PHAVES of PHX
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Best Websites
The Valley's top online resources
Written by Rachel Luman
We live in a world where information is a mouse-click away. But how do you know which sources to trust? We surveyed our net-savvy readers for the websites they count on for gift buying, networking, goal achievement, employee searches and more. So sign on, log in, and start surfing!
Best Website for Gift Ideas
Mission: A new concept in gift giving, Gift Girl is not a shopping site. It is a conflict-free advisory site that is designed to help enrollees figure out the best gifts to buy a woman. Collections, jewelry, clothing, accessories and more – this site knows just what a girl wants.
Membership Cost: $20 a year
Why We Like It: Oh, you shouldn’t have! Gift Girl has scoured stores on and off the web to bring the best gift ideas from $50 to $50,000, taking the guess work out of what men should give. Even more, it sends reminders to our men so they don’t forget those special occasions – and though we wish they’d figure it out their own, it’s a pretty fair trade-off. We get what we want, and they feel pretty smart. Isn’t our happiness worth $20?
Best Website for Service Reviews
Mission: A word-of-mouth network for consumers, Angie's List is a growing collection of homeowners' real-life experiences with local service companies. Angie's List is your opportunity to brag about the companies who've done good work for you and warn other members about those who haven't. An extra incentive for sign up: Highly rated companies offer great discounts just to Angie's List members.
Membership Cost: $7.50 a month or pay yearly membership fees
Why We Like It: The people who join Angie's List are like you – looking for a way to find trustworthy companies that perform high-quality work. Angie's List members submit more than 15,000 reports each month about the companies they've hired. They describe their project (including the cost), and grade the company's response time, prices and quality of work – good or bad. In reading the reviews, you'll know if a crew was conscious of children and pets, cleaned up after themselves, or just totally botched the job. It’s like a nosey neighbor, but with all the right info!
Best Website for Women Recruitment Services
Mission: The first and only company devoted to a comprehensive array of recruitment services for women, Women For Hire offers signature career expos, inspiring speeches and seminars, a popular career-focused magazine, customized marketing programs, and an online job board that helps leading employers connect with top-notch professional women in all fields.
Membership Cost: Employer Job Postings, $125-$450; No Cost for Employee Job Searches
Why We Like It: Girl power! The company’s core business is producing the nation’s only high caliber career expos, thus enabling America's top employers to meet one-on-one with a coveted pool of talented women in all disciplines. These events pair recruiters from a mix of Fortune 500 companies, medium-sized businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies with women in a wide range of disciplines.
Best Website for Curing Boredom
Mission: sk*rt touts itself as “a social media platform of pure goodness. A plaza for the peachy. A portal to the pretty. A place to find cool things. To read smart scoop. To connect with fab ideas, exceptional people, useful information, excellent products. All of it. And more.” We agree.
Membership Cost: $0
Why We Like It: sk*rt is just like that friend who always finds the best stuff. Members submit fun new ideas and discussions that are then voted on for popularity. You’ll love browsing topics and filling your head with useful (and sometimes useless) info. Careful, it’s addicting!
Best Website for Baby Decorations
Mission: Storkroom developed the idea of combining everything needed to design a baby room in one single box – from the comforter, bumper, sheet, duster and window treatment to the perfect color of complementary paint.
Membership Cost: Complete design sets are $529.
Why We Like It: It’s a baby room in a box! If you’ve had a baby or know someone who has, you understand the frustration of purchasing bedding for the baby’s room at one store and paint at another – and when the various components were in place, the room still didn’t turn out as expected. Storkroom customers not only avoid the hassle of driving from store to store in search of matching fabric and paints, they also get the assurance of a professionally designed nursery at a fraction of the cost of hiring an interior designer.
Best Website for Goal Getting
Mission: 43 Things is the world's most popular online goal setting community. List your goals, big or small, and take advantage of the advice and personal stories of others with the same direction!
Membership Cost: $0
Why We Like It: When striving to achieve something new, it’s no secret that list making and accountability are important keys to success. 43Things keeps you committed to your dreams by connecting you to people who are striving for or have accomplished those same goals. It’s fun and free, and it’s a push in the right direction.
Best Website for Arizona Hiking Trails
Mission: This site contains a listing of over 100 hiking trails located within this great state of Arizona. There are hiking trails for every difficulty level, including day trips (long and short), kid-friendly hikes, and backpacking excursions.
Membership Cost: $0
Why We Like It: Details, details! From extensive directions and elevation levels to personal journal entries about each trail, you will feel like you’ve made the trek with your butt still in your computer chair. Find trails by alphabetical listing or region, read up on the latest hiking gear, and feel all together more secure about your excursion. If you’re looking to explore the beauty of Arizona, make this website your first stop.
Best Website for Doing Good Work
Mission: There are hundreds of ways to help out. With VolunteerMatch, it's never been easier to find a rewarding way to give back and make a difference. If you’re looking for help, VolunteerMatch attracts thousands of volunteers every day.
