Kim Komando is America's Digital Goddess. Kim is always on the lookout for useful and profitable resources on the Internet, and brings with a daily newsletter her coolest find everyday.

We're very happy to have been selected this sunday as the Cool Site of the Day, and hope that Kim's readers will enjoy and take full advantage of Zilok to save and make money by renting the stuff the need and already have!

You can read the full article on Kim's site.

Kim's helping people discovering and making the best out of the Internet and new technologies, through radio shows, colums and newsletter available all around America. You can find it all on Kim's site.

Zilok is a new way for people to save and make money, while supporting a green lifestyle. That's at least three reasons why people regularly reach out to us to congratulate and thank us.

Now, if you're feeling the love too, there are many ways you can help:

• Tell your friends about it
• Promote Zilok with banners, flyers...
• And nominate Zilok for the upcoming Open Web Awards using the widget below!

Thanks to all of you who have been supporting us

Max Shevyakov is the owner of BorrowLenses.com, a SF Bay Area based rental business for professional quality cameras, lenses, tripods and accessories. These great products can be ordered anywhere in the US through its delivery service and website.

We at BorrowLenses.com are very excited to begin our partnership with Zilok.com. Using Zilok.com, we will undoubtedly reach out to folks looking for high quality camera equipment rentals that we would have otherwise missed.

I believe that Zilok's business model aligns very well with BorrowLenses.com and their services should help companies and individuals alike. I believe the US is ready for a service like theirs and we are very excited to join them and watch their US operations grow.

Max Shevyakov
Owner, BorrowLenses.com

Halloween is coming and everybody is already scared (of the economy)... To lighten things up, here's how people can save or make money with their costume (or anything else) by taking advantage of Zilok

For Immediate Release

SAN FRANCISCO, October 16th, 2008 – According to Visa, Inc., Americans will spend an average of $47 on Halloween candy and decorations. But when it comes to buying or crafting the costume you’ve been thinking about for months, the price tag can be frighteningly higher. And what will become of your pricey costume after Halloween? Dead weight in the closet. The good news is with Zilok.com you’re now able to save money and storage space by renting your costume from someone else. And if you really want your own, make some money by renting it to a neighbor when you’re done scaring people off!

Rent your Halloween costume… from a neighbor
Zilok.com is Ali Baba’s cave for rentals. People create listings every day to offer for rent anything they own and don’t use all the time. And in this cave you’ll find scary items: Halloween costumes! If you’re part of the 73% of Americans who will celebrate this hallmark of holiday’s, you’ll need to look good (meaning scary) when you’re off partying. And if pulling $100 out of your pocket for a one-night show pulls you off, Zilok has a better solution, with great costumes available from $10 to $20 a day.

Give your costume a second life
When you’re done trick or treatin’, pause for a moment before you put your brand new, awesome costume to rest along with the ones from previous years. Take a picture and create rental listings on Zilok, so people in the neighborhood can find and rent them from you. With costume parties going on all year, chances are you won’t have to wait until next Halloween for these creatures to start making you money.

Peer-to-peer renting is citizen consumerism
What works with costumes works with anything you’ll find on Zilok: tools, cameras, vehicles, appliances to rent from people and businesses around you. On the flipside, you can make money by listing your pressure washer, car trailer, stroller, Wii videogame system, anything you have.
When you’re renting from a neighbor instead of buying new, you help reducing the accumulation of stuff and its waste of natural resources. Acting on overconsumption doesn’t have to mean limiting our choices. It could mean buying the quality items that we regularly use and renting whatever we need once in a while.

This morning Zilok was in the airwaves in the California Central Coast. Did you feel it? Mark Carbonaro has a great morning show on KION 46, and he went over in great depth how Zilok can give people some relief amidst the crisis.

Now, if you've heard the show and want to start your rental community in the Monterey Bay, you're in the right place!

Last friday we had the pleasure to see a great story about Zilok in the ABC 7 evening news by Leslie Brinkley. If you missed it we have the video right here for you!

Hit by the credit crunch and by soaring prices, people are looking for new ways to save and make money. Zilok provides both, and is becoming more and more newsworthy.

Here's an excerpt from the story, which you can read in full on ABC 7 site, and of course you can watch the video below.

"One innovative Bay Area company is helping people save money and make money, in this economy. The website Zilok connects users with neighbors who want to rent their barely-used household appliances or tools.
Need a fan during a heat wave? You can borrow one for $5 a day. Need a printer? That will be $10 a day. If you want to loan out your iPhone, you could stand to make $25 a day.
Current hot rentals include baby strollers and car seats for out of town guests, digital cameras and video games, and sporting gear like kayaks and bicycles.
In the year since its inception, Zilok is offering more than 100,000 items in many major cities. Those items include everything from blenders and spatulas to a Ferrari Spider for $3,000 a day."

