Site Review Blog

… Smartest bidder? Well, before you decide to answer yes, you need to know how you can be the Smartest bidder and what it is all about. The smartest bidder is all about making a bid on some fantastic items and rather than being the highest bid to win like a “normal” auction, here, you need to make the lowest unique bid.  You can bid on items from Ipods to Big screen TV’s.

All Items have a number of bids and when there is this number of bids the Auction is closed. So, an Auction might last from a few days to several weeks.  Now, the next question is of course, is how much does it cost?  Well that is the best part! For each bid you make there is a small fee which varies depending on the Item you are bidding on and if you are the lowest unique bidder, you only pay what you have bid.  The cost to bid is between $0.99 and $1.99 per bid.  So, just make a bid in A reverse Auction for your chance to buy one of the Items on offer for next to nothing!

To make a bid all you need to do is to check out the latest Auction Items, select the one you would like to win, enter your bid and then send an SMS with a bid code.  Nothing could be easier than this.  Even better, if you have your own website, you could even earn $$.  How? well, sign up as an affiliate, and every person who you refer and casts a vote you get paid!

The website is very clean and simple - A selection of Auction Items are on the front page.  The navigation is across the top under the header and has Auctions, FAQ’s ahd how it works, Contact and Affiliate.  I just wish that the had maybe a little more info on the home page about how it works - to make it easy for first time site visitors to understand what it is all about without having to click to another page.  I really like the Idea as to what they offer, and especially that you could bid and win an Auction for an expensive item for a few cents!

Visit www.smartestbidder.com

…. On the Beach? Well if the cold and dreary winter is getting your down, then why not head somewhere where it is sunny and warm.  It does not need to cost a fortune to have a great time in the sun, on a beach, on an Island or somewhere else! Why not consider stepping back in time and see the pyramids and the Magnificent River Nile on a cheap holiday to Egypt

Now with so many destinations to choose from where the weather is so much better, you owe it to yourself to take a look for a Cheap Holiday.  Just think, of the sun, walking on the beach for a bargain price, or rugging up and drudging to work in the cold and wet.  I know which I would prefer!

Looking to find yourself the cheapest holiday can be done from the comfort of your own study, right next to the fireplace.  On The Beach site provides a simple search interface so you can explore all possible destinations.  You can search for flights, Hotels or both as a package.  Alternatively, you can browse the specials right from the front page. Take a look, make a booking and enjoy your holiday - we’ll see you when you get back.

On The Beach is based in Cheshire (in the UK) and cater for holidays to anywhere you might want to travel to.  The website is only part of their offerings and you can find all their contact details, such as phone and address on their website.  So, if you have any trouble finding a cheap holiday or using the website, rest assurred, you can get in touch and still get away on a cheap holiday.

Visit www.otbeach.com

If you read yesterday’s post about cheap European Airlines and are looking for somewhere interesting to go for a few days or even longer, then check out Short City Breaks.  Take a peek at the top 5 Cities to take a European break at.

We took the time to read the articles on the top 5 and they seem to contain a lot of general info about each city.  The cities would not be totally unknown to people from outside of Europe.  For example, Everyone has heard of Athens, and if you were considering visitng, you can get a bit of an Idea as to what the city and surrounding areas has to offer a tourist.

The website itself uses the Joomla CMS, so the content and navigation is well laid out.  The site is fairly new and at the moment has only a handful of articles.  I really hope that they can expand on what they have and provide similar information about a lot more European Cities.  The site could do with a bit of work on giving it a more unique skin, but at least they didn’t just use a default skin!

When we think of Berlin, we normally associate it with the Berlin wall that used to divide the East and West.  Part of the wall is still in place and has been painted in Murals.  The Murals and associated Memorial are only a couple of the overt 150 Museums in the city.  Well, I knew a bit about the Wall, but I didn’t know about the huge number of museums and the like until I read the article.

Visit www.shortcitybreaks.eu

For anyone planning to travel around Europe on a budget you wil want to try and find the cheapest arline tickets you can.  Now, in a market like Europe there is around 50 different Airlines in the budget category to choose from.  Now, to try and find where each airline flies to and from would be a real headache and take forever if it was not for a site like low cost airline guide find the cheap flights could take you weeks.

These guys are not trying to sell you a ticket on any airline, they are just trying to make it easy on you and give you a short list of which companies fly on the low cost airline routes around Europe.  How it all works is really quite simple and clever.  First, you simply choose your origin city, then select a destination.  Then, all the budget airlines who service that route will pop up.  By short-listing the airlines for a chosen journey, you can then simply pop over to their website and do your bookings (of course after you have checked out the prices of all on offer for that route).

