The first and quickest way to start is to simply use your status update feature to announce to all your friends that you have something to sell or that you are looking for a specific item. This is quick, easy, and painless. However, the audience is limited to your friends and you may not have too much success, particularly if most of your friends live hundreds of miles away and you are trying to sell a refrigerator.

The next place to go is the new or used Facebook Marketplace. This site was launched earlier this year and allows you to find items for sale or to sell your used stuff. The site is powered by oodle. Stefan covered oodle at length in his March 2009 article Oodle – Another Craigslist, But Slightly Better. To list items for sale, you have to allow Marketplace permission, like other Facebook applications. The site has four primary categories: items for sale, housing, jobs, and vehicles. Beside each category is a small “+ post” button for you to add a post.

Marketplace is as easy to use as Craigslist, and to me, easier than ebay, since you don’t have to bid and wait. Via the Facebook interface, you can comment and ask questions about the items up for sale. When you go to the main screen and begin browsing, you can set your location and search area to limit the distance you want to search. You may find a deal 500 miles away, but shipping costs or a trip to pick it up may make it less cost effective. Once you select your location, a section of the resulting page will show you pictures and a brief description of the latest items listed for sale.

If you choose to browse one of the four categories, the page comes up in classical Facebook interface style. The “type your status here” bar is replaced with a “Post in ___” bar (fill in the blank for the category). You are also provided a choice to “post” a listing or “find” an item.

From the main page, if you have clicked the “+ post” button beside a category, you are given the choice to “sell it” or “give it away”. Curb alert! Also from here you can post requests for items by clicking on the “ask for it” button.

You just can’t find what you are looking for in the Marketplace? Hunt up one of the Freecycle groups. If you’ve never heard of Freecycle, let me explain – at least a little. Freecycle groups exist in many locations and through various internet channels. Freecycling is simply giving away things that you would normally throw away or donate. A large majority of items are clothing related, but I have gotten some decent video games and books through Freecycling. Many people don’t have time or enough items to hold a yard sale, they don’t think the stuff is worth much money, they don’t live near an organization’s donation location, or they just don’t want to throw it away, so they list it through a Freecycle group.

Freecycle groups are accessible through Yahoo, Craigslist and Facebook, among others. On Facebook, simply go to “Groups” and in the “search Groups” box, type in ‘freecycle’. Numerous groups will come up and you can browse for one in your area. Join the group, and you will get status updates when items come available.

Some groups, like those on Yahoo, are set up to send an email alert every time something is listed. Be forewarned if you live near a metropolitan area, you may get swamped with emails regarding items you are not interested in. You may want to establish a separate email account tied specifically to the Freecycle group or you may want to use email filters set for a particular item you are needing. If you use a Facebook Freecycle group, your wall may end up being flooded with status updates about items as well, so you may want to turn these off and just go look at the offerings when you are looking for something in particular.

Yard Sale groups on Facebook are another way of finding good deals. Yard sale groups are relatively unexplored and there are only a few out there. Like the Marketplace, you buy and sell, but like Freecycle, this is done through a Facebook group.

I really like this concept, particularly if you have a group of friends who live relatively close to one another, but you just don’t have time to hold a yard sale or time to go to yard sales on Saturday morning. You can start the group, advertise via your status, and start a small local network of friends who can buy, sell, or trade items.

Do you have any other creative ways to use Facebook to find good cheap stuff?

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• Milo- Find Cheapest Local Store for the Item You Want to Buy (5)

True but she has lots of other important stuff to do like, I don’t know… Um, how about raising my daughter?

We have found a website that helps keep our stockable items in stock!

It even can beat most of the prices you are currently paying – especially if you are buying things in a brick and mortar store. Alice is the help we have been looking for and this handy web service is free! Just the way we like it! Let’s take a look at how she works:

First, you have to sign up for the service and tell them a little bit about your family and what products they/you use. For example, if you add an adult female, tampons become a stockable item or a child under 3 — diapers. The service categorizes items by the person who will most likely use them. So I selected the This is me button next to “Adult male”. Then, I choose an adult woman and a baby. This was easily done by the screen you see below:

Next up is your chance to narrow down products that you don’t use. Everything starts out checked, so uncheck the products you don’t want to see or that you do not care about. For example, if you do not use women’s deodorant or you do not want Alice to track this (ie: you get it somewhere for free or really cheap) than just uncheck the box and continue on.

