http://www.maketimeforchange.com/
The Grand Prize is an Affinity washer and dryer and this is monthly. Also there are weekly winners for other prizes like $100 Best Buy GC and other on the wheel.
The best part is for each spin you take, $1 is donated to the "Save the Children" foundation.
Good Freebies I found today
Friday, February 5, 2010
http://www.facebook.com/LouisianaHotSauce?#!/LouisianaHotSauce?v=app_284681917670
Free Louisiana Gold hot sauce if the Saints win the Superbowl. Sign up on their facebook page
Also:
Colgate Bright Smiles Pack
http://kindergarten.colgatebsbf.com/
I put my kids school down and I get a box of toothbrushes, a video on oral health and a little comic book for the kids each year. I send it to school with my kids.
Oooh and another one. Giving credit wear credit is due, I found this on Coupon Clippin' momma's blog post:
http://www.couponclippinmommy.com/2010/02/free-pair-of-dockers-khakis-during.htm
Docker's is giving away free Khaki's When you see the "Men without pants" commercial during the superbowl (Sunday Feb 7). According to the official rules on their site there will be 2,990 given away instantly by registering on their site during the superbowl commercial.
http://bit.ly/al1cy8
Free Louisiana Gold hot sauce if the Saints win the Superbowl. Sign up on their facebook page
Also:
Colgate Bright Smiles Pack
http://kindergarten.colgatebsbf.com/
I put my kids school down and I get a box of toothbrushes, a video on oral health and a little comic book for the kids each year. I send it to school with my kids.
Oooh and another one. Giving credit wear credit is due, I found this on Coupon Clippin' momma's blog post:
http://www.couponclippinmommy.com/2010/02/free-pair-of-dockers-khakis-during.htm
Docker's is giving away free Khaki's When you see the "Men without pants" commercial during the superbowl (Sunday Feb 7). According to the official rules on their site there will be 2,990 given away instantly by registering on their site during the superbowl commercial.
http://bit.ly/al1cy8
Why should you consider shopping with a company rep/consultant?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
There are so many home sales companies out there. Companies like Lia Sophia, AVON, Pampered Chef and lots more. There are newer ones popping up all the time as well like the Dove Chocolatiers and Scentsy. If you are like I was, you'd probably only order from these type of companies to help out a friend or if you were invited to a party for one of these companies where you knew the host/hostess.
My ideas have changed though. More so in the past 2 years I'd guess. With the economy the way it is, people losing their jobs, and people just trying to make ends meet. My sister had been an AVON rep. Of course I bought from her because, well, she was my sister. But she gave me a lot more info on AVON than I was aware of. I always knew that AVON had good prices, good products, and great sales. I slowly started replacing my products with AVON products. I started comparing prices and realized AVON's prices are similar to if not better than other brands even at walmart. Their products are a guaranteed and AVON supports a lot of great causes.
Other companies like Lia Sophia offer lifetime guarantees on their products as long as you have your receipt as well as great incentives of hostesses.
If you find a good consultant/rep/etc for a company they will let you know of upcoming sales, when you're favorite products has a deal, new products etc.
There are still other companies out there that offer green cleaning products like Shaklee.
A company I recently discovered was RADA knives. A coworker was selling them as a fundraiser for her daughters horse riding club. I bought the knives to help out (mostly because they were a great price. Most of the knives were between $4-6) I LOVE them. Each time she sells them I buy more. I'm slowly replacing all my old knives that were given to me and no longer would...well...cut it. lol.
Most, if not all, of these companies offer shopping through a website OR a consultant. It's so much easier to find out info about a product from a local consultant, to return items if you're not happy with it, or to reorder items you like.
The best part is, you'll be helping out someone in this tough economy. Whether it be a neighbor, friend, facebook friend, coworker, etc.
Read the companies information. See what causes they support, check into satisfaction and/or product guarantess, ask about specials, sign up for newletters, or mailing lists of companies and/or reps you're interested in. Who knows, you may also get into selling as well.
My ideas have changed though. More so in the past 2 years I'd guess. With the economy the way it is, people losing their jobs, and people just trying to make ends meet. My sister had been an AVON rep. Of course I bought from her because, well, she was my sister. But she gave me a lot more info on AVON than I was aware of. I always knew that AVON had good prices, good products, and great sales. I slowly started replacing my products with AVON products. I started comparing prices and realized AVON's prices are similar to if not better than other brands even at walmart. Their products are a guaranteed and AVON supports a lot of great causes.
Other companies like Lia Sophia offer lifetime guarantees on their products as long as you have your receipt as well as great incentives of hostesses.
