2007 Already? - Don't forget ....

Hi, folks - I hope you had a great Christmas and that 2007 will be healthy, happy and prosperous for you.

I know it's difficult to believe, but there are some events just around the corner which will be demanding your attention!

Firstly, for those of Scottish origin or who are interested in Scotland, Burn's Day is 25th January. That's the celebration of the birth of Robert Burns, when many Scots toast his memory and eat haggis, neeps and tatties! Delicious. If you've never been to one, a traditional Burns Supper is a great evening out.

Then, in just a few more days, it's Valentine's Day! I came across this article about Valentine's - and thought you might like to read it.

History and Meaning of Valentine's Gifts by Natalie Aranda

"Love from your Valentine", this was the message that was once passed by a very brave Christian martyr who gave his life for love. And he didn't give it for his own love but for other's love. He took everyone's pain and gave everyone the love of their life. This was the great sacrifice that a man made. His name was Saint Valentine.

History

The history takes us back to the Roman period when King Claudius ruled. Earlier it is said that Valentines Day was started in Rome. The day was celebrated as a festival to honor the queen of Roman gods. She is recognized as the goddess of the female sex and matrimony. The next day was celebrated as the Lupercalia Feasts. On the eve of this festival only the youth were allowed to be together and rest of the time they were strictly kept separate. This was the theory that gives the origin of Valentines Day.

Another theory that gives the history of Valentines Day is the sacrifices that a Christian martyr named Valentine made for love. There was a requirement of a huge army, which the emperor of Rome was unable to make. It was only because there were many people who didn't want to involve themselves in wars and go away from their families. So there was a great problem that Claudius the cruel was facing. So he came up with a very nice idea that sufficed his needs. He stopped people from entering into marriages. For this he passed a law also. But there were people who were against this law and also didn't want to follow. So a priest named Valentine conducted marriages secretly. This laid down the foundation of Saint Valentine's day which is now celebrated worldwide. This day is celebrated as this brave martyr died on this day.

Valentines gifts

Earlier Valentines Day was celebrated by exchanging love notes and expressions. People used to send anonymous letters and cards to their loved ones. But nowadays Valentine's Day gifts have dominated the scene. However, giving gifts doesn't mean that love has turned materialistic. But it in fact expresses your love and your emotions.

Your love is always true but is a waste if it is not expressed. And there are many gifts that are available in the stores that are specially designed for this occasion only. Valentine's gifts for boyfriend or for girlfriend are available onlne or in local stores. Valentine's Day not only expresses your love and your emotions but will also win the heart of your sweetheart.

If you decide that Valentine's day this year is the appropriate time to get engaged to your sweetheart, you might consider ordering this beautiful Celtic engagement ring for her. It is 18ct gold, a solitaire diamond - and the shoulders of the ring feature the beautiful Celtic Trinity knot for everlasting love.

This ring can be purchased from MacGillivray's Scottish Gifts

If you do become engaged on Valentine's Day, we wish you every happiness together.

M

Happy Christmas

Christmas Greetings from Helensburgh! Sandy and I hope you have a lovely, safe, warm and happy time this Christmas. All the best for 2007.

We've had a busy time during December - and, although we spend a lot of time thinking about the kind of gifts our customers would like to buy, we still manage to find the time to make Christmas a nice, quiet family occasion.

Looking forward to 2007 - well, this year, we just purchased a timeshare week, so I now know that there's a holiday cottage with our name on it! That's a great spur to make the arrangements and go somewhere different! There are other benefits with this - and I can't wait to tell you about them; however, I'll leave it for a few days as there are still some gift baskets to prepare for customers and some last minute shopping to do for our Christmas lunch.

With many thanks for everyone who supported us in Helensburgh and online!

Love, Peace, Goodwill to all men
Sandy and Margaret MacGillivray
MacGillivray's Scottish Gifts

The Christmas Rush - where are you shopping?

The retailers' lament, I hear you say! "Where have all the shoppers gone?"

As a youngster, growing up in a rural community meant that we had a limited choice of where to do our Christmas shopping. Most of it was done in our home town of Castle-Douglas; and we occasionally went to the nearest Woolworths in Dumfries, some 18 miles away. We never travelled further than this - and somehow we managed to find the perfect gift for friends and family, get them all wrapped up and safely delivered in time for Christmas day.

