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The 3 Best Coupon Apps To Help You Save Money [Android]

Matt Smith — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:31:05 +0000

Every time I watch an episode of Extreme Couponing, I have to wonder if the results are worth the effort. Buying hundreds of dollars worth of stuff for a fraction of the price sounds great, but most people don’t want to dedicate an entire day planning a trip to the store.

For saner shoppers, smartphones are an excellent way to save money without going berserk. There are numerous apps that catalog and list coupon codes – so many, in fact, that slogging through them can be a chore. Fortunately, I’ve already done that for you, and I’ve come away with three apps that stand out from the crowd.

Coupon Cloud

Just look at the name of this Android coupon app. Catchy, right? It’s also not really true, because there’s nothing that would fit the definition of cloud computing here. You should forgive it for its misleading name however, because it’s a great coupon app.

When I first started this app I noticed immediately how smooth it felt and how quickly it loaded. This is not something that can be taken for granted. It seems that everyone has their own take on the coupon app, but many of the entries are slow and clunky.

In addition to this, it’s just simple. This does mean that it lacks the features of the other two apps, but it also means deals are easy to find if you want to search by category rather than store or location. Also, I noticed that Coupon Cloud seems to focus on online offers rather than local ones, which is a niche the other apps I came to like don’t fill.

GeoQpon

Want to find deals near you? GeoQpon is the app for you. As the name implies, it’s focused on presenting users with deals based on location. That’s handy for many users, but it will be of particular use to people who travel frequently.

There’s a lot of selection presented by this app, but despite that, the menus remain easy to use. The entire experience feels nearly as quick as Coupon Cloud, which is considerably more limited in scope. Filtering is here in spades as well, as users can list coupons by category and view them based on either location or brand.

Once you’ve decided a deal is appealing you can open it via Google Maps using the app interface or you can call the store for directions and hours. This is another trait that makes this app stand out, as not all coupon apps make it so easy to find the deals that they list.

Grocery Smarts

At first glance, Grocery Smarts is a rather ugly little app. While fairly smooth, it’s mostly done in black and white, which gives off an amateur impression compared to the other apps listed here.

As I dug deeper however, I found that I liked what Grocery Smarts offers. Calling this a coupon app isn’t entirely accurate. Instead, this app sorts through grocery store advertisements and lists all of their current deals, including those that do not require a coupon. Often these deals can save you even more than coupons do.

Better yet, Grocery Smarts lets you add items to a list, and will then tell you the expected total of your purchases. You can save the list and retrieve it when you do your shopping. These features are enough for me to forgive the unpleasant appearance – although hopefully the developers will address it.

Conclusion

These three apps are my personal favorites, excluding some of the more obvious contenders such as Groupon. However, there are a lot of coupon apps on the market, and while I tried many of them I didn’t try them all. If you use a coupon app that you believe others should try, let us know about the best Android coupon apps in the comments.

3 Tools To Create A Price Drop Email Alert

Ann Smarty — Tue, 24 May 2011 01:30:43 +0000

Shopping online is hardly a new habit for anyone. We have all quickly found how easy and exciting it is to spend money online. But what about saving?

Couponing can be a great and effective way to save a penny or two and there have been quite a few useful money-saving sites shared so far… But who has the time? Tracking coupons online requires a huge time investment which may never pay off: you need to first find reliable and effective coupon sources, then create various tracking and organizing systems, etc.

I have found that nothing works better than a relevant and timely price tracking email alert. Here are a few tools I am using to create one:

New Coupon Alert

There are a variety of coupon directories and aggregators out there. One’s choice is really based on personal preferences and trial and error experiences. The one I am currently using is Rather-be-Shopping which has (luckily) added the coupon alert feature with the latest update.

I like the tool because the coupons listed there seem to be hand-picked and more often than not prove to be reliable. One of the newest and most useful sections added as well is a free shipping one.

To add an email alert, you will need to create a free account, proceed to “Your Coupon Alert Settings” ad check what you want to be alerted of. You can receive alerts (1) by category or (2) by store (or both):

FreeShipping.org’s “Favorite Coupons” feature that I mentioned in another shopping-related post quite a while ago is another option to try here but it only allows you to add price alerts by merchant.

Price Drop Email Alert

Like with coupon aggregating, price tracking sites are quite a few. I’ve been using one of the most established and popular of them: PriceGrabber. To create a price drop alert you will need to use the search feature to locate your product (range), then create an account and use “Add Price Alert” link.

The alert settings will let you specify:

Quality preferences (New, Used, Import, Refurbished, etc);
Merchant range (you can include or exclude any merchants names);
Desired merchant rating:

The actual alert will look like this:

Any Email Price Alerts

Google Alerts which you can have plenty of fun with is another tool we need to mention here. The best thing about the tool is that you can actually create an alert about anything while using the flexibility of Google Advanced operators:

Get new product result within the specified price range: [laptop $500..$1200] – use two dots between the prices
Include several products in one alert: [laptop coupons OR mobile phone coupons]
Control the proximity to include various models: ["nokia * coupons"]

Almost with all those queries, scrolling down to “Web results” in your alert (like in the screenshot above) will give you most useful results.

