A few of my favorite CheapTweet blog posts:

• Twitter tips for online retailers, focusing on the specifics of writing effective tweets and driving clickthroughs
• Our entire seller interview series, where I talk to indpendent retailers, many of whom make their own wares
• A long and comprehensive list of ideas for baby gifts
• Our May appearance on Good Day Austin, complete with video

1. Mypressie TWIST Espresso Machine. This is the most beautiful espresso machine I’ve ever seen.  Even better, it doesn’t need to be plugged in so you can use it almost anywhere.

2. Go Fish Plueys Puddle Stompers. On wet, rainy days I often wish I had some fun, colorful rain boots to keep my feet and pant bottoms dry.  These puddle stompers are perfect. I like the pink and orange to brighten up a dreary day.

3. Impressionen Daybed. The site’s in German, so I can’t tell you much about this piece of furniture, but I can say that this looks like outdoor relaxation at its best. It looks so breezy and comfortable. I want to be sitting on this on a beach somewhere right now.

4. Jonathan Adler Hippo. I just think this hippo is cool. Yes, it’s a lot to pay for a ceramic hippo, but it’s pretty neat. I particularly like the art deco-ish geometric pattern.

5. Animal Cracker Soaps from fizzybubbles. Since that hippo was so expensive, I thought the last item should be cheap.  How about $4.99 animal cracker soaps?  These are pretty darn cute. It might be hard not to eat them, though. Be careful.

That’s all for this week. See you next time!

I’ve taught university-level public speaking and professional communication skills courses since 2003, so the speaking portion of a TV interview didn’t bother me much (not that I expected to be brilliant, just that I knew what I was supposed to do). But I had no idea how to dress for television; we never specifically addressed that in any of my classes. So I searched around online for helpful advice. I liked a few articles in particular, like 113 tips for dressing for television from Media Training Worldwide and a great post with a sample TV outfit from Polyvore. 

What it really comes down to is be yourself (funny how often that is true). If you feel uncomfortable in the clothing you’re wearing, you’ll look uncomfortable. 

A few tips for dressing for television: 

• Don’t wear white. 
• Don’t wear a small pattern or thin stripes. In fact, stay away from most patterns. 
• Pick a color that looks good on you. Bright and pastel colors look great on TV. Apparently pastels can also make you look younger. 
• Don’t wear something you will able to see through in bright light. Test that before you leave your house. 
• Don’t wear large or distracting jewelry.
• Wear makeup, especially powder. It gets hot and you’ll get shiny.
• Fix your hair and make sure it stays out of your face. 
• When in doubt, dress conservatively. Unless you’re making a fashion statement on purpose, this might not be the time to try out a new look. 

I ended up making pretty conservative choices. I wore simple, solid color tops with short sleeves both times. For the first segment I wore a dark teal, which is one of the most flattering colors on me. For the second segment, I wore a light blue. I wore my hair down and straight both times. If I could do it again, I would have done more with my hair, maybe some loose waves or pulled it back. But it was faster to leave it straight and I already had to get up very early to go on a live morning show. 

The other lesson I learned is that you should figure out from what angles your face looks best.  Do you look your best when you look straight at a camera, are turned slightly, or from your profile?  Unfortunately, you’re not supposed to look directly at the camera (which is my best angle), but you can figure out just how much you should turn your head. Next time, I’ll pay more attention to that. 

Overall, it was a lot of fun! I learned a lot about television news and we got to talk to all of Austin about CheapTweet.  I’m sure that once Oprah sees our segment, she’ll be begging us to come on her show. 

1. Cymeline Chaza Gown. I could end this week’s volume with this item and be happy with it. There is no way I’d ever have a wedding glamorous enough for this gown, but it is so amazing I would consider getting married again just to wear it.  I don’t have the words to describe how much I love this dress.

2. Simple Elegance Invitations from Wedding Paper Divas. I really like the simplicity of this invitation’s design. Black and white is such an elegant combination for wedding invitations. But if black isn’t your thing, there are lots of other pretty, contemporary designs at Wedding Paper Divas.

3. Behla Beachhouse in Tulum, Mexico. No wedding volume would be complete without the perfect honeymoon accommodations. How about this beautiful Mexican beachhouse? There’s also a hammock on the front porch.

