• Thoughts regarding your online experience

  • By: Chris Hauman – Webbersaur.us

  • The Internet can be an incredible tool for finding information you are looking for or that new toy you desire. I recently found a TV that I wanted to buy. I went to Google and typed in the model number and found multiple matches, one of which was a 20% off coupon for the same TV at this online electronics store(6ave.com). I hadn’t heard of this store before, so I went back to Google and searched 6ave.com reviews . There were over 500 reviews with an average of 4 out of 5 stars. As the price was $300- less than it was locally and free shipping, I purchased it (new, not refurbished). This was a Monday morning around 11:00am, I got an email Tuesday morning stating it was out for delivery and received it at 10:30am that morning. I was pretty amazed. I didn’t have to take the time to drive to the store, do the dance to get the TV, lug it to the car and then to the house. It was brought right to my front door. Awesome. I had a similar experience with Zappos.com, I ordered a pair of shoes on a Sunday morning and received them Monday morning at 9:30am, free shipping. What? How is that even possible? Please keep in mind there are local shops that are very competitive and sell online as well, always check locally first! I have a larger shoe size so my options are limited.

    Some people are skeptical to give their personal information over the internet. However, if you use some tips in your online transactions, the fact is you are very protected. Here are some tips for shopping and interacting securely online:

    1. Make sure the website is secure – Before providing any kind of credit card information, you need to make sure that the website provides a secure transmission. Check if there’s a locked padlock icon on the lower right hand corner of your browser. Some sites may not show the padlock – check the url to be sure it shows https://.

    2. Use Paypal, Amazon Payments or Google Checkout – If you’re nervous about giving away your credit card information to any website, consider using one of these. It secures your credit card number and acts as a buffer between you and the online shop, that way you don’t have to give out any more information than you need to. Many shops already transact with PayPal, sometimes exclusively.

    3. Read a website’s privacy policy –The policy should indicate what a website intends to do with the information you provide it, which is why you should read it before you shop there. Needless to say, beware of transacting with websites that don’t have a privacy policy.

    More Useful Tips For A Better Online Experience.

    Take advantage of the tools that are at your disposal for free. Do you have an unknown error on your computer? Copy and paste the error it into a search engine (ie google, yahoo, etc) you will most likely find the solution (if not go to soundnetworkgroup.com, we have a guy). Don’t know how to copy and paste, type copy and paste into a search engine and voila, there is a tutorial. I was trying to figure out how many words in this article and I typed in word counter in google, 10 seconds later I have my answer (530 so far).

    Save yourself some Keystrokes. You don’t have to type www. before your web address in the URL (no idea, google it), for example our web address is webbersaur.us , you don’t need to type http:// or www. just webbersaur.us.

    Try a different web browser. Internet explorer is a popular browser, but there are others that have a different look, features and tools. A couple options are Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome. They are all free to download and can enhance your online experience.

    Questions or comments? Feel free to email me Chris@webbersaur.us or visit the Blog on my website.