How to Shop Online

You can easily save lots of money buying online or you can get totally ripped off. After getting ripped off a few times and in different ways, I devised my own online shopping routine. Now I get the best deals on the stuff I want without being cheated or hassled.

Here are the steps we will go through:
Step 1: Research the Product (below)
Step 2: Find the Deals
Step 3: Research the Seller
Step 4: Place Your Order
Step 5: Praise and Problems & Link Summary

Step 1: Research the Product

Figure out what you really need versus what you want or have been talked into. Then look at other people’s experiences with that product. Be wary of any one opinion you read. Companies promote themselves and/or bash competitors online all the time. Lots of websites get paid to review things or get freebies. Lots of unethical stuff goes on. Always take things with a grain of salt.

Find review sites. Search on www.google.com for review sites. Then look for individual complaints and problems people have posted.

Searches to do:

"Your Product’s Category" reviews
        e.g. PDA reviews
"Your Product’s Category" guides
        e.g. PDA guides
"Your Product" reviews
        e.g. "Visor Edge" reviews
"Your Product" problems
        e.g. "Visor Edge" problems
"Your Product" complaints
        e.g. "Visor Edge" complaints

You get the idea. Search whatever is relevant for your product or whatever you might want it to do.

Learn how to optimize your searches. A search for Widget 700 yields different results than "Widget 700" in quotes. Phrases in quotes will find that exact phrase on the page, not just those words anywhere on the page. Without the quotes you would pull up all the pages that had the word Widget or number 700 on the page. In quotes you will only get pages with Widget 700 next to each other.

Here are some review sites I like:

General reviews site: www.epinions.com
Music gear reviews: www.harmony-central.com/User_Reviews/
Computers/Hardware: www.tomshardware.com
Computer Parts: www.motherboards.org

There are many review sites. I’m sure you’ll find at least 2 or 3 in whatever item you have interest.

Now that you know the exact, problem-free product you want, move on to Step 2.

>>> STEP 2: Find the Deals >>>