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.