Save money with these deal sites and online tools!
I used to pay full price for the stuff I buy on the web. These days, that’s no longer the case as I’ve been much more resourceful about where and how to find deals, discount coupons and free stuff online. Now that cutting costs has become an even hotter topic than it used to be, I’ve compiled a list of tips and 21 deal sites that can help you save money wisely and can be a great help to the smart online shopper.
Deal Sites and Online Tools To Help You Save Money
1. Search for rewards and bonuses offered by etailers. Get cash back when you shop online! Some sites offer great incentives for you to join. Ebates can help you save money in a few ways: they show you current deals for about 900 shops, they offer you a gift card if you join their site and they also promise to give you cash back when you purchase through them.
2. Make sure you are not missing a great deal. Check daily updated resources of coupon codes and online deals on the best coupon sites. There are numerous directories and blogs where you can find current deals for most sellers and merchants.
3. Find the most popular deals. There used to be Digg-like sites such as Trezr.com that allowed users to post current online deals as well as to vote for their favorite ones. Trezr is no longer available but many other sites may have appeared in its place. The online retail space has a very high turnover, so you may find many familiar sites vanishing, with many more replacing them.
4. Find the most discussed deals. Dealighted aggregates deal discussions from various money-saving forums and summarizes these discussions in an easy-to-use manner.
5. Learn how much hassle it’ll cost you to take advantage of the deal.
6. Check if you can save on shipping. Free shipping is one of the hottest offers you won’t want to miss before you reach for your money card. FreeShipping.org provides a collection of free shipping coupons that can be located by brand names, merchant names (example: Target coupon codes) or category.
7. Check for daily freebies. You may not have to spend money at all when you visit certain sites. HeyItsFree is one of the most comprehensive resources for online free offers.
8. Make sure you find the best prices available. There are sites that come across as user-generated communities where members post the lowest prices that they’re able to find.
9. Track and watch product prices. PriceGrabber allows you to create a watchlist of any products you find in their database — if the price reaches or drops below a price level you specify, you’ll be updated via email.
10. Find out what people are saying about the sellers. Check merchant reviews from independent sources. ResellerRatings offers an easily searchable database (currently there are more than 16,349 stores reviewed) of online sellers with users’ ratings and reviews.
11. Learn what customers are saying about the product. Check user-generated product reviews that are unbiased and on-spot. Buzzillions offers a huge database of products that are reviewed and rated by the site members.
12. Check out product-focused polls from social communities. Sazze is a social product review site that also lets you create and participate in polls related to any product and seller.
13. Read up on product expert reviews and recommendations. Retrevo.com offers a large database of products reviewed by both customers and experts. What’s more, you can also find useful manuals and price comparisons there. If you’re looking for camera experts for personalized advice about the best camera to buy, try BestInClass.com.
14. Check what active social media members have to say about a product or merchant. Search Twitter for unbiased opinions and news related to products, merchants and related matters that you’re interested in.
15. Check overstocked items. OverStock.com lists a huge number of overstocked products available for sale.
16. Take part in green initiatives. Do you know that you can save money by going green? Many companies combine seasonal promotions with green initiatives allowing you to both save money and to “go green.” GreenShopper offers plenty of environmentally friendly products sorted by categories and sellers.
17. Browse through online classified ads. Check the classifieds or the secondhand market for products that are of interest to you. Perhaps they’re offered at a better price here than at any online shop. Since the creation of Craigslist, buying used has been a classic money-saving method.
18. Search for best offers nearby. Whrrl is a Twitter-like service that lets its users post best offers along with their specified location; by searching for your zip code you’ll find what other people in your area are recommending.
19. Get reviews from “online friends” who share the same interests that you have in certain products. Kaboodle is a social media community that allows you to make friends with members interested in similar items. This is just another angle taken by social product review sites or product forums.
20. Search for homemade alternatives to the retail item you’re thinking of purchasing. These products may not necessarily be much cheaper when handmade than if they’re factory made, but they are often more beautiful. Etsy offers an online platform for lovely handmade products.
