Heads-up to my subscribers, regular visitors …
I’m getting ready to install some software which will let me send out an occasional email, i.e., newsletter, to anyone who wishes to sign up for it — and I’ll do the first emailing to any of you who have registered/signed up here at the blog.
First of all, you will have an option in anything and everything I send to your email address to unsubscribe and never get email from me again. But why would you??
Seriously, I would never clutter up your email inbox. I personally am flooded sometimes with email, and would not want to do that to anyone. Especially any of you good folks who stop by here from time to time to read and comment on my ramblings.
In fact, once this whole newsletter idea is up and running, I doubt I would send you email any more often than two or three times a month. Generally, I would use this method for letting you know when I have written articles or created Squidoo lenses which are available for your interest — and available for you to purchase if you wish.
So think of this plan as an “occasional” or even “irregular” announcement list. And you’ll never be forced to be on it if you choose not to be!
But why wouldn’t you want to hear from me once in awhile? I’m a nice guy. Really. Just as my wife. Ask the kids. Heck, ask the cat.
Online buyers seem to be staying away from my marketing sites
Online buying continues to grow worldwide. But in fact, buyers seem to be staying away from my sites and business is slowing.
I’m not saying this to whine or complain. I’m simply noting what many others who do online affiliate marketing are beginning to notice. Many at the forums I frequent have suggested that the old April 15 “Tax Day” in the U.S. may have slowed online shoppers. Perhaps that’s part of it.
I seem to recall that traditional online holiday shopping this past winter was off somewhat, or at least didn’t increase as expected. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and all those other quaint shopping dates online retailers have named were down last holiday season.
I don’t think there’s any rocket science at work here. Simply put, this nasty worldwide recession we’ve been in for some time now has caused people to pull back on impulse buying and a lot of unnecessary shopping and shipping charges when they flip out the old credit card or get out the proverbial “pocket book.” (Is that one world or two? I dunno.)
But, having said that, I want to quickly add this: I have high hopes. The economic downturn will indeed turn upward, I believe. I continue to build websites and put up fresh pages to draw shoppers. And I continue to hope for the best!
Have to confess — Twitter can really become addictive, BUT …
… I’m really not so sure that I should be investing that much TIME in Twitter as I am. Oh, I don’t spend my day with a browser open to Twitter.com, but I do check the site frequently, and get caught up in some of the discussion/comments/Tweets/whatever you want to call ‘em.
And that’s part of my problem — learning a somewhat odd new “language,” or at least a whole set of new terminology. Some of it is useful. Some is just goofy.
But the single biggest thing I find “wrong” with Twitter has nothing to do with “Following,” or “Unfollowing,” or “Tweeting” or any of that. The single biggest problem is that the guys who put the site together cannot seem to maintain the bandwidth and CPU usage adequately on their servers. I have spent a good share of the time I’ve been on Twitter today either getting that stupid screen telling me Twitter is overloaded, or I’ve watched the site CRAWL along trying to post to it, move from one screen to another, etc.
Don’t tell me they can’t solve that problem. Because I’ll tell you that Google, Yahoo, MSN, and dozens of other high-usage, high-traffic sites do much better.
But, hey, I’m sure the Twitter people know more about all that than I and they know far better what they can or cannot do to resolve the issue.
I wish them well. It really is a fun place to hang around, right tweeps? Or tweeple? Or whatever — you know who you are.
‘Real Subliminal’ products