Once again, I have found a site that won’t win any beauty contests, but what it provides is brilliant! - It is simple and fast to use and when you are looking for something in particular this is a good thing!  The site is focussed on making it easy to find cheap airlines and it does it very well.  They have even gone to the trouble to have the site translated into 7 other languages as well.  For a market such as Europe, they have researched their intended audience and made sure as many people as possible are able to use their site.

Even if you have no intention of ever travelling around Europe, take a look at the site.  A Great no-frills site that makes it easy to find cheap airlines.

Visit http://www.low-cost-airline-guide.com/

Looking for Cheap Posters? Even if you are not, you might want to simply browse the hundreds that are available.  Posters are a great way to put your mark on your space, such as your room, or even your college dorm.

The Website is not real flash and fancy, it is all about letting you view the posters and making it easy to buy them.  It would not win any beauty contests, but hey, you are looking for a cheap poster and looking to get it as easy as possible after all.  Depending on your interests, you can choose from Music, Movies and TV and several other categories.  If you are really keen, you can even browse all 30 pages with 18 posters per page of every single poster on offer.  All the contact details are available, phone, email and online form in case you need them.

Now, last time I checked, $5 didn’t buy you a whole lot, and a poster for $5 sounds like a pretty good deal to me.  What makes it even better is the shipping is cheap as well.  Buying multiple posters at the same time saves you heaps on shipping, and if you add in the 10% discount for buying 3 you can see that you can change the look of your space for not much more than you would spend on a burger and fries for lunch.

Now no self respecting college student would want to be without a classic poster - This poster will give you a huge incentive to get that study stuff done so you can get to the next party!

Visit 5dollarposters.com

If you are even remotely like me, you shop for the best deal you can get.  One of the ways to get a great deal is by using coupons. The Keep Ca$h site is a great place to find online coupons.  A lot of the bigger Online stores often provide Coupon Codes as an incentive to get people to shop with them.  Coupons can be for all sorts of Items and for all sorts of amounts.  I must admit I didn’t know that you could find things like 20% off Plus free shipping codes.  I just picked this as an example from one of the current offers on the front page!

Of course, when buying some big ticket Items, a coupon could save you a small fortune.  Another current offer will get you $1000 - Yes, $1000 off the price of a Plasma TV.  Are you convinced yet?  I just wish I got $1K off the price of My Plasma!  It is worth your while when considering any purchase to do a quick search for a coupon - it may save you afrom a few $$ to a lot of $$.

Now, the website is styled as web 2.0 - bold colours, big text, rounded corners, simple layout and easy to use.  If you have never used a coupon before, the help section is really good at explaining the what and how.  I think that too many sites that provide an online service forget that their visitors may not understand what they are offering or how to use it.  The Help and FAQ is well written and easy to understand. They get a big plus for this.

You can easily browse all of the deals available by store or use the search to find coupons for a particular item.  The search is fast and comprehensive.  Well, we just typed in “plasma” and got a list of a couple of pages to browse thru.  The search results are ordered by the date they were added under each store.  There were offers added today, so you can almost be guaranteed if you find an offer it will be valid.  If you just want to stay on top of deals, you can sign up and get a weekly newsletter with all the new deals in it.

Visit www.keepcash.com

Girls, looking for a little bit of something nice to dress up your new outfit? Guys, want to get your girl a nice gift?  The Fashion jewellery and accessories at eSparkles are worth a look.  Their main catalogue items cover Costume and fashion Jewellery, Scarves Gloves and hats, Hair accessories and Jackets and Skirts. 

I know I have been reviewing a lot of shopping sites lately, and like all of them, this one provides full contact information.  An online form, A physical address, email address and telephone numbers are all provided.  Now, I rate any company high that has all this info within 1 click from their homepage.  If I am even a little unsure of dealing with someone online for the first time, I simply pick up the phone and contact them.  Whenever any e-store fails to make it easy for me to contact them I steer well clear.

The website is of course based around the fashion Jewellery shopping cart as you would expect.  They have a reasonable amount of additional info on the site as well, including info on caring for your jewellery.  Now what I like to find is info on the shipping costs when I buy online and the info is easy to find without having to log into the shopping cart.  As you would expect the shipping is slightly cheaper within the UK than to other countries.

A little tidbit we found on their caring for jewellery page is that they offer discount vouchers if you can provide a good tip that they use and add to the site!  You additionally get a 10% discount off your first order.

Visit www.costumejewelleryaccessories.co.uk