4. Wedding Cake by Nadine Moon at Who Made the Cake. I’ve never seen a wedding cake like this. The fondant frosting looks just like fabric draped all over the cake. Very cool. This cake shop is located in Houston and they have tons of awesome cakes on the their site (like this giraffe cake - maybe for a safari-themed wedding?).

5. Cole Haan Ceci Air Rose Slingback. These are the most decadent and feminine bridal shoes ever.  They are wedding perfection. So pretty.

That’s all for this week. See you next time!

1. Men’s ESL Flame Bowling Shoes by Etonic. These bowling shoes are so awesome you could wear them outside the bowling alley.  I love those flames. I hear they’re hard to find though, so don’t get too excited.

2. Richard Nixon Bowling Poster. This is coolest poster I’ve ever seen.  I want this in my house.  I also want that wallpaper.

3. Knock Off Bowling Pin Lamp. Even if you’re not that into bowling, you can still act like you are with this lamp. This is super kitschy, but I kinda like it. It would go well with the Nixon poster.

4. The Simpsons Pin Pals Bowling Shirt. I could probably include something related to the Simpsons in every volume (they’ve made a lot of Simpsons swag over the years), but this might be the first time I’ve actually done it. Remember when the Pin Pals needed financing so they fired Otto and let Mr. Burns play?  And Mr. Burns was a terrible bowler, so it looked like they were going to lose the championship game? But then Otto knocked over the vending machine, which knocked down all the pins and the Pin Pals won the title? Good times.

5. Cranium Tribal Clear Bowling Ball. This ball is pretty badass. That’s really all I need to say.

That’s all for this week. See you next time!

You might call it social shopping or tweet commerce or shopping 2.0 or something else entirely. But whatever you call it, the way we find and buy products has changed. And it’s going to keep changing for the foreseeable future. This new world of social shopping runs on interactions that are immediate, social, personal and simple.

Immediate

We expect things to happen in real time. For example, if I decide I want to buy a new swimsuit, I will immediately go to a site like Victoria’s Secret, look around for a suit I like, find a coupon code on CheapTweet or RetailMeNot, and buy it. I don’t have the patience to wait for a special sale or go to the mall to spend an afternoon trying things on. I want the suit right away, and I expect that I can use a social shopping site to help me buy that suit for less the moment I decide I need it. And if I can find a coupon for free upgraded shipping, that’s even better. That’s one reason Zappos is so successful - their stuff arrives fast. I don’t want to wait for things on the web.

Social

We want to talk about our purchases before and after we buy them. When I’m looking at swimsuits, I want to check with others who already bought the same or a similar suit before actually making the purchase. I need to know how it fits, what the color and fabric actually look like, if someone found a better deal somewhere else. And I will definitely share my purchase experience on Twitter or the store’s website if things went especially well or particularly not well.  When the suit finally arrives at my house, I’ll definitely want to talk about it online. I want to read and write reviews of products, and discuss my entire shopping experience, in the hopes that it will someday help someone else make a purchasing decision.

Personal

We expect that our shopping experience will be customized to our own needs and preferences. If I have a question about a swimsuit, a one-size-fits-all FAQ may not answer it. Instead, I might want to talk a customer service representative. But I would rather do that on Twitter than calling a help line, because calling 800 numbers takes forever and, frankly, sucks. I want Victoria’s Secret to remember the items I purchased and viewed today, so that next time I visit their site, they’ve already got suggestions ready to help me find something new. I want personalized recommendations and tips about sales on things I might like to buy.

Simple

We want this experience to be simple and straightforward. I want search that actually searches for what I’m looking for, I want to be able to find things I like with a minimum number of clicks, and I want to easily understand just what it is that I’m buying. I don’t want to be automatically signed up for an email newsletter, but if I decide that’s how I want to receive updates, then that signup form should be simple to find and short. If I’d rather receive updates through RSS, the site should support RSS. I shouldn’t have to sign up for an account to buy something, and I should be able to tell what’s in my shopping cart at a single glance. If the site is designed so poorly I can’t navigate it easily, I’m going somewhere else.

Basically, social shopping interactions mirror our other online interactions. We expect simplicity and speed, but won’t sacrifice a social, personalized experience. That’s the environment both shoppers and sellers find themselves in right now, and I expect that we’re going to see a lot of changes over the next few years in both how we shop and where we shop.

