Greetings,

  --- And here’s the latest SaveCity.net news...

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Well, I added RSS feeds and Google Toolbar button so that hopefully it will help everyone keep up with new deals as they are posted.  If anything is not working right, please let me know by e-mailing me at info@savecity.net Please try to give a full description of the problem you are encountering. Also, I am adding Black Friday deals and rumor as I hear of them... so please send me an E-mail on any news you have heard.

Friday, October 19th, 2007
Sorry I have gone so long without pasting anything in the news area, but as you can see by the changes to the site, I have been trying hard to dig up more original deals and try to make the layout more user friendly. Once a few more things are perfected, the site and features should be getting a lot more updates.  Also we are pruning our Stores list to try weed out generic sales notices and really concentrate on those stores offering deals on a regular basis.

Monday February, 12, 2007:
Obviously not many updates on the deal list for the last couple of days... Believe it or not, I spent ALL that time (and up until 7am this morning, working on moving things around so I could comfortably fit myself in my office. Not just computer equipment, but alot of that “junk” you tend to accumulate over time that is important enough to keep but useful enough that you cannot box it away and for get about it.  Tools, gadgets, books, media, old drive enclosures, software... plus I am a sucker for keeping the original boxes for stuff (hey, some people collect shoes!). Anyway, last couple of days were a huge success and now that everything is IN the office, I just need to clean off the desk enough to make work possible...  Eventually I will also need to sort through and organize some things better (most stuff I dumper in little boxes here and there, or a jumble of cords here or there. But I am sure that sort of organization will happen over time as is usually the case.

On the non-official product review front, I got two of those incredibly cheap StarLogic Monitors from OfficeMax ($169 after $30 off EBay coupon, no rebates, and free shipping).   After exchanging one for a new one due to a bright stuck pixel in the dead center, I got them both working and they are beautiful.... Very bright and clear. Downsides are short stand (both made of metal, so mounting it to a wall may be possible) and slow refresh time (12ms).  Although these monitors are not for gaming, so the slow refresh time does not bother me...  Movie look good enough on them, and that is about all the action they will see for a while. They are mostly for web development. By the way, if you are like me, you may need to use a FREE program called PowerStrip to set them up for their 1680x1050 resolution.   Just Google for it and you will find... Feel free to email me if you happen to need help with PowerStrip (but it is fairly easy, just ‘Add’ the resolution to you video cards list... which should work fine if your video card can support 1600x1200, and most can.).  PowerStrip also has a terrific Forums section. (yeah, I know I need a forum section too! 8^) )

Probably not many deals are gonna get posted today (Monday) either.  And those that do will get posted later today as I am still beat from being up until 7am and I still have non-office related stuff to do. 

Don’t get me wrong, this deal site is still very important to me.  It is just that I needed to sacrifice these few days of updates to allow myself to setup the office and computers in a way so that updates and enhancements will happen more often and more consistently.  Trying to get the horse in front of the cart so to speak.

Well, that is it for now.  Thanks for stopping by and please check back again soon and I will have alot more deals up. 

Thanks for your extreme patience.
 

Saturday January 27th, 2007:

     Well, it has been over a week since my last post/blog/whatever and it certainly was not because I did not want to throw down on nice rant, but rather because of some tech. issues that made a blog update a little involved.  You see, since I moved my office, I decided to finally build a PC that I had been accumulating parts for.  At great deals, of course... after all I started this site out of a love for a great deal.  Anyway, the parts were gathering dust and getting obsoleted through sheer procrastination.  So I decided to kill two birds with one stone and build it while I moved my office.   I got it built and installed ye old WinXP OS and all the apps I use and even most of the data.  Then a few days into this, I get a windows failure that says to “repair” my Windows files. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of doing this, let me tell you; it is a major pain in the @ss.  
     After a few hours I got the system repaired and all looked good, though I had a sinking feeling that a backup was now critical.  Of course, like intervened and I got busy and out it off for a few days. At one point, I had to turn off the PC.  Well, once I did that, it never came back.  Just  a big fat “read error’ and not even a chance at booting (starting up)  Truly a crashed disk if there ever was one.  Damn!
     So I have had to start over and re-install EVRYTHING from scratch, and in the interim I had some updates on the site that I lost on the PC.  So if I updated this “What’s News” area, I would lose a few older posts.    Once I got time (today, that would be), I copied the stuff FROM the web back to my old PC and back into the site designer.  Now I am back in sync, but obviously this had a low priority compared to the PC rebuild (still ongoing) and keeping the site upto date with deals for the last week.
     I still have more work to do to get the PC working (I have a weird PC config that requires a few tweaks to get it ‘just right’ and so it take longer than it should.). But having done this already, I at least think it should go faster this time around.
     On other news, I got the search engine stuff worked out, so there have been a good number of new visits, and hence a renewed effort on my part to get the deals rolling.  Simply because good RETURN visitors statistics are always a source of inspiration to me to spend more time plodding through the net to find more deals (more often).  I mean, it’s npt like I am making any money on doing it (see previous posts further down).  Still and all, this last inflow of new visitors has made it clear that the site needs mucho work (no news news to me of course),  
     I am trying very hard to finish up some things at my real job to give me more time to work on the bigger changes needed.   And believe me, I know the pages load WAY to slow.  Part of that problem is the need to drop my site building tool for another one or just drop down to HTML and a good editor, which is what I do for parts of the site anyway.  Site tool is at least doubling the size of every single page! (Does anyone ever test their software anymore before they sell it?)
     On other news, my cold is still hanging on, even though I thought it was on it’s way out a few days ago.    It apparently missed me so it came back a bit stronger, but not too bad compared to what I already went through. They (yeah, ‘those’ people) say stress weakens the immunity system, and if that is true, then at least I know why I still have this cold. 8-)