If you find a good consultant/rep/etc for a company they will let you know of upcoming sales, when you're favorite products has a deal, new products etc.
There are still other companies out there that offer green cleaning products like Shaklee.
A company I recently discovered was RADA knives. A coworker was selling them as a fundraiser for her daughters horse riding club. I bought the knives to help out (mostly because they were a great price. Most of the knives were between $4-6) I LOVE them. Each time she sells them I buy more. I'm slowly replacing all my old knives that were given to me and no longer would...well...cut it. lol.
Most, if not all, of these companies offer shopping through a website OR a consultant. It's so much easier to find out info about a product from a local consultant, to return items if you're not happy with it, or to reorder items you like.
The best part is, you'll be helping out someone in this tough economy. Whether it be a neighbor, friend, facebook friend, coworker, etc.
Read the companies information. See what causes they support, check into satisfaction and/or product guarantess, ask about specials, sign up for newletters, or mailing lists of companies and/or reps you're interested in. Who knows, you may also get into selling as well.
Entering contests. Do you do it? What have you won?
Monday, February 1, 2010
I was inspired to write this blog because I won a prize in a recent contest. Nothing major but I did win. I won a TAG reading system from the Wendy's Learning Adventure Sweepstakes. I've won prizes in other contest before.
The biggest prize I think I ever won was roughly about 7 years ago. I used to be a huge fan of Mystic flavored spring waters. Does anyone else remember those? Anyway, they had a contest that I entered online. I had pretty much forgotten about the contest when I got a letter in the mail saying I had one 1st prize (NOT the grand prize unfortunately, grand prize was something like $10,000) But I digress. I had won a year's supply of Mystic and a Mystic T-shirt.
The point of me telling you this is not to brag but make a point. I'm telling one of my coworkers about my recent win of the TAG reading system. She says "you're so lucky I never win anything". Lucky, no i don't think so. I think the law of averages falls into place somewhere.
For anyone that knows even a little bit about me, I love to enter contests and I'm not afraid to get free samples (and tell people about them)
You're odds increase the more you enter. Some contests allow you to enter daily, weekly, monthly or only once. There are many great sites out there that offer a list of great sweeps and contests. Some of the ones I enjoy using are:
www.mysavings.com this one is also a great free sample site
www.sweepstakestoday.com
this site allow you to easily re-enter contests.
There are also other websites that offer great contests such as:
www.sheknows.com
www.womansday.com
www.madberries.com
Personally I must enter 100s of contests a year. So if I win one or 2 things a year I'm really not THAT lucky. A lot of sites make it easy for you to re-enter as well. Google tool bar offer an autofill button on their bar. There is also something called "roboform" available online that i've heard many people use. I personally don't but mostly because I like the google autofill. I've never won the big prize in a contest but I'm working on it :-)
Also a little more rewarding is Online Instant Win contests or IWGs.
www.myinstantwin.com
While it doesn't seem to be that they are updating the main page of the site you can go into the forums and find many instant win games. Often there are lots of prizes being given away in these games and you'll have better odds of winning something. I've won things like: free wendy's frosty's, a $50 amex gift card from Kraft, free m&ms for the mars halloween IWG they do, and more from contests like these.
Most online contests are free to enter. If the contests requires a code from a package purchase check the rules. Often times they will offer an alternative entry method or list a "free code" in the rules.
Also as a matter of courtesy. I don't enter contests if I'm really not interested in the prize. For instance, I would never enter a contest for something like free sky diving lessons, or "spend the day with _______ football player ( i wouldn't even know what to say) or something like that. Not for me, but I'm sure there are people out there that would truely enjoy that.
The biggest prize I think I ever won was roughly about 7 years ago. I used to be a huge fan of Mystic flavored spring waters. Does anyone else remember those? Anyway, they had a contest that I entered online. I had pretty much forgotten about the contest when I got a letter in the mail saying I had one 1st prize (NOT the grand prize unfortunately, grand prize was something like $10,000) But I digress. I had won a year's supply of Mystic and a Mystic T-shirt.
The point of me telling you this is not to brag but make a point. I'm telling one of my coworkers about my recent win of the TAG reading system. She says "you're so lucky I never win anything". Lucky, no i don't think so. I think the law of averages falls into place somewhere.
For anyone that knows even a little bit about me, I love to enter contests and I'm not afraid to get free samples (and tell people about them)
You're odds increase the more you enter. Some contests allow you to enter daily, weekly, monthly or only once. There are many great sites out there that offer a list of great sweeps and contests. Some of the ones I enjoy using are:
www.mysavings.com this one is also a great free sample site
www.sweepstakestoday.com
this site allow you to easily re-enter contests.
