Membership DOES have it's priviledges

We use the Starwood American Express card for our own personal expenditures and love it. It's the most flexible and valuable loyalty program on the market that we've found.

For example, you can export points on a 1-to-1 basis to about 30 different airlines, making it the most flexible airline miles card you can carry. What's more, Amex will give you a BONUS 5,000 miles free whenever you export 20,000 miles to any airline -- each and every time.

There's a bunch of other neat benefits of this American Express credit card.

But recently, we've thought about applying for another card - either a Platinum Amex or a Business Gold American Express card because of their unique benefits -- for example, membership in various airline airport clubs for free, or free upgrades or free concierge services.

One of the BIG DRAWS of the Platinum Card is their FREE Companion Airfare program - Just purchase a full-fare First-Class or Business-Class International Airline ticket through Platinum Travel Service and you'll receive one complimentary ticket with the same itinerary as your own. Travel as often as you like between now and December 31, 2008 — there's no limit to the number of times you can receive a complimentary ticket. With the Domestic Companion Airfare Program, you can bring a companion with you on U.S. flights-anywhere in the U.S., on six major U.S. carriers. Purchase a domestic coach airfare for yourself from $299 with your Platinum Card^® on Delta, Continental, JetBlue, SouthWest or Frontier Airlines and your companion receives complimentary airfare. You can request up to four complimentary companion airfares per year.

The fact that you basically get a free round-trip ticket in the first year with the promotion and then free airline tickets for each and every other ticket you buy domestic or internationally, makes up for the annual fee. . .

*Earn 25,000 Membership Rewards® bonus points when you spend $1,000 - Redeemable for one free round-trip domestic airline ticket! * No Pre-set Spending Limit * 24-hour access to Concierge service for the finest experiences in dining, entertainment, and luxury *Fine Hotels & Resorts Program — exclusive amenities at boutique, resort, and luxury hotels around the world *By Invitation Only® Events — access to exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime events * Complimentary Airport Club Access

? Earn up to 40,000 bonus points in one year - enough for one domestic round-trip airline ticket plus other business supplies. ? Points have no expiration date ? No limit to the number of Membership Rewards® points you can earn ? No annual fee for the first year - a savings of $125 ? Save 3-25% on business purchases at companies like FedEx®, Delta®, Hertz®, and more. ? Redeem points for top-tier rewards including travel, merchandise, office equipment, and gift cards for you or your employees

Printable Coupon: Staples 12% Off July / August 2008

FYI, Staples is running a promo where you get a $15 Staples Rewards credit when you recycle an HP inkjet cartridge - the flyer said 3rd party cartridges are ok too. The catch is that you need to make a $25 purchase in HP ink.

For my HP Photosmart C7250 printer, I need 3 ink tanks at $10 each usually. $30 total, minus $15 = $5/ink tank. That's 50% off for OEM HP brand ink.

You can stack this printable coupon on and get 12% off as well:

Printable Coupon for 12% Off Staples

Printable Coupon: Toys R Us $5 Off

Stock up on anything and everything for your baby and kids. Hey have a birthday to go to coming up? Get your birthday presents ahead of time!

Just click the image above to get the full size coupon image and print this printable coupon for Toys R Us.

Unlimited Continuous Backups for Free

BOTH my main desktop PC and my laptop hard drives failed this past month -- IN THE SAME WEEK.

It was not a good month. I just got my laptop back and have been slowly reinstalling all my applications and data.

While what happened to me was rare, it may happen to you! Even if just one of your machines fail, you'll want to make sure that all you data are safe and sound, archives somewhere.

I've pointed people to Mozy before, but now there's another service which seems to do a decent job as well: Carbonite. A direct competitor, there are subtle differences in the 2 services.


But the bottomline is that you should try the Free Trial out RIGHT NOW. Don't delay and back-up yoru data off-site remotely where it's safe and secure.

Believe me, from personal experience now, I can tell you that you do NOT want to go through a hard drive crash at all. And if all your data is wiped out, gone forever, you'll kick yourself hard especially since you're reading about this free trial of the Carbonite back-up service.

I'm pleading with you. BACK-UP your data NOW. If you don't use an automated back-up service like Mozy or Carbonite, you'll have to remind yourself to do it monthly or regularly somehow. But if you get one of these services, you can set it and forget it.