Membership Cost: Free for Volunteers
Why We Like It: Have you ever had that “urge” to help others but didn’t know where to start? VolunteerMatch makes giving back easy by listing opportunities just like a job site. Search for areas in which you take a personal interest, such as children and youth, and find the right organization to meet your skills! It’s never been easier to do good work in your community.
Best Website for Summer Camps
Mission: CampsAtoZ.com has complete information on Arizona summer camps and California summer camps. You'll find day and overnight camps offering arts, sports, music, computers, gymnastics, academics, special needs, outdoor adventure and more!
Membership Cost: $0
Why We Like It: Decide what’s most important to you! If you want to find a sports camp in Scottsdale, Arizona for your 10-year-old, select “10” for age, “sports” for the category, and “East Valley” for the location. Search a database of over 500 Arizona day and overnight summer camps in all of Arizona, including some out-of-state destinations. It’s a great place to find the perfect summer activity for your kids.
Best Website for Calorie Tracking
Mission: Calorie-Count provides completely free weight loss tools, nutritional information, and a vibrant and supportive community to help you lose or maintain weight, safely and effectively.
Membership Cost: $0
Why We Like It: If it goes in your mouth, write it down! It’s a trick that celebrities and weight-loss gurus the world over have used to get weight under control. At Calorie-Count, you can input the food you eat, track your calories, and figure out how much you should be consuming daily to reach your target weight. Input activities, track your progress, and even get support from other members. It’s fun, educational and effective.
Best Website for Online Fitness
Mission: Imagine waking up every day knowing you have the upper hand on your body...you are in control! The Perfect Body System is for you if you can’t afford a personal trainer, you have a gym membership but no exercise plan, you need meal planning that makes sense, and you can’t do it alone. Gain the benefits of an online personal trainer, nutrition coach, and the guarantee of PERMANENT weight loss.
Membership Cost: $14.95 a month
Why We Like It: For less than 50 cents a day, you can get all of the benefits of a personal trainer and nutritionist – services that can cost several hundred dollars or more a month! Longtime members sing about their weight loss success and fitness goals and have also taken advantage of the income opportunity detailed on the website. A lifetime of fitness and extra income? That’s an exercise program we can get on board with.
Best Website for Vacation Rentals
Mission: “Carpe Vacationum – Seize the Vacation!” VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner) is the largest and most popular vacation rental listing service on the Internet with tens of thousands of properties all over the world.
Membership Cost: $229 a listing for property owners, no cost to renters
Why We Like It: Affordability, ease, and comfort! Most private vacation rental homes offer considerably more space than you will find in the typical hotel room – often at a reduced cost. Find privately owned properties all over the world with amenities that give your family “room to breathe.”
Best Website for Baby Sitters
Mission: Whether you need help for the long term or just for the day, this site will help you create a posting and broadcast your job to nearby sitters as well as keep you up-to-date on new sitters that register in your area.
Membership Cost: $29.95 for three months
Why We Like It: Experienced sitters with references! This sure beats knocking on your neighbor’s door to solicit their 13-year-old daughter. A subscription to this detailed site provides parents with immediate access to post a job for a specific date or for reoccurring dates, and sitters in the area will be automatically notified each time you post a new job. Get out of the house! Your child is in good hands.
Best Website for Networking
Mission: Meetup.com wants to see the world's people self-organize. They believe that people can change their world, or the world, by organizing themselves into groups called Meetups. Meetups help people find others in their area who share their interests; learn, teach, and share things; make friends and have fun; rise up, stand up, unite, and make a difference; be a part of something bigger – both locally and globally.
Membership Cost: $0
Why We Like It: Meet with people who share your interests! All you need to do is sign up and start searching. From dogs to politics to sharing business cards, you’ll be surprised at how many people in your area are looking to meet you. The setting is casual and there are no obligations. Just agree on meeting spot, like a local bar, show up, and start networking!
Best Website for The Best Travel Deal
Mission: Kayak is a travel search engine, which means they search hundreds of travel sites from all over the world, provide the information to you in an easy-to-use display, and send you directly to the source to make your purchase. More than any other travel site, Kayak helps you find the perfect flight, hotel, cruise or rental car. After all, what good are 1000 options when you can't find the flight you want?
Membership Cost: $0
Why We Like It: It’s like Google for traveling! You type in your destination and dates, and Kayak finds the lowest prices from all of the travel sites on the web. From there, you’re directed to the webpage of your choice, and you’re on your own. If you’ve ever scoured the web for hours looking for that perfect fare, you’ll soon be emailing praises to the brilliant minds behind this search engine.
Best Website for Phoenix Women
Mission: A component of Phoenix Woman magazine, this smart site targets women who manage career, family, personal wellbeing and the countless demands of the day. Since readers of the magazine are multifaceted multitaskers who are connected and involved in the community, www.phoenixwoman.com provides educational articles and a popular Event Calendar detailing the goings on in the Valley. It’s also the quickest way to subscribe for a year of PW magazine issues on your doorstep for only $12!
Membership Cost: $0
Why We Like It: Well … isn’t it obvious?
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