With as much flexibility, why not use Google Alerts and that’s it? Unfortunately, the tool results are far from being perfect. In my experience, Google Alerts are most useful when applied for some type of research (for example, if you want to get daily updates on what people offer and which products exist based on your query). The tool won’t give you any actionable updates (unlike the two tools above).

Another tip to mention here is that you probably want to create a separate email account for these types of price alerts so that they do not clutter your main inbox.

Do you save money using your email? Please share your most successful money saving tricks!

Google Rebrands Coupons As “Google Offers”, Launches iGoogle Widget [News]

Tim Brookes — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:15:35 +0000

After Google’s mighty $6 billion bid for next-big-thing Groupon was turned down, evidence emerged last week of a rival Google Offers service. It was soon officially confirmed, although until now we’ve not seen anything exciting. So what do most journalists do in this occasion? They Google it.

A search for the term ‘coupons site:maps.google.com intitle:Google Offers‘ reveals more than 40,000 results for money-off codes. If you’re fond of the company’s iGoogle customized homepage then you can even add a new Google Offers widget that shows offers near to your location.

Since the announcement of the existence of Google Offers, the company has confirmed that this is to replace the Google Coupons service available to local businesses. Offers seems to be centred around location, so integration with Google Maps (online and mobile) is bound to happen sooner or later.

Current offers range from hotel discounts to driving lessons and even money off mini golf. To begin with Google have actively targeted small businesses, and these make up a considerable chunk of the available offers.

Google Offers are single-purchase codes and offers to be used at checkouts and cash tills alike, and thus don’t require the same group-purchase that Groupon demands. Details have emerged of a Groupon-like pre-paid product also under the guise of Google Offers, although details are unclear at this stage.

How the company will differentiate between the two remains to be seen, as does the effect on Groupon.

Let us know in the comments what you think of Google’s latest venture, and whether or not you think it will take off.

5 Ways To Make Use Of Groupon

Ryan Dube — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:31:34 +0000

I have to say right up front that I’ve never really been into coupon sites, shopping sites, or any other website on the web that is set up primarily to sell something. I really only resort to shopping online during Christmas to avoid the crowds. I rarely really find any deals that I would consider “amazing” online. Sure, you can save a bit if you purchase a computer or even a car through the Internet, but usually those discounts are no different or more than you’re offered in-store.

With that said, my entire attitude toward online deals changed when someone recently pointed me toward Groupon. Groupon is a site that is really difficult to describe, because it’s different than most other sites devoted to selling you something. Groupon stands apart because it offers different things to different people, so I’ve decided to go over the 5 coolest ways that you can make use of Groupon.

Sign In & Instantly Earn Cash

The entire point of Groupon is more of a “group” deal than just a discount site. It actually reminds me a little bit of eBay because each deal is only up for a limited time. Once the set minimum number of buyers purchase the deal, everyone receives the discount.

Once you sign up with your email, you can start adding friends. While I really hate referring my friends to any sort of sales website, Groupon really is worth it. It takes me a lot to admit that, but after watching a few of the discounts show up – I was really surprised by how steep many of them are. Most of them are 40 to 70 percent off of things like local dining, spa treatments, store discounts and a lot more.

For every friend you refer and that signs up, you get ten bucks in Groupon coupons. Now, if you think about that, that means every ten friends you convince to sign up with you, that’s a hundred dollars just to get started buying deals on Groupon.

Save Money At Local Businesses

The part that sets Groupon above the rest in my opinion is the fact that the deals are tailored to your geographic location. Of course, add in the excitement of a limited time offer (right down to the ticking clock) and the need to get at least the minimum number of buyers, and it can get kind of exciting.

This means that you’re not going to see discounts to just national brands or major store chains, these are impressive deals that local businesses are offering.

Save Money On Gifts

Once you sign up and start buying “Groupons”, you can organize those in your account under “My Groupons“. You can also purchase Groupon coupons as gifts and send them to your friends. The cool thing about this is that you can purchase some pretty impressive gifts but you don’t have to spend a fortune.

Now, if you really want to offer your friends an awesome gift, then pass on the savings to them. At the bottom of the main Groupon page, you’ll see a link for “Give the Gift of Groupon.” Click on that link, fill out the details and the amount you’d like to give and send your friends a Groupon credit.

Why are Groupon coupons better than cash? Because it goes further. Your friend will be able to stretch that $25 gift certificate into a purchase worth $50 to $100. And don’t be fooled by my choice of currency – Groupon is available in 35 countries across the world.

