It’s Time for Fall Maintenance and Cleaning

We’re now firmly into fall here in New England, and it’s time for some annual fall cleaning and maintenance on homes everywhere.

 

Let’s start with the easy stuff first — cleaning! One of the most important cleaning things that you should do in the fall is to take all of your family’s winter comforters to the dry cleaners or dry clean them yourself with a home kit. That way they are fresh and clean when the temperature starts dropping later on in the month.

Another thing that is great to do now is to go through all of the summer clothing in the house and figure out what you would like to with them, either pack them away for next year or donate them to the thrift store. Once you have figured that out, it’s time to bring out the winter clothes! Make sure that you have shopped for laundry detergent and fabric softener on DealDash, because the next step is to wash and dry all of your winter clothing before you put them into your closets and dressers. Even if you washed them directly before you packed them away they are still going to be a little stale and wrinkly, it’s best to give them a good washing.

Tide Pods Ocean Mist Detergent, 72ctDowny Ultra April Fresh Liquid Fabric Softener

Now on to the maintenance. If you’re a homeowner or a tenant that’s in charge of the maintenance on your home then read on, because these are important things that you should do every fall to keep things running smoothly.

  • Clean the gutters. I know, it’s not everyone (or anyone’s!) favorite thing to do, but it’s important that after leaves have fallen, clean out your gutters and downspouts, flush them with water, inspect the joints, and tighten your brackets if they need it. Clogged gutters are one of the major causes of ice dams. If any of your gutters are getting old be sure to replace them before the snow falls.
  • Caulk your windows. This job is a little more fun than the previous one, be sure to caulk around windows and door frames to prevent heat from escaping. Caulk around the outside, and then get a helper to turn on a hairdryer to heat around the edges – if you feel a stream of hot air it means that you should re-caulk that area, you might have missed a spot.
  • Inspect your roof. Make sure the roof is in good shape with no missing or  loose shingles. Ice, rain, snow, and wind combined with rapidly changing temperatures and humidity wreak havoc on roofs.
  • Have your boiler and fireplace inspected. Heating systems in good shape will use fuel more efficiently, last longer, and have fewer problems if properly serviced.

Hopefully we will have a mild winter this year, but even if we don’t, rest assured that you are prepared for the weather ahead. Go rake your lawn, then get yourself a hot cider or tea, and check out the auctions and see what you would really like to bid on and WIN! See you on DealDash everyone! Good luck and happy bidding.

How to Take Great Pics to Score FREE Bids

 

If you’ve been paying attention to the blogs lately you know how to get FREE bids from posting your wins on social media. If you need a little help making your pics look great, read on.

 

Taking a photo of yourself and your DealDash winnings is really simple – you’re basically just taking a selfie of yourself and an item. There are a few tricks to have you and your item looking at your best, and the number one important thing to consider when you’re taking your pic is lighting. There is nothing worse than having a huge shadow cast over your face, it can amplify your worst features and make you look like you have huge bags under your eyes. The best two times to take your pictures is during either sunrise or sunset, when the light is low and the most beautiful. If you’re inside you should try and take your picture close to the window, because having natural light is best. If it’s possible try to take your DealDash win outside and take a picture out in the sunlight, it will make you look great and will show off your wins to their best advantage.

After you have taken your photo of you and your big (or little!) win head on over to the DealDash Facebook page which is here, and “Like” it. Then you can post your picture to get free bids. Here are the instructions from DealDash describing how to get free bids from Facebook:

1. Select an item you have won on DealDash to feature in the photo.

2. Take a high quality photo clearly showing yourself and the item you won.

3. Post photo to DealDash’s Facebook page and add a description which should include the following information: the item name, retail price, how much you paid for the item and a personal comment about the win as well. For example: “I got this $688 Garmin GPS on @DealDash. I paid just $6.08 and used 62 bids! Thanks DealDash, I will never get lost again!”

4. In the end of the caption, please include the following sentence and the link (See the picture below):
See how much you can save at: www.dealdash.com/join.php?utm_source=customer%20testimonials&utm_medium=pictures&utm_campaign=facebook

 

You can see all of these instructions and guidelines on the DealDash Facebook page here.

Other than great lighting, here are a few other tips to help you take great photos of yourself and your DealDash wins:

  • Smile! Don’t looks so serious. One of my favorite tricks to get a natural smile is to think of someone or something that I really love, like my daughter…Or a huge DealDash win!!
  • Try and keep your background simple. You’re trying to highlight your DealDash win, so keep your background as plain as possible if you can.
  • Make sure that you’re holding or posing with your win in the most flattering way. If it’s a small item hold it up close to your face, and if it’s a larger item such as a bike try to get someone else to take the picture for you so you can either sit on the bike or crouch down so you and the bike are on the same level.
  • Make sure that your pics are CLEAR! There’s nothing worse than a blurry out of focus dark picture where you can barely even tell what the item is that you are trying to display.
  • If all else fails, get a selfie stick!