There are also other websites that offer great contests such as:
www.sheknows.com
www.womansday.com
www.madberries.com
Personally I must enter 100s of contests a year. So if I win one or 2 things a year I'm really not THAT lucky. A lot of sites make it easy for you to re-enter as well. Google tool bar offer an autofill button on their bar. There is also something called "roboform" available online that i've heard many people use. I personally don't but mostly because I like the google autofill. I've never won the big prize in a contest but I'm working on it :-)
Also a little more rewarding is Online Instant Win contests or IWGs.
www.myinstantwin.com
While it doesn't seem to be that they are updating the main page of the site you can go into the forums and find many instant win games. Often there are lots of prizes being given away in these games and you'll have better odds of winning something. I've won things like: free wendy's frosty's, a $50 amex gift card from Kraft, free m&ms for the mars halloween IWG they do, and more from contests like these.
Most online contests are free to enter. If the contests requires a code from a package purchase check the rules. Often times they will offer an alternative entry method or list a "free code" in the rules.
Also as a matter of courtesy. I don't enter contests if I'm really not interested in the prize. For instance, I would never enter a contest for something like free sky diving lessons, or "spend the day with _______ football player ( i wouldn't even know what to say) or something like that. Not for me, but I'm sure there are people out there that would truely enjoy that.
Frustrated with Lockerz.com
Saturday, January 30, 2010
I signed up with Lockerz.com back in August. It was before their big launch happened in October. At the time I saw they had some really great prizes for reasonable amounts of points. Prizes like Nintendo DS, Xbox 360 games, portable dvd players and lots more. I was saving my points to get a really great prize.
Since then however I always somehow missed out on the prize redemptions. They won't announce exactly when the prize redemptions are. Half the time it for "Zlisters only" meaning the people that referred at least 20 people to the site.
In the last few months you can't even get in to see what prizes will be available. I saw in their posting that they were going to have redemption in January but weren't announcing when again. I checked back everyday since I saw the message, multiple times a day. I must have checked 10 times today at different times.
I was on twitter today and saw a tweet from Lockerz.com "Thanks to all who participated in the redemption today" I freaked. I went to the site and it had info posted for those who did redeem. Though I really have to wonder if there really was a redemption considering I checked the site 10x today. So I have 100s of points that are pretty much worthless because I can't ever use them.
What exactly is the point of the site if you can't ever use the points?
Since then however I always somehow missed out on the prize redemptions. They won't announce exactly when the prize redemptions are. Half the time it for "Zlisters only" meaning the people that referred at least 20 people to the site.
In the last few months you can't even get in to see what prizes will be available. I saw in their posting that they were going to have redemption in January but weren't announcing when again. I checked back everyday since I saw the message, multiple times a day. I must have checked 10 times today at different times.
I was on twitter today and saw a tweet from Lockerz.com "Thanks to all who participated in the redemption today" I freaked. I went to the site and it had info posted for those who did redeem. Though I really have to wonder if there really was a redemption considering I checked the site 10x today. So I have 100s of points that are pretty much worthless because I can't ever use them.
What exactly is the point of the site if you can't ever use the points?
My review of Diamond Creek Candles: Read before you make a decision
Saturday, January 23, 2010
As some of you may know I was a Diamond Creek Candles consultant. I had been a consultant for only about 8 months. I'm going to tell you both the pros and cons of this company through my experience and from what I've heard from other consultants both current and former.
When I started it was April 2009. They offered a 30 day free trial and at that time also offered a free consultant program. Some of the positives of the company was that:
1. There WAS no start up fees or monthly fees unless you chose to upgrade to one of the bigger consultant packages.
2. There is no quotas, not required to keep inventory, no required parties, and the opportunity to take your business as far as you wanted
3. This is probably the best one...They really do have great quality products with great scent choices that other candle companies just didn't offer.
4. The product prices were very reasonable especially when compared to other candle companies.
5. They offer a dropship program for if you wanted to sell through your own website, ebay, etc.
6. They offered whole sale (in the pay plans) for if you wanted to buy bulk quantities for craft shows, etc.
That being said let me tell you why I'm no longer a consultant. In the 8 short months I was a consultant many changes were made. They got rid of the free 30 day trial and the free consultant program. DCC stated the reason for this was that they wanted serious consultants. Though when I was in the free program i was selling just the same as when I upgraded to the gold program. Many of the consultants that had been there longer than me took this change the hardest. They lost a lot of their downlines and commissions. This is coming from consultants I've talked to.
