October 10th, 2009 at 03:16 am » Comments (0)

Talk about a “BFO” (Blinding Flash of the Obvious) – as we were planning a day of visiting various retail locations to “see what’s out there”, it occurred to me (these things happen at 04:00) that it would have been MUCH simpler if I had less tedious way to make an itinerary.

Okay, I have already said that taking the time to look up the full, NINE digit ZipCode, is really helpful if you want those traveling thru to drop in.

AND, have mentioned my pet peeve – web pages where the STREET address is not easily found on EVERY page of your web presence.

So here is my latest bit of advice – INCLUDE YOUR GPS Coordinates.

Why? Just think about how many folks now have phones that allow them to get directions – all based on GPS technology.

No Idea WHERE to get this information?

It is really easy – IF you know your own address.

First you need to look up your correct Zip + 4 code, easily done courtesy of the
USPS’s Zip Code Lookup feature

Now, using the Zip Plus 4, go to GeoVisualizer’s Converter

For best results, type in your entire address and it appears that choosing Yahoo as the source might be a bit more accurate than Google Maps.

Once you have the cross hairs where you want them – cut and past the information from the map on your lower left “Center: 39.41355,-76.94434″ into your page as:

Latitude: 39.41355 Longitude: -76.94434

You will have given your potential customer yet another way to find you.

Ain’t technology grand!

August 28th, 2009 at 00:36 am » Comments (2)

You already know why Zip Codes are important, because the NINE digit zip code can be used by many Mapping Applications such as MapQuest.com to get driving directions WITHOUT typing in a complete address.

What many of our supplier/manufacturer/distributor friends have not yet realized is how important this added info is to making their “Store Locator” Traveler Friendly and how including the nine-digit zip can aid in that traveler finding a local shop when traveling.

More years ago than I care to admit – we met Harry Newton at Silicon Valley conference where he was also a speaker – his wit and wisdom about the telecom industry are legendary.

Harry Newton’s Telecom Dictionary is now in its 25th edition,; we bought the first at that conference. We are such fans that we, until some recent book divestiture, owned many copies as they were updated, but kept the old for “future reference”.

To the Point, EVEN back then, Harry was stressing that EVERY page of your catalog should have your order telephone number. Today that advice would be your order telephone, your URL AND your Address with nine-digit zip.

Why? Because that makes it EASIER for someone to buy from you. I cannot tell you how many times I have ‘ripped out a page’ because I was only interested in THAT item – only to come back later and find no order info on the page. (Are you all headed for St Charles listening?)

Nor can I tell you how often I have given up in frustration trying to figure out where to find the address and shop hours on ANY of thier pages. Remember search engines do not always index your first/home/main page first – especially if you do not update on a regular basis.

MANY people will print out a web page as a “hint” to give family and friends – so make sure that ALL you info is going to show on that page –

Now, here we are today, with Manufacturer and Distributors doing many inventive things to help their Retailers and especially the Indies “to be found” but they often make it as difficult as possible to find that Retailer… and it is such an easy fix…

If a Manufacturer/Distributor/Self-Publishing Pattern/Chart Author does NOT include at least the FIVE and better yet the NINE digit zip code in each store listing – then the consumer cannot easily use a mapping application to find and visit the shop.

If a Manufacturer/Distributor does not allow search by Town OR State OR ZipCode and as two of the people involved in developing the FIRST find-a-store application we think AND “GREAT CIRCLE SEARCH RESULTS for AREA CODE and exchange (next 3 digits) are also important.

There are enough applications out that that allow the shop to update their own info – why not host one on your site and make it easier for consumers to find and buy from your retailers.

just some things to think about.

Wheat

August 24th, 2009 at 00:12 am » Comments (1)

No “Day” Job? Oooooh, time to make money with my art/craft (stash/knowledge/fill in the blank).

Seems I have read or been reading this in just about every group, hobby or professional for months and certainly these last few weeks in several of the more active groups.

We all know how much trouble I can get into when I try to respond to “Universal You” although it is pretty much a given someone will take it personally and get into their own snit and a tizzy.

Time after Time, those who have had some or great success talk about the work involved and then are blissfully ignore – their extremely hard earned experiences banished into archives instead of worked on Needlepoint Pillows you have to look at every day.

Want to “teach” or “author”

So here is what may not have been said FIRMLY enough

IF one takes a realistic look at those who are supporting themselves with ONLY their art – well unless you are very lucky or already well established in the teaching/publication circuits – let’s just say that don’t you think a WHOLE lot of other people are thinking like you?

A “rant” about discount coupons that radically reduce the earning of a teacher, while maintaining the benefit to the sponsoring shop is just such a perfect example of a teaching what not to do and frankly for any one purporting to be in the BUSINESS of (fill in your area of expertise) to even be in this position is well beyond my ken.

The situation described? Well the teacher agreed to accept a PERCENTAGE per student and then the Shop, in order to fill seats gave out 50% off coupons. The shop continues to get not only the same, but the greater advantage of the sales generated by the excitement of the class (and efforts of the teacher), the teacher hardly got enough to cover their expenses much less make a living.

