Save money with online auctions

Save Money with Online Auctions

I love to shop, it really doesnt matter what the item is. I enjoy clothes, shoes, art, most anything you can imagine shopping for. Yet I do have to pay attention to how much I spend because all those small purchases do add up over time. I have found I can buy twice as much stuff that I want if I shop at the various online auction sites. Trust me, you can find some great bargains on both new and used items. The two most popular online auction sites are Yahoo! Auctions and eBay.

There are literally thousands of products to choose from so you will likely find anything you are looking for. I enjoy finding things that the stores no longer carry but that I know are great products. Once you time in a specific item into the search box you will get a listing of all the products available. You can view them by the auctions that are ending first, the lowest price, the highest price, whatever you want.

Before you can place any bids on these online auction sites, you will need to set up an account. This is a simple process that will take you about 15 minutes. You will need to provide your personal information including your name and address. You will also set up a user ID and password for your account.

To get the very best deals from these online auctions, you really want to do your homework before you place a bid on any item. Take a look at the reputation of the seller. You will be able to see the number of items they have sold as well as feedback from the people the sold it to. Take a look at what these people have to say. You want to make sure the seller seems honest with what they are listing and they ship timely.

Make sure you find out about the cost of shipping the item to you before you bid on it as well. Some individuals place the cost very low but then they charge an outrageous fee for shipping. This is because the cost they have to pay the auction site for their listing is based on the price they open the bidding at. If the auction you are looking at doesnt give the shipping cost I strongly recommend you email the seller and get an answer before you bid on the item.

Most sellers on these online auction sites are pretty straight forward in regards to what they are selling. There are a few who arent though so you really need to take the time to read the entire listing from top to bottom before you place a bid. For example, I know a person who thought they were bidding on an iPod on one of these auctions and they were disappointed when they got an off brand. Yet when I took a look at the listing they purchased it from that information was clearly stated in the description, she just didnt read it all.

Not only can you get great bargains from online auctions, it is fun to look around and see what people have to offer as well. To help ensure you get the items you want for a price that fits your budget decide what your maximum bid will be on a given item. Enter that amount when you place your bid. This way you dont have to keep going back to see if someone outbid you. Dont get caught up in a bid war with someone though because you might end up paying more than the item is worth just because you dont want to get beat! By setting your limit in the beginning you wont have to worry about it. Should you get outbid on something there is likely many more of it on the various pages of listings on these online auction sites.

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Rod stewart tickets quot the mod quot returns to the stage

Rod Stewart Tickets - "the Mod" Returns To The Stage

Rod Stewart tickets are once again available, and this rock and roll legend is hitting the road once again, much to the delight of millions of fans. Stewart has been lighting up venues all over the world for nearly five decades, and his latest tour is sure to provide fans with the same exciting show that hes been known for since he got his start. A look at Stewarts life will shed some light on how he became such a musical legend.

Early Life

Roderick David Stewart ...

Rod,Stewart,Tickets,The,Mod,Returns,to,the,Stage

Rod Stewart tickets are once again available, and this rock and roll legend is hitting the road once again, much to the delight of millions of fans. Stewart has been lighting up venues all over the world for nearly five decades, and his latest tour is sure to provide fans with the same exciting show that hes been known for since he got his start. A look at Stewarts life will shed some light on how he became such a musical legend.

Early Life

Roderick David Stewart was born in London on January 10, 1945, and he literally came into the world with a bang. Stewart was born in the late stages of World War II, and just minutes before he arrived, a german V-2 rocket scored a direct hit on the Highgate Police Station that was located just down the street from Stewarts hospital.

Stewart was born into a nationally-mixed family, as his father and four siblings are all Scottish, while he and his mother are English. Stewart grew up loving music, women and sports. In fact, his musical career was not his first pursuit, and Stewart only turned to music as a fall-back after his initial aspirations ended.

As Stewart reached his teen-age years, he pursued his first love, which he now calls his second love - football, or soccer, as its known in the United States. Stewart had trials with two famous football clubs, Celtic and Brentford, but soon realized hed never quite make it in the top professional league. As a result, Stewart, whose musical skills were still very raw, had to take a job as a grave digger.

Musical Beginnings

Stewart certainly did not want to pursue a career in manual labor, so he began to explore his musical options. He began by touring with folk singer Wizz Jones in the early 1960s, but that was not a successful run. In fact, he was kicked out of Spain during this tour for vagrancy.

Stewart then moved from band to band, including a failed stint as the first lead singer of the group that would ultimately become known as The Kinks, but again, he failed to succeed in any of these ventures. After a few more years of bouncing around, Stewart finally found a suitable band in the Jeff Beck Group, which he joined in 1968. The Jeff Beck Group released two albums, and both were successful, but the band broke up in 1969. After a few more short stints with unsuccessful bands, Stewart made a career choice - it was time to go solo.

Musical Success

This decision turned out to be a good one, as Stewart finally began to gain notice for his efforts. Although his initial album releases were not wildly successful, his live act gained notice, and Rod Stewart tickets became quite popular in the UK. The stage was set for Stewart to hit the big time.

Thats exactly what happened when Stewart released Every Picture Tells a Story in 1971. The album rose to the top of several charts and contained the legendary single Maggie May, among other hits. Including this release, Stewart has released 10 albums that reached number one on the charts in either the US, the UK or both. Its estimated that he has sold over 200 million copies of his records, and he remains an icon to this day.

Stewart spends his present days doing several things, but hes never lost his live touch. Rod Stewart tickets are still guaranteed to provide you with a night to remember, and youll never regret seeing this legend live.

 

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Robots.txt an online marketers friend or foe

Robots.txt, An Online Marketers Friend Or Foe?

robots.txt is possibly the most miss understood file that a website can contain.

