Retailers Will Love New Link Service for Increasing Worldwide Sales

 

 

I am testing a new free service that helps people sell products that are listed on Amazon  in countries other than their own. I am so jazzed about it, I am speechless! (Well, OK, not quite!)

 

BookShow assigns a new link that takes readers to a sellpage on the most  appropriate Amazon bookstore depending on where they live. I.e. If a a German buyer is looking for your product that is for sale in other countries, it would take them directly to your product on Amazon.de.  The same link would take work no matter where your customer resides.

 

In fact, this is so miraculous, I don't quite trust it. So my poetry partner Magdalena Ball and I set up a trial link for our chapbook for mothers:  http://bookShow.me/1438263791

 

We're wondering if those of you who live in countries other than the US would check to see if this link works for you and where it takes you. Maybe tell us where it takes you if you say, live in Denmark. To the French Amazon? To the Spanish Amazon? 

 

I'd love to hear if you're excited about the possibilities, too. Either as a comment on this blog or by e-mailing me direct at hojonews@aol.com.

 

I think this is 2013's  Most Promising Free Online Service.

 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing .

Free Flier: 7 Reasons Why You Should Share Your Expertise with a Book

“Getting published is good for business.”

Some of the subscribers to this blog are what I call soul writers, meaning they would be different people if they didn’t write.

Others of you are professionals who know the truth of the first line in this note. You publish to showcase your expertise in your chosen career.

For some of you, the line between the two is not clearly defined. You may be both kinds of writer at once, even within one book. Some writers may use one kind of writing to financially support the other. I'm definitely a bit of both.

If literary authors, poets, and other soul writers want to build writing careers, they need to think of their writing as credibility boosters more often. More business people should think in those terms, too.

If you aren’t convinced, e-mail me at HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) for a free copy of the little four-page flier I give away when I speak to business groups. It’s called  

Seven (or More*) Reasons Why You Should Share Your Expertise by Publishing a Book

And here are the first three of those reasons to get you started.

1.  A book of your own gives you credibility. Even Star Speaker Pam Kelly, a top coach and one of the master UCLA instructors I took classes from in order to get a special instructor’s certificate, has found that a book (http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=howtodoitfrug-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0979100100&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr) makes her a standout among other experts.

2.  Having a published book can be an excellent negotiating tool. Imagine! A top investment firm is taking applications for a keynote speaker before a room of 500 and you're the only applicant who can offer a package of keynote skills plus a book (perhaps packaged in a signature tote!) to this prospective client!

3.  Having a published book for sale at the back of the hall where you are speaking or in your store or business office will add to your profitability.

 

*Great Marketing Rule: Try to give people more
than they paid for, more than they expect.

I know you’ll want to see all seven reasons. You may want to use the flier as a handout to use yourself. You may adapt it to your own needs, but do credit it to me with a link to my site or a little pitch for this blog.

 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing .

Facebook Campus to Have It's Own Open Air Mini Mall

You probably knew but just in case: Facebook is building it's own little main street shopping area for its employees at their campus in Menlo Park, California!

It seems that any retailer who wanted to apply for a location would have a captive audience there--an audience with plenty of new-media money in their pockets. 

A general stores is planned, and an gallery. But I saw no plans for a bookstore (really! do they all really read only e-books!). And no plans for a real gift store, card shop, or clothing store (really, do they all only wear stretched-out T-shirts and second hand jeans?).

And, do you suppose they would do this without getting input from a retailing professional? 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing .

