Part of being a successful online shopper is waiting for deals.  With so many vendors, it is inevitable that the product you want will soon be on sale.  This is where Deal of the Day sites come in handy.  There are two main sites you should have book marked and visit every day, Woot.com, and DODTracker.com  These sites will be your guide in finding some of the best deals online.

WOOT
Woot.com is the original deal of the day site.  It is important to recognize the original vs the imitators.  Beyond that, Woot has been very successful not only because they have some of the hottest deals you will ever find, but they always have hilarious descriptions about their products.  You can also discuss the deals in their forums.  Woot has recently ventured out beyond their one deal of the day into Shirt.Woot, which offers one shirt everyday for a measly $10!  If you want to get in on this deal you’ll have to get up pretty early in the morning, because it frequently sells out within an hour.

DOD  Tracker
This site is kind of a database of all every deal of the day sites on the internet.  It tracks 153 deal of the day sites, which is a lot more than probably anyone even cares to look at.  But if you can find a store that frequently sells products you’re interested in you can score some great deals, if you know what you want and have a quick mouse.  This is definately a site you should bookmark and visit frequently. DODTracker

The most common question people ask when they begin online shopping is whether or not it’s safe.

Online shopping has taken off in the past decade beyond what many people ever thought possible.  The graph shows online spending as calculated by the BBC. So can you really trust your most personal information with private vendors? Overwhelmingly yes.

Shopping on Websites
Many websites are trustworthy to submit your credit card information of the simple fact that they never actually see your personal info.  Authorize.net is a company that is many sites use as a payment gateway.   So for example, if you’re buying a CD from CDWorld.com,  Even though you’re on CDWorld.com/checkout, all of your information is sent securely to  Authorize.net. 

Private Vendors
Buying from sites that facilitate private selling like eBay or Craigslist is a trickier matter.  That will have to be explored in many more posts.  First, lets deal with eBay.  I personally try and avoid eBay when at all possible.  That said, there are literally millions of people that use it every day without any problems.  The key to using eBay without any problems is to always pay through paypal.  Paypal has buyer protection, so you can open a dispute if someone tries to rip you off. 
On Craigslist, there is only one thing you ever need to know.  All deals should be in person and cash only.  Anyone that tries to send payment through Western Union is a scam.  Anyone that wants you to ship the item is trying to scam you.  Plan and simple. 

So to sum up everything that has been said, YES, shopping online is safe.  There are many safeguards in place to prevent scammers from stealing your hard earned money.  Even if all the best efforts to avoid being scammed fail, you can always call your credit card company and cancel the card or dispute the charges.

Amazon.com is an amazing marketplace for people to buy and sell goods.  Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, who has since become obscenely rich.  Amazon does 14.8 billion in business every year, and for good reason.  Amazon has been a hotbed for deals for years, but not everyone realizes what great deals are available at this site.  What Amazon does very well is bring together a lot of sellers into one community.  When you buy an item, you will frequently see an item being sold through a third party, so Amazon doesn’t even have the item in stock, but they can fill the need by allowing other campanies to plug the gaps in their product line.  Beyond that, there is also the ability to sell your used products through their site.  Amazon will take a 5.8% commission.