Moving forward 40 or so years, how things have changed. As retailers, we serve a local community and do have a loyal core of regular customers who support us (despite the howling gales and horizontal rain this winter!) It's probably something to do with the home-made soup, but that's a tale for another day. Quite a lot of our Christmas trade comes from our online shop at http://www.macgillivrays.co.uk/scottishgifts - and we have been posting gifts all around the world.

What new products do we have this year? Well, we have increased our range of traditional and modern Scottish jewellery, including some of Hebridean Jewellery's lovely Celtic designs; we have a great selection of cufflinks and there are some beautiful scented candles from LilyFlame. If you are calling in to our Helensburgh shop, we also have a good range of ceramic mugs by Dunoon Pottery.

If you're like me, then perhaps you're still shopping for some gifts! I hope you have a great Christmas and a prosperous and happy 2007.

Best wishes from Scotland.

Sandy and Margaret MacGillivray

PS - if you're looking for last minute gift ideas and you live in the US, why not try one of these gift ideas for men -

- Panama Hats;

- Betmar

and for ladies -

Save 5% on any order at Perfume.com
Use Coupon Code
SAVEBIGNOW
At the checkout page!

Another quick chuckle!

On the dark days of winter, it's quite nice to come across something which brings a bit of sunshine into our life.

Here's a post on a forum

The 3 Minute Management Course

:)

Hope you enjoy it!

Best
Margaret

Keeping my office clean?

Yuck, if I'm honest, it's a mess!

... however, my office "grew" before it was planned out properly. When I do get round to it, hopefully in the New Year, it's going to be reorganised physically so that I have this lovely clear space round my desk, some dedicated shelf space (with sliding doors) so that I can put away all stationery and my filing cabinet will be integrated into this space as well.

Then it will be easy to put everything away each night before I shut up shop and, in theory at least, it will be lovely in the morning.

Now that I've written this down, it still seems like a good plan

Margaret

ps - I will also redecorate the room as it's grotty!
pps - there's a lot to be said for thinking "I'm worth it!" - I do work hard in my office and I deserve a nice working environment! So do my clients who might come to give me web design work; there's another incentive for keeping the office in order!

M

A Brilliant Spoof! - check it out before it disappears!

Sometimes someone does a brilliant spoof site - check it out here before it's taken down!

http://www.msfirefox.com

Best
Margaret

Tales of the Unexpected!

Did I say we had a holiday? OK, we stayed near Girvan in Ayrshire. It's close to the famous golf course, Turnberry.

Our accommodation was not far from the main road which runs east from Ayr to Castle-Douglas and Dumfries. In other words, near to where I grew up.

In the days when my father had his farm, a local beekeeper kept several beehives in the fields. Although the farm (and Dad) are long since gone, the beekeeper (Mr Turnbull) still has honey for sale - and we now sell it in our shop.

Sandy and I thought it would be a nice idea to call in and collect our next order while we were on holiday. More than that, the last time we received an order of the honey, I had been treated to lunch by the Turnbulls and we invited them to join us for lunch somewhere close to home.

Arrangements were duly made, we set off in good time for our lunch appointment at 12.30 pm at the Kenbridge Hotel in New Galloway (http://www.thekenbridge.co.uk) - and so we parked in the car park about 30 seconds ahead of the Turnbulls' arrival. They drew in beside us and we walked across to the hotel and into the restaurant.

Lunch was fantastic. The main courses we ordered were delicious. Looking out of the dining room window, the River Ken was in full spate, partly because the weather had been rather wet and partly because the dams which generate electricity have to run off excess water when the season becomes wet. We commented that the day was becoming cloudy and, shortly afterwards, the rain started to fall.

Dessert arrived and we were all tucking into them when we heard a loud bang and the dining room lights went out.

In our rural area, it isn't out of the ordinary for there to be power cuts; we did notice that there were other lights still working, but sort of assumed they were on an emergency backup supply. The waitress returned, gave us coffee, stoked up the open fire and lit some candles.

Some time passed. Then we were slightly startled to be told that there had been an accident on the main road outside; whatever had occurred had caused a vehicle to demolish the electricity pole carrying the power to the hotel. More than that, the cable which had come down was live and was lying between our cars and the exit to the car park. We were assured that the power company engineers had been summoned and, until the power was switched off, we should just stay there.