You knew it was coming… The registration. Fill in your info along with a valid email address and you are on your way to completing the setup process.

Now you should search and add your favorite products. Then you can order what you need online for right now as well as let Alice remind you when it thinks you are running low on a specific product.

Let’s take a look at your products. From here, you see each item represented by a blue duck. To go into one (or remove one) click on the plus sign on the duck.

That takes you to the individual product page and you can find your brands or specific products here. Or simply click “Delete the duck” to remove this item.

When you click “Let’s Go Find Some” you will come to a product page where you can add products, pick sizes and see what discounts are available. See the listing from baby diapers. This is only a small fraction of the 50 items they carry. 17 of them have coupons or savings available.

Next, you can create a custom label, choose how many you order at a time, and you can choose when Alice should remind you to get some more. If a product is out of stock, you can select “Save for future order” and add it to your list. Then you will be notified when it becomes available.

After you are done, you can always go back and add or modify products in one of three ways. You can search, browse or click an item’s place holder.

Well, to me, this service is simply awesome! It helps me out a lot! Do you use a similar service? Do you save money using it? If so, let us know in the comments!

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• Watch Online Products for Price Drops with ShoppingNotes (9)
• The Top 10 Grocery Coupon Websites for Cheapskates (61)
• Milo- Find Cheapest Local Store for the Item You Want to Buy (5)
• FreshBargains : All-in-one Deals Search Engine (5)
• Browse Black Friday ads with BFads (4)

What does this mean exactly? Milo is an online service that will search the inventory of major retailers in your local area to advice you of the availability of the product which you’re looking for. In other words, it’s a multi-search engine for shopping.

I was then shocked to see them say that 95% of sales happen at real stores in the real world. That is brick and mortar shops as opposed to somewhere on the Internet. Are you surprised as well?? Crazy, right?

If you have shopped for something in the real world recently, you’ll know that the stores with the cheapest prices are also usually sold out of what you want. And when do you find that out? When you get to the store, of course.

I hate taking pointless trips! And I hate being unhappy even more! What about you?

Enter Milo, which will help you answer these three questions:

1. What’s available at local stores?
2. Which product is the best for me?
3. Where is it cheapest and available in stock?

Sounds pretty good, right? Well, it only searches 21 large chain-stores shown in the picture above. But heck, that’s good enough for me. Let’s try some searches in my hood!

I decided to look for a Nintendo Wii locally. Even this long after its release, it is still an issue to find one in stock. Let’s see what Milo can do for me.

Well, that gave me way too many choices. So, I decided to narrow it down with Wii Console instead and that brought up what I was looking for.

I selected my console which was conveniently the first item and then it loaded up local spots that may or may not have it in stock. And just as I expected, they didn’t

I decided to expand my area and search Manhattan as well but no luck. I could find it online but I wanted it NOW! So for giggles I searched California and what do you know?

That’s really not fair! But hey, Milo saved me a trip to the stores or even a phone call! Milo is currently in beta and only works in the following locations:

• New York
• San Fransisco
• Chicago
• Miami
• Los Angeles

If you try to search another location you will get this cute response.

What do you think? Do you use an online search tool to check for a product’s availability before heading out to the store? Do you shop online? If you do, I suggest checking out 5 Online Shopping Sites That Will Actually SAVE You Money.

Let us know what you think of Milo in the comments.

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• Browse Black Friday ads with BFads (4)

Earning Income from Selling Hot Selling Items on eBay?

At first, it felt almost impossible to make a profit on eBay. I started with a few items from around the house. It was ridiculous what people were willing to buy – but the cheques that came in the mail were very real, and they started to add up. Before long, I noticed those giant eBay PowerSellers with an inventory of hundreds of expensive items for sale. I was curious how they did it. After a few years, I was not only able to learn how they do it but do it myself. The secret is this – you need a source. There are a variety of sources for hot selling items on eBay, including…

• Local auctions
• Local yard sales
• Electronic bulletin boards
• Overstock
• Buying in bulk
• Other online auctions

In this article, I’m going to share the top websites that other PowerSellers hope you hadn’t learned about.