 

I hope this helped some of you selfie-challenged DealDashers! If you’re interested in reading even more tips and tricks on how to win, check out the “Tactics & Tips” section on DealDash. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!

 

 

 

Using the Tactics & Tips to Help You Win on DealDash

Sometimes starting a new hobby can be hard. Why not use the free Tactics and Tips section that DealDash offers to help you win?

Hello fellow DealDashers! This blog is mainly aimed at the newbies, but some more seasoned DealDash players might even learn a thing or two. Can we all really say that we read all of the instructions when we started? Here’s a refresher course.

DealDash offers a Tactics & Tips section available here for anyone who would like to read the original text. In this blog I am going to go through all of the tips and try to give a little insight on how they can help you.

  • Tip 1 – Conserve your bids. Bidding rapidly will only waste your bids and inflate the auction price. Bid strategically, or book a BidBuddy to do it for you. It makes absolutely no sense to hit your bid button rapidly and without thought when you are in an auction. Most people have their bids booked through the BidBuddy anyway, so it’s very unlikely you will win this way.
  • Tip 2 – Book a BidBuddy. The majority of auctions on DealDash are won by using the BidBuddy. The BidBuddy strategically places bids for you. It waits until the last second to bid. You can put a limit on how many bids will be used. And you can cancel it at any time. Basically, you put the number of bids that you are willing to spend into your BidBuddy and it will bid for you against other people’s BidBuddies that have been set. They take turns with each other, and this way you don’t waste any bids by accidentally (or on purpose!) stomping on people’s bids.
  • Tip 3- Earn FREE bids. When you are the Highest Bidder, you will earn time towards your next level. When you reach a new level, you receive free bids. There is a meter at the bottom of your bidding screen that will show you how far you are from getting free bids. Once the meter is filled up you just click the “claim bids” button and they are automatically credited to your account and you can use them immediately.
  • Tip 4- Study the competition. Who else is bidding on the item? Watch and learn. Some people keep a notepad to track bidders and what type of bidding strategies they are using. I personally keep an Excel spreadsheet on bidders that I frequently run into on the particular auctions that I enjoy. If you find yourself bidding on the same genre of item often, such as video game systems, you will probably run into the same bidders pretty often. If you keep track of their names and at what auction price they stop bidding then you have a pretty good idea of how they might bid the next time you run into them.
  • Tip 5- Buy It Now (BIN) and get your bids back. If you do not win an auction, you can get your bids back, by taking advantage of the Buy It Now option. If you bid 100 times on a $50 Walmart Gift Card and don’t win, you can just buy the item for $50 and get all your bids back for free. You can now re-use your bids to try to win another auction! The bids are automatically credited to your account and you can use them immediately.
  • Tip 6- Check out the winners. The winners page reveals recently won items and the final auction prices. I love to look at the “Winner’s Page”. You can see the link to it up at the top of the DealDash screen. It shows all of the recently won auctions, who won them, where they are from, and what the final auction price was. I love to see who got an awesome deal like a video game for .10, and I also admit that I have to chuckle a little when I see someone WAY overpay such as “winning” a $25 gift card for $27. When you see someone overbid like that you know that either they weren’t paying attention or that their competitive “gotta win” attitude cost them money.
  • Tip 7- Try different times. Auctions might be easier to win at different times of the day. Auctions are only open to the US. I agree that this can sometimes be helpful, however in my experience it seems that the “ultimate prime time” to bid can vary from week to week. Study the auctions and see if you can find yourself a sweet spot to bid in.
  • Tip 8- Mind your budget. Try bidding on less-expensive, less-popular items. There will likely be less competition. If you stick with items that are $20 or less it’s easy to just BIN them (see tip 5) and get all of your bids back to try again.
  • Tip 9- Buy bids on sale. Make sure to visit DealDash regularly so you can keep up to date on promotions and save on bids! Bid prices change every single day, but generally fluctuate between .12-.18 per bid. If you go “Like” the DealDash Secrets page on Facebook here you can check back daily and it will tell you the price the bids will be the following day. And if that’s not an awesome tip I don’t know what is!

So my fellow DealDashers, those are just a few helpful tactics & tips for playing on DealDash. Remember to pay attention to the tips, check out the auctions and see what you would really like to bid on, and try your luck! See you on DealDash everyone! Good luck and happy bidding.

Hi Newbies, Welcome to DealDash!

Hi Newbies! I’m glad that you decided to join DealDash. Here are a few hints and tips to get you started.

