Click here to sign up for Sunshine Rewards to get cash back on every purchase.

* What are the point of the programs? Some merchants make it easy to learn about their programs while others seem to hide them.
* Traditional cash programs where you get a percentage back from every purchase to spend later on the site. Great examples are drugstore.com dollars, eBay bucks, and Football Fanatics.
* Points programs where you get points for purchases and can later convert them to credits on the merchants site. Most popular included Best Buy Rewards Zone and 1-800-Flowers Fresh Rewards. A new one to Sunshine Rewards is SubscriptionAgent.com.
* Loyalty programs where you do not get get free merchandise credits but you might get even better deals. Prime examples are the Shoebuy 10% coupon for repeat buyers and the Sephora Beauty Insider program.

Show Notes:

* Travel and Entertainment: Some great ways to save money while staying at home include Entertainment Books and Restaurant.com. If you are trying to work in some inexpensive trips, check out Go Cards from Smart Destinations and Priceline for flexible plans ($12 rental cars!).
* Outdoor Fun: Have a pool? We like In the Swim and PoolProducts.com for our chemicals. Swimsuitsforall.com is a great place for a variety of swimsuits at good prices. Stock up on suntan lotion online so you don’t get stuck paying high prices for it at the grocery store or amusement park.
* Membership Clubs: Netflix and Blockbuster are obvious, but have you heard about BookSwim? It’s a fun way to read a lot of new books for one low monthly price. Gamers should check out GameFly. If you’re into audiobooks, Audible is a good option.

Show Notes:

* First we talked about graduation party supplies and all of the cute items out right now. One of our favorites was the personalized banner. For as little as $8, you can get banners with the graduate’s name. Check out sites like Shindigz and Pinatas.com for tableware, banners, and decor. Oriental Trading Company has cute favors.
* Next we talked about the “commemorative gift category.” Some gifts serve the main purpose of remembering the particular occasion. Get a personalized item that the graduate will keep forever. One of our favorites for those is Things Remembered.
* Lastly, we talked about gifts that will help the graduate in their “next step” in life. These really have to be tailored to the age of the graduate and what they are doing after they graduate. A nice laptop bag or even luggage would be great at the high school or college age. Also think about all of the things they might use in a college dorm or apartment. Bean bag chairs would be perfect!

Check out the entire Graduation Shopping category for even more ideas.

Mother’s Day is May 9, and we are two moms who know the perfect gifts at the best prices. We shopped around to find some great gift ideas in different categories.

Show Notes:

• Traditional Gifts: candy, flowers, cookies, perfume, and jewelry. Some interesting ideas this year included (Cindy’s favorite) ThePerfumeSpot.com, the planters at 1-800-Flowers (after Tricia saw them on Undercover Boss), Corso’s Cookies, chocolate covered strawberries at CC Berries, Mother’s jewelry from Limoges.com, and treats from Hannah’s Caramel Apples.
• Cool Gifts for Cool Moms: Customized gifts from A Gift Personalized, affordable and “funky cute” (in the words of Jillian) jewelry from Emitations, Zip It bags, spring nail polish from Sephora, tea makers from Teavana, and wine collections from MyWinesDirect.
• Mom Who Has Everything: Custom print from Canvas Press, stationery from Expressionery, and food from Gourmet Station.
• We touched on a lot of the coupons and sales that you can jump on for most of the above if you shop soon. You should be able to find them all at Sunshine Rewards as well as most other coupon sites.

Now that we have done the “spring forward” thing with the clocks, it is time to start thinking forward to spring shopping. For most of us, that means changing out our beauty products, skin care products, and wardrobes. In this episode of She Shops Around, Tricia and Cindy talked about various merchants where you can pick up some great spring products at good prices. Don’t forget that you can get cash back (and maybe even coupons!) on all of these merchants through Sunshine Rewards.

Show Notes:

* Tricia loves lip venom and tinted moisturizer for spring and has been buying them at glow.com and Sephora.
* Cindy and Tricia talked about the importance of cleansers and exfoliators (check out Mario Badescu and Dermstore and the products that Cindy and Tricia use).
* New nail polish colors are out and you can get good deals on OPI (including the Alice in Wonderland colors) at HairCareDiscounters.com.
* Sunscreen and self tanning is big in the spring.
* Cindy loves her Crocs and they have a number of different styles and colors that do not look like traditional Crocs.
* New clothes are a must for the warmer weather!

For the first time ever, we invited a guest to our She Shops Around Podcast. Roger Snow from Snow Consulting joined us to talk about three affiliate programs he manages that all have sports merchandise. It’s a good thing that we did because Cindy and I have a lot to learn about sports. A big thanks to Roger for answering so many of our questions!

Show Notes:

* What sports merchandise and memorabilia are hot right now? The Olympics are in full swing, hockey is mid-season, March Madness is upon us, and baseball spring training will be starting soon.
* OnlineSports.com has over 130,000 products from jerseys to collectibles to actual sports gear. They carry major league sports collectibles in addition to college merchandise (including smaller schools like Ball State!). Online Sports also has a great selection of NASCAR merchandise. (Earn 5% back at OnlineSports.com.)
* A great gift for a dad, husband, or son would be a sports watch from DiscountWatchStore.com. They have dive watches and other waterproof watches great for anyone who swims, dives, skis, or participates in water sports. They now have free shipping on every product and some amazing deals of the day. (Earn 4% back when you shop at DiscountWatchStore.com)
* Lastly we talked about InTheHoleGolf.com. The site is impressive in that it has the inventory and functionality of a big national company with the feel of a neighborhood pro shop. They test and review all of the products that they sell and specialize in equipment for the seasoned golfer. (Earn 4% cash back when you shop at InTheHoleGolf.com)

Remember to check Sunshine Rewards for cash back and coupons for all of the merchants we talked about in the podcast.