More time passed. The roaring fire, darkening day and candle light was atmospheric - and we started reminiscing about the good old days. The company was most enjoyable and we were all resigned to our fate. Let's face it, we were safe, dry and warm.

Around 4.45pm, the engineers seemed to be making headway with the power and just after 5.15pm, we were told that it was safe to go. We walked across the car park with the Turnbulls, transferred the honey order to our van, and set off back to Girvan. (We were pleased that the Turnbulls only had 6 miles to go as they're senior citizens.) Our journey back was uneventful and we had a light supper before starting to pack up our things for our departure on Saturday morning.

When we were checking out, we got talking to a couple of members of staff. I started to say, "You'll never guess what happened to us at the Kenbridge Hotel!" when someone walked over to Sandy and said to him "Hey - were you all ok after the accident yesterday? We were turning to come into the hotel car park, a truck travelling behind us didn't notice that we were stopping and braked hard to avoid a collision. He knocked out the power line and the live wire was sparking round our car!"

Spooky, or what!

Conquer your niche!

What a brilliant (and simple concept) - and it has achieved record growth in a really short time-frame.

The Conqueryourniche discusson forum has acquired 11897 (and rising) new members in the space of a few days.

What was the thinking behind the site? Well, naturally I don't have access to Russell Brunson's plans, but here is my best guess -

Interesting question ....

well, let's see -

We all want the opportunity to promote our businesses
Those who have been around on the net for some time have a wide variety of experiences to share
Those who are new to the net (and I'm sure there are loads of people who are just starting to surf around) are hungry for the information

The tools

Forum software
Rotating Ad script
Web coder who could amalgamate the two into a system capable of handling different subscription levels
Web designer to set up the web site
An existing list of gurus who would promote the new forum

... put like that, doesn't it sound easy!

So, we have a forum which allows members to post 1 ad, create signature links and even invite joint ventures - and elite membership gives more benefits, including more ad space and better rewards for posting on the forum. You can feel this forum sucking the life-blood out of other discussion groups; they are going to have to compete hard against this new venture.

Find out about Conqueryourniche for yourself! It's quite cool.

Great new internet marketing forum

It is no secret that generating targeted traffic is the lifeblood of online business.

Unfortunately, with all the quirky changes that the pay-per-click engines are inflicting on us these days, obtaining targeted traffic can be a challenge.

My friend and excellent marketer Russell Brunson has devised an ingenious forum that can shovel laser-targeted traffic to your website.

Get this: You can earn advertising credits for posting, replying, and even READING threads in his forum.

Further, your credits will virally multiply when you refer people to the forum.

You can read all about it here: http://forum.lamblinks.com

Plus, he has a killer one-time offer where you can earn up to FIVE TIMES the advertising credits. It is literally the BEST investment you can make to advertise your site.

So check it out...I highly recommend it.

Margaret

P.S. - I am already receiving good click-throughs on my ads :)

P.P.S. I just checked out who's subscribed for Russell's forum. It is truly the "who's who" of the internet marketing world. Don't miss out on the chance to mingle with the internet marketing elite...and get rewarded for it!
Sign up today!
http://forum.lamblinks.com

I'm still without my computer

I can't believe that I've had to wait so long. It would seem that the bits for my new pc are coming one at a time on foot! I could have bought a new one from any of the major chains and been up and running by now. So much for wanting a custom-built one that would suit my needs.

NEVER AGAIN!

M

I'm having to buy a new pc BOOOHOOO

This is just a quick post to gripe about machines and their ability to stop working just as they become totally essential to your life! The pc's hard drive started reporting errors; just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it turns out that the motherboard is unusable as well!

If I had known this 10 days ago, I would have ordered a new one then and it would be up and running by now .... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArgh!

Never mind. By Tuesday, I hope to have the new one and will be back to normality!

I hope this isn't a forlorn dream.

Margaret

They are so annoying.

Are you competitive? I don't take part in competitive sport (ok, I'm not a fitness fanatic either.) I do like playing scrabble, though - and I have been known to spend the odd £1 or two in the UK's national lottery. I don't gamble much (ok, it's limited to the lottery and an annual flutter on a big race - the Derby.) But I got hooked on online competitions.

Nothing wrong in that, you might say! My hubby probably disagrees when he thinks of the time I spend on them, but that's another story. Here's where I am having a problem with them now.