Many people think that by using a robots.txt file on their website they are protecting pages and folders from thieves and hackers. In fact it is totally the opposite! robots.txt opens up an enormous security hole that hackers and theives will use to easily gain access to the parts of your website that you don't want them to.

What is robots.txt?

robots.txt is a file that you create and up...

robots.txt, protect your thank you pages

robots.txt is possibly the most miss understood file that a website can contain.

Many people think that by using a robots.txt file on their website they are protecting pages and folders from thieves and hackers. In fact it is totally the opposite! robots.txt opens up an enormous security hole that hackers and theives will use to easily gain access to the parts of your website that you don't want them to.

What is robots.txt?

robots.txt is a file that you create and upload to your websites root directory that is used by search engine spiders to determine which parts of your website they should index and which folders/pages that you, the website owner,
don't want listed in search engine indexes.

Why would not want pages indexed?

There are many reasons why you might not want search engines to index pages on your website, such as private membership pages or exclusive training pages and such like.

If you are an internet marketer selling your own ebook or other digital product, you wouldn't want your thank you pages indexed either!

And this is where the misunderstanding comes to the fore, and robots.txt becomes your foe.

Many online marketers who provide ebooks or other digital products for instant download will list their download thank you pages in the robots.txt file because they obviously don't want those pages indexed in search engines.

By using robots.txt this way though, you will be opening up your product to anyone who has a slight bit of knowledge about how the file works.

robots.txt is easily readable by any human that opens a browser and types in and if you have listed your thank you pages, all they have to do is go to that url and take your product(s)!

It's that easy!

And I'm living proof that this works, as this is exactly what happened to me. I had listed my thank you pages in robots.txt and thought that they were safe from hackers and thieves, then one day I was checking my web site stats and BAM, someone had been to every single thank you page, and taken everything.

The moral is, don't list any URL in robots.txt that you don't want humans to have free access to. Use robots.txt with great caution and secure your thank you pages using dedicated software.

 

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Saving money during a recession

Saving Money During A Recession

Recession is a word that fills people with dread and bad visions. Its a time people consider bad for finances, a time capable of magically shrinking a dollars value overnight. It also automatically increases the cost of basic living. And where money is a huge concern, people always ask, Can I still save for real during a recession? The answer is: of course you can. You just need to be wise and creative about the whole thing. Here are ways how:

Plan your purchases.

By planning your purchases, youre effectively planning your expenses. This will help eliminate the danger of impulse buying and unnecessary spending. Try to look at the bigger picture when it comes to your basic needs.

Plan for a weeks worth of groceries, for example, so youll have an idea of which items you truly need (and want) and which items you can do away with. To make sure that you maximize your planning efforts, consider incorporating items on sale into your planning. If there are foods

 

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5 General Trends in the California Real Estate Market to Watch 2006

Historically, the real estate trends of California have always been the precursors for the rest of the country. Which is why leading players of the real estate market keep a close watch on the Golden State's real estate market conditions.

 And whether you are a first time homebuyer, debating the viability of building your dream house in San Bernardino, or a real estate investor looking to sell condominium units in Los Angeles, you certainly want to know: When is it the optimum time to buy or sell?

 Purchasing a house is a major investment. With judicious planning, this valuable asset will appreciate with each year.

 But how do you get the big picture? Fortunately, real estate trends are predictable because these develop over a long period, unlike the stock market, which is rather volatile.

 The first thing you will need to do is to read and track real estate articles: the market reports of the California Association of Realtors or the California Building Industry Association, and the briefs created by housing analyst companies.

 Once you have identified the following key indicators you will have a better grasp of the general trends in California's real estate market.

 THE FIVE KEY INDICATORS TO WATCH

 Interest Rates
 When interest rates rise, buyers shy away. Conversely, lowered interest rates attract more buyers.

 This year, interest rates in California are on an upswing. For example, thirty-year fixed mortgage rates, which averaged 5.71 percent in 2005, has risen to 6 percent levels in January 2006. And adjustable mortgage interest rates have moved up to 5 percent levels compared to 4.12 percent in 2005.

 Building Permits
 The higher the number of building permits issued, the higher the demand for houses.

 Figures show that number of building permits issued for the year 2006, have fallen by 10 percent in comparison to last year's figures. In terms of houses, that's a decrease of 1,430 building permits compared to January 2005 figures, according to California Building Industry Association report.

 Home Sales
 This key indicator refers to the total number of homes sold. In the law of supply and demand, when there are few buyers, real estate prices fall.

 The January 2006 figures of the California Association of Realtors reveal that the number of existing single-family detached homes sold, has gone down by 24.1 percent in comparison to sales for the entire year 2005.

 Another factor to consider is the growing inventory of available houses in certain counties in California, which is changing the market dynamics. What was once a sellers market is slowly turning into a buyers market.

 Loan Defaults
 This refers to the failure of homeowners to pay their monthly mortgage fees. One downside to this is that many Californian homeowners are choosing to have a bad credit report, rather than to keep paying fees for a home whose value has been inflated by as much as 20 percent more.

 Foreclosure Sales
 Figures presented by DataQuick Information Systems, a housing analyst company, indicate that foreclosure activities in California have gone up by 19 percent in the last quarter of 2005. This is an increase of 3 percent compared to the third quarter of 2005, and is 4.6 percent higher when compared to 2004's last quarter figures.

 When foreclosure sales are on an upswing, consumer spending is down and consumer debt levels have risen. In the real estate market, this has meant that many financially strapped homeowners are selling their homes at lower prices. The other contributable factors are inflation, the rising prices of gasoline, federal budget deficit, and interest rates.

 Concurrently, these key indicators confirm that although home sales levels in California are falling, the demand for houses remains strong and steady. Always do your due diligence before undertaking a purchase of property in California.