little easier.

The sidebars are where I think the site would benefit from change the most. The sidebars on Lostland are organized but they are longer than the content. I would recommend moving the rss subscribe option to the top, as well as the pages. The Technorati fave button should be moved up here as well. The sidebar isn’t cluttered but it is too long. One of the biggest things over here is the tag list, it should be put into a drop down list or expandable container. There are some items in the sidebar that the author should consider removing. Until the feed has more subscribers, the widget listing the number of readers should be removed. Buttons for events whose dates have passed such as Bloggers Unite should be removed. There are a whole lot of ads over there in that one sidebar. If they aren’t making money I’d consider removing them.

The author writes mostly about free graphics, tools and websites related to multimedia, digital design and art. Nowhere on Lostland was I able to find an About page. None of the posts list an author name. Readers might be more interested if they knew a bit more about the author. Where does this interest in graphics come from? Are they an aspiring artist?

I think the author could turn this site into a helpful resource with a little time and work. It would be helpful if the posts containing resources, tips, toools, etc were titled a little better. Take a trip to Lostland when you have a little time. Tell them that valmg sent you.

I started reading Mom Reviews last year. Elizabeth asked me a while back if I’d take a look at her blog, so here we are. Elizabeth changed the theme of her blog this past week, so I think this a great time to do this review.

When Mom Reviews first loads you can’t help but notice the header. It contains family photos and it immediately brings color to the page and welcomes the visitor. The two column gray and white theme loaded quickly. The text the content appears in is a good size and color but it might be appear just a little sharper if a different font was used.

I am a big fan of navigation placed at the top of a blog rather than on the side. The sidebars on Mom Reviews are neat, but I would recommend a couple of minor changes. I’d suggest moving the tags and categories widgets up higher in the sidebar, above the blogroll. There’s a pretty big blogroll over there (that I’m not on, LOL) that I’m guessing she wants there because it isn’t on her blogrolls page. If the length gets too much she could put this into a scrollbox. 3 Boys Toys stands out a bit right now, if Elizabeth doesn’t have a button for it she could center it above the other buttons so it doesn’t stand out so much like it does when aligned to the left.

Elizabeth updates her blog daily, sometimes more than once. She often includes pictures, which will work well with this new white theme. The blog has an about page, and it actually tells the reader a lot about her. The writing style is personal and invites the visitor to read more. Elizabeth writes on a number of topics on Mom Reviews, the main ones being reviews, contests, saving money, family and home. Readers are invited to interact and share their thoughts through the comments section. Commenting requires no registration or login and Elizabeth often replies to comments that are left.

I highly recommend Mom Reviews. Yes, she frequently holds fantastic contests that I enter. But she also writes from a personal point of view that invites readers into her home and family, all while sharing her thoughts and opinions and interacting with her readers. One of the reasons she wanted a review was to be sure that her blog was appealing to readers, and I think it is. When you visit Mom Reviews, please tell her that valmg sent you.

This afternoon I reviewed the blog EJobTips.com.

The first thing I see when the blog loads on my screen is the header. The header image looks unbalanced when placed on the left of the screen because it isn’t as big as the field it’s in. I would enlarge the image to occupy the entire header area. EJobTips is currently on a three column theme of blues, green and beige. It takes me fourteen clicks to get from the top of the blog’s home page to the bottom.

At the top there are links that are supposed to allow the reader to view advertising info or view the blog in website format, neither of which are working at this time. RSS subscribe options in a reader or by email are well placed. The blog offers an easy to find category list. I was unable to find an archive list or page, which I recommend against because it means there is no quick way to see all posts within one time frame. This is handy if you need to catch up on some reading or are looking for something that you know was written in a specific period of time. The sidebars are neat and uncluttered.

The blog offers no About page. Readers like to know a little about who is writing, including answers to the questions who is the author, why is the author writing and where did the author get his/her knowledge. What drew my attention to this is that at the bottom of the page is a disclaimer where the author refers to him/herself as I. If you go farther back in the blog to the first post the author refers to several writers as we, implying there are different authors. All posts are shown as being authored by EJobTips. If there is more than one author the articles should be credited to the appropriate one author. Nowhere in the blog did I find a name or nickname for the author or authors.

The written description of this blog is to provide tips and article on the topic of working from home. The blog is fairly new but the writing seems to consist of original content and the length of the posts is decent. Take a look at EJob Tips.com, and when you do please say that valmg sent you.

This morning I reviewed a blog called “The Blogdom. A Suburb of the Beandom“, written by Chivalrybean.

The first thing I see when the blog loads on my screen is a little green and gray knight character. I’m not sure if he’s a vegetable or a bean, but he’s cute. The Blogdom is currently on a three column theme of white and shades of green. It takes me eight clicks to get from the top of the blog’s home page to the bottom.

At the top there are tabs representing the blog’s pages. They look great up there. You should include a link for the blog home page. The page links are also located at the top of the left sidebar, but they block the knight. Chivalrybean, see if you can add a little padding to push the contents at the top of the left sidebar down a bit. If you can adjust that it would also improve where the banner at the top of the home page blocks the contents at the top of the right sidebar.

Chivalrybean, nowhere was I able to find an rss subscribe link. Those are a must if you want to people to be able to add you to their feed reader. I also couldn’t find an About page, which I’d been hoping to find so I could learn more about you and the Blogdom. I suggest adding either a category list or a category page to give new readers a quick idea of what topics you write on.

It looks like Chivalrybean blogs about a wide variety of random topics. The writing is original and the length of the posts varies from short to just right. He doesn’t currently include too many pictures in his posts, but I wonder if that might change after the baby comes. Chivalrybean and his wife are expecting their first child, you see.

Take a ride over to The Blogdom and congratulate the new father to be. When you get there, please tell Chivalrybean that valmg sent you.

This afternoon I reviewed the blog called Like Every Inch Of Me Is Bruised, a blog written by Nicole.

The first thing I see when the blog loads on my screen is the color black. The whole page is completely black except for the color of the text. Bruised is currently on a two column theme. It takes me six clicks to get from the top of the blog’s home page to the bottom.

The sidebar is on the right and it is pretty orderly. The archive is a pretty long list because it contains every post this month. A dropdown or scrollbar for the archives would make it look a little cleaner. I would suggest moving the rss subscribe link higher in the theme to make it more visible, which might help increase feed subscribers.

Bruised doesn’t have an About page. I wish there was one, because there’s stuff I think readers would like to know about. Why the blog is named so is the first question that comes to my mind. From what I’ve read I can tell that Nicole writes on random topics, but nowhere am I able to find a category list to explore. Her writing is original and the majority of her posts have decent length. She rarely includes pictures in her posts, and I wonder if they might help break up the darkness of the theme.

Nicole has been blogging on Bruised for a little over four months, and she’s off to a nice little start. When you visit her blog, please tell her that valmg sent you.