I have been entering competitions at myoffers.co.uk - and think that, on the whole, their site is great. Recently, the myoffers site has been running competitions which require me to complete a survey on what type of gambling site I would like to visit. I don't want to visit any of these, and there is no way to enter the competition without completing the questionnaire and becoming involved with the gaming web site. Now, my perception (and it could be wrong) of gambling sites is that they're full of pop-ups, adverts, sneaky ways of keeping me from escaping their clutches. If I'm wrong, I apologise. I always thought that competitions had to be run in such a way that an entry could be completed with no purchase necessary.



... not very happy with this one at all.

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Putting the "Service" back into "Customer Service"

By Sean Cohen
The future of customer service is here. Technology has made seeking out support faster and easier than ever. But, has your digital age company sacrificed true service in the name of automation?

Today, finding customer support is as simple as writing an e-mail or picking up the phone. But, even though you're not face-to-face with your customers, you still leave a lasting impression. Do you come across as caring and competent, or menacing and mechanical?

Offering stand-out service on the Internet isn't as hard as it is rare. Take these simple steps towards old-style service in the digital age:

Give Each Customer a Personal Response

Be Clear, But Sincere

Offer Live Customer Support

Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All the Answers

Give Each Customer a Personal Response

When a customer sits down to e-mail your company, it's because he needs help. He chooses e-mail because it's quick, but his request still warrants a satisfying and personal response!

Companies eager to save time and money often take automation too far in their customer support. Each customer has a unique question, and deserves a unique answer. Even if you save time by copying and pasting stock replies, change the opening and closing to make the message sound less robotic.

Be Clear, But Sincere

When responding to customers' e-mail, be sincere and to the point. Before sending a message, try turning the tables. Ask yourself, "Would this answer satisfy me if I were the customer?"

Take that extra moment to give your customer the help he deserves. It might mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a credit card chargeback!

Offer Live Customer Support

E-mail has become an acceptable form of communication. But, live customer support is still necessary. The plethora of information available online can be overwhelming to customers, especially those new to the Internet!

Single your company out from the crowd by providing customers with a real person to talk to. Live phone support is an invaluable way to foster trust. When your customer has reached the end of his Internet rope, and just needs help, your toll free number is the answer he's looking for.

Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All The Answers

The presence of phone support will do no good if your staff doesn't know your product! Customer support reps should be warm and friendly, and willing to help with any aspect of your product.

What a good feeling it is to talk to someone who feels confident in his product. It's even better if he's knowledgeable enough to solve your problem without transferring you all around the company!

Provide Stand-Out Service; Gain Lifelong Customers

Too many e-businesses skimp on customer service, hiding behind web sites and message boards. Customer support is an integral part of every company, even those operating solely online. Be one of the few to offer stellar service, and gain customers for life!

Customer Service is becoming a lost art, but Sean Cohen wants to make sure that never happens at AWeber Communications!

Find out what service is meant to be.

Coupons and Special Offers

Hi, folks - from time to time I get told about special offers and coupons. I can't think why, but it took me until tonight to realise that you might be interested in hearing about them - DUH - how slow can I be?????

Anyway, here are a couple of offers to get you going from LastMinuteTravel.com

No Booking Fees on Flights for a limited time only!

No Booking Fees on Flights for a limited time only!


Book Now and Save 70% on New York Hotels at LastMinuteTravel.com!

Book Now and Save 70% on New York Hotels at LastMinuteTravel.com!

... WOW - these offers are great - I hope you manage to use them.

Margaret

ps - a quick comment. It is possible for YOU to earn money from your web site. There are many great options for you to promote affiliate products which tie in with your web site's subject matter.

LinkShare is an e-commerce business solution for over 3.5 million online relationships. 
Become an affiliate of the LinkShare Network for FREE
and earn revenue by linking to over 500 premier online merchants

This is one programme that I really recommend.

M

PPS - just for fun - and in case you need some entertainment, I'm adding a link to a special offer from The Disney Movie Club :)

Get 3 Free Disney Movies when you join! Plus shipping and processing.

Webthyme.com - help needed

I occasionally buy expired domain names; I try and develop relevant web sites, hoping to benefit from what small amount of traffic there is coming to the old site.