Use Groupon For Your Business

I think the magic that will make Groupon even more popular moving forward is the fact that it makes everyone happy. Obviously, customers that can save over fifty percent off the cost of anything are usually pretty happy, but the business model of Groupon is pretty impressive as well. Basically, businesses don’t pay until they get paid. When you sign up to advertise, Groupon simply takes a commission of the sale and gives you the rest.

Getting featured on Groupon is as easy as clicking the “Groupon for your Business” link at the bottom of the main page.

Fill out the form and you’re good to go. If you don’t have anything to sell, but you wouldn’t mind making money by referring folks to Groupon, then you’ll be interested in their affiliate plan.

You can even have the color format of the ad match the theme of your own site. This is what the ad will look like on your site.

What makes it unique and useful to your website visitors is that the ads will automatically check for the location of your visitor, and then try to deliver deals from their local area.

Access Your Groupons On Your Mobile Device

Using Groupons becomes a lot more useful when you can use “paperless redemption” to cash in your purchased Groupon using your mobile device. All of the deals you purchased are stored on your phone where you can access them quickly without printing.

While you’re on the go and looking for local deals, just search for nearby deals using the built-in GPS feature – it’s a cool, fast way to save money while you’re on the road.

Have you ever used Groupon? Which feature do you use the most and did you find any impressive deals through the service? Share your experience in the comments section below.

7 Smartest Ways To Save Money Using The Internet

Jessica Cam Wong — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:00:17 +0000

Holiday shopping season has come and gone, but saving money should always be on our minds especially since we’re starting a new year, and probably want or need new items or necessities. Online shopping is like the recently developed and hyped phenomenon, which may not necessarily be a bad thing to follow. We can save more money than ever by using Ebay and Amazon instead of having to wait in line for items at the stores without a guarantee that we will even get what we want if more customers are also interested in the same products.

Online shopping just brings more convenience but there’s sometimes so much to learn and so much that’s hidden from us unless we’re actively seeking the deals we want. MakeUseOf has covered a lot of ground when it comes to saving money with online resources so it’s certainly a rich source of information but we’ll try to condense some of the best shopping tips here.

Let’s check out the best ways to save money online.

Using Cash-Back Programs

Before buying anything online, check to see if the store participates in Ebates, the cash-back program that offers anywhere from 1 to 25% (depending on the store) back, or you can even check whether your bank offers a cash back program. Bank Of America, for example, offers the Add It Up program to debit or credit card holders.

Trading & Obtaining Cash For Items You Already Own

Instead of letting your books collect dust in a corner or selling them without getting much money in return, consider trading them to get books you want. Tina featured a number of popular trading sites that specialize in books, games and CDs. If you own an old phone, MP3 player or even a game console, you can sell it to Gazelle, which even pays you to ship your old electronics to them. To earn money for knowledge you already own, consider writing articles for major online knowledge bases, such as Bright Hub.

Getting The Lowest Price On Virtually Anything

Want to score an amazing cruise package to the Caribbean for cheap? Last-minute booking sites can really help you save money on trips. Additional sites that weren’t featured on that list is lastminutecruises.com, which showed $139 trips to the Bahamas last time I checked, and VacationsToGo.

If you’d rather stay in your state or within the country and take a road trip instead, you can also check any of these 6 sites for the best prices in gas so you can save up big time, including my personal favorite, GasBuddy.

Maybe you don’t want to travel anywhere and just want to save money on everyday purchases. Amazon is probably the biggest online marketplace for you to get a variety of items for excellent prices, but you can still get lower final prices with the help of promotional codes for Amazon. Additionally, you can get even more heavily-discounted open box items (returned products that are guaranteed to be like new) at the Amazon Warehouse, which not a lot of people know about.

If you’re looking to buy things not for yourself, but for others, check out GiftCardGranny or CardPool (see a quick review here), which offer tons of discount gift cards and buys your unwanted gift cards for up to 92% cash back.

Taking Advantage Of Deal & Coupon Sites

You’re definitely not alone if you want to save some money. There are countless communities that focus their efforts in classifying best online deals so you can fully take advantage of them. There are general deal sites that aggregate all sorts of deals, while there are also plenty of comparison sites once you know what you want to buy. Then apply one or two coupons from any of the dedicated websites and you should be golden.

If you’re constantly purchasing things online, it might be beneficial to integrate shopping-friendly plugins into your browsing experience. These Firefox addons were made with shoppers in mind (Google Chrome users should check out these extensions). iPhone owners should also check out the RedLaser app [iTunes link], which can scan the bar code of any product and tell you how much it is at other stores and online.

Using Alternatives

Monthly purchases that seem unavoidable, such as cable TV and phone service, but the truth is, there are emerging alternative services that bring extra convenience and savings once you add up everything. Netflix and Redbox are major cable alternatives that won’t really empty your pocket. In fact, you can even get free codes to score free Redbox movie rentals using InsideRedbox.

There are also websites, such as Hulu and network sites, that let you stream full episodes of your favorite TV show for free. Don’t forget Crackle, which you can think of as Sony Pictures’ version of Hulu.

