This post brought to you by Pep Boys. All opinions are 100% mine.

You guys know by now that I just can't keep quiet when I come across something really interesting online, and my most recent discovery is definitely too good not to share.

Pep Boys, the famed automotive supply store, is running a contest on Facebook for "The Best Seat in the House," where participants will be entered to win a VIP Race Day Experience with Penske Racing’s No. 22 Shell-Penzoil team. The event is being held August 5, 2012 in Pennsylvania.

There will be one Grand Prize given, with the winner getting travel and accommodations, VIP credentials, a guided tour of Pit Road and “the best seats in the house,” located directly above the Pit Box. Even if you consider yourself unlucky, don’t be discouraged. There are 22 other prizes being given away! Since the event focuses on the No. 22 racing team, 22 other entrants will receive $50 gift cards to Pep Boys.

The first thing I do when I hear of any contest is figure out if it’s possible to get extra entries by spreading the word. Thankfully, Pep Boys will give 22 bonus entries to anyone who shares the contest with a friend who ultimately signs up.

I just entered myself; the process was quick and painless and took less than 10 minutes. I shared the contest with my husband, his friends and my racecar-obsessed uncle, who would loving nothing more than winning this contest. Fingers crossed that my 22 bonus entries are enough to seal the deal!

Also, if you enter the contest soon, you have a chance to win an alternate prize, a $50 Pep Boys gift card. All you have to do is enter the “Best Seat In The House” contest on the Pep Boys Facebook page, tweet the contest link with the hashtag #WinTheBestSeatintheHouse, and comments on the post on why they want to win “The Best Seat in the House” sweepstakes. All tweets and comments must be submitted by 11:59am May 29^th. A winner be selected after that date.

Good luck and let me know if you win anything in the Pep Boys sweepstakes!

As a small business owner, I am always looking for tools that can help make my life easier, especially when it comes to managing my finances. On more than one occasion, I’ve been guilty of putting off reconciliations and I might have even waited until April 14th to start working on my taxes in years past. Oops.

Enter www.outright.com, a savvy little online accounting system. The program automates all the bookkeeping basics by pulling in information from Amazon, PayPal, Google Checkout, Etsy, credit cards, bank accounts and more in order to keep up-to-the-minute financial information for your small business. The program also provides handy charts and diagrams, so you never have to decipher and decode tricky financial statements. Perhaps the greatest feature is that the system almost does your taxes for you, keeping you updated on important deadlines and providing estimates for what you owe.

The program is as secure as any reputable banking website and your personal information is always backed up using cloud technology, so you never have to worry about losing your data.

If all of this isn’t tempting enough, how about adding on the fact that a basic Outright plan is free. That’s right, it costs exactly $0. Now that’s a plan I am more than willing to try out. You will pay $9.95 for Outright Plus, a more sophisticated program with added features, but the basic program is free to try, so why wouldn’t you give a shot? I can’t wait to test it out and free myself from the stress and headache of monthly reconciliations and the dread I feel every year when tax season rolls around.

If you try it out, be sure to let me know what you think!

There are few things I find as frustrating as getting knee-deep into an article or webinar only to look up and see that my laptop battery is in the red, again. I guess after 4 or 5 years of nearly constant use, I’ve done my fair share to wear it out, but now I am more than ready for a replacement. I am a firm believer that the equipment or gadgets I use for work need to enhance my productivity, not hinder it.

With that said, I started doing some research online for long-lasting laptop batteries, and came across a site called www.batteryheads.com, which has batteries for just about every electronic device imaginable. I was looking for a Dell laptop battery, and discovered that they had dozens to choose from, with complete details on the battery’s specs, and even list of what laptop models it is compatible with.

I was so impressed by the information and inventory available on the site that I thought it was too good not to share with you guys. Where do you guys normally shop for batteries for your electronics? In the past, I had trusted local big box retailers, but the inventory is rarely as expansive at what you’ll find online.