Job Hunting in the New Year

How to Interview Like A Pro Forty-Three Rules for Getting Your Next Job Mary Greenwood. JD. LLM iUniverse release/ ASIN: B004JHZ26C Kindle EditionKindle / paperback Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson A book for its time… The Feel-Good Guide for Getting a Job and Learning Negotiating Skills Who would have guessed. I read this book because I thought I might be able to recommend it to my retail clients, but it turns out, getting a job is very much like selling a book! So it’s suitable in many ways for my author-clients, too. Getting a job isn’t much different than it was back in the days when I interviewed at PR firms and magazines like Good Housekeeping. Though we have many tools at our disposal that weren’t available back then, the basics are similar. And industry-to-industry, we can learn so much from the general (yet detailed!) information Mary Greenwood gives us in How To Interview Like a Pro. Basic business skills like Greenwood imparts here, are useful at some level for almost anyone who must earn a living. Mary’s number two rule is that a job hunter must “prepare a good elevator speech.” She also says, “Make a list of everyone you know.” Ajob hunter would then use that list to find influential people with contacts of their own who will lead them to other jobs, recommend them to others, and generally hold their hands through the process. Going hand in hand with this process is Mary’s rule “Telling everyone you know you are looking for a job.” She, expands this rule by adding: “Tell everyone whom you would like to know you are looking for a job.” Here she covers making new contacts using social networking. Mary’s rules are born of experience, both general and legal. Her book moves us along from rule to rule—lickety split—right down to the never-nevers like: “Never say you don’t have any more questions.” Interviews go both ways. If they don’t, the interviewer may form some opinions you’d just as well he or she didn’t. I once hired for my store a very young employee with no experience because her questions were so astute I figured she was mature for her age and would learn fast. It turned out, that assessment was right. One of the reason things move so quickly is Greenwood’s anecdotes. You’ll come away from this book feeling as if you aren’t alone in your search and knowing how to make sure you aren’t. You’ll know the basics and the details, like how to answer about any question an interviewer is likely to ask. One of the best things about this book is Greenwood’s Introductory Rule: “Getting a job is like parking. You have to be at the right place at the right time.” If you keep that in mind—along with her little protractor story (yes, this is a tease—I think you should read this book!), you’ll hang in there and know one day you’ll be exactly in that place at that time. Now, here’s the thing. I believe that almost anyone in the business world could benefit from this book, from interviewee to interviewer. from author to retailer to IT guy or gal. Sometimes the books we get the most from are the ones we don’t think we need in the moment. Have it ready. It’s way more than a get-a-job book.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Cash Mobs, Your Store, and Loyalty

Cash mobs, Promotion and Your Store
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There's something new on the online horizon. So far it's being used effectively by small retailers, but I see no reason why it couldn't also be used by manufacturers to sell particular products and, though so far it has been a flashmob phenomenon, why couldn't it be adapted to online fan pages?

What is it?

It's called cash mobbing, but checks and credit cards are accepted.

It was started by buy-local advocates in the retailing industry. It uses any kind of media including the Web and traditional media to get loyal folks to support a local business on a specific day, sometimes at a specific time. They are encouraged to come spend a minimal amount of money out of loyalty (with, perhaps, a little self interest stirred into the mix), and people do. They come. They come to be supportive, to feel part of the crowd, because it's an event, because it's a fad.

Time magazine reports it was started in 2011 by Chris Smith who read that Groupon methods of increasing business using mass discounts might backfire because retailers or service providers couldn't sustain the discounts and remain profitable. And he liked the term "cash mob." The idea was to get people interested and he did. Time reporter Katy Steinmetz says, "100 of Smith's fellow citizens [in Buffalo, NY] each spent around $10 at a wine shop with local media in tow. He's been hosting cash mobs ever since." 

Then Andrew Samtoy tried it in Cleveland. And he is using @Cashmobs moniker on Twitter to promote these events. He is also incorporated as Cash Mobs, Inc. You could use his service—or do it on your own, but do think of your own name. Samtoy apparently has a stranglehold on "Cashmobs."  Yours could be the name of your book or store plus the word "mobs." Of course, if you go the do-it-yourself route,you'd need do your own promotion (which you'd probably need to do some of in any case!)

Do use the second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) to give you tons of ideas of how to attract the crowds. And my A Retailer's Guide to In-Store Promotions (http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide) to help get the whole event right.

Let's combine a couple of mottoes. "Just Do It and They Will Come."

Online or in person.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

A Great Tip for Getting the Word Out On Your Christmas Event!

If you have a Christmas product for sale like books, cookbook, artwork, (or about anything else) or  you're going to hold a Christmas event, you're going to love ChristmasDaddy.com. This tip will go in the December 18 issue of my SharingwithWriters newsletter, but I didn't want to make my blog subscribers and visitors wait. What a way to drive traffic to your Web site.