Thanks to Josh for accepting to be interviewed by ABC 7 to tell about his Zilok experience. If you too would like to be part of future stories featuring our community, please send us a quick message so we can reach out to you if a reporter asks for a testimonial in your area.

Last year ABC 7 had broadcasted another story about us, it's fun to see how Zilok has changed while staying useful to people.

Zilok has been selected by PC World as one of the most useful sites for buying, selling or renting almost anything. We would like to welcome all PC World readers and hope that they will take the opportunity to rent their gear!

The Web is becoming everyday a more useful resource for every aspect of our lives. But as the number of services increases, it's hard to keep track of the ones that matter, the ones that will have a real impact on our lives.

PC World wants to help you discovering and keeping track of the latest and most useful services, and issued this week a guide of the 100 Incredibly Useful and Interesting Web Sites.

We're very happy to be featured in this list, as part of the 7 most useful services for Buying, Selling and Renting Almost Anything, right next to Craigslist!

Here's how PC World describes us: "The site hosts rental listings from people in your community for things you might need to use only once--a power tool, a picnic table, a warehouse space, a van--things you'd usually be far better off renting than buying outright.". That's right, most of the things we own we barely use, so it makes lots of sense renting them to other people. On the flip side, next time you need something for a short use, save some money and the environment renting them from a neighbor on Zilok!

A year ago, around noon, Zilok.com came to life on the Internet. So much has been accomplished since then! Now Zilok is on the right track to become a mainstream service.

Zilok is the fruit of a very ambitious project. A desire to enable and promote a new way of consuming, that would give people more choices while saving natural resources. No more buying things new that we'll use once and then store forever in a closet.

In this new century natural resources are becoming scarce, and the economy is starting to notice, not just with higher prices but also with a growing concern for conservation. Because it makes sense economically too. And that's what peer-to-peer renting is offering: an economic structure for a more efficient use of the community's resources. It goes beyond hugging trees. It makes sense, economically too.

So one year after the first release of the site, we feel we're going in the right direction. Looking back, here's the achievements we're the most proud about:

• Conquering the World: Zilok.com is home to P2P renting communities in five countries, making it the World Premier Online Rental Marketplace.
• Impacting the Industry: Zilok's already made an impact on the rental industry. With more than 500 rental businesses on board, you can now rent everything from tools to racing motorcycles from businesses down the street. Zilok is an active and proud member of the American Rental Association.
• Getting the Attention: Since Zilok went live in the USA, it made news in many A-list media publications, media and blogs: the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, ABC, NBC, Reader's Digest, PC Magazine, PC World, CNET, TechCrunch, Mashable... the list goes on.
• Feeling the Love: Zilok has received many awards from industry leaders: Site of the Week and part of the Top 100 2008 Websites at PC Magazine, Best European Startup by the audience of the Plugg Startup Rally 2008, and Zilok won the 2008 Startup 2.0 Challenge in Barcelona.
• Defining the Standards: We're starting to see clones and new followers popping up every other week. That's always a good sign!

Now, our objective and big challenge for the long run is to become a mainstream service. We want you and everyone you know to think Zilok tomorrow for renting as naturally as you think eBay today for selling. That's the horizon, and with the help of our community we're going for it.

We'll need all the help we can get to bring peer-to-peer renting to US homes, so if you want to get involved, contact us or start spreading the word!

With Zilok, you can make money by renting your stuff to other people. But how much money? And rent what? Zilok's Rental Income Simulator will help you figure it out.

A video game system, karaoke equipment, Blu-Ray movies in your living room? An air mattress, a party costume in your closet? A bike, a stroller, golf clubs in your garage? With these things alone you could make more than $40 a month. Take a minute to try out our rental income simulator, you’ll be amazed at how much money you can earn!

Did you know that in America 80% of the objects we own are used less than once a month? It’s just amazing to realize how much stuff we own and don’t use all the time. Most of it really. And these are all things that other people may need, too, once in a while. Rent them and start making money!

When people create an account to list something up for rent on Zilok, they have a specific idea of what they want to rent out. But once you open that door, and start looking around for what is in your closet, in your garage, in your living room, the list keeps getting longer and longer…

For people to realize how much money they can make, we built a powerful tool to simulate a rental income based on what’s in your house. Based on how often and the average price things are rented on Zilok, we are able to tell you what your rental income could be. Enjoy it and pass it along to your friends!