When it comes to shrinking your phone bill, VoIP services are the most convenient ones as you can use your computer to make calls. VoIP services abound so you pretty much have lots of options in this area, but for starters, be sure to see 3 Alternatives to Local Phone Companies That Will Save You Money.

Buying in Bulk

Buying things in bulk makes sense as you end up saving money in the long run and have products to last for a while. One way you can save money by buying things in bulk online is with BulkTix.

It’s a service that lets you purchase movie tickets and snack vouchers in bulk while saving tons. The tickets don’t expire and BulkTix takes Paypal, Amazon Payments and even Google Checkout.

Scoring Free Stuff

You might have heard of any of the freebie sites that accumulate free offerings from all over the net. Most of them are offerings that you don’t really need, but the next one might be of interest if you’ve ever reserved a table to a restaurant over the phone. Instead of calling the restaurant, create an account at OpenTable, and reserve tables through the website. Every time you show up for your reservation, you accumulate 100 points towards gift cards to any of the OpenTable participating restaurants. Some restaurants offer 1000 points for honoring a reservation, and once you get 2000 points, you score a $20 gift card, or you can wait to accumulate 5000 points for a $50 gift card.

The restaurant selection at OpenTable is still expanding so you may not find all of your city’s restaurant, but you might want to give it a try as it’s pretty much effortless to be on your way to receiving a restaurant gift card!

You can also learn how to get find free Internet/Wifi and even hotel stays! Don’t forget MakeUseOf offers free PDF guides on a variety of topics for you to learn fast!

Share your money-saving tips with us in the comments!

Photo credit: o5com

5 Android Finance Apps To Save & Manage Money With Your Android Phone

Ryan Dube — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:30:41 +0000

The day that I received my new Motorola Droid, I did two things. First, I slam-dunked my old Windows Mobile 5 phone into the kitchen drawer (I have some plans for that baby – and a future article). Second, I immediately started scanning the Android Market for Android finance apps that would help manage my finances.

There are two major streams to consider when you’re managing your finances – what you have coming in, and what you have going out. Obviously you should have more coming in than going out, so you want to increase your income and reduce your spending – pretty simple right?

In order to increase savings and income and reduce spending, I wanted to find android finance apps that would help me monitor my income as well as save money when I’m shopping. The following list are the 5 best apps currently available on the Android Market that will help you monitor your financial accounts, keep an eye on your Google Adsense income and save a whole lot of money when you do need to buy something.

2 Awesome Apps That Help You Track Your Money

The first step in managing spending is keeping a close watch on what you already have, and keeping a log of everything you spend. One great app that can help you do that is Loot by Christopher McCurdy. Loot is a very simple Android finance app to keep an electronic checkbook on your mobile phone, and ditch the old paper checkbook for good. There are no direct links to your bank account over the Internet, so you don’t have to worry about security or privacy.

The layout of each screen is very simple, and the white text on black background is very easy on the eyes. When you set up an account, you just name it whatever you like and assign it an initial balance. From that point on, whenever you’re at the store and you make a purchase, or you’re paying bills – just open up your phone and record the transaction immediately. No more waiting for checks to hit your account, or wondering what your “actual” balance is.

Adding new entries is very quick and easy. It’s so fast, you could do it in line at the store while you’re waiting for your debit card transaction to go through. The premium version, if you’re willing to pay for it, adds export and charting functionality into the mix. Now, if you’re anything like me and you’ve been trying to earn an income from the Internet, you probably have a Google Adsense account. Well, now with DroidSense, you can check out the daily performance of your Google Adsense account straight from your phone, with just a couple clicks of your finger.

The free version of this software shows the accurate daily data, but anything beyond that only shows the revenue over the last three days. This makes it a good app if you just want something that lets you check in daily to see how your performance was over the last 24 hours.

The reports page is where you’ll really be tempted to opt for the premium version. You can see the same one to three day data as the other screen in the free version, but the premium version would allow you to see long term trends, even in the form of a graphical chart. The app is well designed and it is on my daily list of apps to monitor to gauge the current health of my income (not that there’s any substantial Adsense income yet…).

3 Great Apps That Help You Curb Spending

Okay, so you’ll know how much you’ve got in your checking and savings account, but what about all of the money that seems to disappear into the hands of restaurants, grocery stores and shopping malls? Even if you’re not a shopaholic, the fact is that occasionally we all need to buy things – clothes, food, cool electronic gadgets that we can’t live without.

The best way to dramatically reduce the financial impact of that spending is by using coupons and finding the best deals. On the task of finding coupons, your Android definitely has you covered with the very cool My Coupons app.

Every day, you’ll discover a brand new list of very valuable coupons delivered to the main page of this app. See any you think your friends would like? Tweet them, post them to Facebook, or email one to a friend.