This time I struck it lucky - I bought the domain name WebThyme and put a contact form on it while I struggled round for an appropriately themed web site. Imagine my amazement when I got this email:

"I am in the Bay area frequently, and have always seen your sign from 101. I am the california rep for ...... I am constantly meeting with many ILEC's , CLEC's, Isp's etc in the bay area, and was hoping I could get 20 minutes on your calender during the first 2 weeks in June. I look forward to hearing from you."

Wow - did I buy a domain name that still has a physical advertising sign visible from a busy highway??? - has anyone seen it???

Jeepers, creepers, I'd better get some sneakers on and get a proper web site up. Question is - how would you use the domain name when you don't know what the advertising sign says???

I look forward to your comments.

Paintballing - anyone?

I must have been slightly deranged when I bought the domain name http://www.paintballware.com - but I was trying to put together a little hotsheet for someone about buying a domain name through 000domains.com. I happen to like the 000domains service - and regularly buy domain names there. However, I needed to see how the service worked as I wrote my hotsheet - and I knew that the paintballware.com domain name was available.

When I started on the internet, like a lot of newbies, I found it extremely difficult to understand some of the basic concepts; f'rinstance, why was hosting different from a domain name? It took me quite some time to understand that the domain name is like a specific reference point on a map (eg your home address) and the web hosting is the space which your domain name occupies on a computer "web server". To make sure that your web site can be found, you need a domain name which can be reached by computers users all around the world and this is done for you by the registrar when you buy the domain name.

Anyway, to get back to paintballware.com, it's not as if I know anything about paintballing; nor indeed am I fit enough to struggle through boggy, rough terrain playing hide and seek. The idea does appeal, though, and I can see the attraction it would have in team-building exercises!

If you're interested in acquiring the domain name, please check it out at our online auction at Sell My Domain

If you would like a copy of the hotsheet which I put together on acquiring domain names at 000domains.com, then you can download it from here.

Buy a domain through 000domains.com

This is a pdf file which can be opened by PC/MAC users using Adobe's free PDF reader.

Sitemaps

I don't know about you, but I find some things straightforward to do and others have me completely bewildered. One of the things I found quite difficult was creating the correct format of sitemap to submit to Google.

I could create a sitemap.html page with links to all the sections of my site; it's a bit boring if you have a big site to do this manually :O

I managed to add links from web pages to the sitemap.html page that I had made. The bit I found totally obscure was creating the xml feed for google.

How relieved I was to come across a brilliant piece of software which does the sitemap thing for me - this Brilliant Sitemap Software will spider my online web site or a folder on my pc, it will create the sitemap.html page and the sitemap.xml with all the links correctly in place.

The only thing left for me to do was to upload them to the website (including a couple of small images for the folders, etc) log in to my Google account and follow the instructions on how to get the sitemap spidered by Google.

What a relief! .... anyone can use this software (ok, not MAC users) - and it's brilliant! I highly recommend it. Click here for more information on thisBrilliant Sitemap Software

eMail Marketing

Create and send eye-catching HTML email campaigns in minutes!

Collect email addresses of your site visitors with a "join my list" signup on your website. Then, easily create and send compelling email newsletters, promotions and announcements to keep them coming back.

KEY FEATURES

Add a visitor signup to your website
Import in-house permission-based names
Includes 50 professional templates
Use templates as is or easily customize to match your brand
Add a "forward to friend" to every email
Manages and hosts your subscriber list

Constant Contact is easy and affordable -- Try it FREE! and see for yourself.

The east wind doth blow and we shall have snow

Snow? In Scotland?? - I know many folks expect Scotland to be covered in a blanket of snow for much of the year. The truth is different, of course. Scotland benefits from the warmth of the Gulf stream for most of the time - and it's only occasionally that we seem to have a cold winter.

While the forecasters were predicting a severe winter for the UK, it's only in the last few days that we have seen much snow in the west of Scotland. It never lasts long. We had a snowfall of about 8" last Sunday and it had all but disappeared on Tuesday in the low-lying areas. What we have now is a cold easterly wind with occasional flurries of snow blowing around - but again, the general temperature is above freezing point, so the snow is melting quickly.

I'm loving it! This is reminiscent of many winters when I was a kid in the 50s. The quality of the daylight seems much better and I've hardly needed an umbrella at all this winter. (Shiver me timbers, that's bound to bring on a deluge!) The trick to this kind of weather is to wear layers of lightweight clothing so that you can be comfortable outside and when you come back indoors.

I'm away to rediscover the joys of wearing lip salve - and I'm going to walk in the woods later on and find some lovely spring catkins!