How to avoid this?

At the very least a better written agreement SHOULD have safeguards regarding Teacher compensation.

There should be clauses in the WRITTEN Teaching Agreement for a MINIMUM for UP TO X number of students and so much per student there after to a MAXIMUM.

That WRITTEN AGREEMENT, should include a clause giving the jurisdiction where disputes will be resolved and of course much more.

Please don’t bombard me with all the trite and untrue concepts of why it is good to give away your services. Unless one is also the seller of the profitable items, those misconceptions just don’t hold up in today’s environment (and I am not at all sure they did as recently as 5-10 years ago)

WRITTEN AGREEMENTS are what protect you from the insidious effects of such discount coupons imposes without your consent by the class promoter (LYS, Event Promoter, etc)

You, as a teacher or author or artist are alimited resource NOT a mass produced item that can be duplicated no matter what the demand.

Be professional and invest in the resources to protect yourself.

A well written contract/teaching agreement is more powerful then an AR-15 to defend yourself from the robbery without a gun of an unreasonable arrangement.

You can decide, as I did a decade ago, to teach basics primarily for the love of the craft and not expect to be compensated for much more than your expenses or peripheral benefits (i.e., demoing a technique and selling the tools or supplies directly)

Or, as the ranter said accept that you “need to find a real job”

HTH

Wheat

August 22nd, 2009 at 00:59 am » Comments (0)

A Monthly Contest for a publishing project I am working on. It will, we hope eventually be a “for profit” product, but only time will tell.

And, please feel free to spread the word about YarnQuest and the Label/Samples offer you can link directly to this post with this tiny URL
        http://tinyurl.com/WWW-Project

Here’s the skinny – although “just 3 weeks this first time” we hope that the response will warrant continuing on a monthly basis.

I need BOTH labels and 5 or 10 yards of any/all the yarns and threads I can find for the YarnQuest.com and YarnFinders.com projects (details soon)

I need BOTH labels and 5 or 10 yards of any/all the yarns and threads I can find for the YarnQuest.com and YarnFinders.com projects (details soon)

The older the better all yarns are welcome as well – with the following exceptions.

The current yarns for these “Brands” are excluded we already purchased these lines for another related project. For more specifics, follow the links to each line.

Anchor	KFI-Araucania
Brown Sheep	KFI-Ella Rae	Presencia Thread
Clover	KFI-KFI	Presencia Floss
DMC – All		Presencia Perle
FurTaStitch	KFI-Noro	SullivanUSA Floss
Kramer Yarn	KFI – Sublime	SullivanUSA-Yarn

As these are received, a raffle ticket for EACH of the following,

A Label with at least 5 yards of the yarn listed on the label – label must be intact enough to read ALL yarn details (excluding any free pattern that may be part of the label.

If multiple labels and samples in the same envelope, please be sure to attach the yarn in some way to the correct label.

If your envelopes had ten samples and labels for ten different yarns, then you will have ten entries.

Please do not send multiples of the same yarn – To be clear,
UNLESS the info/description on the label is different (as sometimes happens with Solid & Multi of the same yarn) send ONLY ONE SAMPLE Per Yarn.

On the 16th of September, we will draw one raffle ticket from the box and that person will receive a $50 gift certificate for any of products offered at http://www.ItsAllJustString.com (including special ordering items you choose from our preferred manufacturers)

Coupons and gift certificates will be distributed by email, so be sure that the envelope includes your email address.

We will also issue a one time use coupon for use at ItsAllJustString.com redeemable until 29-December-2009. The coupon value will be $.75 each for the FIRST 5 yard label and yarn sent by an individual OR $1.00 for the FIRST 10 yard label and yarn in the same envelope. (each additional label and sample in same envelope – 5 yard sample and label $. and $.75 additional 10 yard sample and label.

Coupons will ONLY be redeemable ItsAllJustString.com and will apply to the total of any order you place – including sale merchandise and applicable postage & handling charges. The coupons can be used in conjunction with other special offers at ItsAllJustString.com including free shipping.

You will not be required to register for our newsletter, create a wish list or be placed on any mailing list (although you need to register at ItsAllJustString in order to “spend”) those are all separate, occasional promotions.

This first offer (Label & Yarn received by September 15th.) has no further restrictions, depending on the response, we may begin to limit acceptable entries for the second round (Sept 16 to Oct 15 2009) we will have a “running list” of samples found beginning September 10 to apply beginning September 16th at the project headquarters: http://www.YarnQuest.com

Entries should be sent to

YarnQuest Project
Attn: Wheat Carr
PO Box 1232
Sykesville MD 21784-8136

This coupon has no cash value and at this time, these coupons may not be redeemed ANYWHERE but at mye-tail store: ItsAllJustString.com and must be redeemed by 29-December-2009

Thanks for helping

Wheat

P.S. in one of the few times that mulitple, unrelated lawyers have agreed… Some general information printed on yarn labels is considered within the public domain (much like a recipe ingredients) so long as a picture of the actual label is not used without permission – and of course, we create our own formatting for information display.

updated 22-August-2009 for clarity.