How to maximize your use of dealnews: Tips, tricks, and features

Published
Yeah, we know dealnews finds some awesome deals. What with our knowledgeable staff of thousands (well, dozens) of deal-finders combing the web and posting millions of deals a day (well, hundreds), it's assured that we'll post something, sooner or later, that is exactly what you want. So, you could just sit back and watch the deals float by, waiting for your chance to pounce.

Yeah, you could do that ... if you wanna be just a passive user! Power users know that, along with deals, we've stocked our site with oodles of helpful tools to help you find the deals you want most.

Here's some things you can check out to start you on your way towards becoming a dealnews uber-user.

My dealnews
This section of our site, located in the orange box at the upper-right hand side of our homepage, is where you can check out some of our best features, like:

  • The dealnewsletter. Tired of checking back at the main-page and hitting refresh? You can sign up for a daily e-mail that includes all of the day's deals. It's sent in one big bundle at 3 pm ET. You can even get a dedicated letter for dealmac or Style|Notes (more on those guys, below).
  • E-mail alerts. When dealnews finds a deal on exactly what you're looking for, wouldn't you like dealnews to come to you? Well, maybe not to the house. (We'd drink all your beer.) But how about via e-mail? With our e-mail alerts, you'll get an e-mail sent to you within minutes of when a deal hits our site. You can configure them to notify you of new deals by keyword, by category, or even from your favorite vendor. And of course you can set up multiple alerts, so you don't have to limit yourself or your buying habits.
  • RSS Feeds. Are you an, "E-mail is Dead, Long Live RSS" person? They you're the type that wants to use our RSS feeds. Along with our pre-made feeds, you'll also find RSS links throughout our sites that you can subscribe to.
Our email-based features are available to you after registering a My dealnews account. (Don't worry, due to our "don't be a jerk" philosophy, we won't spam you or share your e-mail with others.)

Sister Sites
No website is an island. But if dealnews were, we'd be an archipelago, we have so many little sites surrounding us. Check out our niche sites that we run to target your inner-most "deal-sires":

  • StyleNotes.
    In its December issue, InStyle Magazine told its readers to "logon to StyleNotes for the best online deals of the day." Literally our "sister" site, StyleNotes focuses on women's fashion with a touch of items for the home.
  • dealmac.
    Our very first site (launched in 1997), dealmac is still the web's most popular web site dedicated to Mac deals. Everything on dealmac can be used on or with your Mac. What? You found dealnews from reading about it ON dealmac? Welcome, friend!
  • dealcoupon.
    We aggregate coupon codes and discounts from hundreds of merchants from around the web-o-sphere and post them all here. So, if you find that one thing that you MUST buy that we don't have a deal on, see if we have a coupon that you can use to get yourself some cash off. It's the next best thing to being a dealnews writer. You'll really feel like a super-star, putting your own deal together, like that.
  • dealram.
    It's price comparison for computer memory and flash memory cards. Dell, Apple, HP, and the other guys gouge you on RAM when you upgrade on their sites. dealram helps you find after-market RAM for typically about 40% less than what these manufacturers will charge. Don't know what kind of RAM you have inside that beige box? No worries, you can search dealram by make and model of your computer.
  • dealcam.
    Think camera price comparison. Our web-savvy robots hunt around the web, compiling all sorts of camera deals. They throw 'em all into a big bin, where another robot sorts through them and organizes them into easy-to-browse groupings. If you're looking for a specific digital camera and you can't find it on dealnews, dealcam is the site for you. With robots!
Okay, back to the site you're on, dealnews.com. On our front page, is the "sort by" drop-down menu. This handy pull-down menu will re-arrange the site in a couple of different ways:
  • most recent
    This puts the newest deals up at the top, so there's less scrolling to do to find what's new. It's useful for people who visit several times a day.
  • category
    Our default view, the site will arrange itself into groups, so all TV deals are together, for example.
  • hotness
    "Hotness" is a dealnews signature: It reflects, from 1 to 5, how popular a deal is. The higher the Hotness, the more other readers thought it was something interesting. Sort dealnews by Hotness to see the most popular deals at the top. Power to the people!
  • sort by price
    Appearing only on the category view or search results pages, this pull-down box allows you to filter out deals outside of your budget.
  • Please also play with the "View" drop-down menu to see if you prefer one of these alternate ways to view the site, like "Tile" view or "Small". If you don't like any of these settings, it's easy to change back.
Other functionality you may be interested in:

Boolean searching
If you know what Boolean searching is, congrats! You can do Boolean searches on dealnews. For instance, a search for "external hard drive" -firewire will turn up external hard drives that are NOT FireWire drives. See our Search FAQ for more options.

Reader feedback
We find amazing deals not only due to the diligence of our staff, but our readers as well. In NYC, we have an expression in the subway and airports that goes, "If you see something, say something." If you come across something on our site that's incorrect, drop us an e-mail. Or, if you come across a deal out there on the wild world of the web, send us a tip about it. You'll make the site better for everyone ... and that's the best way to be a power user.

Jeff Somogyi is a dealnews Senior Staffwriter. He's been "power using" for almost 10 years, though he's in a 12-step program to help him get over it.

DealNews may be compensated by companies mentioned in this article. Please note that, although prices sometimes fluctuate or expire unexpectedly, all products and deals mentioned in this feature were available at the lowest total price we could find at the time of publication (unless otherwise specified).

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