Later
M

Link Popularity

Free Link Popularity Checker

Publish your web site and you'll be inundated with more business than you can handle?? Well, maybe not. You can ask yourself (and your web designer) why you're not making money from your web site - and here is some of the information that you need to know to make your web site appear in the top of the search engine results for your chosen key phrase.

The internet is a brilliant tool for marketing your offline business or for making a living entirely online. Countless companies have mastered the art of ecommerce and now receive a substantial portion of their income from the web. But as a start-up company on the internet, that effectively means that the competition is ferocious and getting to the top of the search engines for any keyphrase or word takes a lot of work. Ask yourself how many times you click on a link in the first page of results on one of the search engines - and how infrequently you surf to the results on page 20 or 31 or further.

Publishing your web site is just the start of the strategy of making a living online. I heard someone recently recommend that you choose to spend less money on the design of your web site, leaving more money in your web marketing kitty to promote your web site effectively. I think that this is a masterful piece of advice. The internet is only going to pay dividends for you if you understand that you must get your web site to the top of the results, beating your competition. To do this might take six or more months - so you can not afford to delay taking action.

What can you do to improve your results?

Search engines "spider" links. In other words, a search engine will read a page of your text (not your images, flash, etc.) and, when they come to a hyperlink to another page or another web site, they will go and read that information as well. If you have links on many other web sites which lead back to YOUR site, then the search engines will consider your site is more important and you will start to improve your rankings in the search engine results.

You should

• Add your web url and your best keyword search terms into web directories.
  
• Publish articles about your business in article directories - and you will be allowed to leave a link back to your web site in the "resource box" - a profile of you, the author.
  
• Take part in discussion forums and, depending on the site, edit your signature block in EACH site, so that there is a live hyperlink back to your web site.
  
• If you arrange a link exchange with another site, you must be aware that linking to a bad web site can hurt you considerably. So try to choose only reputable companies or web sites when you are trying to arrange a link exchange.
  
• Use Pay-per-click search engines to bring traffic to your web site (this can work very well when you are selling products or services.
  

Now, I promised you a free tool to check your "Link Popularity" - this software runs on PCs. I use it to check and see how many links there are to my web sites - and I can also use it to check on the link popularity of my major competitors. This is REALLY USEFUL!!!! - and is helping me get my sites to the top for my chosen key words.

Margaret

Focus on Imaging

Well, Sandy and I escaped for three days; we visited my little sister who lives in Derby. Isn't it strange how taking a three day break can make you feel as if you've been away from home for much longer!

Anyway, Joan is in the honours year in her photography course at Nottingham Trent University; she keeps her finger on the pulse of all things photographic and, consequently, on Tuesday, we found ourselves going to the Focus on Imaging exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham.

I find that I have to work hard to get the best out of exhibitions and trade shows. There are so many stands with such a lot of useful information that a day simply isn't long enough to learn about all new products and to filter the new bits which apply particularly to us.

On several stands, manufacturers have come up with new automatic booths for people wanting to print digital images directly from their camera or cell phone. They look really smart. We're tempted to put one into our shop, but we're not quite sure that we have enough users (the blue rinse brigade, for goodness sake!) who know how to use digital cameras. The customer would end up paying between 20p and 49p per print. Is there enough demand to make the purchase of such a machine profitable??? We're considering it.

More later .....

Margaret

Mulch my lettuce leaves, why don't you?!!

OK, this is a rant! - It's Monday morning, I haven't had breakfast, and my blood pressure's gone through the roof.

.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

For those of you who don't know me, (probably don't care, I hear you say!), I run a small shop in Helensburgh with my husband, Sandy. Helensburgh's a lovely old Victorian town, a genteel sort of place like one of the towns on the south coast of England. Plenty of good folks visit the town, walk along the promenade on a lovely day; visit the shops, visit the Hill House, just spend a few hours relaxing away from the hustle and bustle of daily life in the city. Like many other tourist destinations, there are huge chunks of the year which are quiet and, recognising this, I decided to put up a MacGillivray's web site and to test an eBay shop as well.