This isn’t just some cheap coupon-delivery system. This app lets you search for local deals using your GPS location or through a search, or you can even scan in the barcode of any product to check if there’s a coupon available for it!

Coupons are great for saving money on things that you didn’t even realize you wanted, but the bottom line is that the most effective way to cut spending is to find the absolute lowest price on the items that you need. If you have an Android phone in your pocket, then you have two very powerful apps for doing that. The first is Pocket Auctions by Bonfire Media.

As you can see, this is the definitive mobile Ebay app. Everything you could want to do on Ebay is possible here. Preview the best current deals or search Ebay for a particular product. There are even some things you can’t normally do on Ebay’s website, like scan a barcode for a product to see if there are any current auctions for that product!

The coolest part of this application in my opinion is the ability to search through completed items. A few years ago, it was almost impossible to find a mobile application that could complete such a search without paying for it. Now, you can find the market price history for any product that has sold on Ebay – a very valuable tool if you’re doing market research or if you’re attending a real live auction and want to check how much specific items sell for on Ebay before you place your bid. Just keep in mind that a lot of people are doing this today, so the competitive advantage is disappearing fast.

Finally, one of my favorite applications to use while I’m browsing through a department store is ShopSavvy by Big in Japan, Inc. This is an app where you can quickly search for a product while you’re in the store in order to find out if there are any other places where you can get it cheaper, either at a store near you or online.

ShopSavvy lets you use your phone’s camera to scan the product barcode. Once ShopSavvy identifies the product with the barcode, it searches high and low for the best available price on that product.

Bargain opportunities could be either at a store or mall down the street, or or at Amazon or any other online store. The best prices are organized for you under “local” and “web” categories, and reviews are displayed if they’re available. With ShopSavvy, you never have to doubt whether or not you got the best price.

Do you know of any other great Android apps that help you cut costs and reduce spending in your daily life? Share your own discoveries in the comments section below.

5 More Ways To Get Discounts, Save Cash & Make Money Online

Dean Sherwin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:01:17 +0000

If there’s one thing that gets to me it’s wasting money. I know we all like to splash the cash a little and have fun ““ hell I’m known to buy the latest gadget, game or gizmo if my bank balance permits me. But it’s spending money when one doesn’t have to that gets to me.

Say for instance you’re buying a new iPod for almost 200 Euros. I’m always amazed by the amount of people (almost all) who’ll just pay it even through they could have put in 20 minutes work and saved themselves 30 Euros. That’s an extra thirty Euros you could have in your pocket for basically doing nothing.

As a younger person (although I know most people are affected by the recession) I’m kind of expected to be somewhat up to date with ‘fashion’ and of course technology. And that means expensive purchases. Many young people just bite the bullet not realising that they could easily save (and make) money by following even a couple of the steps I’ll outline below. I’ve compiled the following list of 5 ways to save money that you might not have considered before.

Go Open Source

Until a few days ago when I did a post about this subject on my blog I had no idea how much Microsoft Office cost. Not a clue. To be honest, I was a little shocked that Microsoft were charging a whopping $399 for the full version and $149 for students.

It’s completely unnecessary expenditure. As somebody who writes and blogs for a living, I check e-mails, type up articles, use spreadsheets and run the business aspect of things without expensive software. All those shiny features in Office won’t be used by over 90% of us. I think we just buy Office because that’s all there is on the shelf at the PC store.

Programs such as Open Office, Thunderbird, Gimp and Windows Live Writer easily manages all of my documents, e-mail, Photoshop and blogging needs so why not yours? I estimate that by switching to Open Source the average power-user could save themselves in excess of $500. Check out our directory for all the apps and open source programs you could ever need.

Buy Small Items In Bulk Online

There is a certain myth about online shopping and that is “Shopping online is always much cheaper”. And it is ““ if you use it right. For example, a big burden on many students are textbooks and other such school supplies. So we head online in search of these in the hope of saving a few dollars. But are we really? Postage on massive textbooks is expensive so it’s important you make sure you’re actually saving money.

For small items such as books, second-hand book stores often trump the internet. Some items that are cheap online when you buy in bulk (from the same seller to save on postage on sites such as Amazon and the products own site) include DVDs, CDs, stationary, magazine subscriptions and the likes.

More expensive items such as iPhones and laptops will always be cheaper and cost little for postage so it’s best to shop for these online too. Online will always be cheaper if you buy the right products in the right quantities.

Coupons & Promotions

If there was ever a place to find bargains it is the Internet. Everyday thousands of promotions are listed but few actually use them. Sites such as Coupons.com and Ask Deals list thousands of new promotions everyday. Each time before you buy something (either online or in store) do a quick promotion search on these sites.

I can’t remember the last time I bought a domain on GoDaddy without searching for a promotional code ““ each time I’ve saved a few dollars which adds up, let me tell you. If, at every checkout on sites such as Amazon and Play.com, when you see a promotional code entry box you ran a quick search you could save yourself hundreds of dollars per year just for Googling something like ‘Amazon Free Shipping Promo Code’.

