Melinda L.

I have only been a member of ThriveMarket.com for less than a month, but rarely have I seen a more conscious website. You DO have to purchase a membership after your first free month, but Thrive donates as much money possible to feed the poorest parts of our country. For instance, I was educated on an Indian population (I think Lakota-Sioux) 98% of these people live SO FAR below the poverty line that they can't even get a vehicle to get them out of there for essentials like medicine and food.

My dollars spent and your dollars spent FEED this indigenous population. AND! OMGosh... thy have wonderful food and even better customer service. If you don't live in a place that has a Whole Foods, ThriveMarket.com offers an inexpensive and delicious way to eat organic, raw and super-foods.

It's fantastic, and needs our attention and support.

I like to use Yelp for finding good restaurants and other local businesses. I have posted photos (they make it super easy) and it's handy when traveling. I am shocked that people here, on SiteJabber would give it a one star rating. That doesn't make any sense to me. At least they aren't begging for reviews the way AngiesList.com does... (I get tired of that)

Either way, thumbs up from me.

I read a lot of books, but get tired of spending money on hard copies or audio versions... And today, quite by accident, I stumbled across this little gem (or perhaps a vast gem!).

Did someone you know recommend a book? Wanna really check it out besides the tidbits Amazon or Audible offer without any sales pitch? Go to this site. I got lost in it for a long time. What a great place. The site offers free books to read on your computer. While I doubt they have whatever was released this week, their choice of titles was completely satisfying to me. Yeah... There are advertisements, but free is free (because it is being paid for by ad revenues).

While I probably won't get into reading books in this manner (uncomfortable on the eyes) it's a great place to get a flavor of a book to see if it suits you.

Highly recommended!

I have been using SparkNotes.com ever since I started listening to complicated audiobooks that I purchase from Audible.com. Ever wanted to read War and Peace or The Count of Monte Cristo? I have done just this:

Depending on the length of each chapter, I typically review what I have read/listened to every 5 chapters. I'm not "studying" such books to pass a Lit test (although this site is geared for students thus described). I feel that spark notes helps deepen my experience of a hard-core read by giving chapter summaries and analysis of themes and motifs.

Plus... As a bonus (for fun for me... but I can see how this service would be invaluable to students) I take the quizzes at the end of each book.

For example, if one does not speak or understand French, Monte Cristo has TONS of French names, phrases and places. How did I do on the quizzes? 100% every time... and they are HARD. But with classics or Shakespeare it's easy to fully understand what is going on and test well.

For a book enthusiast like myself, it's just irresistible. Want to be the smartest person at your book club discussion? Read SparkNotes along with your book. You'll be fluent in no time. (I found this especially invaluable for Russian Lit, since I speak and understand French)

Happy reading!

Vermont Country Store... two words: Original Ovaltine... YUM! And healthy!

I have been ordering from them since before the internet was available, so that's pretty cool. They do have things that rotate, but I truly love ordering from them... good bargains on impossible-to-find items from Ole fashioned ribbon candy to footwear. And if there is anything from your childhood that you remember and can't find it now? I bet you would have a good chance of finding it there.

I have been so happy with Chewey.com. If you have a pet, be sure to check it out. Their prices are great, they often have sales and the shipping is free if a certain amount is ordered. It's way easier shopping than going around to the different pet stores.

My cats are both on grain free diets, and the big chains like PetSmart just never have what I am looking for. Chewey has a money back guarantee, but I see no point since my cats rarely, if ever, need a new type of food.

I think Vimeo is wonderful... especially the way they support emerging artists. I can't recall seeing commercials there, very unlike YouTube which shows you a commercial overtime I click on a different video.

I adore Zappos. Free shipping when you become a VIP member, and free returns for everyone. This is a company I love to support. The CEO is a nice man, and the employees have FUN while working. I read a long article about the owner, and he sounds like a great guy... If you have never been there, I would say GO! It's fun and they make it easy to find what you need. I have a pair of New Balance shoes on their way as I write this!

Wow! What an awesome company. I am a bit of a "vitamin junkie" but Swanson's rivals Nordstrom for customer service. They rock so hard! Their name brands are very affordable and stuff like Green Vibrance (that retails in a local store for over $40) is $19... or something crazy like that. Their boxes always arrive in immaculate condition and recently I was looking for a supplement they did not carry... so I called them and they took down all of the info on the package that I had and said they would inquire about carrying it! YAY! You can buy anything from Fish Oil to their own Tri-Fiber complex (my favorite fiber supplement, ever... very easy on the stomach... to lip balms, to organic peppermint oil... I don't even know what else to say about Sawanon's... they rock... And I am grateful to be a customer

I cannot even begin to express HOW EXCELLENT their customer support is. Always buy AppleCare with ANY new purchase. They rock and I gotta go as they are connecting me just NOW! YAY! Love this company. Comcast should take some lessons from Apple... STAT!