This month, the Reader's Digest gives us a goldmine of tips and tricks to get the best deals and save the most money online. Our favorite trick? Save and make money renting anything on Zilok.com!

Here is an excerpt of the article:"Need a trombone, power saw, or bow and arrows? Rent an amazing assortment of stuff-you name it, it's available-from individuals at zilok.com, which covers 50 cities in 17 states. Type in what you're looking for, where you live, and how long you'll need it, then make arrangements with the owner for pickup. Mason Carroll, a software professional in San Francisco, rented a kayak for $40 a day. He enjoyed paddling around Shasta Lake for far less than if he'd purchased the same kayak for $350. You can rent your stuff to others too."

Thanks Mason for sharing your experience of Zilok with the Reader's Digest! If you want to share your own experience, contact us and submit us a testimonial telling how much money you saved or made with Zilok. Your testimonial may be featured on our home page, and you could be featured in future articles about Zilok!

Zilok is a great way to save money. But what's even more exciting is the money making part of it. How much money? Renting what? Figure it out with our new Rental Income Simulator!

John V., Marketing Manager at AAA Rental System (Illinois) really believes in this truly innovative approach to the rental industry.

I believe that Zilok offers a truly innovative approach to the rental industry. At the heart of this bold statement is Zilok's dynamic online platform. Renters and the people who rent alike are able to easily make tangible exchanges in a virtual medium simply by visiting their website.

One of our initial concerns was getting our huge inventory of items listed, but Zilok integrated it with no problem at all. If you are looking to rent anything Zilok.com is certainly the place and I am proud to work with them.

PC Magazine published yesterday its 2008 Top 100 Websites list, and we're glad to be in it. The Top 100 list is a goldmine to find sites that are useful, trendy and have a great potential to be widely adopted by everyone. Good to be here!

Zilok was listed in the shopping category along with Catalog Choice, Gazelle.com, The Impulsive Buy, SomethingStore, Typo Buddy and Wigix. Congrats and best of luck to all, we share with you the drive to help the customer save money, spare the environment and have fun in the process.

Here's how Zilok is described by PC Mag: Is your wallet too thin to buy that sports car, D-SLR, or set of golf clubs? Got a sports car, D-SLR, or set of clubs that you aren't using? Zilok connects users who have stuff to rent with users who need to rent stuff. So instead of buying a Nikon D80, you can rent one to use on your vacation for a few bucks a day.

Here's how PC Mag editors, bloggers and analysts built the list:

Each year, a team of PC Magazine editors, bloggers, and analysts assembles to find the best Web sites of the year. We pore over thousands of submissions [...] and then painstakingly whittle the list of nominations down to 100 Undiscovered Web Sites. For our Undiscovered Web Sites list, we pick those that capture the best of the trends and memes swirling around the Web. Some of these "undiscovered" Web sites are surely known to you, and may even have large Internet followings within their particular niche, but the list's broad range of sites and categories means there's plenty of new stuff here for everyone to discover.

Chris Smith is the CEO of Cresco Equipment Rentals (California). Chris is very excited to join Zilok, a very powerful online marketing tool.

We're very excited at Cresco to join Zilok and help homeowners find the rental equipment they need, when and where they need it. We are committed to support and service the community, locally and conveniently, and Zilok will help us do just that through the Internet.

We hope that the Bay Area will fully embrace Zilok and further discover the benefits of renting. The integration of our inventory was straightforward as Zilok took care of all the technicalities. I think Zilok is a very powerful online marketing tool and we are happy to be participating.

Every day we're happy to welcome new members in our community adding hundreds of new objects and renting more things. We would like to thank you for your trust.

We prepared the following list of tips and advice to make sure you experience the safest rental transactions. Please take a minute to read it through, it's very useful whether a renter or an owner.

• Check your account often, so you don't miss a rental transaction and so your contact and profile information is up-to-date.
• Attach identification documents to your account profile to boost trust from other members.
• Contact directly the owner or the renter as quickly as possible after the rental transaction is confirmed.
• Don't forget to sign the rental contract when you make the transaction- either the standard one we provide you or, if you think you can beat our lawyer, another of your preference.
• Ask for a copy of an official document (copy and original) if you want to check the identity of your renter.
• If you're the owner of the object, make sure you explain the renter exactly how to use your item!
• If requested, don't forget the deposit, either in cash or check; this is your first guarantee.
• Try as much as possible to avoid corporate checks.
• If you're planning on using checks for payment, make sure the name on the check is the same than on the person's official documents.
• Also, we recommend you check the photo on the document resembles the person standing in front of you!
• Always ask for your renter's telephone number and verify it.
• Please evaluate the rental after you're done, to help making our community a better place.