Buying Items at Auction

Finding antiques at a local auction and selling them on eBay was one of the most significant ways that I was able to multiply my sales. In time, I learned how to recognize individual items at auctions that had huge eBay potential – but you still have to be very careful not to overpay for those items or you can lose your shirt. Using auctions as an eBay source is one of the best methods to become a PowerSeller, but finding the best auctions in your area can be difficult. One of the best sites I found to do that is Auctionbiz, which has listings for auctioneers all around the country, from the huge auction houses in the city to the smallest auctioneers out in the country.

Unfortunately, these listings are only available within the U.S., but another great site for European eBay sellers is AuctionGuide, which covers auctioneers from all across the world.

These listings are fairly comprehensive. Just be sure to work yourself up from the cheaper “country” auctions up toward the more expensive city auction houses as you earn more, and as you learn how to recognize the hot selling items on eBay. Also, if you plan to shop at auctions for your eBay merchandise, purchase a mobile device such as a smartphone with an Internet capable browser on it. While you’re at the auction during the preview session, simply visit eBay.com, click “Advanced Search,” and then search through past eBay sales for the items that you see at the auction. Make sure “Show Completed Listings Only” is selected.

This will show you how much the item sold for on eBay, before you buy it. It also tells you how much you should pay for the item without losing your shirt.

Local Yard Sales and Electronic Bulletin Boards

Another great source that I found for items at very cheap prices are local items for sale. These are the deals where you can create a fortune – if you’re diligent and quick to act. Back in February, I wrote an article on an application you can use to search Craigslist for your local area. Whether you use that application or not, Craigslist listings are a constant source of some of the best opportunities for eBay PowerSellers. For example, a recent search for “digital camera” in my area turns up a long list of great deals.

Remember, be smart about how you buy. For each item, search the completed eBay listings. If the Craigslist seller is offering the item at less than what it sells for on eBay, contact them immediately and ask to buy it. Drive over and pick it up so that you can save on shipping costs. The best website out there to look up local yard sales is one that MakeUseOf reviewed before called the Yard Sale Treasure Map – a very cool site that lists lots of yard sales in your local area.

Overstock and Buying in Bulk

If you have enough cash on hand, you can always invest in an inventory. Lots of sellers do this. There really isn’t any secret to it, except that you need to spend a bit upfront. Be careful about scam artists that “cherry pick” their pallets. These items typically come from store closings or overstock inventory. This is a field where reputation is king, and buying locally is your best bet. Just search Google for “wholesale pallets,” and you’ll find a long list of them. One good example is RhinoMart wholesale distribution.

The thing to look for are sites that offer good, clear photos of the pallets, and decent listings of contents. However, in most cases these items were all packaged quickly during store closings - so you simply get what you get. However, in the end you’re paying only a fraction of what the items are really worth, so this is usually one of the best ways to earn some significant eBay income.

Other Online Auctions

If you don’t have a fortune to invest up front, one of the easiest ways to make money on eBay is buying at smaller auction sites and then reselling on eBay. You’ll likely find far fewer items at these sites, but you’ll also find much better deals. A few of these include:

• OverStock Auctions – Auctions of “overstock” items
  
• uBid - Excess Inventory Auctions
  
• GovDeals – Pick up government surplus items at great prices
• ShopGoodwill – The popular “used goods” store is now an excellent Ebay seller source as well

One of my favorite online auction sites is the PropertyRoom Police Auctions, a fairly active website primarily for the sale of items confiscated by authorities.

You can find some pretty impressive deals on PropertyRoom, however competition for those items is getting pretty fierce. For now, there’re still some impressive lots of high quality items available, including computers, cars and jewelry.

The Hottest Selling Items on eBay are Everywhere

As you can see, becoming a PowerSeller on eBay is only a matter of finding a good source of low cost items. When I first started, the hardest part was finding those items. Toward the end of my eBay PowerSeller career, the hard part was keeping up with packaging and shipping. Once you find one or two product sources that work for you, you’ll have no problem making a tremendous income from eBay.

MakeUseOf has written a handful of great articles on eBay tips, be sure to check them out.

Are you an eBay seller? Share some of your own tips and tricks in the comments section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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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.

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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.