The shipping rates were unfair in my opinion. As a customer or consultant if you ordered only 1 candle you paid $9.80 for shipping and the shipping went up from there. When consultants tried to give suggestions about othere shipping options the owners of DCC didn't want to listen and would delete conversations about it on the forums or group.
They changed the way the wholesale and drop ship sites worked for consultants. IT used to be you could order a case of candles on the wholesale site and pay only about $10 for shipping. Now the consultants have to add them individually and shipping more than doubles that. Cutting into consultant profits siginificantly for shows or if consultants wanted to stock an inventory.
As a consultant it would take my orders a month or more until I received them. They stated it was because they took care of customer orders first and then consultants which would be understandable if my customers weren't asking me "It's been 2 week, 3weeks, whatever and I haven't received my order where is it?"
The customer service from DCC for both consultants and customers was minimal if not non existent at times. One of my best customers put in an order waited 3 weeks and still did not receive her order. She stated she tried to contact them several times via email (because it's the only contact option they give you) and never heard back. I attempted to contact them for her. They got back to me and said "there was a problem with the credit card on her order". Which would have been fine but when were they plannig on telling my customer or me?
I had a large order from my work place. I put it through and did not receive it for over a month. It was my first large order and it made me look terrible as a consultant. I lost a few customers over that. When I'd email about it i got the run around.
I had a home party in the beginning of November and got a decent number of sales from it. Placed the order and waited almost 3 weeks to receive it. I did not receive a peice of the order that was paid for. Some replacment hallogen bulbs I had orderd for my tart warmer. I emailed them about it, they apologized and said the would get them right out. I waited and here it is Jan 23rd and still no hallogen bulbs that i paid for. I emailed them again about it and they said they sent them out via ups in a bubble envelope but if I did not receive them they would send them out again but offered no tracking number and offered no money back.
The last straw? (As if that shouldn't have been enough), I had $45 in commission in my DCC account. I earned this the beginning of Nov from the home party (my home party was Nov 7) and a small sale before that. I had not received the money by the end of Nov so I emailed them. They stated that the money earned then would not be paid until Dec. I waited. I could have really used the money for Christmas expenses. I never saw the money deposited to may account in Dec. I just recently went back and reviewed my account statements back until the middle of Nov. and sure enough the money was never paid to me. I still had no received the payment as of Jan 19. So I emailed them. The response was: We only pay once a month so you should get paid in Jan. I told them the money was from Nov and I should have been paid sooner and they did not get back to me and it is now Jan 23.
I emailed them and asked them to please cancel my account. I was very polite about it especially considering how T'd off I am at this point. The response I got back: "ok it taken care of I have canceled your account" No, why are you cancelling, no we really appreciate your business nothing.
I've talked to several other consultants who tell me they also haven't been paid and a few others have also not received products they ordered.
If you do a search for Diamond Creek Candles on the internet you will find I am not the only unhappy former consultant. In fact I found a whole forum dedicated to it.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/work-at-home/diamond-creek-candle/diamondcreek-candles-diamond-53292.htm
When I started it was April 2009. They offered a 30 day free trial and at that time also offered a free consultant program. Some of the positives of the company was that:
1. There WAS no start up fees or monthly fees unless you chose to upgrade to one of the bigger consultant packages.
2. There is no quotas, not required to keep inventory, no required parties, and the opportunity to take your business as far as you wanted
3. This is probably the best one...They really do have great quality products with great scent choices that other candle companies just didn't offer.
4. The product prices were very reasonable especially when compared to other candle companies.
5. They offer a dropship program for if you wanted to sell through your own website, ebay, etc.
6. They offered whole sale (in the pay plans) for if you wanted to buy bulk quantities for craft shows, etc.
That being said let me tell you why I'm no longer a consultant. In the 8 short months I was a consultant many changes were made. They got rid of the free 30 day trial and the free consultant program. DCC stated the reason for this was that they wanted serious consultants. Though when I was in the free program i was selling just the same as when I upgraded to the gold program. Many of the consultants that had been there longer than me took this change the hardest. They lost a lot of their downlines and commissions. This is coming from consultants I've talked to.
The shipping rates were unfair in my opinion. As a customer or consultant if you ordered only 1 candle you paid $9.80 for shipping and the shipping went up from there. When consultants tried to give suggestions about othere shipping options the owners of DCC didn't want to listen and would delete conversations about it on the forums or group.
They changed the way the wholesale and drop ship sites worked for consultants. IT used to be you could order a case of candles on the wholesale site and pay only about $10 for shipping. Now the consultants have to add them individually and shipping more than doubles that. Cutting into consultant profits siginificantly for shows or if consultants wanted to stock an inventory.