I am both a small business owner AND a regular client of Angie's List since 2006. AL (for brevity's sake) has increased our business by approximately 25-30% with new customers each year. And when we were remodeling our home, it was an INVALUABLE source for finding both good contractors for my own work, but also referring my customers to these people who I had work for me (if I liked them). If I had a problem with a contractor, all I had to do was pick up the phone and AL went to bat for me by either getting the contractor to come out and finish up the 5% of work they needed to finish (ever had that happen to you? It's SO frustrating!) or putting them in the "penalty box" so that other people knew not to hire them. My business is the highest rated business for the services I provide in my geographical location and they treat us well by getting right back to us if we have any sort of issue or if a customer we did gives us a negative report, they call us to ask what went wrong. These reports typically get put on our record anyway, but our rep always makes sure that we know about them, since we have never gotten a report that was "real" that was less than a B average. But if you have a company that has a D rating, you are stuck with that until that company decides to clean up their business practices.

You people who are upset with AL seem not to know very much about it, because otherwise, you would join and be glad of the $48 you spent because if you are planning on doing any sort of major repairs on your home, you can get very reliable reports. Also, I "lent" my AL login info to a friend in Tennessee and when the work she needed done on her place was finished, I never got my own account transferred to TN. I realize that giving my login info to a friend skirts the AL agreement, but since I hadn't used it to find a contractor for over a year, I didn't think it an issue. I'd rather pay $48 a year up front than get duped by a horrible contractor for $4800.

I think they realize that people can have two homes in different parts of the country, and I never had any repercussions from it. They never got confused and sent me stuff for TN. So to those people complaining about that issue, frankly... I don't see it as an issue. And who would you rather believe? 100 AL reviews that says my business is a great business and if you were a customer of theirs, you could get that info in 5 minutes... or spend your afternoon wasting you and your friend's and neighbor's time by asking them "who do you like for gutter cleaning?" They don't know. Angie's List knows.

OMG! My current favorite site! Get this:

I have become slightly addicted to using web coupons. If you go to the "Restautants.com" link you can pick out certificates for about 210 restaurants (I limited my search to within 15 miles of my house... so if you live in Manhattan... well... I can hardly imagine the possibilities!) So for a $25 coupon it costs $10 and for a $50 coupon it costs $20…etc, etc. I bought 2 coupons: one for $50 to one of my favorite restaurants: Mona's. And a $25 certificate to a pub that looked good on both City~Search and Yelp. It's super easy to cross reference. So I was totally prepared to spend $30 for $75 worth of food. Most coupons have some type of restrictions like "we will add 18% gratuity to your bill before the coupon is factored in" or "can't be used for Happy Hour" or "only one coupon per table" or "dine in only" or "must be used within one year"… totally reasonable things like that.

So as I was checking out I saw a little box that said "do you have a promo code?". So I googled the words "restaurant.com promotions" and found a code (the word MOM) and put it into the little box. I ENDED UP PAYING $9 FOR $75 WORTH OF FOOD!

I am SO blown away! So I am sending this out so that you, too can have this amazing experience. David and I have stopped eating out quite a bit because it's so expensive. But now we get to go to 2 great restaurants! YAY! Date night! This particular code ends tomorrow, but they had tons of different codes… so even if that one expires, you will still be able to find more. It looks like they have them in all major cities.

News like this is just too good to keep to one's self. So I am sharing it all with you!

Bon Appitit! (in Julia Child's voice, please!) And Bon everything else :)

OK... Listen up people!

Raise your hands if you like wine...

Lower your hands if you like dogs (so you can pet your puppy now!)...

Raise you hands if you like art...

Here is a chance to vote for a new wine label and also look at some amazing art!

I know the artist who did #46... and if you feel moved to vote for her because you are following me, then please do... But there are also other beautiful dog-oriented/wine-oriented art to feast your eyes upon. Voting for this round closes on May 27... so hurry! And pass it along! What a cool site... and how wonderful that they are giving an unknown artist the opportunity to create a wine label.

Such a fun site to look through! YAY!

Now this is a fantastic site. Thoughtful people frequent this site and you can align yourself easily with people who have similar taste in books as you do. It's the best site I know of to get honest feedback about books that you might be interested in reading. And they don't have that awful competitive aura around them like Amazon does. Amazon will do a face off with "the most helpful" review for a positive review of a book VS "the most helpful" review for a negative review. Except they never highlight an actual completely negative review... cuz they want you to buy the book... so they highlight a 3 star review.

GoodReads is just inhabited by better reviewers than Amazon because they aren't selling anything. However... they do give you a button to press if you read a review that you just cannot wait to order it... but they give you options of who currently has the book, which is particularly helpful if yu want to compare prices right then and there.