For more information on all of the batteries available, check out www.batteryheads.com.

With today’s prevalence of identify theft and internet fraud, even getting online to check your email can potentially expose your personal information to security threats. Since purchasing an iPhone a few years ago, I am even hesitant to check my online bank accounts unless I am signing in through my secure at-home network. However, just this month, I was out of town on business and had to finalize my taxes from 30,000 feet in the air using my iPad.

Luckily, the gentleman seated next to me on the plane was happy to share his secret to secure browsing. He told me all about his iPhone VPN, which he downloaded through www.goldenfrog.com. The service, called VyprVPN, allows you to securely browse the internet, overwrite IP address blockages based on location, and even view foreign websites not normally visible on domestic IP’s.

He walked me through the steps to download the service, and in less than a minute I was up and running. I can easily think of at least a half dozen ways I’ll be able to use the VyprVPN to protect my personal information while I’m on the go. For me, knowing that my information and identity is secure is priceless.

How could you use an iPhone VPN?

I am sure I have at least a few entrepreneurial readers out there who are running their own businesses. If so, you are going to want to read this post in detail. I was recently introduced to a company called SysArc that provides IT consulting services that are not only reliable, but also affordable. As a business owner in today’s marketplace, it is not uncommon to be very digitally-dependent. On any given day, I am on at least 2 computers, sending documents to a remote printer, uploading images through my scanner, connecting to the internet via a wireless router, chatting and emailing on my smartphone, and that’s not even the full list.

With all of this technology playing such an active role in our businesses, it’s not uncommon to find yourself in need of occasional IT support. In the event of a server crash or a computer virus, all I care about is getting support that is fast, trustworthy and dependable. With that being said, the time to find a good network support company isn’t when you are in the midst of a meltdown. It’s much easier to shop around and make an educated decision when things are up and running, so I recommend looking into SysArc’s network support services when you have a few moments.

I think you’ll discover that this company’s team of professionals have the knowledge and capabilities to provide both ongoing and reactive support services for all of your network management needs.

Check out www.sysarc.com for more information.

If any of you are suffering from allergies, I feel your pain. For the first time in years, I have been affected by the unusually high levels of pollen in the air, and often find myself congested, sneezy and tired by mid-afternoon. Itchy, watery eyes and a scratchy throat aren’t really conducive with spending 10-12 hours a day working on the computer, so I set out to find a solution.

I spoke with friends and family and, of course, did plenty of research online. No matter what sites I checked or which friends I sought advice from, I kept ending up with the same recommendation: “Invest in a HEPA filter.”

Turns out, HEPA filters work well at reducing the amount of dust and other allergens inside the home by filtering and cleaning the air. Even better, they actually make the air healthier to breathe, for those with and without season allergies.

While doing my research, I came across a small appliance site called www.amorwares.com, which carries several different types of HEPA filters. I was balking at spending  a few hundred dollars on a unit for each room, which would end up costing somewhere around $1000, when a friend showed me her portable unit. I had no idea that I could buy a portable HEPA filter and move it to whichever room I’d be spending time in and save myself several hundred dollars. I found one that was less than $200, and weighs less than 10 lbs., so I can easily start the day with it in the office, move it in to the common areas during the evening, then place it at my bedside while I sleep.

My shopping experience was made much easier due to the fact that this site had a wide variety of products to shop and compare as well as video reviews and detailed spec sheets. Shop it for yourself www.amorwares.com.

As you know, I love to do research on nearly every product I purchase to ensure that I never have any pangs of post-purchase regret and also to ensure that I always get the best price. It’s not always easy to find unbiased reviews online, so whenever I find a site with an abundance of useful information, I like to share it with you guys.

A friend recently told me about a site called Gadget Mix that not only offers notebook reviews, but also has comparison articles that explain the pros and cons of two similar products. I’ve always liked reading product reviews, but I was especially excited about the comparisons between laptops, smartphones, printers, etc.

