Guide to Summer 2010 is free – and maybe worth $1,000 to you

Summertime Guide 2010 Book Cover

Iwanna’s Summertime Guide 2010 is now on the streets, better than ever in a handy 80-page guidebook to activities across the North Carolina mountains and South Carolina upstate.

The annual magazine is in a smaller size this year — a perfect fit for your car or your coffee table as you consider places to visit and things to do all summer long. Weekend getaways, outdoor festivals, a complete calendar of events, fun activities for the family, treks into nature and the most interesting places in the mountains and upstate are included in the publication.

The guidebook marks the launch the Summer Fun Photo Contest, in which Iwanna is giving away $1,000 in cash to the best picture of the summer. The contest is part of Iwanna’s Contest Central and is an interactive competition in which you submit pictures that fit the theme “See What I Did This Summer.” The contest begins Memorial Day and lasts through Labor Day.

You can find the guidebook anywhere Iwanna is distributed, including most convenience stores and many grocery locations. But you might want to find one quickly — only a limited number are available and distributors are reporting they’re going fast.

Ride the Twitter wave with these tips

Twitter has washed over Asheville and Western North Carolina in a big wave. It’s been embraced by local mainstream media, and it’s been growing in a number of local publishing entrepreneurs who are building networks and audience with the micro-blogging service. It’s also a great way to promote and follow events like this weekend’s Bele Chere Festival in Asheville.

A couple of good examples of local small businesses using Twitter include Blanchard Hyundai and AskAsheville. You can follow Iwanna at www.twitter.com/iwanna.

But for most small businesses, Twitter remains somewhat of a mystery. Just in time, Twitter has released “Twitter 101 For Business” that is a great primer for small businesses.

Twitter isn’t just about useful immediacy. The conversational nature of the medium lets you build relationships with customers, partners and other people important to your business. Beyond transactions, Twitter gives your constituents direct access to employees and a way to contribute to your company…

via Twitter 101 for Business — A Special Guide.

Using very simple tools such as the new Twitter widget and a simple website creation tool — such as the disposable web-site creator DinkyPage — anyone can create a niche-specific information site to share with customers, colleagues and friends. Check out Iwanna’s Internet Marketing Tips here for more free website tools.

To show you how simple it can be, we’ve created an Asheville Tweets page that includes an Asheville Twitter feed and a Pack Square-based webcam courtesy Wilcox Travel. Check it out.

And so, as an added bonus, now you’ve gained some expertise so you can talk the talk at the pub.

Asheville vs. Portland debate rages

A long and interesting debate has sprung up on Reddit about the comparative virtues of Asheville vs. Portland, Ore.

A good plug for Asheville:

Portland has trees in the mountains. NC has trees on the way to the grocery store.

A counterpunch by a left-coaster:

Not to say everyone who lives there is weird, but I’ve seen some strange toothless wonders in mountains of NC. So, if you move there don’t leave the city without protection.

via Portland, OR or Asheville, NC. Planning to move to one of them, any advice from reddit? : AskReddit.

Housing costs, music and entertainment scene, employment opportunities, and lifestyle all get touched in the thread on Reddit, a popular social news website. The discussion got started when one member — trying to decide on which place to live — requested advice.

“Priceless” deals around WNC in an iPhone app

Mastercard has released a cool iPhone app that allows you to share the best shopping deals in your area.

[Priceless Picks is] a social app that allows consumers to point out their best deals at their favorite local spots for all to see. The app uses the iPhone location services to figure out where you are. It then shows you on a map and shows all the deals others have placed around you.

via An App To Show You Mastercard “Priceless” Deals: Priceless..

If you’re in the Asheville area, download the application to your iPhone and you’ll find deal alerts from Smiley’s, Cinebarre, TracPhone, Advance Auto Parts, Grove Park Inn, and now Iwanna — Western North Carolina’s home for free classified ads.

TechCrunch adds:

If you want to add you own deal, you simply click the “+” button, and enter the relevant details. It will tag the place at whatever your current location is.

How cats control humans

What’s the saying: Dogs have owners, cats have staff?

According to a new study published at LiveScience.com, that pithy saying may be truer than we think.

The new study says that cats actually manipulate their owners with a unique purr mixed with a high-pitched cry.

Earlier studies have shown the naturally irritating nature of cat meows that mimic infant cries. But the new study emphasizes the manipulative mixture of a purr within a cry.

“The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response,” said researcher Karen McComb of University of Sussex. “Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom.”

via Cats Do Control Humans, Study Finds | LiveScience.

Even worse, the sly felines have learned how “to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective,” said McComb.

If you’re looking to be manipulated by a new pet, check out the pet categories on Iwanna.com.

Find out where your chips were made

Where Lays chips are made in North Carolina.

Engage a bad habit over lunch to see where your vending-machine potato chips are  made:

Lay’s Potato Chip Tracker

What you’ll find out:

North Carolina farmers grew over 66 million pounds of potatoes for Frito-Lay last year. Across America, we use potatoes from over 80 farms and make Lay’s chips at 21 locations.

The shift to thrift … wanna trade?

People who once lived beyond their means, financing their lifestyle with debt, have “found religion.” They’ve begun to embrace frugality, and have discovered the joy that can come through spending less.

via The New Age of Thrift ∞ Get Rich Slowly.

This blog post has some interesting insights, including links to stories from Redbook and The New York Times and Business Week and Fortune, while proclaiming the need for a “gospel of thrift” in America.

You don’t get much thriftier than folks who are looking to trade in Iwanna. On Iwanna.com, a search of the word “trade” returns 428 results from our thousands of local classified ads today. Try it for yourself and see if you can find something to trade for.

The Many Uses of Vodka

In this economic climate of austerity, everybody’s stretching. And given that the weekend’s upon us, this posting might be a good enough excuse to pick up an extra bottle of vodka.

To cure foot odor, wash your feet with vodka.

via The Many Uses of Vodka

Iwanna = Carolina Shopping News

Iwanna is a bargain hunter’s dream in the Carolinas, bringing buyers and sellers together for more than 30 years. Our weekly print publication is the region’s largest source of free classified advertising. In fact, it’s so thick with user-generated deals that if it were tossed by carriers, it might seriously hurt porch pets! As much as we like pets  — after all, they’re one of our most popular categories — we’re happy to report the paper is available only at  single-copy dealers. And now, thousands of people go online daily at Iwanna.com to search its database of 14,000 ads every day. Watch this spot for updates,  shopping news and other fun stuff we find at Iwanna and around the Carolinas.