I would also say that GoodReads has the highest ratio of published authors making insightful comments about books than anywhere else I have been. No pretenders there. It's easy to make friends and then follow their likes and dislikes. Plus there is an option to copare books side by side which you have read with anyone on the site... and that is one of the features I like best.

All art is subjective... and what is a book if not a form of art. GoodReads is the best site for me for making informed decisions about what I want to read next.

So little time, so many great books! GoodReads makes it easier.

I'm sure I am not the first person the review SiteJabber.com... but I do think it is one of the most useful sites on the Internet. I like the thing they say about helping to build a "transparent" internet. So... if you are reading this, you probably agree with me. It's easy to navigate (that counts BIG in my book) and I have a great pace to go when I want to say something negative or positive about the internet and it's billions of sites.

So, I say... keep up the great work guys! And thank you for creating this space for those of us who need a place that's easy to find and use for how we feel about sites.

The next time I'm craving something that I know will feel bad in my stomach but taste good for 5 minutes I am going to visit this site first. It is absolutely hilarious and SOOOOOO disgusting. Then I'll go running for my Whole Foods Popsicles that taste great, have a serving of fruit and that I actually like better than ice cream. What a brilliant idea for a site to get people to think about what they are putting into their bodies. Love it, love it, love it!

I recently purchased 2 pair of glasses from Zenni Optical. I would give them 5 stars, if it weren't for the AWFUL and poorly designed cases they came in (I basically threw them away) but the glasses were just great.

The only creepy thing (I guess this is a trend, now) is that everywhere I go on the internet Zenni is stalking me. I don't like it, but I guess that is just the way of the world... although I must say they have been the most aggressive.

We recently ordered sheets from Overstock.com and they took forever to come. But when they DID arrive, they were just wonderful and exactly as described.

I have been a member of Audible.com for about a year now. I enjoy occasionally listening to a book rather than reading it and it has helped me make it through some extremely LONG books like The Count of Monte Cristo, Tom Jones: The Story of a Foundling, Roots and several others that are more than 1,000 pages in length. Also, I feel that for some of the "classics" it is a bit more fun to be read to rather than slog through dry sentences and have to look up words that aren't commonly used anymore (although I still did that, but I didn't have to put down the book and haul out the dictionary right at that moment in order for it to make sense).

Audio books are super expensive and I don't really think you can effectively share them unless you are willing to part with your iPod or computer... os I don't like not being able to just give away a book when I am done reading it. One thing that is cool is that I can delete them off my hard drive (for space saving reasons) but if I ever want to download it again for any reason, I own the download and I can download it for free. I have done that once.

Here are my small complaints about the company: I like to review my books both as keepsakes for me and I just enjoy giving my opinion. I like doing it on Audible (it is owned by Amazon) because people can vote if your review was "helpful" but not start an argument with you or call you names if they happen to disagree with you. I do not like that when you listen to a sample, if the book has a forward, you will get to listen to that rather than part of the first chapter, and that has mislead me more than once. But to be fair to the company, when I have complained about this and felt mislead, I was cheerfully given my credit back (you keep a valid credit card with them and they charge you every month... and there is a deep discount for the first 3 months if you have never been a member before)... so that's cool and I have purchased a few novels at deep discounts when they are having a sale.

But the part that irks me the most is when I have put a good deal of thought and care into a review, and unless you are the very first person to review the novel, your review gets buried on page 4 or 10 because it doesn't have any "helpful" votes yet.

What?

How are you able to garner helpful votes or not if no one is ever given a chance to see your review? I have complained to them about this before... why cannot they just be in chronological order? Or, why not set it up so that you have a choice of seeing the reviews with the most "helpful" votes or see them chronologically? I would think their website is sophisticated enough to do that, wouldn't you?

I wrote a very thoughtful review of Roots that is buried on like the 10th page of the reviews... so no one has seen it. It takes time and effort to write reviews and I think I deserve a chance to be read. Am I supposed to ask my friends who have Audible to vote helpful for me so that my review will be on the front couple of pages? Because, I don't think most people go beyond the first couple of pages, do you? I know I typically do not.

Anyway, that is my 2 cents about how I feel about Audible. I was bummed to find out that they were owned by Amazon, but not surprised.And, I have learned that now, if I am undecided about a book and it has lots of reviews, I really need to spend time reading the reviews. If you are an Audible member, I would suggest the same thing for you, because lately I have been swayed into buying books that I normally would not buy due to the placement of all the most helpful (meaning "good") reviews are all stacked at the top.

Thanks for reading! ~ML

This site has a LOT of cool stuff... but they are often out of sizes. I have put requests in for things when they come back into stock, but so far that has never happened. The few items I have purchased there were quite nice, even if the shipping is a bit steep. I recommend this site to woman who are plus size but don't want to wear potato sacks. Also, I have noticed that if you give an item a negative review, they do not publish it... so everything is skewed to their benefit, so I think it is good to be aware of this.