Slickdeals.net

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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Cashback Websites

A lot of websites offer affiliate and referral programs that will give a certain percentage of their sales to their "advertisers". Well someone along the line thought figured it would be a great idea to take all these programs and create a new type of online shopping experience, the cashback website.

What makes these sites awesome is instead of them keeping all their affiliate revenue for themselves, they share with you, the person who is actually spending your money! You can earn anything from 1% up to over 30% off, all just for shopping online like you normally would.

These sites are popping up all over the internet and offering different stores and discounts. Some sites are better then others when it comes to offerings, cashback, payment methods and referral programs.

Today, I'm going to break down 3 of my favorite cashback sites: Jellyfish (now Live Search Cashback), Ebates, and Fat Wallet.

JELLYFISH
Alright, I'm refusing to call this by it's new name (Live Search cashback). I like what Microsoft has done with Jellyfish since they bought it, however, they moved the cashback portion to a different site and renamed it, HOW RUDE!

Jellyfish offers the most payment methods out of the 3. You can be paid via PayPal, Direct Deposit, or by receiving a check in the mail. Additionally, you can receive payment after your account reaches $5, you can request this payment at anytime. It will take about 14 days before you see the money in your account or the check in your hand.

Your cashback funds will be pending for up to 60 days which can be annoying, but all the sites have this delay period to protect themselves against people making returns and them losing money.

Jellyfish offers a social shopping service called Smack Shopping. This is similar to a reverse auction, where the price drops slowly (it will drop more quickly during different shows) until all the items are purchased. You can chat with other Jellyfish users and play games like SmackPot and Outwit the Smack, where you are awarded coins and guru points. Coins can be used to purchase Jellyfish merchandise and get extra cashback. Guru Points will get you more coins when you reach certain Milestones, which are shown below:


Additionally, you will receive 500 more coins for ever 50 guru points after the 100 marker (150, 200, 250, etc). Jellyfish is also so kind as to give you an even bigger bonus of 1000 coins when you reach 500 guru points and 10000 coins when you reach 1000 guru points!

As for the games, Smackpot is simple, for the first few minutes of each item, you are allowed to bet up to 10 of your coins on the percentage off range the item will sell at. The less people that guess a certain range, the bigger your coin payout can be. Outwit the Smack is even easier; after each item, you register to play. Outwit is similar to playing Trivia, except the questions are silly and the answers are even more bizarre. Your goal is to guess the one that the least number of people will pick. For Outwitting the Smack, you are awarded 1 Guru Point. They will also pick one random person in the audience to play and have a chance to win 3 Guru Points and the Jackpot, which starts at 1000 coins and goes up by 1000 more for every round there isn't a winner!

There are a few other games, like the Smack Wheel, but they are played at various times throughout the day. Once you sign up and start playing, you'll learn to love the community, just as much as the money you'll save!

EBATES
Ebates is nicer in the sense that your cashback will be credited in as little as 48 hours, but can take up to 30 days. However, unlike Jellyfish and Fat Wallet, you cannot request payment at anytime you reach the required minimum balance. Instead, Ebates pays you every quarter (January 1 - March 31 is quarter 1 and you get paid on May 15). If you don't make the minimum balance of $5, they will transfer your funds into the next quarter, so you don't have to worry about losing that hard earned cash. Payments can be made via PayPal or by check, no direct deposit here.

They also have a store they feature daily where they give you double the cashback, meaning you can save up to 50% off at certain stores. You can search by store or by the item you are looking for and it will tell you where it will be cheapest to buy.

Like Jellyfish, Ebates offers a whole slew of other services. It's the only cashback program of the 3 I'm discussing that has a referral program. For every person you refer that signs up and makes a purchase, you and the other person receives $5! Get free money for helping others save money, I like it!

Additionally, they offer coupons for different stores, online or local, which you can browse and save for use later. These coupons can be used on top of your cashback that you receive, which can save you hundreds of dollars in a year easily!

FAT WALLET
Fat Wallet and Ebates are pretty similar. They both offer the cashback and the coupons for a bunch of online retailers. It will also allow you to compare prices between different vendors so you save more.

The one problem I do have with Fat Wallet is the time it takes for the cashback to put added to your account. It can take anywhere from 91 days, up to 120 days. I'm sorry, but 4 months to get some money back kinda sucks, especially when other places will do it in as little as a month! Also, they have a $10 minimum balance before you can get your money back. However, like Jellyfish, you can get your money back at anytime after you reach the required minimum balance.

There is one thing I do like about Fat Wallet more then the other 2 places, their forums! Throughout the day, Fat Wallet users will list deals they have found online or in store. You can do a quick search for something your looking for and see if anyone has found a good deal recently. If you want to save some extra dough, you'll combine these deals with cashback programs from other sites!

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