Well, there is still much to do and I need to get today’s deals out there as I am really running late today (hey, it’s Saturday and I slept late, I admit it).  Thanks for stopping by. 

By the way, there are some really good deals of a few days ago that are still quite active.  Like the StarLogic 20” monitor for $169 (after coupon) that was posted on Sunday (bottom of the list).  I actually got that monitor and it is very nice and bright (has a slow response time of 12ms, but for what I do, it doesn’t matter).  Only issue is that the one I got had a bad pixel smack dab right in the middle of the screen, which means I need to return it for a replacement (but hey, that’s has happened to me on high-end monitors as well, so no big deal). This (Digital/Analog) 20” monitor w/speakers for $169 is a great buy even in today’s market place of falling LCD prices.

 

Tuesday, January 17th, 2007:
Looks like the cold is finally starting to recede in a serious way after a few false hopes. Office move is coming along well. Got the Network storage (the NSLU2, see below) connected and working, but still need to do a bit more work on it. However, it is good enough for now. Since I am trying to get the new computer (did I mention that I am hooking up a new computer as well... which means moving all the software and programs for this site as well... fun, fun, fun!) I am cutting a few corners and reloading programs and data onto the ne computer’s local hard drive, a opposed to keeping a single copy on the network drive. This is going to make synchronization a bit of a problem and it is shortsighted of me, but I really need to get back to working on the site and I don’t wish to wait for it all to be “perfect” in order to start. I will probably kick myself later for this approach, but for now it is the fastest route between point A and B. (Never thought I would be one to follow the saying “There’s not enough time to do it right, but there is always time to do it over”), But hey, how long can I expect people to come back when I my site updates are not consistent and no new enhancements are being made?
Even with skipping the network storage (except as a backup utility) there are so many little things to install and configure to get the PC where I need it to be. But at least progress is being made.
Looks like the search engine snafu is working itself out, so hopefully there will be a bit more traffic on this site going forward. Not that it will generate any income, but traffic is always a source of inspiration to work on the site and keep updates flowing. By the way, a big ‘Thank you’ to the user(s) in the Los Angeles area that seem to be checking back fairly regularly. Any and all return patronage is appreciated!
One thing that is high on my agenda is setting up some sort of a registration facility, so that users can have real usernames, etc. A big part of this is because I really want to run a few promotions and giveaways (perhaps based on referrals, or just plain site usage, who knows). But without being to differentiate users, it is a bit hard to have any real contest, besides some sort of total random giveaway... which would be pointless. Plus, having users register opens up the door to all sorts of reward possibilities for using the sites links an deals etc. I mean, if you are going to reward someone, you kind of need to know who or at least where they are to send them the reward/prize, right?
Okay, well, back to work I go. As always, I am open to any insights, just drop me an email atInfo@SaveCity.net
Ciao!,
The Rickster
 

Saturday, January 13th, 2007:

All I can say is that having a cold sucks and that chicken soup (and tea) really do work!  My cold was just getting progressively worse and finally I realized that I should have some chicken soup (duh?).  Needless to say that it made quite a difference.  Not like a cure or anything, but at least I was able to get some sleep and even woke up feeling pretty good... Unfortunately, it was down hill from there and my cold is back to full-blown mode. At least I was able to get some work done yesterday getting my office setup. Not huge progress, but some. I don’t know why I feel the ned to hack every electronic gadget I buy, to get some features I don’t really need, but I always find myself dumping default firmware and installing hacks. Yesterday (and today as well) was spent messing with the LinkSys NSLU2 Network storage unit... It basically lets me add hard drive storage to my home/office WIFI, and quite frankly, it is a very cool gadget.  Right out of the box is does alot of cool things, but if you hack it a bit, it can do even more.  So anyway, if you are looking for some good way to back up your bazillion gigabytes of MP3’s or whatever, I recommend it.  Here’s a link to it at Amazon
   All you do is plug in one or two USB hard drives and spend a few minutes of configuration and *poof* you have device that you can save data onto as a backup or whatever.    If you want to go down the road that I did, you can hack it using this info...  But I caution you to read as much as you can BEFORE you start.  Oddly, some of the pages tell you how to do something only to (further down the page) tell you how to do it alot easier.  Almost like new info was just added rather than being updated.  (Especially the part about RedBoot telnet access). Either way, the hack site is very well done and my thanks to the authors. However, unless you are a computer person, using it without hacks is probably more than you will ever need.  