The trial is completely free so that you can easily set it up and adjust the settings (which files/folders you want to back-up) for the first 2 weeks. After that, it comes out to just over $4/month. That's REALLY CHEAP for a complete full-service back-up service.

Let me know if you try it out and what your thoughts are about Carbonite by leaving a comment below.

$5 Off Buy.com Promotion Code

Here's a straight-forward Deal Of The Day for
BUY.COM

CLICK TO ACTIVATE & CLAIM DISCOUNT

$5 off $100 or more in ALL Stores!

exp 07/31/08

Make $10 For Watching Free Movies For The Next 2 Weeks

Here's a returning discount promotion for Blockbuster Total Access DVD Movie Rental program.

This Free Trial is for a completely free 2-week subscription to Blockbuster on any of their plans (did you know some of their plans are as low as $3.99/MONTH?).

You'll also get no late fees, free shipping, free in-store movie exchanges, etc.

And here's the BONUS -- get $10 Cash Back just by designating your PayPal account.

Cheaper than Starbucks, Richer than Coffee at Home

I'm always on the lookout for some good coffee. Especially if I can make it at home, but experience real java house flavor.

While I've grown to like Starbucks - the price certainly helps which is another story - for it's brewed coffee options, making the perfect cup time and time again at home is the holy grail.

Here's a freebie (kind of) offer for one of those coffee pod systems from Senseo. Like the K-cup or other single cup coffee machines, this offer gives you a free machine, free coffee and a free canister to store the pods. S&H is only $15. Certainly worth a try when the machines itself sell for over $50 usually, even on sale.




LINK to offer: https://www.sharesenseo.com/

Webmaster 101 - What is a DOMAIN NAME? How do I get one?

I just got asked this question again from someone that wants to get their own custom email address. The conversation quickly got into domain names, websites, etc. So here's a quick FAQ for everyone today.

The bottom line answer is that you can get a custom email address for as little as $7/year with some other free perks and options to create a website now or later if you wish. But just put down the $7 for the first year, start using custom email address and get comfortable...

We can talk later about websites, etc.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is a Web address, such as valupoint.com, that is linked to an "IP address" -- which is jargon to represent a physical point on the Internet. When someone types a domain name into a Web browser, the computer goes out, finds the IP address, gets the information for the web page you requested, grabs the information, comes back to your computer and viola -- the requested Web page displays on your monitor. All within seconds. Now instead of remembering IP addresses which are filled with numbers, there's a system set-up called domain names to help people navigate to the bazillions of web pages on the Internet. A domain name consists of a top-level and a second-level domain. A top-level domain (TLD) is the part of the domain name located to the right of the dot (godaddy.com). The most common top-level domains are .COM, .NET, and .ORG. Some other popular top-level domains are .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME and .WS. These TLDs have certain guidelines but are, for the most part, available to any registrant, anywhere in the world. The part of the domain name located to the left of the dot — "valupoint," in this case — is called the second-level domain (SLD) name. The second-level domain name is the "readable" part of the address and refers to the organization or entity behind the Internet address. Second-level domain names must be registered with an Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)-accredited registrar.

GoDaddy.com is one reputable "registrar" that basically sells domain names to the public. They are also one of the most affordable ones - you can get a basic domain name account for only $7/year.


Another one I recommend is 1and1 Internet - They offer 2GB email accounts (5 to start) for only $0.99/month. So if you have a family of 5, each person can easily have their own email webmail account using your custom domain name i.e. ____@yourfamilyname.com for only a buck a month.

We've Got Your COVERED

Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime...

It's definitely summertime, with the 90 degree weather this week.

4th of July means getting the burgers and dogs on the grill and eating poolside under the umbrella.

Time for a new umbrella? Those 9' Market Umbrellas are going for $60+ at Bed Bath and Beyond or Linens and Things -- even with the ubiquitous coupons. Problem is that they are always out of stock for the color we want.

I just found the perfect umbrella, prefect color to match our other umbrella on the deck.

What I love the most about this find at Walmart is the...PRICE of course. $30 with free shipping to any local store in the USA. NICE.

Let me say it again...a Delahey Old Orchard Burgundy 9' Market Umbrella for only $30 TOTAL! No rebates, no coupons, nothing! WOW.

Now I understand why Walmart is Wal-mart.

And I have a new place to check online everytime I go shopping for something....walmart.com.