Day 2.3: Bargains Online: A Summary

My last two posts today have contained a lot of information, so tonight I figured I'd boil it down. This is going to be a short post, so rest easy, and if you want more detail, please read the last two! Here's a list I've compiled of questions to ask when you're hoping to walk away with a bargain:

1. Is this a site I know and trust?
2. Are the shipping and handling expenses reasonable?
3. Does the fine print say anything about completing offers or getting references?
4. Is the seller promising a "special deal" if you buy right now?
5. Did you learn about this bargain in a trustworthy manner (i.e., not from a popup)?
6. Is this site claiming to have a new and amazing way to make things affordable?
7. Do I have to purchase something else before moving on with this bargain?
8. How are the sellers making their money?
9. Does anything come up if I search for the bargain as a "scam" on Google?
10. Is this deal too good to be true?

Personally, I do all my online shopping at Amazon and Ebay. I can find what I want, compare prices or bid, and I don't feel bad pulling out my credit card. One more note about online shopping, especially if it's at one of the more trustworthy bidding sites like Ebay: don't bid unless you have already decided on a fixed price. Wait until the last moment before bidding so that the price isn't raised early.

There's a lot more to say on this topic, but I'll save that for future posts. Please come back tomorrow, when I'll talk about the possibilities of independent publishing, both on and offline. It's a fascinating, growing field and offers a lot of potential for profit!

Day 2.2: What's in A Scam?

Ok, if you've been on the Internet at all in your life, you've probably experienced a scam: an unbelievably good offer that turns out to be worthless. If you're smart, you know not to click on the links they offer or to believe anything they say. That's how I was… until I got curious. How do scams work? Is there any truth to their offer, and if so, what is it? Why don't I want to bother with them?

It might interest you to know that when I was investigating scams, I really did win a functioning iPad 2 for twenty-four cents. So why did my family bother paying hundreds of dollars to get me another one six months later? I'll get to that in a moment. For now, let's take a look at the scamming mentalities, and hopefully this will help you to know what to look out for in the future.

1. Congratulations! You won! Every time I hear that annoying message on my computer, I mute the sound and try to ignore the dramatically shaking or blinking popup saying I'm someone special. But what would happen if I clicked the link? (Note: I have a Mac for a computer, and even though Macs are not entirely virus free, I almost always feel safe when online. If you have a PC, please don't try this at home!). Clicking the link takes you to a page congratulating you and asking you what you want as a prize. A usual prize will be an iPhone, iPad or $1000 Walmart gift card. If you're still gullible enough to stay with it, you can click on the link of whatever you like. This takes you to a page asking for your mailing address and further specifications as to what you want. After breezing through and agreeing to the terms of use and privacy notice, you can take things one step further before your prize is officially mailed to you. And then the trouble begins. You are brought to a page of offers, mostly to subscribe to and buy things or get quotes--car insurance, Netflix, coupon deals, soap, whatever. In case you feel overwhelmed, you don't need to worry here--you only need to do one before moving on and getting your prize! After scrounging around, I managed to find one that was free. Mission accomplished. Then they take you to the next page, a page similar but with more offers. You need to complete about six of these. And after that there's another page where you need to complete about twelve offers or maybe more. Ouch. That isn't worth it. One site that I went to was much nicer about the whole offer deal--if you wanted, you could do only one offer yourself and then get nine of your friends to sign up and do one offer each. Easy peasy! I could practically hear the prize arriving at my door. I was in a college dorm at the time I found this, and right away went around to everyone in the building, getting people's contact info. I got about twelve people to say that they would positively do this for me, and a few more who agreed to help out if needed. I had it made. Unfortunately, out of everyone who promised to join me, only three people went on the site. Not one of them completed an offer. Ouch. In the end, it was impossible. Maybe the claims on YouTube are true once in a while, but don't bet on it.

2. Order now and save big! This is a common scam on TV, but it's also common for online stores such as Amazon. The price is right, and much lower than you can find anywhere else. The website is one you trust and use regularly. How could there be a scam? Hint: it's in the shipping and handling. Every time I compare the regular price of an item on Amazon with a cheaper price from one of its suppliers, the shipping and handling skyrocket for the cheaper one. If anything, the items are the same price, adding the shipping and handling to the cost of the item. So before you complete your offer, please be sure to check these prices and make sure you really are getting a bargain!

