And then came the emergence of collective buying websites like Groupon, LivingSocial and a whole host of others. For a lot of people who aim to get the most bang for their buck, deal of the day is here to stay. But did you know there are smaller niche websites that can help you save money, too? Here are 5 of those sites:

1. Bitrix24.com

For a business to survive a competitive marketplace, communication among its employees is of paramount importance. Problem is, corporate intranets usually cost thousands of dollars, and most small businesses may not have enough operating budget to afford them.

Bitrix24 provides a solution to that problem. If your business has 12 employees or less, Bitrix24 offers a basic package that is absolutely free. Yes, you heard that right. The basic package is absolutely free. And the package comes with a fully functional CRM, activity streaming where every team member gets updates as events unfold, calendar, activity planner, sales funnel and a whole host of other features. If your company is comprised of more than 12 employees, the service costs just about $99 per month.

2. Logaster.com

Online or not, if it’s a business you’re running, you need a logo. Unfortunately, professional logo designers command a high price – hundreds of dollars at the very least. And even with crowdsourcing sites, getting the logo you desire may render you at least $100 poorer.

Logaster.com lets you create your logo free of charge, and with a $4.99 subscription per month, you get other valuable features like business cards, letterheads and envelopes.

3. PickyDomains.com

Some people think it odd to pay somebody to come up with a name for his company or a domain for his website. Then again, branding can make or break your business. What’s worse, with millions and millions of top-level domains registered already, coming up with a domain that hasn’t been registered yet may be harder than you think it is

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PickyDomains.com is a site of over 55,000 namer contributors. All a client needs to do is register, pay the required $50 downpayment for a domain, brand or name (or $75 for a slogan), specify his parameters, then wait for suggestions to start pouring in. If none of the suggestions are to his liking, he may ask for a refund.

4. JetRadar.com

Expedia, CheapFlights and Orbitz are just three of several niche sites that have changed the way the securing-cheap-air-fare game is played forever. If you’re a businessman constantly on the go or somebody who simply likes to travel, with JetRadar.com, you can search for tickets that are even cheaper.

Cheaper than cheap? How’s that for a cool deal? JetRadar.com is a meta search engine that searches through every travel agency, major flight site and through registers of 728 individual airlines. Some deals from airline companies are made known only through their own websites and not anywhere else to ensure traffic to their sites. JetRadar makes these deals publicly available.

5. iSpionage.com

If you’re a business owner, you want to know what your competitor is up to. With iSpionage, you get to manage client campaigns, save valuable time monitoring affiliates and paid search competition, manage through search engine gaps, view the ads your competitor is running and a whole lot more.

And instead of you collating all the information you need from various searches, iSpionage sends you e-mail alerts every time a competitor activity is detected. iSpionage subscription starts at $59 per month.

Yes, this is a paid advertisement.

Read below for a brief review of PickyDomains.com.

• MumsAndMe.com – online shop for moms.
• ScrapSculptures.com – scrap metal art.
• PriceSpectre.com – price quoting service for eBay.
• NadaPay.com – alternative payment system.
• WiseExec.com – domain name for business and management portal.

Payments are made through PayPal. Contributors are paid within 72 hours after their suggestions have been selected and registered by clients. In countries where PayPal is not accepted, unfortunately, there’s no other way to receive payments.

Or, if you really want to know what’s going on here, this is what the reality of being a lifeguard on the SoCal Coast is all about….rather than, you know, that TV show that showed us lots about Ms. Anderson.

Having, for a couple of years, actually lived on this stretch of coast this TV series, upcoming on the Weather Channel, does seem a tad more realistic.

The basic props are there, the California coast, the sharks, the rip tides, the Pacific Ocean and the surfer dudes but this show is a lot closer to reality.

Yes, this is a sponsored post.

On the subject of tyres, cross country cars, Atlas Mountain rallies, I am fully in touch with my feminine side.

Don’t know a sausage about this sorta stuff.

Myself, no, I don’t.

So, tell me.

Isn’t that a variation on Dick Whittington? So it’s about Boris again?

Something about recycling in London I believe.

Boris on other peoples’ wives maybe?

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What that is I have no idea at all.

As part of their ongoing campaign to get us all drinking their beer, especially their Light version, Heineken have once more hired this blog to point you at a video.

Point:

In it we get taken behind the scenes of a video shoot . You know the sort of thing, like an end of the pier “What the Brewer saw”?

It is getting near pint time isn’t it?

And the advertising campaign is about how billboards become occasionally perfect, see? Just like the beer, always pretty good, but occasionally, just perfect?

And my, my, aren’t parts of Chicago just occasionally perfect stand ins for the arse end of South London sometimes?

Or is putting past hits into beer adverts not selling out but carefully extracting full value from a back catalogue?

Which means that advertising the stuff using a man with a great big handlebar moustache is, umm interesting.

Are we to assume that the Laydeez, those who would like the taste but not the calories on their hips would like a large moustache…err, to grow one that is. Or are we to assume that they’d like the sort of menfolk who drink the light beer which produces the large moustache so that the laydeez can play with it?

Ahem.

If we go behind the moustache perhaps we can find out.

Or is it all that manly men who grow big moustaches, who can grow big moustaches, are also concerned about calories these days? There being a shortage of bears to slaughter, cows to poke and trees to lumberjack in American urban centres these days?

We report, you decide, fair and unbalanced, that’s our motto.

I’m told something happens if you wave the mouse over it.

It’s all modern and stuff because not only have we got beer being advertised on TV and radio and blogs’n’ things, we’ve even got a brand new hashtag as well. #occasionallyperfect.

N’ here’s the video.

There are also times when living in Portugal isn’t quite the right place to be living. Here’s part of the original invite:

Also I’d like to invite you to the event and to private drinks beforehand. If you are interested and are in the NYC area we’ll be heading down to Soho around 6 for a few beers and then will walk across to the performance directly at around 7.45pm.

Nearly two hours of free beer.

Who did you say was playing at that gig?

Yes, you should try Heineken Light, it helps to support this blog.

I’m sure there is a connection between two highly paid young men, fast cars and mobile phones.

Not entirely sure what it is but there we go.

Don’t really understand this tech stuff.

Or it could be that they’re late getting the ad agencies to tell everyone the video’s available. Whichever, here’s the AV sports day video