Easy, right?

Also make sure to check out Top 10 Grocery Coupon Websites for Cheapskates.

VoIP Services

When I first started getting serious about writing I worked for a gaming network based in the Netherlands. Me being in Ireland meant international call charges. I just kind of accepted it for a couple of months and must have wasted at least fifty Euros on calls to and from my bosses/co-workers.

Some people may call me stupid for not using VoIP services earlier like Skype and Google Talk before but I just never thought of it at the time. A few e-mails later and I had switched my normal method of calling my bosses to Skype ““ and I saved money (lots by my calculations). I think that international calling will be extinct over the next few years as VoIP services gain more recognition as a good way to conduct long distance calls and conference meetings.

Also check out some Skype replacements which we have covered in the past such as Gizmo5 and ooVoo. Charnita also covered 6 other VoIP possibilities.

Make Money on the Internet

There are numerous ways to do this but only a few ways to make it work properly to the extent that you can call it a job. eBay businesses (when done right) can become quite profitable but I suggest you do your homework. To make online selling work you have to have a product that’s in demand. For instance, if you know a guy who refurbishes 16GB iPod Touches and will sell them to you for 100 bucks, you can then sell those for $150 and make money. Its all about the product.

Another way to make money online is by blogging (check out my authors page to see my posts about blogging). It’s tough work and the chances of success without actual interest in your niche are nil. Jimmy Rogers did two MakeUseOf posts on how to find blogging work (here and here) and MakeUseOf is always hiring if your interests lie in the internet / technology area.

However, as students you may want a quick way to make an extra $50 per week. Well I have one that will work ““ and it’s not a scam or short-term solution. You simply write copy for a large company called Bright Hub. There are others out there but this one pays the best. It’s easy to get accepted to a channel there and they pay $10 per article (minimum of just 300 words). You can write as many articles as you want too.

In my experience, most articles take around an hour or so to write up. But they can be pretty draining considering some of the ‘less interesting’ subjects you may be asked to write about. However, spending a couple hours every day doing this and you’ve got hundreds of dollars at the end of the month. You also get 85% of the ad revenue from your articles. I don’t write for them anymore but I still get a monthly payment in excess of $50 just for the revenue my articles bring in every month.

In the past, we have covered numerous other ways of making money on the internet. Here’s some of them :

How To Score Money With T-Shirt Designs

Make Money Online With Your Humorous Pet Video – Laurence

Top Three Ways For Kids To Make Money – Ryan

Earn Money By Taking Online Surveys – Simon

Hopefully you’ll be able to save money using the above tips. Do you have any money saving (or making) tips for tech? If so let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: _ES

Top 10 Sites For Online Coupons & Promotional Codes

John McClain — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:01:49 +0000

If you’ve ever done some online shopping, you may notice it in your shopping cart or order summary during the checkout process. It’s a text box where you can apply an online coupon or promo code and, if valid, get a discount on whatever you’re purchasing. Good stuff, huh?

Plenty of websites offer these online coupons and promotions for online consumers to take advantage of. However, what if you don’t have one of those pesky little codes? There’s no need to worry about looking for where to find them or paying full price with this list. Here’s some websites that may help you save a little bit of money the next time you shop online simply by typing in a code.

RetailMeNot

Covering more than 30,000 online stores and currently offering over 150,000 online coupon codes, RetailMeNot is one of the best sites on the Web for the online shopper.

A strong community helps separates the good codes from the unreliable, so there’s no need to hassle through what works and what doesn’t. The ones retaining high success rates are your best bets.

Read more about RetailMeNot in the MakeUseOf Directory.

CurrentCodes

CurrentCodes offers tons of online coupon codes and is updated frequently. Its huge database covers hundreds of popular online stores and you can find the codes you’re looking for easily by browsing by merchant, alphabetically, or by category.

The website lists everything out plainly, providing the code, a short description of the offer, and the expiration date.

CouponCabin

With thousands of active online coupons and deals available, CouponCabin is a great place to snag a discount online. According to the website, it searches consumer emails, forums, blogs, merchant sites, and newspapers for any coupon codes from online retailers.

Covering just about every store out there, CouponCabin has got a lot of publicity over the years and remains one of the best sites on the Web for getting a deal when shopping online. Be sure to try out searching for coupons locally by zip code and signing up for their weekly newsletter.

Ebates

A vast supply of rebates and coupon codes to over 1,000 stores are at your fingertips on Ebates.

Sort through all of them by store, category, or what kind of deal is being offered, like codes for free shipping, money off, and free gifts. The cashback shopping website makes it simple.

WebbyPlanet

Incorporating some 15,000 stores and over 100,000 coupon codes, WebbyPlanet is another great place to start saving.

The website’s online discount shopping directory allows users to search and shop for items at discounted prices.

In the MUO Directory, more information about WebbyPlanet is available.