21. Don’t pay full price for gift cards. Bargain gift cards are available at sites that offer gift card exchanges, where people sell and trade their unused cards.
Have I missed anything? If you know of any more money saving tools and online resources where you can find great deals, coupons and free offers, let us know!
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This guest post is by Ann Smarty, a search engine marketer maintaining an SEO consulting blog. Thank you Ann!
Copyright © 2008 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a really good go-to blog that I am going to refer to when I need to purchase. Thanks for the work you obviously put into it.
Brilliant!! absolutely brilliant post. Thank you so much mate, bookmarked the post, stumbled the site 🙂
Great post. While you got most of the major money saving site out there, I would just want to make the point that the best way to save money is to NOT spend any of it.
I often take a few second before buying something (even if I think I really need it) to ask myself: 1., can I do without the item, 2., can I find a free replacement for the item, 3. can I borrow the item from a friend or relative and 4. can I postpone the purchase until a later point.
See my blog entry on two related items:
1. Should you spend during tough times: http://www.scordo.com/blog/2008/11/should-you-spend-during-hard-t.html
and
2. Not buying what you THINK you need: http://www.scordo.com/blog/2008/11/do-not-buy-what-you-think-you.html
Vince
http://www.scordo.com/blog/blog – a practical living blog
Wow, this is an amazing list, thanks for putting it together!
Great Blog, & amazing information. I’m looking forward to reading more from you.
Thanks,
Darrell
Wonderful resource, of course I already finished my christmas shopping! I used ebates for a lot of it, very happy so far with them. I’ll have to check out some of these other sites you list.
freeshipping.org is a great site to find the best free delivery vouchers on. I especially like it because it focuses exclusively on this aspect. Ebates is okay if you make large purchases on a regular basis but to be fair making small and regular purchases through the site takes an eternity to build up cash rebates, however it’s always great to get something for free.
Hey guys,
Funny that Ann is here. I read some post on another site about her. I think it was the hottest SEO out there. 🙂 Not sure who won, it was still under voting I guess.
Anywho, I keep finding all these cool sites on posts here. I’m going to have to start organizing bookmarks soon. The long scrolling is killing me.
But here’s a link I found that I really like. It’s to a freebee site list. I checked out many of these sites and while you aren’t getting anything huge for free, you can get items worth a few bucks all over. Here’s the link to the list of freebee sites.
I was looking around the sites and found that you can get free bars of soap, hand sanitizer, cleaning products, cook books, snacks and tons of other little items. Maybe it won’t save you a ton, but if you don’t mind trying out new brands you could easily get items worth 50 bux a week online. That’s 50 bux you can save at the grocery.
Joe
I would also suggest dealnews. You can sign up for what you are interested in and they will e-mail you when a deal comes up which matches your search. Pretty good resource.
Thanks for the great info. Really enjoyed reading.
Agree, great post with lots of useful information.
There are so many coupon sites out there you just have to find the one you like that is easiest to use and has up to date information. I also look for ones that don’t make you sign up or have annoying pop up ads.
This is my favorite.
Great list. I’m always looking for good deal sites. It’s hard to find those that are kept up-to-date as offers are coming and going all the time I guess.
How about Dealitem.com? It provides deals and discount coupons, and you can search all deal and coupon sites in one place. This site is a one stop shop for one day deals, bargain deals, discount coupons and price comparisons from all popular coupon and deal sites.
e-commerce is getting more and more popular. this creates the need of having good tools to help shoppers make right decisions while buying online. reizit.com is a place where shoppers can recommend or bury a product, share experience and discuss shopping deals.
Dealio is another great site for coupons, deals, sales, and price comparisons. Find current coupons for stores like Kohl’s, Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, Target, Barnes And Noble, and Best Buy. Just thought you might find this useful!
The ebates site is a very good suggestion. I remember in the ‘old days’ every time I’d make a purchase online of over $50 or so I’d think: I’ll bet that there’s a discount code I could find somewhere that would help me save 10%-20% or more…. Well now I never go straight to the retailer’s site, I always go through Ebates to see how much I can save. It’s even affected my mall shopping!
