The cost of living is rising faster than ever, and tuition fees don’t look like they’re going to get any cheaper. Add to this the average student’s low income and it’s no wonder that so many are worried about finance.

There are a few guides out there that claim to help students with the daunting task of sorting out their finances; some are dull, some are full of bank jargon and the rest just aren’t comprehensive enough.

We’ve noticed the woefully inadequate lack of support for students dealing with finances and so we’ve produced an e-book on student finance – with a twist.

As well as the important stuff on managing overdrafts and finding work, it’ll also help students to plan a gap year, unlock free money (legally) and maintain an active social life without breaking the bank.

The e-book is free to download from the site and is available now! Click here to get your copy.

studentbeans.com is looking for talented web developers to join its in-house development team.

We will pay £400 to anyone who introduces us to someone who we then go on to employ.

If you know of anyone who may be interested in this position, please either pass on our details to them or send us their details if they are happy for us to get in touch with them directly. Either way, make sure you let us know you have recommended them so we can pay you your finders fee!

With over 125,000 members, we are a leading student focused website and with exciting developments on our roadmap we are poised for exceptional growth.

We are looking for individuals who are both creative and passionate about developing websites.

The role offers diversity, autonomy and potential for rapid career progression and development.

The successful person will have experience of the following skills:

* Strong object-orientated PHP/MySQL
* JavaScript (DOM/AJAX etc)
* Strong hand-built XHTML/CSS
* Understanding of user interface,
* SEO and overall user experience
* Understanding of Web and Accessibility standards
* Photoshop/Illustrator/Flash experience a bonus
* Be a recent graduate or graduating in summer 2008

Examples of work are essential.

How do I apply?

Applications should consist of a cover letter and CV. For further information or to apply, please e-mail talent @ studentbeans.com.

*Applicants must be eligible to work in the UK

After repeated requests from non-students for their own deal and discount service. We have been busy building a site to satisfy their needs and also to provide a home for studentbeans.com members once they graduate into the big wide world.

The new site is under going testing and we hope to launch it soon.

Watch this space for more information.

Beanzine, the online student magazine from studentbeans.com has just launched.

Content channels based around entertainment, fashion, lifestyle, travel, and jobs are contributed by a national team of talented student writers.

As well as our news, features, opinion and editorial content, Beanzine is the essential guide to student life, a crucial reference guide to everything from music festivals to writing a winning CV.

Interested in working for Beanzine?
Do you want to gain great experience and have your articles published on the UK’s leading student website?

Through exposure on Beanzine, our aim is to help launch careers of aspiring journalists and writers in the media.

If you want to benefit from this great opportunity and be part of the Beanzine team – please send an email to beanzine [at] studentbeans.com, with your CV, and a 400 word article with a title of your choice.

studentbeans.com Beanzine Programme 2008-2009 Following the huge growth in popularity of studentbeans.com, which now makes us the leading student focused website in the UK, we are launching an online magazine - Beanzine.

We are looking to create a national student team of aspiring journalists and writers to contribute to Beanzine, which will be published on studentbeans.com .

We want to offer you a unique opportunity to contribute and develop Beanzine into a leading online resource that informs, engages and entertains students across the UK. With a balanced mix of news and features, content channels will include: entertainment, student life, fashion and travel.

What’s in it for you?

* Gain great experience - have your articles published on the UK’s leading student website - visited by over 200,000 unique visitors every month

* An opportunity to have fun, engage with students across UK, be controversial and get a real head start in your careers

* Get profiled as a contributor on studentbeans.com

* Compete to win ’studentbeans.com media awards’ as voted for by the studentbeans.com userbase

What we’re looking for…

* Feature writers to contribute articles within content channels: entertainment (music, film, clubbing etc) student life, fashion and travel

* People with passion, ambition, and a good eye for detail

* We do not want being part of Beanzine to be a chore, we want you to contribute to areas that you are interested in!

