Hey, remember yesterday when I told you all about Fat Wallet and their forums? Well guess what, I have another awesome web community filled with the newest and best deals across the internet. Slickdeals.net is a site I visit everyday, throughout the day because sometimes the best deals don't last very long, especially when the masses start sharing their deals.
When you first access Slickdeals.net, you are greeted with a list of featured deals that is updated throughout the day. These deals and are the latest and greatest of all the posted deals on the site. The nice thing is, dead deals will lose it's boldface title and will be labeled expired red. This definitely makes finding good deals easier and faster. Once you click on a headline, the deal will be expanded and you can learn where and how you can get the product at a bargain price! To add to the convenience factor, an RSS feed is available so you can be one of the first people to jump on a deal.
On the top of the page is a ribbon bar with links to the homepage, a coupon database, the forums, research tools, and a FAQ. Lets start off with the FAQ. The Slickdeals.net FAQ will explain anything and everything on the site. It teaches users how to use every feature to its fullest extent and is your best friend when you don't know how to do something or need help with something obscure. Users can quickly search the FAQ using the search tool which will give users the most relevant answers.
Hovering over the Coupon link, a drop down box will allow you to sort all the coupons by alphabetical ranges, the newest coupons, ones expiring soon, and my merchandise (apparel, tech, etc.). If you click on the coupon link, a list of all the newest coupons will be displayed. Whenever you buy something online, it is best to search Slickdeals.net for the shop you are buying from to see if you can save yourself a few dollars in a few seconds time.
Similar to the Coupons link, the list of forum topics will be shown when your mouse hovers over the Forums link. This is useful, but I usually just click on the link to show the forums. The categories "The Deals" and "Deal Talk" are by far the best places to look for deals on the site. Each of the forums are pretty self explanatory and I'll leave you to discover.
When looking at the forum topics, you will notice many different icons. Most of are pretty self explanatory, like the paper clip means there is an attachment. A W stands for a Wiki-post. These wiki-posts are created by the system and shown as the second post in the thread. All users can edit it and quickly add notes in which the original poster left out (links, telephone numbers, lists, etc). You will also see icons on the left side of the topics which categorize the deal. You can quickly find similar deals by clicking on the icon and showing all the deals in the category.
Additionally, Slickdeals.net has some features that only registered users can use. You might have noticed an icon that looked like a circle with a dash or a minus sign in the middle. This allows you to ignore the topic. This is useful when a deal is dead or when you just don't care for the product that is being offered. It keeps the forums less cluttered and easier to find the recently added deals. Additionally, you can create your own sticky topics by going into the topic, clicking on the Thread Tools drop down and choosing "Stick the thread to the top". Pretty useful eh?
Now for the Research Tools, a feature I need to use a bit more often! Here you will find a Price Search tool, Store Ratings, Amazon Fillers, and Product Reviews. The Product Reviews just takes you to a forum dedicated to users posting their own reviews for anything they have bought in the past.
The Price Search tool is powered by Price Grabber, so the format may look familiar to you bargain hunters out there. All you do is search for an item you are looking for and enter your zip code. In return you will be shown multiple vendors selling the product and who will have the lowest final cost after shipping and taxes. This portion is pretty much useless since I know ya'll have taken my advice and started using Cashback Sites!
Store Rating are provided by a site called resellerrattings.com. Here you can get a good idea if a small vendor you've never heard of is reliable when you find a deal that is too good to be true. Using this tool will save you from handing over your credit card information to someone who will sell your identity to the highest bidder. You can quickly search for the store name and read reviews and get other consumer feedback based on the store's past transactions.
Now I saved my favorite Research Tool for last, the Amazon Filler Tool! Amazon offers free shipping on almost all purchases over $25. The problem is, they like to price things like $14.95 or $9.99. It's even more of a pain when you're only a few cents short of getting to that $25 mark and now your stuck with paying $6 for shipping or finding something to add to your cart. Well lucky for you, Slickdeals.net users have taken the time to create a database full of cheap items so you save the most amount of money. All you do is input the amount your short of getting free shipping and you will be shown every item that you can add to your cart that will qualify you for free shipping!
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