Use the ‘Net to Find Great Stuff

I am REALLY becoming quite the online shopper. I am just NUTS about it! I buy almost everything online now. I still get groceries and personal items at my local stores, but I am leaning more and more toward getting that stuff from the Internet, too. Take watches. All my kids have and use watches regularly. Which means I have to buy new watches for somebody, sometime!

The Internet is a magnificent choice for finding great deals. Take, for example, the Kenmar watches. website. This is a superb site for finding the perfect watch– they have a searchable database, and stock one of the largest varities of watches on the Internet. The site is extremely organized– search my search engine, by name brand, by style, by price, by popularity, and even by color! And if that doesn’t help you enough, there’s an easy Live Chat function available by the Kenmar Watches customer service reps. Kenmar Watches takes customer satisfaction very seriously- they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It’s a nice site, with a huge selection, including the popular Orient watches and more. Local stores just don’t cut it anymore with stuff like this. We’re lucky if we find a salesperson, let alone a sale or being able to see the entire selection so easily.

So if you’re looking for something special- check the Internet. And if you’re looking for a huge selection of affordable watches with great service- check out Kenmar Watches.com.

Internet Advertising is Hot

Internet advertising is HOT. Advertising is hot, actually, despite a slowing economy. If anything, advertising increases during a slow economy, because hesitant consumers need a little more coaching (tempting) to get out there and shop, shop, shop. This is a great time to have an online presence and to be an advertiser. Deals are everywhere. However, customer service and quality companies are not. This is where it pays to do a little homework. This is where Acrux Ads can help.

Acrux Ads is a company devoted– nay, thrilled– to help get the word out about products and services, and also to connect sellers and buyers of ads. Here’s the scoop with Acrux Ads:

• It’s free to register!
• Their commission rate is incredibly low– keep 95% of your revenue sold on your site.
• Keep 80% of your revenus sold on their site.
• Manage and give away promo codes to generate traffic and interest (and income).
• Acrux Ads has a new marketplace, and buying ads is so easy, at the click of a button. You can opt to pay per view or per day.
• You can target your audience to get the best for your buck.
• You can track your campaign stats easily.

Acrux Ads will adeptly manage your advertising or publishing scheme, at low cost and with a lot to offer. It’s no secret that the Internet is becoming the next generation in buzz and product awareness. Get your product or service out there with savvy Acrux Ads.

Online Home Contents Calculator

This is a very handy free tool I found at a home insurance website. It gives you the ability to get free home insurance quotes, etc, has articles about insurance policies and insurance in general, but when I was browsing the site I found a very handy home contents calculator, see here. Unfortunately, it’s in the British pound monetary format, but I know I have some UK readers who could benefit from this.

We were in the insurance business for a few years, working for a major company. I am a firm believer in insurance. I lost a house due to a house fire as a kid, and my parents never had insurance on it. We lost EVERYTHING. It was terrible. And today, our modern houses are full of much more valuable stuff with our more modern lifestyles– $1,000 computers, $1,000 video games and entertainment centers, musical instruments, expensive appliances, etc.

A regular home owner’s insurance policy usually reimburses you for damage incurred to the housing building itself, not the contents inside. You usually have to request it (some companies include it with the regular policy). Make sure you know your insurance coverage!! Very important in this day and age.

P.S. This is not a paid post, in case you were wondering. I do think insurance is important, and there are many many online resources to learn more and to get competitive quotes. Take it from my personal experience– you want to be prepared.

Office on the Run

Do you need some space to work or run your business during renovations or some other reason? Check out portable office trailers. These things are very cool. We are currently renovating our old house (well, we’re in the process), and are considering renting one of these kinds of portable trailers during the time when we gut most of the house. It is AWFUL simultaneously living in and restoring a house that is gutted. I work from home (via computer) and I need a safe and clean office environment (not to mention a place where I can go to save my sanity).

Acton Mobile Industries, based in Baltimore, Maryland, has a great selection of all kinds of portable office trailers to suit every need. The standard features include things like:

*Built-in plan tables
*Built-in desks with file cabinets
*Heat and air conditioning (nice!!)
*Built-in restrooms (you hook up water supply and drainage)

and they also have other options to choose from:

*Entry Steps
*Handicap ramps
*Skirting
*Security Packages

Acton Mobile Industries has numerous branches in locations along the East Coast. Call 800-251-1600 to find an Acton Mobile Industries branch nearest you. They have a team of experts who can help you determine your needs, and supply you with a suitable model that will meet any and all federal, state, and local building codes. Check them out for reliable service and great prices!

The Heroes at Home Registry at Sears

Here’s a wonderful registry program for the holidays: Sears Heroes at Home Wish Registry. Sears is sponsoring a wish list registry for our servicemen and servicewomen overseas.

In a nutshell, Sears provides gift cards to military families. (These gift cards are not tax-deductible). Since military moms and military dads are away in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, serving our president, their families miss them during the holidays. The Sears Heroes at Home Wish Registry provides a little something special to the families here, without their military loved ones. It’s especially sweet for the kids of military families.