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• The Top 10 Grocery Coupon Websites for Cheapskates (61)
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The premise of how DealBase works is simple. Just search for a destination and you’ll be presented with a set of hotels which are currently running promotions. From there, you’ll be able to find the deals that make the most sense to you, and you’ll even get to compare that rate with the regular rate so you know exactly how much you’re saving. You can also of course apply filters to narrow and refine your search.

DealBase currently only works with destinations in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean, but it does a pretty good job in that area. It crawls over 3,500 different sources to track down deals for you and delivers them in a consistent format which is organized but hotels, tags, or destinations so it’s easy to find. According to their website, they currently serve up over 15,000 deals with an average savings of each deal working out to around USD$271, so it does seem pretty comprehensive.

So you know how simple it is to use, here’s a quick walkthrough of finding a deal in DealBase.

1. First, search for your destination (eg. New York City, or Los Angeles).

2. Next, you’ll be given a list of best hotel deals you can choose from, sort or filter down the deals further.

3. Now let’s say I’m interested in booking this hotel for my parents since I want to take advantage of the ’senior rates’, I can see right away that I would be saving USD$127 per night, and get a 54% savings on my booking, which I can perform there and then.  If I want to check current rates in the hotel, it’s just merely one click away via the official hotel website, so everything’s pretty much transparent.

4. One more useful feature would be the tagging function. This deal for example, was tagged ’seniors’.  All I need to do is click on the tag, and it will display ALL senior discount rates on the site, so you know where else you can take advantage of your status. This function works for other classifications as well of course, for example club memberships. Who knows? You might even change your holiday destination if you get a really good deal elsewhere!

DealBase’s policy is to be the best at displaying deals, and being completely unbiased about that.  Choosing a hotel however, goes beyond just getting the best deal. Hotels are hardly commodities, and especially in the case of higher end hotels, you are paying for the experience more than anything else. Having ratings or at least tie-ups with rating sites would take DealBase to the next level, where currently you have to go off the site to do additional research about the hotel so you know you’re getting your money’s worth.

Shortcomings aside, DealBase is extremely simple to use, transparent and very functional site for finding best hotel deals from the convenience of your computer. Definitely worth a try.

Also check out Varun’s article on 5 sites to find the perfect hotel.

What other travel tools do you use to find the best hotel? Tell us in the comments!

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How do people do it? What’s their secret? How can they go into a store and know exactly what they want? The secret to success during the Black Friday Sale is planning. With limited time and multiple stores to hit, you need to plan beforehand exactly what stores you’re going to go to, and what you’re going to buy. The only problem is that most stores don’t release their black friday ads until the last minute. Luckily, websites like BFads.net can help us make the most of our Black Friday.

BFads is a website that is all about Black Friday ads. Leaked ads are posted on the website and organized in a fashion that is easily browsed by a viewer. Although these ads may not be official, most of them turn out to be accurate in the end. BFads updates several times a day, especially as it gets closer and closer Thanksgiving.

There are many features of BFads that anyone who is going to participate in the Black Fridays sales is going to benefit from. For one, there is a huge list of adscans that you can download in .ZIP or.PDF formats.

Although advertisement scans are all you really need to plan out your shopping experience, BFads makes things more convenient to browse by having a section dedicated to each store and includes all the ads in a typed, easy to search format. Click on the store you like, and browse through the ads. You can sort the advertisements by price; if you’re looking for the best deals.

Another great feature is the ability to add certain items into a ’shopping list’. This is extremely useful if you want a printout of all the things you want to buy, the store they are in, and how much the items cost. It’s also great that you can sent your shopping list with your friends The only downside to this is that you have to register, but that’s free and only takes a few seconds.

Other features BFads include:

• Access the BFads forums and get advice on what items you should or should not buy
• View the store hours of the stores participating in the Black Friday sales.
• Use your phone and view the mobile version so you can look while waiting in line.
• Read guides on what to buy this holiday season in the articles section

In all, BFads is a great website to get ready for the Black Friday rush by going through wide choice of Black Friday ads from different stores such Walmart, Best Buy, Sears, Staples, Toys R Us and many more.

View the ads early, and begin your planning as early as possible. Browse the ads of all the stores and keep track of the ones you like with the shopping list. Use BFads daily, plan what you’re going to do, and wake up early so you can ensure a pleasant Black Friday experience. No more wandering around the store for hours looking for something cheap that you might want. BFads does all the work for you.

