Darren Singleton » Review

UK-based Classifieds Website

Darren — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:57:10 +0000

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Treidr.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I think of Classified sites, the first that comes to mind is CraigsList. When looking for a classifieds site in the UK, there are not that many that I can name. A London-based start-up called Classified Media Corporation Ltd have recently launched treidr.com. At first, I found the name of the website hard to remember, but it is much like the word ‘trader’ and once I had remembered this, I found it easier to type out the name again.

With treidr, UK residents can post free classified adverts to a huge number of categories and, for an extra level of exposure, users can upgrade their listings with optional paid extras. Each advertisement added to the website can be tracked by the poster and statistics such as number of ad views and hits can be seen within the control panel.

As with any free-to-list website, there will always be people who try and use the service for criminal or immoral reasons. In order to combat fraud and abuse of the website, treidr has a page dedicated to tips and advice for people when using the site.

Overall, I feel that treidr is a nice looking website that has the ability to become very popular. At the time of writing this review, there are a total of twenty items currently listed in seven different categories – if the website is to survive, the userbase needs to grow quickly and the website be filled with listings for people to view.

Have you ever used an online classifieds website? What were your experiences?

This post has originally been published on Darren Singleton .com. Darren Singleton is a Blogger, Webmaster and Internet Entrepreneur posting about his experiences of making money online on a daily basis.

UK-based Classifieds Website

Blog Hosting

Darren — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:43:23 +0000

The following is a sponsored review and is of my own opinion and is not influenced by being paid. If you’re interested in having me review your website, product or service, please view my advertising page.

Once you have decided on a nice for your blog, the next step should be to settle on a hosting plan. The levels of service provided by a web host can vary greatly and so can the price. I would highly recommend taking a look at a web hosting directory service. These websites can give you an idea of the best packages available and by viewing them side-by-side, you get a better of idea which would be better suited to you.

One of the key features in a web host to look for is up-time. Up-Time is the amount of time that your website would typically be available. If a webhost guarantees 100% up-time then they are lying. Things will go wrong and from time-to-time updates will need to be installed and the server will need to be rebooted. Besides the 100%, the greater the up-time, the better it will be for your blog.

Many hosts may also offer a free domain name with a hosting account, but be warned – in their Terms & Conditions they may remain the true owner of the domain. If you ever attempt to change your hosting provider, you may be leaving your domain name behind!

As described on the website:

The web hosting sites listed below are rated by Price, Server Up-Time, Reliability, Eaze-of-Use, Control Panel and Customer Support

I have used several of the hosting companies listed myself and would recommend taking a look at the features of each before making your final decision. If you have had your own experiences with one of the web hosts listed, I’m sure it would be greatly appreciated if you could contribute your own thoughts in the hosting reviews section. Be sure to take a look at their review of Host Gator, the company that have been hosting my websites for the past four – five years!

Chili’s Reopens in Reading

Darren — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:40:03 +0000

I really enjoy going out for meals, especially trying out new places to eat. One place I have never tried is Chili’s in Reading.

I recently came across the Chili’s Reading Press Release which details the reopening of the restaurant which is located in The Oracle Shopping Centre in Reading.

Back in January of this year a fire occurred after hours and the owners decided this would be a good time to upgrade to the latest, state-of-the-art kitchen and cooking technology.

Originally opening in 2000, the restaurant seats 200 guests and employs more than 65 staff.

There are six Chili’s restaurants in the UK, yet I have never visited one myself. I took a look at their website, but it seems the UK is not listed as a location at the moment.

Looking at the online menu, they have a great choice of food and the selection of items on the ‘Guiltless Grill’ all come in at under 750 calories and look like the would taste great!

If I ever do manage to find a Chili’s near me, I’ll be sure to get myself some Chili’s Vouchers, which are available to everyone.

Have you ever eaten at a Chili’s restaurant in the UK or anywhere else in the world? What have your experiences been like? Maybe someone has held a bloggers meet-up at one of their locations?

No related posts.

EMIs New Website

Darren — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:53:46 +0000

EMI is one of the worlds leading music companies, they have recently launched a beta version of their website to people in USA and UK. Looking at the new website it instantly looks clean and the navigation has been kept extremly simple.

When visiting the homepage you are presented with a simple coverflow of newly released albums, a news section and a playlist of music videos featuring EMI artists. I was slightly dissapointed at the quality of the videos available. Although they are quick to load, the videos are quite small and when the fullscreen option is used, the videos go horribly pixellated and are generally quite unwatchable.

A great feature I found was the ‘Discover‘ section. After typing the name of an artist you like into the box and clicking Discover you are able to see a list of similar artists. These artists are not necessarily managed by EMI and if they are – you are able to view a song or music video for that artist right on the website. For the other artists, there are links to 7Digital.com where you are able to purchase the albums to enjoy the music for yourself. This feature is much like the genious function built into iTunes and the latest iPods.