These coupons and rebates are a great find. This will definitely help a lot of people during this economic downturn.
Great Post! How about some deal of the day sites like woot.com, yugster.com and dillyeo.com. I’ve found some really sweet deals on gadgets and consumer electronics at these sites.
I also made a list of my top ten useful shopping sites if anybody would like to see some more deal sites and online tools to help you save money (see my site).
That’s an awesome list that was put together. Two thumbs up!
Here’s a site I like to share. It’s called GoEyeball.com . I like it quite a lot since it allows me to price monitor almost anything online and when the price drops below the threshold I have set it to, the site notifies me with an email. The site has their “verified sites” but I have made price monitors from other sites too and I noticed that their verified sites are growing, so I guess it is work in progress. It is community driven and free to use. It has saved me a lot of time. I have also been able to price match once so far, which was an added bonus. Sites like GoEyeball is a good tool to have especially during these hard times. Watching the tutorial as to how to use the site is recommended. I muddled around with it at first and couldn’t quite get it and almost kicked myself for not watching the short tutorial becuase then it was easy to use. But it could be that I’m not very computer savvy. Here’s the site below.
GoEyeball.com
Great stuff, a very comprehensive list indeed. Thankyou.
These are great tips. You can also visit Monster Marketplace for great deals. They have more than 12,000 member merchants and millions of products
Wow, this is a great list. I thought I was an expert…:-) I guess not. I have never heard of Treazr and DeaLoco. I am on my way to check them.
Thank you for the post. Great info!
Wow, this is a great list. I thought I was an expert…:-) I guess not. I have never heard of Treazr and DeaLoco. I am on my way to check them.
Thank you for the post. Great info!
The only thing I would add is that you can also earn gift cards just by browsing the web. The best part about it is that you don’t have to buy anything. You earn points by searching and then redeem them for gift cards (I usually redeem them for Amazon GC). You can also win prizes.
DealBandy.com is an online community where users exchange coupons and deals. Users request deals for products, services and stores, while other users are paid cash commission for answering deal requests and uploading coupons and deals.
A really well researched list! There’s loads here that I’ve never even heard of. Thanks.
Looks like a good list, and actually pretty helpful ways to save money in this financial climate.
Would you consider adding our site to your list. The site enables shoppers to watch for prices and track the latest deals. This is a great article.
Wonderful resource, of course I already finished my christmas shopping! I used ebates for a lot of it, very happy so far with them. I’ll have to check out some of these other sites you list.
daizy
Wow, this is a huge compendium of helpful sites, including some I’ve never heard of before — Thanks! My favorite is a web browser add-on from freepricealerts.com ~ it downloads in a minute and is a really non-invasive way to comparison shop. I just browse for gifts on Amazon like I usually do and when a cheaper price is available, a popup in the left corner of the screen lets me know. I’ve saved $10 – $100 on cameras, toys, DVDs and other gifts so far!
Freepricealerts.com is a web browser add-on that works with Firefox and Internet Explorer to automatically scan the internet for the lowest prices, while you go about your business and shop online at sites like Amazon as you usually do. When a lower price is found, a small pop-up alert appears in the left hand corner to let you know where you can find the item you’ve clicked on cheaper & how much you’ll save. (Often, these are just sellers on Amazon, so you can still add the item to your Amazon shopping cart.) You’ll save anywhere from $2 to $20 to $200 on any item. If you don’t click on the alert, it minimizes in the corner of your browser for easy access until you move to a new product or screen. Love it!
@Dawn,
I don’t like add-ons and so forth. They slow down my browser.
I would also recommend dawurm.com – Its a new site that sends you a text message alert when the items/brands you are looking for become available in daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial.
Wow saving money is really an industry of it’s own. I mean the list can keep going on.
I could add FatWallet & OneSpout in that list and they would be just as useful as anything on there.
@Ann,
Perhaps you should create a list of sites that will help you save time, instead. Teehee!