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!