Also on the product front, I got this today and let the children play with it and all I can say is: “Wow”  It is extremely well done and the built-in games are perfect for that age group. Considering it has a LCD touch-screen, getting for $20 is an amazing deal (deal is dead, but it only about $30 shipped on EBay). Not having to buy the optional cartridges is also a big plus, since there is more than enough for a child to start with.     

 There are plenty of reviews at Amazon, so I won’t bother with all the details.

Well, time to look for some more deals, and get back to setting up the office. Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, January 11th, 2007:

     Well, the deals of late have not been to hot, there are quite a few, but many of them simply are not super-hot and hence not worth adding.  On top of this, my sniffles broke into a full-old cold and I had to spend the better part of my free time recuperating.
     You know, when I first started thinking about creating this site, I found a few articles that said that deal sites are one of the most maintanence-intensive sites on the internet. But I thought; “Hey, how hard can it be? I like looking for deals anyway...”  Well, let me tell you, it is a major PITA (Pain in the @ss).  There is a big difference between finding a deal here or there vs. researching and posting every deal, even if I end up weeding out most of them as not-too-hot. Also, while many sites are updated perhaps once a week, or once a month, a deal site needs to be updated at the *very* least once a day (and really it needs to be done throughout the day whenever possible... which is what I try to do, though my success has been spotty at best).
     I know there are a few large deal sites that generate a good income for their owners (not to mention a few scores of employees), but at this point, I would simply love to see this site cover it’s web-hosting costs... 
     Usually site owners are pretty quiet about the money a site generates, and I have to say that I would tend toward that direction as well, but just for the heck of it, I figure I would share the current site income this once... Well, the site has been up for about 3 months (give or take) and has generated approximately $0.40 cents! Yeah, that’s right not even half a buck!  To say this is disheartening would be an gross understatement.   I mean, I had no pie-in-the-sky ideas of some cash-cow, but 40 cents over 3 months?!? 
     Granted a huge number of the hottest deals (those on the home-page) are non-commissionable. The reason for this is that I am currently a lot more concerned with my limited time/ability to get deals out there for my users than I am at generating income for the site right now. I mean, the site needs a whole lot of work, so I figure my efforts are better spent toward creating more features and more deals than trying to squeeze a nickel out of every deal that someone uses.  But still there are at least a few each day that can generate a few cents, but so far that very-rarely happens. So it while I understand the lack of any commissions, it still is much lower than I would have ever guessed.

Sunday, January 7th, 2007:

So, obviously it was a rather slow weekend on the deal-posting front, but also busy on the development front. Enhancements are coming along, but seem to be taking forever.  Also, my limited advertising funds had almost no impact due to some issues with some search engine submission issues, which hopefully will be resolved soon.  Though with such sporatic updates (my fault) I am unsure how whether it is a good idea to try to get new visitors right now, or wait until I have some of the new enhancements in place. 
It is nice to offer such a large selection of retailers, but I am now faced with the daunting task of try to categorize them into areas (which some retailers fall into several) and also I need to go through each of them to find who is offering *real* deals/coupons, vs. just marketing links (aka. “See us for xx% off all shoes!”.   While I can appreciate the need for retailers to advertise, but since this is a coupon/deal site, these non-hot-deal offers just make it that much harder for me to determine the hotness of all the deals offered by a merchant. 
Recently, I added some basic filtering to try to remove old deals that a few retailers were promoting that have long since expired (some over a year ago!).  I think I got most of them, but please email me if you see any old expired deals in the stores area.
I am also seriously considering changing web-creation tools as the current one I am using is severely limited, making any real dynamic areas of the site require manual modification, etc. This is also causing any “search” type tool to be a huge project in and of itself.   And let’s face it, a site like this needs a large archive and a decent search utility for locating older deals for price comparisons or just to recall the details, etc.
As always, your feedback is appreciated... email: Info@SaveCity.net (and no, I will not put you on a subscription list... I don’t even have one, and when I do, I will have a form specifically for just that... because I hate spam probably more than just about anyone.)
 

Thursday, January 4th, 2007:

If you are one of my (few) regular visitors, I just wanted to write a little note to explain what has been going on with the site and why the number of deals listed on the home page has been a bit sporadic of late.  You see, my time for searching  for deals has been limited lately as I have been trying to work on a few (rather major) site enhancements.  Meanwhile, I am also moving my office (no, not like a office-building office, just my “office” in my home, but anyone who has had to do this know how much of a pain in the butt it can be) which is taking a lot longer than I had hoped. 

Please try to bear with me as I try to get this altogether.  I will try to post as often as I can, and I am always open to hear your comments... just drop me an email at Info@SaveCity.net   I know the site needs alot of work (in addition to the new features I am working on), but any input will help me determine the priorities... so if there is something you hate (likely) or something you really like and want to see more of (unlikely), please let me know and I will do my best to make the necessary changes (or move them up the priority list).

What are the new features that I am working on?  Well, you will have to come back and see for yourself, but suffice it to say the goal is to save you more money on as many deals as possible, and to reward users for using the links provided on this site...

Thanks again for checking out my site and please support this site by clicking-through this site and making purchases...