Attention Deal Shoppers: Deal Shopping 101

Friday, October 10, 2008

Attention Deal Shoppers!

Thanks for dropping by to see the unBEEatable deals. I want you to learn a little something about online shopping. I find that most people do not know what I am about to teach you. They may know how to do it but not so much about when to do it. What am I talking about? Cleaning your machine of cache, cookies and history is what I'd like to teach you.

First things first.....

1. Why should you clean your machine prior to shopping?

The answer is it is all about the credit. From the blogging or site side I would like to receive credit on my account that you shopped through my link. Since a "cookie" has a life (wish I did) and is good for varying lengths of time, it becomes really important to the person who owns the link you are using for you to clean your machine.
Example: You aren't cleaning your machine often if at all (SHAME SHAME). So let's say that 6 weeks ago you were doing some research on a special gift. You visited lots and lots of sites tracking down a good deal. Well every site you visited had a cookie put onto your machine in the temporary Internet file. For sure you visited Amazon that day even if you didn't remember that you had while you are shopping at Amazon today.
Since you didn't clean your machine but wanted to shop using my Amazon link today --- well guess who gets the credit for TODAY'S shopping spree? It isn't me or it isn't any site you shop on today while shopping at Amazon. It is the previous cookie. Yep, credit defaults to the oldest cookie. Wicked huh?
So, here is what you learned. (1) Your machine is probably bogged down with months if not years of old cookies, cache and history. You'll learn what to do in a minute to clear it off. (2) You learned that if you want to get credit on some rewards account or any account that give you any kind of credit, you may not be getting the credit or giving the credit you thought was happening automatically. (3) You learned you have to do a little bit of work.

On to the work....

Here is where it gets a little dicey. There are many, many different computers and many different browsers that people use. It follows that there are loads of combinations of computers and browser matchups. I AM NOT A COMPUTER PROFESSIONAL. I can give you instruction, tell you in theory what should happen and how it should improve your computer speed but the bottom line is YOU must be responsible for doing a bit of computer maintenance.

Sources for information and instructions....
Internet Tips & Traps: Clear Your Cache and Cookies to Free up Valuable Space and Protect your Privacy
I found this resource on godaddy.com and they are written pretty well.

Also use Google, YouTube for a video version, the help button on your browser or a Dummies book. I have to leave you to your own devices here. There is just no way I can take on the responsibility to teach you to do this. Read, read, and re-read.

Expected results....

First of all, your machine may run faster.
To really make your machine hum, Google "how to defrag computer" and find some instructions that you feel comfortable with using. What does defragging your computer do? Here is my fave analogy...Lay a CD on the table. It represents your hard drive. Pour salt on it. The salt represents the bits of information stored on your hard drive. See all the grains everywhere? No rhyme, reason or pattern? Well, a defrag simply lines all the like information (grains of salt) up on your computer hard drive and compacts it so that your software isn't having it race all over the disk trying to gather it up so it can run a program or do a task. Once you run a defrag, you need to reboot your machine. You should see a significant improvement in speed if you have never done this.

All in all, what you learned today is keep your machine clean so it will run faster and how to do that.
You also learned that for you to get or give credit while shopping or doing a task for credit, you MUST clean your machine before you shop or before you do a task.

Now that you know the ins and outs of doing this manually I will share with you my favorite free program that will do the same with a few clicks. It is CRAP CLEANER. I love this program and have always trusted it to find and delete all the unnecessary garbage from your hard drive. I have never saved a backup of the junk it deletes but you do what YOU feel is best. One last note about CC -- UNcheck the following boxes so you don't lose login information.

First, click on the Broom/Cleaner Icon.
Click on the Windows Tab up in the top left corner. A list of items will show up. Under the section titled INTERNET EXPLORER UNcheck - Autocomplete Form History!
In the section titled System, UNcheck - Start Menu Shortcuts and Desktop Shortcuts
In the section titled Advanced, UNcheck - Tray Notifications Cache
NEXT click on the Applications tab in the top left corner. A list of items will show up. Under the section titled Firefox/Mozilla UNcheck - Saved Form Information

I have done all of the above so many times I can do it in my sleep. I have used CCleaner for about 4 years and (knock on wood) have not had any problems with it on my computers or hubby on his. There will be periodic program updates for CCleaner as with virus programs.

In addition to CCleaner, I personally run SpySweeper w/ virus protection. I also run Norton 360. I run scans from each daily (Spread them out at 3, 4, & 5 AM). I do a defrag about 3x a week as well. Just to be clear, daily people...DAILY, there are 100's if not 1000's of viruses, trojans, spybots slung out on the Internet. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE keep your machines cleaned, software updated and scans done DAILY!