In addition to notebook and laptop reviews, the site also has tablet reviews. I’ve recently being pondering purchasing an iPad, so reading about other tablet devices like the Lenovo IdeaPad and Motorola Xoom 2 was totally enlightening.

If all that information isn’t enough to get you excited, Gadget Mix is also a resource for hardware reviews where products like Canon printers are reviewed and evaluated.

While the product reviews are wonderful, the feature that most appeals to my inner gadget geek is the “Preview” articles, which feature products which have yet to hit the market. Nothing excites me like knowing that a new smartphone or sleek laptop is on its way to the shelves, and with this site I can get an inside look at the features and functionality before the product has even launched.

Check out the site at www.gadgetmix.com.

I recently made the decision to downsize from my current 4-bedroom home to something smaller with a lot less maintenance, which means that I have to start thinking about a viable storage solution for all of my stuff. I’ve never been too keen on the idea of having my stuff at one of those storage facilities, as I like having the ability to dig into my things whenever I need to without having to get in the car and drive anywhere. I’m a sucker for convenience.

While at a friend’s BBQ last weekend, I noticed that almost everyone on her street had one of those steel sheds in their backyards. It got me thinking that this could be the perfect storage solution at our new house. I asked about hers, and she told me that she and a few of the neighbors had all purchased Arrow sheds from Arrow Spacemaker.

As you can probably already guess, I came home and started doing a little research and was pleasantly surprised by how many options and configurations are available in these steel storage sheds. Also, the prices start as low as $300, which definitely appeals to my thrifty side. My husband checked out the site too, and I think we’ve settled on a Red Barn Storage Shed as it will perfectly complement our new country cottage style home, but without the hassle of an old wooden barn. This particular shed comes in a variety of sizes starting at 8′ x 10′. Now I just have to convince my husband that bigger is better…

How do you store all that extra stuff that people just seem to accumulate?

I discovered something recently and wanted to share it with you guys. For those of you who work in an industry where downtime is considered a national disaster, and the fail-safe accessibility of applications is absolutely essential to daily operations, your organization likely operates on an F5 network. Or, perhaps your company needs this kind of reliability but has not yet come across the perfect solution. If you aren’t familiar with F5 Application Delivery Controllers, they are a critical element in the prevention of costly downtime and breaks in production.

The company that I came across, Milestone Systems, provides F5 training courses to organizations through a web-based portal, at Milestone’s office, or at the client’s own facility. If you think your company could benefit from their expertise, I urge you to do a bit more research at www.milestonesystems.com.

I have a friend whose company recently underwent Cisco IronPort training courses to ensure that the staff knew the ins and outs of operating a mission-critical email network when highly sensitive data is involved.

If you are not familiar with Cisco IronPort, it is a system that “protects your network from within” and allows you to control who is privy to certain information based on a given set of criteria. This system is utilized by many of America’s leading companies and government organizations, and may be an asset at your organization.

Learn more at www.milestonesystems.com.

With internet fraud and identify theft on the rise, protecting your computer from antivirus software has never been so important. In doing some research online, I came across Titanium Antivirus and wanted to find out if you guys are familiar with it. The software, which is only $39.99 for a single PC for the entire year, uses cloud technology to identify and halt viruses and spyware before they have a chance to infect your computer. This type of technology is being employed by the country’s top organizations, and allows users to use the internet and email worry-free.

The interface, which can be customized with your own photos, is easy to use, making it simple to run regular system scans. It even includes an add-on that ensures safe web browsing on Mac computers, which is critical after recent stories of Mac’s becoming infected with malware.

While doing researching on the Titanium Antivirus software, I also discovered Titanium Internet Security, which is just $69.95 for up to 3 computers. This software comes with a  few additional features, including the ability to monitor and limit children’s activities while online. This program also includes the ability to store and sync up to 2GB of data in a secure, online backup that can be accessed from virtually anywhere.

What type of protection is on your computer? I’d love to hear what you do to keep your information safe online.