You can donate to this program. Check out the Sears website for information on how to participate. You may not be serving in the Persian Gulf or anything, but you can be a hero, too! You can help bring gifts and necessary items to our military families in need. The Sears Heroes at Home Wish Registry has supplied over 30,000 military familes! Let’s make that number much larger. We know how trying and how tough the holiday season can be, especially for military families. Not only are military moms and dads (and sons and daughters) away from home for the holidays, these servicepeople are often in harm’s way. It helps the servicemen and women to know that people in the U.S. care about them and their families. So not only do you donations help a family in need, they give encouragement and support at a time when it is most needed. Please check out the website for more information.

Windows Vista is Superb

After test-driving Windows Vista for a few months, I think I can accurately and adequately give the operating system a 5-star rating. Vista has proved to be exceptional in performance, usability, and style. I have found it to be much more reliable and intuitive than XP. I’ve gone back to XP on my husband’s computer, and it’s like the difference between a Ford and a Corvette. As much as I really liked XP, I am a convert to Vista!

Vista is much more stable. I was accustomed to getting the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) with XP, ME, and my 98SE. I have had only two system crashes with Vista in almost a year. That is phenomenal, in my opinion.

Vista is more intuitive. It has a terrific Search feature as part of the Start Menu. This is a terrific time-saver for me. As hard drives get larger and as we gather more information, I think Vista really did well with this feature.

I love the Windows Mail and calendar. Very convenient and easy to use. Vista comes with Windows Defender and a new-and-imporved Security Center.

Vista is drop-dead gorgeous. We all know how drab and dull XP was (only three colors, blue, silver, and olive?!). Vista is a work of art compared to XP and ME. The Vista Aero can sometimes use up a lot of resources, however. I shut it off when the computer is having heavy use (image and video editing).

There’s really much more to Vista than can possibly be covered here. I recommend the operating system, whether for personal or business use. And actually, if you are a small business owner and thinking about getting Vista, consider this excellent promotion going on now until September 30- get Windows Ultimate or Business version, and get compatibility assistance and free support from Microsoft to make sure everything goes smoothly. That’s a terrific deal! See here for more information.

Now There’s Power Steering Parts!

Long, long, loooong gone are the days when we were at the mercy of car dealers, to buy replacement parts for our vehicles. Hurray! I love the Internet! I love car part sites! We have had to revamp and replace a staggering amount of parts in our minivans. It’s been staggering on the budget, too. I did a recent check, and did you know that even a simple thing like a replacement headlamp is $45 at the car dealership? $45?!?! Are they CRAZY?! Online, they can be as low as $15. My husband has been scouting out places for power steering parts, and we have been completely aghast at what dealerships are changing. And for what?! They probably go to the Internet for replacement parts, too! Grrr!

Our 1998 Dodge Caravan, while it has low mileage, is limping. One of the main problems right now is it has a leak in the power steering area somewhere. We have to keep the fluid compartment filled, or else the steering rack will grind. What a horrid sound. Because I have limited mobility, I need power steering! We have put off replacing the parts, because of the high costs. But– thanks to the Internet and sites like PowerSteeringPros.com, we can get dealer-quality parts for low prices– even steering box parts and more! Everything related to power steering! Because the company specializes in parts for power steering, they are more knowledgeable than, say, the WalMart do-everything-but-know-nothing shop.

Wait til Mr. M comes home today and sees that I found a great car part site. He just may take me out to dinner! After the van is fixed, of course.

Some ISPs Capping Usage

I have Verizon as my ISP. I’ve been pleased with the service, but for the past two months or so, I;ve noticed that I often get slight “disconnects.” I do not download videos or music (although my husband listens to music). The odd thing is that my connection is almost always interrupted, and constantly so, when I drop Entrecards. Weird.

Anyway, I saw news today that some ISPs are starting to cap usage. Remember those early days of Internet service, where you were charged by the hour? I can’t imagine some businesses would be dumb enough to return to those days, they were as annoying as nose blackheads, but there have been stupid CEOs before, and no doubt there are stupid CEOs now.

The phone company, Frontier Communications Corp., is one of several Internet service providers that are moving to curb the growth of traffic on their networks, or at least make the subscribers who download the most pay more.

This could have consequences not just for consumers - who would have to learn to watch how much data their Internet use entails - but also for companies that hope to make the Internet a conduit for movies and other content that comes in huge files.

As you can see, ISPs aren’t intending to cap time usage, but bandwidth usage. This is unwise. Bandwidth usage is not something you can really control. What if Aunt Bertha’s anniversary photos roll in unexpectedly, using up 10% of your bandwidth for the month? Too many uncontrollable variables. But unfortunately, I expect ISPs to start doing this.

If an ISP would offer “unlimited” usage (by changing nothing as it stands right now), they would make a ton of business. We’ll wait and see how this works out.

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