January went by so quickly that this was our first podcast of the year. Just in time for February, we decided to review Valentine’s Day merchants. Cindy led most of the podcast because she has been knee-deep in planning Valentine’s Day promotions for some of our websites.

Show notes:

* Quick recap of Affiliate Summit and some of the benefits of attending this year.
* Flowers always work for Valentine’s Day and 1-800-Flowers has a lot of different options. Be sure to understand the difference between having your flowers delivered by FedEx and those delivered by local florists.
* Bath & Body Works and The Perfume Spot have good options for both men and women. I got my favorite new perfume (Pink Sugar) from The Perfume Spot. Bath & Body Works has a terrific new Godiva candle available only online.
* Crazy for Bargains is great for fun pajamas for women, men, and kids. Personally, I like the boxers for holidays. Romantic Gowns actually has some great lingerie, including some cute pink and red sets that would be perfect for Valentine’s Day. (Here the mother/daughter podcast got a little bit awkward).
* Jewelry is traditional for Valentine’s Day and May Leigh has some nice options. Women seem to be wearing more jewelry these days, including multiple bracelets and necklaces at a time and mixing silver and gold. Things Remembered has both jewelry and other items available for personalization.
* You usually can’t go wrong with food (especially if the gift is for me). David’s Cookies makes homemade tasting cookies that can be ordered through the 10th. Ghirardelli is an impressive brand name with high quality chocolates.
* From the customer standpoint, these were all merchants that we personally like to shop through.

Lots of great Valentine’s Day gift ideas today. Hopefully a little something for everyone.

Show Notes:

* Food Gifts. It’s relatively easy to find food gifts that can be shipped as late as December 22 and make it in time for Christmas. Good choices include Hickory Farms, David’s Cookies, Mrs. Prindables, Kosher.com, Wolferman’s, and Omaha Steaks.
* Non-food gifts. This category was a little bit harder for us but we did find some great deals. Check out Ice.com, magazines.com, 1-800-Flowers, Amazon.com and Vann’s.
* Gift Certificates and Gift Cards. This is the most traditional category of last minute gifts. There are some things to watch for, however, such as shipping and handling fees or delayed shipping. Look for electronic gift certificates from places like Apple iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, GameFly, and Restaurant.com.

This will probably be our last podcast of the year, so happy holidays from Cindy and Tricia!

This week starts some changes to the She Shops Around podcast that hopefully everyone will like. The first change is that instead of focusing on just 3 merchants, we are spreading the love around a little more and talking about many different merchants that fit the topic.

With the release of the second movie in the Twilight series coming this month (Twilight Saga New Moon on November 20), we decided to focus on all things Twilight. Cindy hasn’t seen the movie or read the books, which balanced out Tricia, who is a little addicted.

Show Notes:

* Official Twilight Merchandise. We talked about places where you can buy the most official Twilight merchandise including Amazon, Hot Topic, Nordstrom, Entertainment Earth, and Toys R Us.
* Fan Made Merchandise. Tricia’s favorite place for fan-made Twilight merchandise is CafePress, but you can also find some great items at Zazzle, Customized Girl, and eBay.
* Odds and Ends. Although they don’t have a lot of items each, there are a number of merchants with just a few items worth mentioning. Some of them are AllPosters.com, Skinit.com, Emitations, Fandango, TFAW.com, and Celebrate Express.
* Costumes. We could have spent hours on this topic but touched briefly on BowlingShirt.com, Chickdowntown, Coastal Contacts, and PacSun.
* General Twilight gift ideas for the Twilight fan in your life.
* Highlighted how you can all of the Twilight merchandise you could ever want at BuyTwilightStuff.com.

On the next podcast we will start looking into holiday shopping bargains with an eye toward some guests joining us after the New Year.

Crazy as it seems, Halloween is right around the corner. I heard somewhere (besides in the podcast) that decor sales for Halloween are second only to decor sales for Christmas. It’s not surprising when you see all of the cute stuff out there. It was hard to pick only three merchants to discuss today when we have a lot of favorites. Angie took over the “MC” position for me as I didn’t want to cough the whole time.

Show Notes:

* Tricia and Angie will be spending Halloween on a Disney Cruise. Group costumes are apparently in order.
* Cindy walked us through BuyCostumes.com their selection of both Halloween costumes and party supplies. Did you know that they have a $5 deal each day? Terrific bargains on costumes if you can catch them in the morning. Also be sure to look for coupons and free shipping when you can get it. (Get BuyCostumes.com coupons and cash back from Sunshine Rewards)
* Tricia drooled over The Popcorn Factory. Bad idea to diet and review that merchant because you’ll want to buy everything you see. They have a great selection of flavored popcorns as well as gift samplers. (Get The Popcorn Factory coupons and cash back from Sunshine Rewards)
* Angie introduced HalloweenMart and pointed out not only the plus sized costumes but also the extremely scary decorations. Once we started talking about the “adult” costume section, we needed to end the call. Our conversation continued afterward and suffice to say you can find some really unique costumes that your friends would get a kick out of. (Get HalloweenMart coupons and cash back from Sunshine Rewards)

It was hard to keep this podcast down to time because we could have talked all day about these three merchants. We’ve seen great feedback about all of them and enjoyed reviewing them. Click here to see the entire Sunshine Rewards Halloween shopping category.