So, how many of you are excited for Black Friday? Is anyone going to participate or are they only interested in Cyber Monday? Do you know of any other websites that can help you out on Black Friday? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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• The Top 10 Grocery Coupon Websites for Cheapskates (61)
• Wootalyzer – Alerts You Woot! Super Sales and Other Sites (6)
• Watch Online Products for Price Drops with ShoppingNotes (9)
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You might have heard about Woot, but there are others good ones as well. While none of these sites will give you an amazing deal every other day, once in a while there will be some awesome items at dirt cheap prices.

So here you go, one sale a day sites that don’t suck.

(1) Woot

In case you haven’t heard about Woot before, here is a quick recap.

Woot offers one product per day until the item is sold out or the product is replaced at midnight with the new offering. It is the pioneer of the “one deal a day” business model and so far the best one deal a day site on the web. It’s also the most popular one, so whenever it posts some nice item it sells out within the first few minutes.

More about Woot:

- usually sells some computer hardware or electronic gadgets
- charges a fixed $5.00 shipping fee
- very active forum where you can discuss the daily deal with others
- Bag Of Crap (BOC) : read below

In lieu of typical product sales, Woot occasionally offers a $1.00 fukubukuro-like blind grab bag officially called “Random Crap”. Its accompanying picture has lent it the name “Bag O’ Crap” (BOC). The BOC includes dollar store items and may also include significantly more expensive items such as large flat-screen televisions.[6] The BOC typically triggers the flooding of Woot’s servers with thousands and thousands of order requests. The available BOCs typically sell out within seconds

(2) Whiskey Militia

This one is for gear addicts. Whiskey Militia usually lists brand goods at heavily discounted prices, everything from sunglasses and backpacks to snowboards. I don’t have much experience with the site but everytime I compared their daily deal with the cheapest item on eBay their deal would be about 2 times cheaper. So they do offer a bargain deal here.

Some noteworthy features:

- shows item sellout rate and how many left (like on Woot)
- in most cases the item available in different sizes and colors
- multiple images
- max. 3 items per person
- ships internationally
- Whiskey Militia tracker / alert (get notified about new items)

(3) 1 Sale A Day

1 Sale A Day (the link was removed) is nowhere near the popularity of Woot, but that being sad they do post some good deals. Now one thing I really don’t like about it is that there is no indication of how many items were sold and how many are still left. So you can’t really see how fast the item is selling and how hot it is.

Another issue is customer feedback, many people complained that they have never received items or that they weren’t as advertised. You can check those reviews on ResellerRatings.

Update: the 1 Sale A Day site was delinked due to negative feedback from MakeUseOf readers.

(4) Shirt.Woot & ShirtsOnSale

These two are only for t-shirts, nothing else. If you’re a t-shirt guy then make sure you add these two websites to your bookmarks.

Shirt.Woot

The Shirt.Woot is a little sibling of Woot that sells only t-shirts. One item a day at a flat rate of $10 (free shipping).

Shirts On Sale

The Shirts On Sale gives you the straight dope on the best tshirt sales and discounts. They don’t sell anything but only collect bargain t-shirt deals from other sites like Shirt.Woot, Uneetee, The Ryde and Shirtaday.

We will never send you somewhere we aren’t willing to spend our own hard-earned cash — unless they’re offering a deal that’s too good to pass up of course.

Moreover, the site offers plenty of discount coupons (ranging from 5 to 30 %) for some of the most popular t-shirt printers on the market.

The other relatively good one sale a day websites you might want to check out are Steep And Cheap, Shnoop, Yugster and ThingFling

Are you aware of any other sites that should have been mentioned as well? Lets us know in comments!

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• The Top 10 Grocery Coupon Websites for Cheapskates (61)
• How To Become An Online Power Shopper With The Right Tools (7)
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• Wootalyzer – Alerts You Woot! Super Sales and Other Sites (6)
• Watch Online Products for Price Drops with ShoppingNotes (9)

Both retailers and resellers (as well as their affiliates) are getting more creative offering easy-to-use web-based tools that update their users of the company news and recent deals.

Here are the four common methods :

Getting Updated via Email

Offering their customers or readers a newsletter subscription option is the most popular way to keep them updated of the site news.