Now that you have joined DealDash the first thing that you are going to want to do is check out the House Rules which are found here. There are really only a few basic rules, but they are really important to familiarize yourself with them so you don’t jeopardize losing your bidding account. These rules are in place to make things as fair as possible for everyone. Here’s a quick overview of the rules– but please check out the full version so you don’t accidentally get yourself into trouble.

  • Each person can only have 1 account, no exceptions.
  • You can win up to 9 auctions per week. The system will not allow you to bid after you have reached your limit. All remaining BidBuddies will be automatically cancelled and your bids will be returned to your account.
  • You absolutely may not bid in the same auction with your family members, friends, or acquaintances.
  • You may not use any type of bidding software to automatically bid for you except the BidBuddy which is provided to everyone free of charge.
  • Your user name cannot be vulgar or obscene, and it also can’t mislead people into thinking that you are a DealDash employee, either.
  • DealDash employees and immediate family are not allowed to bid on auctions.

That’s basically it! As you can see there are really only a few rules, and they are really very easy to follow.

So you’ve bought your first bid pack and have brushed up on the rules, what’s next? Well, I would personally suggest that you don’t start bidding right away, but instead observe the auctions for a day or so to really see how things work. Once you have familiarized yourself with how the auctions work I would suggest you start with bidding on smaller auctions and also bidding on items you would buy anyway such as gift cards for Target and Wal-Mart, or even household items that you use daily such as toilet paper, tissues, or laundry detergent. Remember, if you have over-bid and reached the BIN price, use the “Buy it Now” option and pay retail price for the item. DealDash will when refund all of the bids you used on that item, and you can try again another day. This is really a great win-win situation for everyone.

So newbie DealDashers, those are just a few helpful guidelines for your first few times playing on DealDash. Remember to pay attention to the rules, check out the auctions and see what you would really like to bid on, and try some easier auctions to start! See you on DealDash everyone! Good luck and happy bidding.

Social Media = Free Bids for You!

I’m sure by now most of you know about getting FREE bids from posting your wins on social media, but for the newbies I will give you all a quick lesson.

If you’re a Facebook user you should definitely head on over to the DealDash page which is here, and “Like”  it so you can see all of the great posts as well as being able to post your own pictures and videos to get free bids every week. DealDash provides the instructions on how to get free bids from Facebook:

“Submit a picture to our Facebook page following these guidelines and you’ll get up to 200 free bids plus be entered to win a 1,000 Bid Pack! Every Monday, DealDash will select the best picture of the previous week and award a 1,000 Bid Pack to the winner. The best picture will naturally be shared to the all the Facebook fans of DealDash. Photos of items valued under $99 are excluded from this weekly contest.”

Follow these steps to get your free bids:

1. Select an item you have won on DealDash to feature in the photo.
2. Take a high quality photo clearly showing yourself and the item you won.
3. Post photo to DealDash’s Facebook page and add a description which should include the following information: the item name, retail price, how much you paid for the item and a personal comment about the win as well. For example: “I got this $688 Garmin GPS on @DealDash. I paid just $6.08 and used 62 bids! Thanks DealDash, I will never get lost again!”
4. In the end of the caption, please include the following sentence and the link (See the picture below):
See how much you can save at: www.dealdash.com/join.php?utm_source=customer%20testimonials&utm_medium=pictures&utm_campaign=facebook

And here are the guidelines:

– Picture should be bright, clear and easy to see
– Clearly displays the item won DealDash
– Picture must feature yourself (alone or with others)

– Item must be out of the box and in use.
– New photo and item (Never posted before)
– Posted from DealDash account holders own Facebook account
– Facebook photo must be posted along with a caption (See the example above)
No BidPacks

If the item value is $199 or above you’ll get 200 Free Bids!

If the item value is $99 to $198 you’ll get 75 Free Bids!

If the item value is less than $99 you’ll get 10 Free Bids!

You can see all of these instructions and guidelines on the DealDash Facebook page here.

While you’re over on Facebook you should also check out DealDash Secrets here, and “Like” it so you can see the updates. The great thing about the DealDash Secrets page on Facebook is they usually tell you what price the bids are going to be the following day. SO if you are in the market to buy a big bid pack and they are selling for .14 per bid today, but .12 per bid the following day it would be smart to wait! DealDash Secrets is also the place where you can see if there are any special events going on such as the Halloween sale with free auction wins this past weekend.

You can also get free bids by posting photos on Twitter. First, go follow DealDash on Twitter here. Then after you have received an auction win you can get free bids by just taking a photo of yourself holding the item and posting the picture on Twitter with a quick message such as “I got this -name of item won here- @DealDash for -number of bids used- bids & $ -final auction price-. I love it! #DealDash also gives #FREE shipping!”

I hope this helped some of you newer DealDashers! If you’re interested in reading even more tips and tricks check out the “Tactics & Tips” section on DealDash. Good luck and happy bidding everyone!