First, a little Google Alerts syntax for those who aren’t familiar with it. You can search for any word in a list by using OR between the words. If you are combining this list with other terms that must be there, put the OR list in parenthesis. So pizza (beer OR wine) means that pizza must be there, and either beer or wine must also be found. Ok, now some sure-fire tips on how to save money with Google Alerts.
1. Get special discounts and coupons. You can use words like discount and coupon, and combine them with the name of your local area.
boston (discount OR coupon)
It seems like sale would be another good word, but real estate agents are a little frantic now, and they’ve learned how to fill search engine results for phrases like house for sale. I’d avoid using just this word by itself to eliminate these extra alerts.
2. Watch for going out of business sales. Of course, a lot of stores run these sales all the time, so check out the prices to make sure it actually is a sale. Since I’m going to search for phrases with multiple words, I put the phrases in quotes.
boston (”going out of business” OR “clearance sale”)
You can add a specific item you are looking for to narrow down the number of alerts.
mattress boston (”going out of business” OR “clearance sale”)
3. Save on restaurant meals by dining early. The “early bird special” is having a big resurgence now.
“early bird special” restaurant boston
4. Spring is yard sale season. If you live in the Boston area, or any other college town, you can also look for moving sales in a couple of months. Try several variations of this phrase.
boston (”yard sale” OR “garage sale” OR “moving sale”)
5. Use Craigslist alerts. You can focus in on Craigslist for your yard sale alerts. The secret is to tell Google which Craigslist site you want. They all have separate URLs, so go to the Craigslist home page, and select your local region. Then look at the URL in your browser’s address bar. By using this with the site: option in your alert, Google Alerts will only send you results from those pages.
(”yard sale” OR “garage sale” OR “moving sale”) site:boston.craigslist.org
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