With email alerts you never miss a deal as it will come right into your email inbox. You don’t have to remember anything. All you need to do is just to check your email regularly – which you most probably do in any case.

Do you like receiving plenty of email messages daily? At some point you think you can control that but in reality you end up subscribing to anything that seems useful. Besides, the majority of services maintaining opt-in lists stuff their newsletters with ads and promotions you never agreed to receive.

With email subscriptions I tend to be rather picky choosing those services that either don’t bug me too often (e.g. FreeShipping sends email alerts once per week) or those that allow me to choose the update frequency (RessellerRatings offer to choose between daily and instant alerts).

Some online services go even further allowing their users to track only selected product(s). Both BeatThat and PriceGrabber offer to create watch lists monitoring certain product prices and availability:

This option allows for full control of what you want to track. You will never miss the best deal for the product you are most interested in (example: get alerted only once the product price matches your preferences (e.g. gets below some line)).

Again, that’s a great option only if you don’t mind receiving (multiple) updates to your email inbox. However in this case you of course have more power to control how many messages and how often you are going to receive them.

Getting Updated via RSS Feeds

Most coupon code directories and merchant rating communities maintain a blog where they post the hottest deals allowing you to subscribe via your preferred RSS reader.

With RSS readers your email inbox is kept free from heaps of mail. Besides, with RSS readers your subscriptions are more organized (either by category or based on your personal preferences).

Unlike email newsletters, with RSS readers, you need to always remember checking it out. However, if you’re in habit of checking your RSS subscriptions regularly, that’s no problem for you. Other potential disadvantages are directly connected to your favorite RSS reader: some of them, for example, allow for limited space (e.g. with PageFlakes you are limited to your screen size to avoid scrolling).

Getting Alerted by Your Browser

Some shopping resources develop FireFox extensions that alert you to current deals once you visit the merchant’s website.

The updates are limited to the addon provider’s website database. If you enter an online shop that is not included in the database, you will not see any coupons, offers or price comparisons.

You are only alerted once you enter the merchant’s site: no multiple notifications when you don’t need them, no full email inbox, etc.

Example: PriceAdvance’s FireFox add-on that shows other sellers’ prices for the product you are viewing:

Getting Updated via Twitter:

Twitter has been the hottest social networking service recently. From “What you are doing right now?” concept, it has evolved into the rapidly growing business tool all the potential of which is yet to be explored. Dell , for example, uses Twitter to update their customers of recent deals and limited time offers (see: Refurbished Dell computers).

Due to multiple Twitter clients, this type of offer-tracking is by far the most customizable. With Twitter you can get updates to Google Talk, Jabber, Livejournal, to your FireFox, right to your desktop, mobile phones (if you are in the US, Canada, or UK), etc.

The only disadvantage I can see here is that if you are a Twitter newbie, you will have to learn to use it and choose among hundreds of Twitter clients, the one that best suits your needs – that might take some time but is definitely worth the effort! On the other hand, if you are an active Twitter user, you can’t afford following everyone you would want to; as in the end you will end up receiving hundreds of updates every single minute.

So which alerting method is preferable?

There is no definitive answer, I would say. Here is my personal take:

• I hate receiving hundreds of email messages daily;
• I can’t afford subscribing to all the RSS feeds I would like to;
• I can’t follow more Twitter users as I am already unable to keep track of all the existing Tweets;
• I can’t add more extensions to my FireFox as I already have too many of them installed by now;

So what to do? First, I can choose to stick to only a few really valuable resources (the ones mentioned above) and refrain from tracking any new ones until I am persuaded they are really worth it.

Secondly, like I said, I can stick to customizable services that allow me to set the alert frequency, watched product or merchant.

Last of all, I can keep track of recent hacks to find more better easier solutions: for example, Twhirl allows me be logged in to several Twitter accounts simultaneously – so I can maintain a separate account that tracks online deals and shut it down once I don’t need that.

Which alerting method do you prefer?  Is there any online shopping tool I missed out?   How do YOU keep track of the best online shopping deals?  Share your tips and tricks with us in the comments.

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• The Top 10 Grocery Coupon Websites for Cheapskates (61)
• Browse Black Friday ads with BFads (4)
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ShoppingNotes is one of those ways and it has been a fantastic tool so far. What it does is allow you to put in the URL of a product page and it then monitors that page for you on 30 day intervals. If the product price moves in any way, it alerts you instantly by email.