If you are a music fan, I would highly recommend taking a look at the new EMI website. It looks nicely polished and offers great recommendations for similar artists and music.

3 Day Money

Darren — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:15:00 +0000

There is a growing trend with people setting up blogs as a way to make money online. However, many of the bloggers making the most money from their own work started off doing so because of a love for what they do. The first bloggers that come to mind are John Chow, Darren Rowse and David Risley.

David Risley is the founder of PCMech and has been running the site for over ten years. His most recent venture, 3 Day Money, is an easy to follow video course that aims to teach everybody how to successfully setup their own blog, build traffic to it and then monetise the people who begin to arrive.

David Risley is a name you can trust when looking at blogging and internet marketing. Just take a look at his personal website to read-up on what he has to say about blogging and developing your online brand.

The great thing about this course is that, as the name suggests, it has been split across three days. The first two days contain five videos each and the final day contains four videos. The videos are narrated by David himself and he offers great tips from start to finish in a format that suits even the newest people to building their own presence online.

The introductory price is just $47 and I cannot expect it to stay at this price for much longer. If you were to spend any money online in order to help you get started with your blogging – this should be the product for you!

Shopping for a New TV

Darren — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:32:00 +0000

The following is a sponsored review and is of my own opinion and is not influenced by being paid. If you’re interested in having me review your product, please view my advertising page.

Several days ago I attempted to turn on the TV in my bedroom, only to find that I was getting sound and no picture. After bashing it for a while and moving a few cables about, it was decided that I needed to buy a new one.

The TV I was using is quite an old one, which I inherited from the lounge once my parents purchased a new one for themselves. Since this TV was bought, there have been a lot of improvements in the technology, I believe DVD may have only been a distant thought when this television set was purchased.

LCD vs. Plasma

The first thing for me to consider was whether I was to purchase an LCD or Plasma TV. I had already decided that my new set had to be HD Ready and it had to be small enough to fit inside a built-in cabinet that I have. Other than that, I had no ideas of which set to purchase.

ShopWiki came to my rescue. When I was looking around for a new TV I received an email asking for a paid review of ShopWiki and when I noticed their LCD TV Buying Guide, I knew it was fate.

Taking a look at the buying guide it was a straight-forward process in deciding which was right for me. A neat little table outlines the benefits of LCD over Plasma and also shows you the cons of LCD TV’s.

Ease of Viewing

Through the ShopWiki site, I was able to drill down through the products, easily choosing my minimum and maximum price range, any specific brands I wished to search for along with a specific colour. Once your choices have been made, the search page automatically updates (without leaving the page) and your selection can be viewed straight away.

As can be seen from the image above (click the image to enlarge) you get an image, description and a series of the best prices for a number of merchant stores offered to you. You can then click the links from this page and be directed straight to the product page on the merchants website.

Conclusion

ShopWiki advertise the fact that they search over 30,000 stores to find the best prices on a vast array of products (currently 223,963,832). The site is easy to use and offer searches for the the United States, France and the UK. I was offered perfect results from my search and will be returning in the next couple of days to finalise my TV purchase.

It would be nice if a narrowed-down search could be saved. So when I searched for a Samsung TV between £100 and £300, it seems I can currently only save the fact I searched for a LCD TV.

When looking for products online, I am going to continue to use the ShopWiki service and I hope that they continue to add more stores and stick with the no-nonsense, simple appeal of the website.

Blogging to the Bank

Darren — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:22:03 +0000

There are so many blogs online whose goal is to help you make more money from your own blog, but that all seems wasted when you read about Blogging to the Bank 3.0.

The previous versions of Blogging to the Bank have been recieved with great pleasure by everyone who has read and followed what Rob Benwell has to say. Having made $14,480.13 last month from just one blog, this guy sure knows what he is doing and is willing to help you out.

I have purchased this e-book myself and recieved all of the added bonuses for getting in early and although I haven’t had chance to read any of it yet, I would highly recommend you sign up soon. If you are failing to make money from your blog and need some help, this would definately be my first port of call.

Once I have had the opportunity to take a look at some of the goodies contained inside, I will be sure to let you know my opinion of this blogging blueprint.

Update Twitter when I Update my WordPress Blog

Darren — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:51:21 +0000

Having recently registered for Twitter I was looking for a way to ‘tweet’ my Twitter account whenever I post to the blog. That is when I came across Tweet My Blog. A great WordPress plugin that will do just what I was hoping.

You can download the plugin for free by clicking the link below:

Tweet my Blog Plugin

If you want to know what I am upto, then add me on Twitter or you could subscribe to my RSS feed to keep updated on the site updates.