1. Gummy Anatomical Heart. Gross. This gummy heart is too realistic for me. It’s four inches tall, so this is one serious gummy.

2. Bacon Gumballs. Have you ever eaten gums and nuts at the same time? It’s absolutely disgusting. I’m wondering if that’s how bacon gum works.  I’m intrigued.

3. NRG Potato Chips. Um, caffeinated potato chips?  I guess that’s a good idea. Not that I need another reason to eat potato chips.

4. Edible Candy Cane Shot Glasses. These shot glasses are made from twisted peppermint. It’s a cute idea, though I wonder how well they actually hold liquid. Do they leak?

5. Weasel Puke Coffee. This coffee is made from beans a Vietnamese weasel threw up.  I’m not kidding. Who was the first person to think it was a good idea to eat the beans a weasel threw up? “Oh wow, look at that weasel throwing up over there. When he’s done, let’s eat his vomit!” Hmm.

That’s all for this week! See you next time.

The CheapTweet Manifesto

There’s a lot of talk these days about using the web to save money and about a million deals websites to help you do it. So, what exactly makes CheapTweet different?

CheapTweet is a one-of-a-kind, Twitter-based, deals search engine. In short, we have three priorities: unique, social, deals. Let us explain.

Unique - We bring you deals from all kinds of sources. We have thousands of deals you simply cannot find on any other deals site. This includes awesome discounts from the most creative, talented and cool shops online, not just big box stores, like artisans with Etsy and Artfire shops, local businesses, and small stores of all stripes. Of course we have great deals from all the big names, but we also have just as great deals from the little ones. From Etsy to Overstock, from eBay to Amazon, we’ve got them all and we’re the only site that does.

Social - Our deals all come from Twitter. Anyone can contribute a deal to CheapTweet just by tweeting about it. Unlike most deals sites, we’re not just showing you deals from companies who pay us money; absolutely anyone can get on CheapTweet. The most popular deals make it on our front page based on community feedback: by people retweeting deals on Twitter and by visitors voting on deals on CheapTweet. With CheapTweet, you decide what’s best.

Deals - We want to save you money. Period. Times are tough right now, but even when they aren’t, saving money makes life better. We scour Twitter 24/7 with our deal-hunting search engine to find every possible money-saving opportunity we can. This includes coupons, sales, specials, discounts, rebates, free shipping and every other kind of deal you can imagine. We’ve got more than 230,000 deals on the site right now.

The bottom line is we find the coolest money-saving deals on Twitter and let you choose what’s best. It’s not about which retailers or affiliate networks pay us to when someone clicks on a deal; it’s about unearthing the truly unique and useful things in the Twitter community. We don’t do this to make a few cents off every link you click. We do this because we want you to save money and have more financial freedom. We do this because we want every seller out there - the big and the small - to have a shot at making a better life by selling cool stuff online. We hope you’ll join us in this endeavor.

Unique. Social. Deals. That’s CheapTweet.

Jenn & Hayes
CheapTweet

1. Violet Shade Pottery by TheHeadsCreation. This Etsy shop is filled with interesting and beautiful pottery. TheHeadsCreation is from New Mexico so many of her pieces have a southwestern touch. This item in particular comes in several bright, fun colors.

2. ASOS Tonal Mixed Fabric Dress.  This is my perfect dress - it’s casual yet pretty, shortish but long enough to be age-appropriate, and such a nice shade of navy blue. I also like the different materials in the skirt and top.

3. Salt and Peeper Birdy Shaker. Thanks to Annette for sending me to Perpetual Kid! This is a very neat site with tons of fun stuff. I like this little bird salt and pepper shaker (both salt and pepper in one shaker!), but browse around and see what else you can find.

4. Drops Chair by Camilla Hounsell Halvorsen.  And thanks to Kelly for showing me this very awesome chair.  It’s made from recycled materials and looks like it could be quite cozy if you snuggle down in just right. I love the cool colors.

5. TopShop Memphis Graphic Dress.  For whatever reason, I really like this dress. Spring weather always gets me to thinking about cute dresses, and this is perfect for spring. TopShop suggests that you wear it with flat tan sandals, but I think it would also look cute with skinny jeans.

That’s all for this week. If you ever have any recommendations for things I should add or sites I should check out, please let me know! I always need new ideas.

See you next time.