By using this service, I was able to immediately grab much wanted books whenever Amazon spontaneously decided to cut the price in half. I was able to pick up birthday presents for friends and family. I have even started to plan Christmas early this year, monitoring prices on various sites to see if the prices are going to move significantly.

When it comes to setting up an alert, you are given the following options :

This is where it asks you how you want to be alerted when the price moves. You can choose to be alerted when the price drops below a certain price threshold or when the price moves at all. Since I am not in the United States and therefore not dealing in US dollars, I decided not to mess around with a certain price level and opted instead to be alerted to any price movement. But if you are in the US, you may decide you only want to be interrupted if the price drops below a certain amount.

As you can also see, you can set up lists and assign your pages to a certain list to keep your account tidy and organised.

Now how do you use it? Well that’s simple. ShoppingNotes provides you with a bookmarklet which you place in your browser bar. Then whenever you are on a product page and you want to put that product into your ShoppingNotes account, just hit that bookmarklet :

By pressing the bookmarklet, all the details of the product are then instantly passed along to the ShoppingNotes website and pre-filled into the correct fields. Then after checking to make sure that everything is to your satisfaction, press “save” and you’ll then be brought back to the site you were at before – in my case, Amazon. Then you can keep on surfing for more things to buy! Very smooth.

If you’re the sort of person who buys a lot of things online – clothes, books, DVD’s, CD’s, clothes, games – and you’re constantly getting complaints from your significant other about the amount of money you’re spending then maybe you should think about using ShoppingNotes? Plug all your desired items into the service, let it monitor the prices for you and wait for the prices to drop! Then grab them before anyone else realises what’s going on!

Then email me and I will bestow upon you honorary Scottish citizenship for being able to spot and grab a genuine bargain and save money.

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• The Top 10 Grocery Coupon Websites for Cheapskates (61)
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• FreshBargains : All-in-one Deals Search Engine (5)
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1- Compare Product Prices with PriceGrabber

I’ve tried many comparison shopping sites and can confirm that PriceGrabber is one of the best ones. Simply search for the product you want to buy and PriceGrabber will list all available retailers starting from the cheapest. If you’re not clear about what exactly you want to purchase, then you can browse products by categories and filter them further by specs, features and brand. Products can also be sorted by user ratings and reviews.

2- Compare Banks with FindaBetterBank

Looking for a new bank account? Wondering how your current bank account stands against account offerings from other banks in the area? Find A Better Bank is the one and only tool you need. It’s very thorough and can help you locate the best bank account for your needs in a matter of minutes.

So how it works?

Enter your zip code, indicate the features that are important to you and provide additional details to help them estimate yearly banking fees. Done. Now you have a detailed comparison of nearby banks, sorted from best to worst.

3- Compare Cell Phone Contracts with BillShrink

There are so many cell phone contracts out there that it’s almost impossible to find out whether you’re getting a good deal. BillShrink is a new service that can help you with this. This handy website first asks you about your usage preferences and requirements (i.e. average daily talk time, whether you need data plan, SMS usage etc.). Then it compares over 100 mobile plans and finds the best plan for your needs. I am quite surprised that we haven’t seen something like this earlier.

The whole procedure takes about 3-4 minutes. Read more …

4 -Compare your Rent with RentoMeter

RentoMeter is a web based rent comparison service. Here you can find out whether the amount you’re currently paying for your rent is a rip-off or a bargain deal. Rentomoeter compares the amount you pay to an average rate for the similar apartments in the neighborhood area. It will also give you a mapview of nearby apartments including their rates. Check out the RentoMeter in action here.

5- Compare Budget Airlines with SkyScanner

One of the few budget flight search engines that can actually find you the best ticket. I tested it both in Europe and Asia and can confrim that it actually WORKS! It’s also the only budget airline search tool I am aware of that works for inter-continental flights. SkyScanner only searches among budget airlines so you won’t see any pricey tickets here.

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• Milo- Find Cheapest Local Store for the Item You Want to Buy (5)
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• FreshBargains : All-in-one Deals Search Engine (5)

We have actually profiled FrehsBargains in MakeUseOf Directory about a week ago and were going to post it in the latest ‘Cool Websites’ roundup. But FreshBargains folks wanted to go with a full post instead, … we agreed.