Coupon Chief

With coupon codes for both products and services, you can potentially save a bundle by searching Coupon Chief.

Like RetailMeNot, the website invites its members to comment, rate, and validate the codes, so you won’t find any expired coupons here.

Coupon Chief will even pay you back. They’ll share 2% of revenue earned from purchases made with any online coupon you submit.

Learn more about the website in the MUO Directory.

Buxr

Buxr is a social bargain hunting community. The website’s members share hot shopping deals, including those elusive coupon codes, and they’re all voted on by the community based on hotness.

New deals are found and posted everyday, making Buxr a unique but effective site to locate a good discount and save money.

Coupon Cowgirl

Coupon Cowgirl rounds up all the best coupon and promotional codes for its visitors.

Browse the website by store, category, and search for codes providing money off, percent off, or free shipping coupons on your online purchases.

Be sure to check out the site’s luxury brands and cowboy steals pages for more shopping deals.

Savings.com

Search for the best deals and coupon codes at Savings.com. The website’s members vote for the best ones, covering brand-name and recognizable merchants to lesser-known online stores.

Savings.com’s lengthy and well-written About Coupons page also provides readers with pretty much everything you need to know about coupons.

CouponSmarter

With coupon codes to most leading U.S. online stores, it’s just click and save with CouponSmarter.

The website claims to be the world’s largest coupon source, searching merchant sites for discount offers that can save you up to 30% or more on your online purchases.

Looking for more? MakeUseOf’s Directory of Apps has got the scoop on FatWallet, WoW-Coupons, Tjoos, and RatherBeShopping, four more great websites where you’ll find additional discount codes. We’ve also previously covered websites for grocery coupons, bargains, and saving money when shopping online.

Where do you go to save money when shopping on the Web? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit : Online Coupons

The Top 10 Grocery Coupon Websites for Cheapskates

Ryan Dube — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:00:55 +0000

The first step in the process of saving a fortune on your grocery bill is simply accepting the fact that you’re a cheapskate. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about and it’s certainly nothing to hide. Back in my University days I would surf the Internet (which was very young at the time) for whatever grocery coupon websites I could find, in addition to scrounging through the Sunday newspaper for a very limited collection of grocery coupons. The problem back then was that any grocery coupon websites you could find had probably less than a dozen offers, and most of the websites amounted to nothing more than email collection buckets so that they could turn around and resell your email address to spammers.

Fortunately, the Internet has evolved since then. Today, not only do you not have to put scissors to newspaper anymore, but most of these online grocery coupon sites accumulate manufacturer offers from everywhere and provide them to you in a convenient list that you just select and print in minutes.

Selecting the Best Grocery Coupon Websites

Considering the volume of websites out there that tout themselves as the best money-saving website for groceries, I’ve decided to put together a simple list of sites that are truly the tried-and-true spots that you should check every week to save a fortune on your grocery bill. For starters, MakeUseOf has already covered a number of top coupon websites including:

GroceryGuide, which lets you find the best grocery deals from stores and malls in your local area
ShortCuts from AOL, with the convenience of electronically loading all coupons directly to your grocery store loyalty card (no need to carry coupons around!)
CouponChief, with thousands of retail store coupons. Why buy baby products from a grocery store when you can save $5 off diapers or formula at Diapers.com?

Check out all of MakeUseOf’s grocery resources for other offers and tools for saving money on groceries.

While those resources are excellent, I wanted to put together a definitive guide of grocery coupon websites for other cheapskates out there like me. I no longer bother with using scissors on the Sunday paper – there are much better money-saving resources on line, and they take far less time.

The Big Three

Coupons.com

Every grocery coupon hound should know that currently there are three major resources for most of the coupon deals on the Internet. These are three of the earliest websites that started the online coupon craze, and they are now the three that “feed” most of the offers for other, smaller offshoot websites. If you want the access to all of the deals, it’s best to just go straight to the source. Coupons.com is the first major site you should always check for the best manufacturer coupons. These are mostly non-location specific, meaning they’re available nationally (U.S. only).

Coupons.com is the place anyone should begin their quest, since this is the site that feeds most others. One brief search just now turned up 112 offers to sort through and print.

SmartSource

The next major grocery coupon site that feeds data to other sites is SmartSource.com. The cool thing about SmartSource is that you can type in your zip code and get offers from the local “circulars” that are normally sent inside local newspapers.

It just doesn’t get much more convenient than that. If you click on the “Coupons” tab at the top, you can review nationally offered coupons as well, but the thing that really sets SmartSource apart from the other “big three” is the fact that you can get these offers from local circulars.

ValPak

The final major coupon site that’s been around for quite a while is ValPak. ValPak, like the other two, offers its own list of national manufacturer coupons customized by zip code.