Great Idea! - both virtual stores make sales. I love it. I've put a lot of effort over the years into promoting my own web site - it took weeks of dedicated work to get good search engine placement and to get the web site looking good enough so that people felt confident about purchasing. So, imagine my surprise when I paid my subscription to eBay (ok, I'd better put in the usual eBay disclaimers Copyright © 1995-2006 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved.) - and then I found that, because I do have an eBay store, eBay is marketing my products for me. Wow! - talk about value for money.

What is the consequence of this for me. Well, if I want to promote candles, celtic jewellery, soaps, etc, then my eBay store can quite often get much faster results than my own shop. (Not always true, but there isn't a perfect system out there.) So, imagine my horror when I received complaints from not one but TWO of my suppliers that their products are being sold on eBay.

They are claiming that their brand is being devalued by me selling their stuff on eBay. ..... in one instance, one of the major British stores complained directly to the manufacturer and I can no longer get his products. HMMM

Well, to all manufacturers out there, I would recommend the following thoughts:

• eBay has a huge market of registered users, more are joining every single day.
  
• eBay markets products for its eBay store owners - I couldn't afford the advertising budget which eBay has.
  
• I'm reasonably sure that there are laws in the UK which are supposed to prevent restrictive trade practices.
  
• It's not a cheap option for people to run an eBay store - but there are great benefits.
  
• If I wanted to launch a product quickly and effectively worldwide, I could do MUCH WORSE than do so using an eBay shop.
  

RANT OVER! .... my blood pressure's getting back to normal and I had better get on with some of the chores - I'll take the rest of my frustration out on the ironing!

Meantime, I am uploading an article about eBay buyers which I hope you will find valuable. It's a free pdf file and you can find it at http://www.macgillivrays.co.uk/ebaybuyers.pdf - I hope you enjoy it.

Till next time!
Margaret

There are a couple of Clickbank alternatives

... they work in slightly different ways.




and







I'll discuss these two quite different affiliate program managers in more detail shortly.

... I wonder how many Limp Lettuce awards????

M

A Clickbank Alternative??

I always used to dream of creating a recipe eBook and selling it online using Clickbank. I've got the Clickbank account in place - all I need to do now is finish the eBook . I'd better hit myself across the shoulders with a couple of limp lettuce leaves, then! That should gee me up a bit.

Clickbank offers some great features -

• It has a bank of ready-made affiliates waiting for the next hot product to promote.
  
• When you sell a digital product, Clickbank tracking lets you know if it was an affiliate who sold it for you or your own marketing! Clickbank calculates any commission due to the affiliate and handles the payments for you. (Suits my very lazy style!)
  
• Clickbank makes it easy for your affiliates to discover the correct code to use to promote your products
  
• Clickbank sends you checks every two weeks (although they do hold back a percentage of the monies due till your sales are clear of the refund period. Sensible!)
  

Like any organisation, there are times when their system could do with a bit of sharpening up. I see that they've just announced a new "Searchable" marketplace, so that you can readily find products which complement your web site, so that you can choose new products to promote in your newsletters, ezines, web sites, blogs, etc. One thing which I would like to see, especially when I am promoting someone else's products, is tracking on how I make sales of these products. Hopefully that is going to appear sometime soon.

Hmmm - the more I write about Clickbank, the more I feel that it will suit me very well indeed to use it to sell my eBook - bring out the limp lettuce leaves again - I need something to spur me into action and get this book published!

Soggy Sandwiches??

Well, what better topic could there be for a Limp Lettuce review than a SOGGY SANDWICH - for goodness sake!

... the very idea that someone could find a soggy sandwich appealing completely fries my brain.

HIT ME With a WET NOODLE!!

and how on earth did a soggy sandwich get in here anyway???

Some time ago, I came across an article by Janeice V Smith -

If you want to make more money AND live the life you only dream about today…"How an Overworked, Traveling, Soggy Sandwich Eating Dental Hygienist Made $11,212 a Month Online" … is the roadmap you need to get there.

... well, I get the "overworked" bit; but I thought she ought to be able to do better than a soggy sandwich! Hmm, looks like an outrageous claim about her income as well.

A pitch for an ebook, I hear you say.

Right on.

OK, I admit it, I'm a sucker for a sob story. I bought the bleeding book. What did I think about it???

Tell ya later! I'm off to figure out how many limp lettuces I'm going to award it!

Margaret

The Limp Lettuce Review!

Welcome to the Limp Lettuce Review. We're gonna look at things internet and real world - and review stuff of interest, things of no value at all - and some just pure strange!

Enjoy!