Not Enough (Computer) Hours in the Day...
How much time do you spend in front of the computer?
There are just not enough hours in the day at present to do all I want to do. Having started this blog, I was hoping to post regularly - now I am already behind.
I just noticed today that this blog is mentioned under the "blogs I am reading" section of a couple of other guys blogs that I checkout so I now feel under pressure to come up with some worthy reading material...
Problem is, time. Take today, up at 7, zip down to the shop by 8 to pick up a few things, got to get to the warehouse by 9 to open up. Spend the morning answering the phone/making calls while helping the two new members of staff work through the weekend orders. Pop back to the shop at lunch time to check on things and pick up a few more items for internet orders. Back to the warehouse, just manage to complete all the orders/enqiries for the day and then dash home to take the family down to the local firework display.
The fireworks were great - the weather was pants - got drenched!!! Still good fun.
Home just after 9, get the lad off to bed at about 9.45 and then - on with the computer, check the shop site, read up on a few other blogs, check a couple of forums, thats it.... The day is done. No work done on the shop site, no work done on the AIS sites and no blog entry - till now.
Bl**dy manic. Anyhow, I guess it has been a busy year setting up the warehouse and its a busy time for the gift industry. If I can get through xmas in one piece then it should be a lot easier next year.
Just talking about the shop site. I did finally get to add the Christmas Gifts section to the site. I think it may be a little late for the search engines this year but I did pick up a couple of small orders from it over the weekend and have taken a couple of hits on it through froogle. Its a bit of an experiment as the products are not generally what we would stock in the gift store - we can source them through my Dads hardware store - if it works, I am going to try a Spring and Summer section consisting mainly of gardening items. It may not fit in 100% but if it works it should help to make the site slightly less seasonal.
This weeks priority is to get my first ever newsletter written and sent. Havent managed before as we have not been in a postition to cope with extra orders up till now. Anyone got any hints on the best way to track the effectiveness of a newsletter?
There are just not enough hours in the day at present to do all I want to do. Having started this blog, I was hoping to post regularly - now I am already behind.
I just noticed today that this blog is mentioned under the "blogs I am reading" section of a couple of other guys blogs that I checkout so I now feel under pressure to come up with some worthy reading material...
Problem is, time. Take today, up at 7, zip down to the shop by 8 to pick up a few things, got to get to the warehouse by 9 to open up. Spend the morning answering the phone/making calls while helping the two new members of staff work through the weekend orders. Pop back to the shop at lunch time to check on things and pick up a few more items for internet orders. Back to the warehouse, just manage to complete all the orders/enqiries for the day and then dash home to take the family down to the local firework display.
The fireworks were great - the weather was pants - got drenched!!! Still good fun.
Home just after 9, get the lad off to bed at about 9.45 and then - on with the computer, check the shop site, read up on a few other blogs, check a couple of forums, thats it.... The day is done. No work done on the shop site, no work done on the AIS sites and no blog entry - till now.
Bl**dy manic. Anyhow, I guess it has been a busy year setting up the warehouse and its a busy time for the gift industry. If I can get through xmas in one piece then it should be a lot easier next year.
Just talking about the shop site. I did finally get to add the Christmas Gifts section to the site. I think it may be a little late for the search engines this year but I did pick up a couple of small orders from it over the weekend and have taken a couple of hits on it through froogle. Its a bit of an experiment as the products are not generally what we would stock in the gift store - we can source them through my Dads hardware store - if it works, I am going to try a Spring and Summer section consisting mainly of gardening items. It may not fit in 100% but if it works it should help to make the site slightly less seasonal.
This weeks priority is to get my first ever newsletter written and sent. Havent managed before as we have not been in a postition to cope with extra orders up till now. Anyone got any hints on the best way to track the effectiveness of a newsletter?
posted by richandzhaoyan | 10:37 PM
4 Comments:
Gary, I am hoping to get the newsletter sent out next weekend - would like to try for the Sunday morning arrivals, as Sunday is usually the busiest day for orders.
I will let you know what kind of results I get.
As for burning out.... I think that happened a couple of years ago - Love it all really, just wish I had a couple of extra hours in the day to try and pursue the AIS dream :)
I haven't had the time either to look at newsletters. Since I am on this "automation" kick these days have you looked setting up a template where new products are pulled from the DB automatically and added to the Newsletter. Maybe add relevent news about your industry and set up a cron job to send that out once a month.
Peter
PS I was at the office at 4am you lazy bugger. :) But then I don't have family to take care of, just me.
There are Newsletter programs out there that will help track your ROI. They will show you how many were opened, what parts were clicked on, how many visited your shop, etc. The one I ones I always seem to receive are from www.constantcontact.com.
Peter,
At the office at 4am? Were you just starting the day or just finishing? :) I am afriad I dont usually get to bed much before 2am ao the chances of me getting into the office by 4 are, well... There is no chance.
I like the idea of an automated newsletter system and will certainly look into it more next year. Right now I just want to get one, maybe two newsletters out this side of x-mas to basically remind previous customers we are still here and show them whats new.
Just looking into the newsletter programs - however, as its the first attempt I am very reluctant to spend out any money - (I am allways reluctant to spend out money!!)
Cheers,
Rich
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