Save money with "daily deals"

If you want your money to stretch further this holiday season, check out some of the "daily deal" websites. Some post only one item per day; others offer a list.  

If you don't find anything today, and don't want to keep checking back, most of these websites offer email alerts or RSS feeds (where you can view deals from several websites through a single RSS reader such as Google reader.)

Note: Unlike traditional stores, the return policies at these deals sites are quite restrictive - So it's best to be familiar with the product before clicking to buy.

Here are a few sites to get you started:

Woot - Their motto is one deal, one day. Highly popular, with lots of community interaction. Worth a visit just to read the product descriptions.

 

Yahoo Shopping - has partnered with Woot, offering a different deal of the day.

DailySteals - Similar to Woot.  Also, you can post their affiliate link on your own website, and get a commission if someone buys after clicking to DailySteals.

DailyDollarDeal - Lists items from eBay and Amazon that have not sold - all under a dollar. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with them; the items may have been misspelled or miscategorized in the original listing.

If you want to save time in your deal hunting, visit one of the deal-of-the-day aggregators that show deals from several websites all at once:

DealSucker - checks for new deals every 20 seconds.

Deal of the Day Tracker - Also includes a list of links from sites they don't track, but which some people may be interested in.

Dealque - A social networking site, where bargains are posted by site users.

Pauline
teachmeinternet.com

Sharing documents online

Sharing documents with others has never been easier. And you have lots of options:

1. Send as an attachment in email.

If all you want to do is to send a document in its final form to just to one person or a small group, email attachment is the simplest. However, there are limitations:

• Many Internet service providers limit the size of the attachment - so if your file size exceeds the limit, you won't be able to send it this way.
• Even if you are able to send large files, they may clog the recipients' inboxes - either by hogging space (and potentially filling up the allotted capacity) or by slowing message retrieval time.
• If you are requesting suggestions from several people for changes to the document, the back-and-forth emailing can become quite complicated and confusing.

2. Use a file upload/storage/transmission service.

Upload your file to yousendit.com, megaupload.com, sendthisfile.com or similar free file transfer services. You can specify a recipient, who gets an email with a private link to download your file. Or, you can copy the link yourself and post it in your email or on your webiste.

Note: For the free versions of many of these services, the file that you uploaded is destroyed after a few days. To keep it accessible indefinitely, you must sign up for a paid account.

Another option is to simply get a free files storage account at box.net or skydrive. Upload your files, create shared folders and send people the link.

The above services solve the file-size issue, but they are not meant to be used for online collaboration.


3. Share files directly online.

If you want others to edit a document as well as view it, use a document collaboration service. Everyone with password-protected access sees the same updated version of the file, and can make changes.

There are many commercial services that provide secure workspace for group projects, but for your purposes the free options may suffice:

Google Docs has provided this service for a few years. Now Microsoft has come up with their own online file storage/collaboration product Office Live Workspace. Here's a feature-by-feature comparison of the two.

A third option worth looking at is Zoho.

Pauline
teachmeinternet.com