We like to believe that we live in the best of worlds, but as we all know some come to spoil our ideals. So don't forget to follow these guidelines and your rentals on Zilok will go untroubled. Have fun, and remember money doesn't grow on trees, it grows on Zilok!

Sean Adams' mission is to find the best bargains and money savers for people of the New York Tri-State area. The show airs on WCBS every week, and last week the focus was Zilok and how you can make money AND save money with it.

With the economy in its current state, every penny counts, and Zilok can help you save and make more than pennies, lots of dollars.

Sean Adams spotted and contacted us for an interview. Welcome listeners from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut!

You can find the show and more bargains in the Tri-State area on WCBS website

Today's Daily Candy is Zilok. We hope you find it sweet and delicio.us! The quickest ones to list rental items will be rewarded with a free feature on the home page!

It's time we make a change about the way we consume. Do we really need to buy and accumulate all this new stuff? Seriously, how often do you use this fancy purse, this ice-cream maker, this bike... well most of your things really? Some things we use all the time, some we just occasionally need to have access to. That's where Zilok can help, connecting you with other people in the community to support a green lifestyle with peer-to-peer renting.

And if you don't do it for the environment, do it for the money! Zilok is a great and easy way to make an extra buck using what you already have. In return people will save money when they'll find out they can rent your things instead of buying them new.

So if you like this candy, please help jumpstart a Zilok community around you by listing some of your things online and telling neighbors and friends about it. Creating an account and listing rental items is free!

Who's going to be first? If you are the first one to post an item (with a picture) in your city and in a category, send us a message and we'll feature your item on the home page for free!

Special thanks to Jasmine and Lauren at Daily Candy for discovering and featuring us in this post.

This morning Zilok made news in "Today in LA" on KNBC. Welcome Los Angeles people to our community of happy renters! To get started, create your free account, and start listing your objects online, people around will need them soon!

And don't forget to tell your friends about it, the more we are and the more objects we can rent, the more money you'll be able to make and save while supporting a green and community-driven lifestyle.

We would like to send warm thanks to Kestrin who kindly volunteered for the story, to the KNBC team in Los Angeles and to the KNTV team in San Francisco. You guys made an amazing job!

Hopefully we'll soon be able to show you the video, so stay tuned on this one.

Update:
Here is the video, enjoy!

We were honored six months ago to be awarded Site of the Week by PC Magazine. PC Mag takes a closer look at our new version and features. It's official now, to rent on the net, Zilok is the way to go!

A few good quotes from the PCMag article, that was also published on Appscout.com

"Zilok, the world's largest peer-to-peer renting platform, might be exactly what you need to make money from the things you have and save money on the things you need only temporarily."

"The cool thing about Zilok is that it lets you rent all sorts of items you might not easily find otherwise, whether you need a digital SLR camera for the weekend, are looking for an inflatable fun-house for a birthday party, or just want to borrow someone else's MacBook Air to try before you buy your own."

Welcome back PC Magazine readers, thanks Errol for the insightful coverage.

Here is also the orginial Site of the Week review.

When Zilok launched its public beta in the US six months ago, Mashable! was among the first give us a review and to get excited about peer-to-peer renting. For our US official launch, Mashable! covers the green benefits of renting stuff to other people.

Along with the article, you can see a video interview of our General Manager, Jeff Boudier, that was recorded during the web 2.0 expo in San Francisco a month ago.

Kristen Nicole pinpointed the definite benefits of using Zilok: "create an additional stream of income by offering up items for rental to others" and "pushing a green lifestyle", thanks again!

After being elected online by people as one of the finalist of the Startup 2.0 European competition, Zilok took the first prize yesterday in Barcelona!

We're very honored to have been chosen by people and the jury as the best web 2.0 startup in Europe.

Zilok is very active in Europe where people from 4 countries are already renting their stuff from one another: France, UK, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The final of the Startup 2.0 contest was held in Barcelona, Spain, which is a perfect place to celebrate!

The jury included outstanding personalities from the entrepreneur, VC and media world, including Loic Le Meur, founder of Seesmic, Martín Varsavsky, founder of Fon, Mike Butcher and Ouriel Ohayon, editors of TechCrunch in Europe, and many others.

Thanks to all the jury members for believing in us, thanks to all our users to have made it possible, we'll make sure we're up to your expectations!