So What is FreshBargains?

FreshbBargains is a deal search engine that lets you search for fresh bargain deals on 15 major deal websites (mostly tech related) including SlickDeals, FatWallet, TechBargains, Ben’s Bargains, GotApex, Deals2Buy, DealNews, XPBargains and several more.

Unlike other deal aggregators, FreshBargains has a clean and extremely simple interface, all you get is a search option. The idea of having one search to all major deal websites, makes it quite compelling. On top of that, there are some other useful features as well:

• ‘Latest Deals’ RSS Feed: Follow on newest deals (last 24 hours) from your feedreader.
• Free Alerts: Option to subscribe to email alerts for coupons or bargains deals on products you’re interested in, i.e. ‘macbook pro’, ‘ipod touch’, and so on. Once subscribed, every time there is a deal for that particular product you will be notified by email.
• Filter: Filter deals by deal source. Say you don’t want to include Fatwallet in your search results than simply uncheck it from the sources list.

To make things even easier, Freshbargains also offers a cross-platform Firefox Toolbar. If you’re a heavy deal hunter it’s definitely worth a look. Check it out below. If the toolbar isn’t really your thing there is also an option to add FB Search to your Firefox search bar. It doesn’t occupy any space and at the same time is always available.

That’s about it. Overall, I like the simplicity behind it. It’ simple, fast and has all the vital features you may be looking for. If there is one thing I would add to it, that would be free SMS alerts. Email alerts are great but having the option of getting alerts on your mobile would be even better.

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	A very cool site that’s a mashup of deals from other sites like Slickdeals, Fatwallet, Gottadeal and lots more. Mostly tech-related stuff, but there are other things also.
	A site created by a University of California student that lists out a bunch of great deals on everything from tech to shoes daily. This site is very simple and is addicting.
	The nice thing about this site (and others) is that you can subscribe to the RSS feed to quickly find deals. Also, pictures of the items are included in the feed. This site also gives you info on rebates and coupons in addition to just deals.
	DealDump is an aggregate of multiple deal sites, covering everything from Woot.com to DealOverFlow. There are a lot of sites on here I had never even heard of before, so you might find something good here.
	Find the hottest deals on gadgets, computers, electronics, cameras, and lots more. The cool thing about this site is that you can subscribe to an RSS feed for the specific item you’re looking for.
	Takes the same concept of Digg.com and does it for deals. Users vote for the best deals and the ones with the most votes get on to the front page. Also once you join you can enter to win free stuff, etc.
	As you can probably tell from the name of the site, Techdeals.net is all about tech stuff likes games, MP3 players, digital cameras, computers and more. It’s updated daily and has a good number of items.
	An online service that helps shoppers find coupons and hot deals for tons of online stores. It has a very clean interface and is one of the best sites for just finding coupons! Definitely check it out.
	Not your normal deal-finding site! This site is basically a social shopping deals site, complete with a game show host and a good number of great products. You’ll have to check it out yourself to find out.
	DealItem is another deal site for mostly tech stuff. It works best when you’re searching for something by model # or by make and features. If you know what you’re looking for, check out DealItem.
	A social bargain hunting site that changes frequently during the day, so you’re looking at new stuff all the time. Again, its based on a peer voting system that brings the best deals to the front page.
	SlickDeals is one of the better known deal sites and includes everything from tech gadgets to men’s shirts. They also have over 800 coupons that you can use at your favorite stores. Very clean interface and easy to use web site.
	Finally, GottaDeal.com is very popular site for finding deals and coupons online. Has a bunch of categories and brings in deals from many of the major retailers such as Apple, AT&T, and CompUSA.

So that’s about 13 deal sites that I could think of that have gained some popularity over the last couple of years. If you know of more that you think are good or better, go ahead and post it in the comments! Enjoy!

(By) Aseem Kishore is an IT Systems Analyst and Tech blogger. Visit his blog @ Online-Tech-Tips.com.

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• The Top 10 Grocery Coupon Websites for Cheapskates (61)
• FreshBargains : All-in-one Deals Search Engine (5)
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• Watch Online Products for Price Drops with ShoppingNotes (9)
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