Letting Others Do Your Research

So why don’t people just visit the big three coupon sites and call it good? Because the Internet is so filled with information now, no single website holds all of the best deals. To save the most on your groceries, you’d need to hunt through all three “source” coupon sites, as well as hunt the web for exclusive coupons and offers that are only offered at manufacturer websites and nowhere else. That can take a lot of time and effort. Luckily, there are people out there who love doing this kind of research so much, that they’re willing to do it for you and offer you the fruits of their research.

PPGazette

The Penny-Pincher Gazette is one of those resources. All data at the PPGazette are collected from the three major sites listed above. Membership is free, and every week you can quickly review the best deals (including from local circulars) without having to visit multiple websites to find them.

CouponMom

Another very popular website that I am not ashamed to admit that I visit very often is CouponMom.com. CouponMom is run by Stephanie Nelson who was featured on Oprah, The Today Show and other talk shows, because she offers the service for free as an effort to help stamp out world hunger. By helping people save money on groceries, she’s hoping to encourage people to donate to hunger organizations through her “Cut Out Hunger” initiative.

Her website is easily one of the most comprehensive collections of deals from not only “the big three,” but also many hard-to-find offers from all throughout the Internet. If you choose only one website to visit before you do your grocery shopping, this one should be it.

Unique Grocery Coupon Websites

Sometimes, the standard coupon sites don’t really offer what you’re looking for. Maybe you have different tastes than most people, or you’re more interested in natural products. There are specialized sites that offer coupons for you too, if you know where to look.

Mambo Sprouts

One of those is Mambo Sprouts, a website dedicated to offering you coupons on organic foods.

At last glance, Mambo Sprouts offered two pages of coupons, as well as some cool articles and an entire community section where you can hook up with other folks who are into natural and organic living.

RedPlum

A last site that deserves mention, simply because it’s giving “the big three” a run for their money, is RedPlum.com. RedPlum offers visitors with free exclusive offers based on your zip code.

In other words, if you can’t find it elsewhere, you might find it at RedPlum. As you can see, the Internet now offers an abundance of opportunities to shave hundreds off of your grocery bill every month. It seems inconceivable that anyone would go grocery shopping without coupons when there are so many free offers out there (free money, basically) available for the taking.

Shop online? Be sure to check out a list of sites by Sharninder to help you save money while staying on your couch!

If you shop with coupons, do you know of any other great free grocery coupon websites? Share them in the comments section below.

5 Online Shopping Sites That Will Actually SAVE You Money

Sharninder — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:00:25 +0000

The economy hasn’t been doing too well and there hasn’t been a lot of good news to share lately. Not only are businesses going bust each day, but consumers are feeling the pinch too, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.

Tough times like these call for tough measures and while we at MakeUseOf cannot fund a rescue package to revive the economy (yet!), we do try and help you guys in whatever little way that we can.

No, we aren’t going to suggest some tough measures to tide over the bad times. Instead, we’re going to make it easier for you to stretch the reach of your dollar with our selection of 5 online sites which will not only allow you shop from the convenience of your couch, but also help you find good deals online and the most bang for your buck.

CheapStingyBargains.com

A recession is not the best time to upgrade your computer and the good folks here at MakeUseOf have been showing you ways to prolong the life of your computer all this time. However, if you’re really in need of new hardware, make sure you visit CheapStingyBargains to get a good deal.

CheapStingyBargains catalogues and lists discount coupons and special deals from hundreds of computer manufacturers and dealers. The site offers the best deals and coupons for everything from computers to electronics and apparel to home goods.

FreeShipping.org

Don’t you hate it when you checkout an item from an online store only to find out that the shipping costs are more than the total price of your goods !

This is why I always make sure I give Freeshipping does one thing and does it well. It keeps a track of any free shipping offers going on at the 1500 stores on its list.

The next time you’re shopping online, be sure to check out all the free shipping deals that Freeshipping.org tracks.

DealCatcher.com

Dealcatcher is another coupon site that you should visit before making any online purchase. They have a long list of ready to use coupons and track more than 2000 online stores.

The kind of products that you can search for on DealCatcher varies from the usual computer and electronic stuff to apparels, auto accessories, shoes, flowers, cell phones, DVDs and so on. In short, if you’ve got a product in mind, they probably have an online store on their list that can give you a discount for it.

FatWallet.com

The greatest thing about FatWallet.com are the thousands of users who try out the coupons and let everyone else know which coupons are valid and where. The FatWallet community hangs out in the Forum where they share even more coupons and deals which were found elsewhere and generally help each other make the most of their money.

If you’re the cashback kind, there’s good news for you too. FatWallet is one of the few coupon sites that actually gives a cashback to users for using coupons found on their site.

Coupons.com

If you’re the kind who is always on the lookout for a bargain, I’m sure you know how cumbersome it is to go through newspaper coupons, clip and file them. Coupons.com aims to simplify that for you.

On this site, you’ll find electronic equivalent of newspaper coupons that you can print and take to your nearest grocery store for an instant discount.

Are there any other websites that you visit to get the best deals? Let us know in the comments.