Christopher M Holt’s Blog

Though I have neglected my blog I haven’t forgotten it.  These last two months have been extremely hectic but now things are slowing down slightly.  The long awaited move has occurred.  Luxuria Partners aka Campman.com, DailyMemories.com, OutdoorDaily.com, and IndieJewels.com have moved into the new digs.  More room and more luxurious.   Its great not to be buried under shipping boxes and products.

It had been awhile since I had seen both of these videos but really funny viral videos always make a comeback. The ones I am referring to are bub rubb and the leprechaun video. Two videos that show extremely intelligent people. However when I was looking one of them up I found that someone had made a remix of the two. Using both to create a hilarious rap video. Check it out.

Well I got an invoice saying that my blog url had been renewed and that I was charged $10.  So happy one year for ChristopherMHolt.com.  I hope there will be many great years to come.  Woooooo hooooooooo!!

Running an online retail company I have learned the importance of logistics.  I have to ship everything I sell as well as receive it.  Its a great expense that can take a cut from the bottom line.  Sometimes the customer pays for it and other times its thrown into the purchase price.  While trying to save money on shipping I have definitely learned about reliable companies and those that are not.  I have also learned the you need to negotiate a discount when possible.

The worst shipper is also the cheapest.  Surprise Suprise.  The United States Postal Service is by far the cheapest for small business.  However they have the worst tracking and packages tend to get lost.  I’d say at least 5% of shipments I send through them are delayed.  1% require me to call and attempt to track down the package.  I’ve had international packages take two months to show up at the customers doorstep.  I would recommend never to ship international with USPS.   Even though it is a third of the price.  I’ve had 25% of my packages returned and I end up paying for another shipper to send it anyways.

UPS and FedEx are definitely more reliable and their tracking systems are light years ahead of USPS, but you have to pay for that luxury.  Unless you are shipping volumes of packages, the rates are significantly more.  However there are usually groups that your business can join that get a discount based on the groups shipping needs.  I have tried to join Orange County Logistics but its been two month since they started processing my application.  Not sure its ever going to happen.  The idea is good though.

Quick turnaround is key to keeping the customer happy.  Especially in online retail.  People love ordering something online and having brown Santa Claus knocking on their door a couple of days later.  Its like Christmas any time of the year.   Giving them a tracking number so they can monitor the progress of the package will save you from them calling or emailing you to find its whereabouts as well.  They will only contact you if they find something wrong with the packages status.

The more the process is automated also makes your life easier.   Having to type in all the information every time by hand can be a pain.  Being able to drop the info from the purchase order is key to saving time and not messing up the address.  Also if you can automatically send a tracking number as well it saves time and the customer is always happy when they see their order has shipped.  It also allows them to track it and not contact you for its whereabouts.

Bottom line is good logistics  keeps your customers happy and minimizes the extra work you have to do.  If you skimp to save costs, plan on spending extra time cleaning up the mess.  You may not have to but it happens more when you go cheap.

This blog posting is obviously very late but I am amazed at the transactions that have occurred since this date. This was the day that the popular bittorrent tracker site Oink went down. It was the source of prerelease music. Albums were being released on this site sometimes months before it would hit the retail shelves. Not long after another site Demonoid went down as well. Two big wins for the RIAA. However from the ashed rose a phoenix. However not just one but several. New sites lined up to take the place of Oink. People are now calling it the Hydra. Cut off one head and there are many others to keep the beast alive. Looking at chat boards people were scrambling to get invites to the new sites in order to keep their pirating alive.

It seems a losing battle for the RIAA unless they can find a new way to go after sites like this. The Norwegian authorities aren’t having much success shutting down sites so they provide a safe harbor to host the sites. It will take a change of legislation to remove their existence and I’m sure it will then just move to another country. Only time will tell.

We got snow and a lot of it.  It dumped yesterday.  Enough to shut Little Cottonwood Canyon down.  Once it opened it was a mad dash to get fresh tracks.  Luckily I was one of those people and enjoyed a couple of hours of knee deep pow and incredible face shots.    Hopefully it keeps coming because there is nothing like a day like an incredible Utah powder.  So keep praying and maybe it’ll keep coming.

Well all the ski resorts are opening and its time to hit the slopes. Hopefully the snow will be better than last year. It was a severely down year and this year isn’t looking that great right now. We had the early snow to get people’s hope up. However since then the snow is pretty scare. I got some new skis and new clothes that are waiting to be tested so join me in praying for snow.  All the Utah powder hounds will thank you.

I’ve had a couple of blunders in managing my websites.  Either I haven’t checked all my functionality when first made or after updates.  I just assumed some of them work when they don’t.  It has taken an email from a customer to inform me of the nonworking feature.  I have no idea how many sales I lost in both of these situations but I am sure that I lost at least a couple.  So my advice is when your site is built or you have adjustments made make sure you check every feature you can think of to make sure it works.  It a lot easier to get the programmer to fix everything up front than later down the line.

I launched a new site for Jewelry. Its called IndieJewels.com. The site is all user generated content. Artists submit their designs and users vote on which designs are featured. Its similar to the popular T-Shirt sites Threadless and Uneetee. Its free for artists to list their items and the site links to their store for the day. Its a great way to generate traffic for them for free. Artists so far have been extremely receptive to the idea and we have had a number of people submit their designs. Now it is just a matter of getting the word out.

Was down but not out.  Now I’m back and I even still have a PageRank.  Sweet!