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Family guide for shopping on-line:
Part 1 speed

Shopping on-line is fast, economical, convenient and fun.

Speed: the shopper has to understand the rules of the internet highway to reach maximum speed while browsing ... using a good browser always helps but even before you turn on your computer the type of connection and the provider come into play your assets are your computer and your internet service provider nowadays the cable TV company and/or telephone company provide you with an Internet connection The type of connection is either hard or soft ... with soft being ‘wireless’ and hard being "hard wired"

The bottom line is that if you have a slow connection and/or a slow computer your on-line shopping experience will not be very happy!

Whew - okay now let’s assume you have a high speed connection and a decent speed computer.

Most computer users outside of the business world are “shoppers” ... not to trivialize the vast amount of users who use their computer for research.

But if you follow the money - most of it flows from consumers pockets into the pockets of the companies selling goods and services on the internet.

When you type in a search word or phrase in your browser you are over-whelmed with results and those you see first are companies that pay to be seen before others who pay less to be seen.

Therefore the best companies are not always what you find first on the internet ....

One way to greatly reduce the time you spend and attain your shopping goals is to find the companies you want to deal with by brand rather than by price.

Therefore choosing a brand or brands that you trust and have already had good experiences with in the past ... can make your cyber-shopping sprees enormously more productive and much less time consuming.

To be continued ......

coral atlas

Family guide for shopping on-line:
Part 2 saving money

Shopping on-line is fast, economical, convenient and fun.

Saving money: a good shopper should always be looking for the best value at the lowest out of pocket cost. More and more shoppers are realizing that driving to a mall while still fun is not always necessary - especially when you want something now and you want value at a good price and you don't have a lot of time available to shop.

The ability to compare the same specific product or category of product and to weigh alternatives is what the internet is best at. The biggest challenge is filtering and sifting thru the choices you are presented with. But the two single most important choices remain clear and constant value and cost. As I wrote in my first chapter on speed .... knowing what brands you want ahead of time helps enormously. And having a budget does as well. There are three numbers you should have in mind when shopping on the internet. The first is what you expect to pay, the second is what you can afford to pay and what you would like to pay is the third .

Each number should be lower than the one before it as follows: expect $25 afford $18 like $12

Many stop at expect and others go on to find the afford number while many never think to search further for the like number. In either of the three cases you have achieved your goal. However with a little more time and effort you may be surprised to spend what you would LIKE to spend!

WARNING!: the cost of shipping and handling and reurn policy are extremely important to know and understand.

HINT: I have found Ebay is an excellent venue for finding what you want and saving money - however you must take the time to read Ebay's guidelines for buyers which are very helpful. I could write an article on Ebay alone - but Ebay does a pretty good job of providing information to buyers.

To be continued ....

coral atlas