How to Save Money on Printing

Hey everyone, it's Monkey today.

Today, I'm going to go on about a website. Ebates.com. Why? Because as artists and as business people, we are constantly trying to find a way to save money on supplies. I spend a large amount of time looking for the best online printers. By best, it actually changes depending on what I need. For quick turn-around times on order with good quality and a great price, I use PS Print. For high-quality postcards in small quantities, I go for Overnightprints.com. For highest-quality everything, or for stickers, we say Moo.com, but you have to order in advance.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that I happened to stumble across Ebates.com. From what it looks like, they've partnered with some of the biggest online retailers, including both PS Print and Overnight Prints in order to give you discounts (and of course, make themselves some money). The site is totally free, and they do what's known as playing the margins. What (I assume) they do is promise large numbers of customers in order to get a large % of each referred sale (for this example, let's say 10%). Then, they offer you (and me, and everyone else) 9% back. So you need to print up some holiday greeting cards, and you use Ebates, and you find a coupon for an extra $20 savings. Then, you'll get kicked back an extra 9% on top of that. Sweet, you just saved some money. Ebates then gets your business, and they get 1%. Everyone wins, right?

So the pros:

*They give you $5 for signing up ($5! )

*They have a crapload of online merchants, including Target, Barnes and Noble, Lulu.com (print your own books!), PS Print and Overnight Prints, Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, REI, Safeway (you can even buy your groceries...holy crap!) and tons more.

*You get access to pretty much everyone online coupon that store offers (if they offer coupons)

*They send you a check every quarter or so of all the money you've saved

The cons:

*It's an extra step to go to Ebates.com first, then go to the website you want

*They don't have every single store in the universe on there

*You get an email once a week or so about their featured vendors.

So in the spirit of fair play, I'll be totally honest with you. If I refer 50 people who make a purchase, I get an iPad. But like we say about all of our affiliate links - we don't represent companies who do shady things, or offer crap services. Soo, I would be greatly appreciative if you signed up via our referral link here: We love Monkey + Seal! We love ebates!

Also, we want to give you the option of checking out their site, affiliate free, here: www.ebates.com.

Cool, thanks a lot, and back to your regular scheduling of Monkey + Seal.