3. How I won an iPad 2 for 24¢. Let's face it, this is what you've been wondering. Something works? You can actually get something good that cheap? This scam has been growing in popularity recently, and it's so convincing that my fiance and I both fell for it separately. Penny bidding. I know I've mentioned it before, but it's so convincing that it needs a separate look. What is penny bidding? It's a form of online bidding where you can bid only one cent at a time. When the timer's running low, you can keep it going by adding a cent more to your bid and outbidding everyone else. In the end, you get an unbelievable price for a fantastic product! When you first join, many sites will give you a good number of free bids to start out with. Even though you have to pay for later bids, if you wanted to get one thing and only one thing, why not sign up? When I joined one such site, I was thrilled to see an iPad 2 going for only two or three cents. Now that's something a poor college student can afford! I programmed my account to automatically outbid everyone else and use up almost all of my bids if necessary. Several minutes later, I got an exciting e-mail. I had one the iPad 2, and it had cost me only twenty-four cents. All I had to do was claim it, and it was mine! Oh, and one other thing. I'd have to pay an extra $700 to actually buy the iPad and pay for shipping and handling. Yes, I won it for twenty-four cents, but I'd still have to buy it. And that was the case for everything on the site. Win it for a low price, but then buy it for a high price. Not cool! Obviously, that was one purchase I'd never make. Now, not all penny bids are the same. One that I came across more recently didn't do any of that beating around the bush. If you win something for a few pennies, it's yours. I was stunned at first, checking all of the rules and not finding anything clever or sneaky to wheedle out my money. Then I found out. It was the bids. Each penny bid cost about fifty cents. There were no free bids, and you had to buy bids in packages. After winning an auction, you would pay about the exact same price that you would if you bought it in a more conventional manner.

However you go about Internet shopping, you need to realize that nothing comes cheap. Read the fine print, find the hook, and then decide if it's something you're willing to go through with. You'll find that the best bet is conventional sellers, like Amazon and Ebay.

Day 2.1: Shopping for Deals Online

Hello, Blog-world, and welcome to day two of my account of saving and making money from home! Yesterday I talked largely about how to make money online, but today I figured I'll focus a bit more on online shopping.

Buying things online is now one of the most popular ways to save money, time and effort. Cyber Monday is almost as big as Black Friday in November, and the Internet is flooded with bargains of all types. The biggest downside is that you can't see things for yourself and try them out, and sometimes it's hard to tell whether you're getting an extremely good deal on a product or just getting a piece of junk, or outright getting scammed out of all your money before laying your hands on your prized purchase. How can you tell which is which?

1. Read the fine print. About a year ago, I decided that I wanted to buy a tablet computer and that I wanted it to cost as little as possible. I scoured the Internet for days hoping to find a miracle bargain or giveaways, because with so many sellers out there, surely there was at least one decent bargain! I was disappointed many times before I found a way to check for suspicious activity early on: reading the fine print. It's easy to ignore so much boring legalize, but if you see anything about completing offers or making other required purchases, chances are it's a scam. Why? Each "offer" costs money, and generally for things you don't even want to begin with. And you have to complete a lot of them, enough to make you sick and tired of looking through them for something that might not ask for your credit card info.
2. Check the URL. Is it a domain name you trust? Sites like Amazon or Ebay are generally safe sites, trustworthy and simple. If the URL is suspicious… well, that's when you read the fine print!
3. Search for scams. Search. On Google. If you think you've found a terrific bargain online but are worried it might be too good to be true, then type it in your search bar and follow it with the word "scam." If you get a lot of results, then you should probably keep looking. It'll save you a lot of grief in the end.
4.  Beware of unusual approaches. 
11. 1. I've come across several sites that offer new approaches to getting what you want without money. Often these approaches include earning points, referring friends, or "penny bidding." In short, I can tell you that each "point" you earn will be only worth a few cents at best. Referring friends is much harder than it sounds (though maybe if you're a good salesman you could give it a try). Penny bidding comes back to haunt you, generally in the form of buying bids (for much more than a penny) or having to pay the full price of the product after you've won to claim it officially.

Basically, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This doesn't mean that there aren't any really great bargains out there; I'm saying only that you're best off sticking with sites you know and trust to deliver you the best. You won't regret it!