* People who aren’t afraid to take risks and most importantly we want you to be proactive

How to apply…

If you want to benefit from this great opportunity and be part of the Beanzine team - please email your CV, and a 400 word article with a title of your choice based around either: entertainment, student life, fashion or travel to: beanzine@studentbeans.com

The closing date for applications is Friday 7th March 2008

DON’T MISS OUT ON THIS EXCLUSIVE OPPORTUNITY!

Wow what a start to the year.

With the influx of over 25,000 new members in the past few weeks we’ve been extremely busy building up our hardware to cope with so many students accessing our exclusive deals and discounts.

No wonder our facebook fan page has been going from strength to strength - 6313 fans and counting….

This leads me on to the launch of our facebook application, which brings you all the latest studentbeans.com offers straight to facebook.

The application provides a live stream of up to date discounts, offers, sales as well as great tips for student to use every day of the week straight to your facebook profile. It’s easy to use and provides the perfect way to stay up to date with the best ways to save your cash! CLICK HERE to add the application to your facebook profile.

We must be doing something right! Microsoft seem to be pleased with us. They noticed a surge of orders when Microsft Office 2007 was mentioned on studentbeans.com

We’re currently beavering away on a new project ‘Beanzine’. For now I’ll leave that up to your imagination. Until next time…

We just wanted to wish you a very happy new year and tell you about our exciting new developments with facebook.

We have launched our very own facebook page and we are inviting you to become a fan!

Why become a fan?

• Get alerted whenever new offers and features are launched on studentbeans.com
• We can only negotiate bigger & better offers - like 2 for 1 cinema tickets & meal deals with your help - be our first fans and help spread the buzz about studentbeans.com
• Access exclusive offer & deal content only posted on the fan page
• Use the fan page to have your say about what you want to see on studentbeans.com

Click here to become a fan of studentbeans.com on facebook!

Feeling bored? Let studentbeans.com come to the rescue. We’ve just released some dastardly hard quizzes for you to pit your wits against. And the best part is you can win some great prizes and if you reach level 2 you get £5!

In the run up to Christmas if you’re stuck for pressie ideas you should check out the bean board for some awesome savings.

We need your help to make studentbeans.com better and win some goodies while you’re at it……click here to take part in our short survey about the site - you should find it quite interesting and it will only take a few minutes - your feedback will also be very much appreciated.

Last week studentbeans.com underwent a number of exciting developments. This included the release of the much anticipated Bean Board - which lets student from across the UK share useful information on local and national deals, discounts and free stuff that fellow students will find useful and valuable. This powerful addition to the studentbeans.com platform will further enable users to stretch their student loan and gain even more from their university experience. It’s very early days yet but it’s great to see the board already getting a healthy number of valuable posts and we look forward to this continuing.

In addition to the bean board, we released a new homepage portal template which enables easier access to the diverse studentbeans.com content - as you will see the local portal now offers a snap shot of local offers, local bean board content a selection of competitions - my personal favourite at the moment is win a skiing holiday in Vald’Isere, and easy access to the studentbeans.com market section, which offers a unique selection of online retailers that will help complement student life. The portal will also house a number of additional features which are yet to be released so watch this space for further updates.

Finally, studentbeans.com has also just released a West End theatre discount website - where you can save up to 50% on West End shows. In only a week you guys have snapped up loads of tickets so I’m glad to see you’re enjoying that. The ticket site is actually also available to non-students so feel free to spread the word to family and friends!

Have a good week!

We’ve been getting a lot of feedback from students across the country on ways in which we can develop studentbeans.com. Taking this on board we have been developing an innovative user generated content platform that will enable students from across the UK to share and access an even greater number of student deals, discounts and offers.

Students will soon be able to share their own tips with their peers on such things as the best places to buy mobile phones, limited time supermarket offers, great travel saving ideas and where to get some great freebies.

We are currently testing the new application, code named ‘blue banana’, and it will role out across the studentbeans.com network in the next few days. Watch this space for more information.