As a consultant it would take my orders a month or more until I received them. They stated it was because they took care of customer orders first and then consultants which would be understandable if my customers weren't asking me "It's been 2 week, 3weeks, whatever and I haven't received my order where is it?"
The customer service from DCC for both consultants and customers was minimal if not non existent at times. One of my best customers put in an order waited 3 weeks and still did not receive her order. She stated she tried to contact them several times via email (because it's the only contact option they give you) and never heard back. I attempted to contact them for her. They got back to me and said "there was a problem with the credit card on her order". Which would have been fine but when were they plannig on telling my customer or me?
I had a large order from my work place. I put it through and did not receive it for over a month. It was my first large order and it made me look terrible as a consultant. I lost a few customers over that. When I'd email about it i got the run around.
I had a home party in the beginning of November and got a decent number of sales from it. Placed the order and waited almost 3 weeks to receive it. I did not receive a peice of the order that was paid for. Some replacment hallogen bulbs I had orderd for my tart warmer. I emailed them about it, they apologized and said the would get them right out. I waited and here it is Jan 23rd and still no hallogen bulbs that i paid for. I emailed them again about it and they said they sent them out via ups in a bubble envelope but if I did not receive them they would send them out again but offered no tracking number and offered no money back.
The last straw? (As if that shouldn't have been enough), I had $45 in commission in my DCC account. I earned this the beginning of Nov from the home party (my home party was Nov 7) and a small sale before that. I had not received the money by the end of Nov so I emailed them. They stated that the money earned then would not be paid until Dec. I waited. I could have really used the money for Christmas expenses. I never saw the money deposited to may account in Dec. I just recently went back and reviewed my account statements back until the middle of Nov. and sure enough the money was never paid to me. I still had no received the payment as of Jan 19. So I emailed them. The response was: We only pay once a month so you should get paid in Jan. I told them the money was from Nov and I should have been paid sooner and they did not get back to me and it is now Jan 23.
I emailed them and asked them to please cancel my account. I was very polite about it especially considering how T'd off I am at this point. The response I got back: "ok it taken care of I have canceled your account" No, why are you cancelling, no we really appreciate your business nothing.
I've talked to several other consultants who tell me they also haven't been paid and a few others have also not received products they ordered.
If you do a search for Diamond Creek Candles on the internet you will find I am not the only unhappy former consultant. In fact I found a whole forum dedicated to it.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/work-at-home/diamond-creek-candle/diamondcreek-candles-diamond-53292.htm
Candle Testers anyone interested?
Friday, January 22, 2010
I'm getting into candle making. I've made some scented jar candles that turned out pretty good. I want to try making some taper candles next. They will not be scented but I'm going to try coloring them.
I had been letting friends and coworkers test them to give me their opinion. What I wanted to do thought was have some people try them once I make them to give me your honest feedback on them. If anyone would be interested leave a comment here. I'll take the first 3 seriously interested people. I'll let you know when I will be sending them out. In exchange for your feedback: positive and/or negative because I'd like to be able to eventually sell them at craftshows. I will ask that you leave your feedback here. You also have to be a blog follower and a twitter follower. @angiewith3
So to some up: First 3 interested people willing to give honest feedback on my homemade candles and post it here on my blog. I will let you know when I'm going to send them out (I'm looking to start this in February)the first set of volunteers will test taper candles.
Making Candles & Soaps For Dummies (For Dummies (Sports & Hobbies))
Soy Candle Making Kit: Learn how easy and fun it is to make soy container candles.
UPDATE****I plan on starting the taper candles this weekend. As long as all goes well I will mail them out by next weekend****
I had been letting friends and coworkers test them to give me their opinion. What I wanted to do thought was have some people try them once I make them to give me your honest feedback on them. If anyone would be interested leave a comment here. I'll take the first 3 seriously interested people. I'll let you know when I will be sending them out. In exchange for your feedback: positive and/or negative because I'd like to be able to eventually sell them at craftshows. I will ask that you leave your feedback here. You also have to be a blog follower and a twitter follower. @angiewith3
So to some up: First 3 interested people willing to give honest feedback on my homemade candles and post it here on my blog. I will let you know when I'm going to send them out (I'm looking to start this in February)the first set of volunteers will test taper candles.
Making Candles & Soaps For Dummies (For Dummies (Sports & Hobbies))
Soy Candle Making Kit: Learn how easy and fun it is to make soy container candles.
UPDATE****I plan on starting the taper candles this weekend. As long as all goes well I will mail them out by next weekend****
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