PS: You just knew I couldn't send out a newsletter without a marketing tip in it, right? This is an example of how you can use a free service from ChristmasDaddy.com: http://www.christmasdaddy.com/christmas-news/north-pole-press/Poetry_for_Christmas.shtml. It's an example of how my poetry partner Magdalena Ball and I used it to promote our Christmas chapbook Blooming Red (http://amzn.to/BloomingRedKind ).

Christmas Daddy says: "Advertise for FREE! Submit an article for either Christmas Stories, Christmas Recipes, Christmas Decorating, or Christmas Event Ideas and we will place your article with links back to your site or charity site you designate. You can even submit a banner ad to be placed with your article. Click here to get the details. http://www.christmasdaddy.com/christmas-article-submission.html."

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Broaden Your Retail Horizons with Shopping Mall Exposure!

Time magazine ran a piece on how shopping malls are changing in their regular section on the economy a couple of weeks ago. They report that many upscale malls are doing very well, but middle-of-the-road malls have lost tenants like crazy. They are filling their real estate with all kinds of businesses like ice rinks, museums, health clinics, and even churches. They also (though this isn’t new) fill empty spaces with temporary rentals. I got to thinking how this could be a trend that could benefit retailers eager to test the waters in other cities or other parts of town, as an example. But I also got excited about some of the marketing possibilities they migh offer. 

And because those spaces can be gotten very cheaply by mall standards, I also figured mall administration would be open to just about any ideas a retailer came up with.

Here are some ideas you could approach your local mall with:

~Go in with your local service organization or Chamber of Commerce to open a little carnival of booths focusing on local business of all kinds--services, retailers, etc.  You could hold holiday readings, seminars, etc. in it. And I can imagine the coverage you’d get in the local press with this idea—maybe even the national press that has business pages like USA Today.

~If there is a store window in a space that hasn’t been leased, rent it for the season to showcase your store that could well be located across town. If not, how about using it to promote a new vendor or a holiday event you'll be holding.

~On a smaller scale, ask the mall administration about their kiosk or cart programs where you can promote your store with coupons, gifts with purchases, etc. You'll find tons of ideas for these kinds of things  in my book A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide), will help you with these projects.

~Make your new well-trafficked space into a money making venture. Rent out space for readings, how-to demonstrations, children’s hours, poetry open mics, even to bloggers who want to increase their visibility. Relate each one to some line you carry in your store. And, of course use the space for your own events.

~How about a one-week or one-day rental. Say you have a kitchen supply store. How about a week of cooking demonstrations and before Mother’s Day. Enlist authors of cookbooks to promote with you by using their contact lists of readers and media moguls.

~Capitalize on any big promotion ideas you are already using. Once we had a huge Precious Moments event in our mall parking lot using a motorhome as a rolling museum for PM artwork including the figurines we sold. A centerpiece like this is bound to attract interest at any mall. BTW, you may have seen C-SPAN, CNN, etc use a similar idea a tradeshows.

Hint: My book A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide), will help you with these projects. It's also available (frugally!) in Amazon's Kindle store.

Note: Using mall space to promote your brick and mortar or online store can be done quite simply or on a large scale. If you have a big idea, start now for your 2013 promotion. And you may not want to wait for the December holiday season. Mall business is excellent around Valentine’s, Mother’s and Father’s Days, graduation time, etc. If you carry patriotic products, put your thinking cap on for a bash on the Fourth of July.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Ideas To Boost Christmas Retail Sales--In Store and Frugal!

So! LA Times reports "Big chains get a back-to-school revenue boost." AND they attribute that boost to in-store promotions.  So, if using promotions can give big chains a boost (3.6%)  that sets them to thinking positively about Christmas, you can too. And if you've run dry of ideas or the promotions you ran last year were only ho-hum, maybe you need some new ideas. Or maybe you need to revive some of the ideas small retailers used last decade or the decade before that to boost sales.  And maybe it's time to do some reading to get some new ideas--or just get inspired and motivated. Yes, I'm suggesting A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions (http://budurl.com/RetailersGuide).

What about letting marketing savvy-authors help you boost sales with a workshop, seminar, or reading promotion. Ask them to use their contact lists and social networking skills to bring new customers into your store?

Get details and ideas on a host of other sales producers, too. Signs. Utilizing dead space in your store. Creative events. Point-of-purchase promos. Ideas for your display windows. Contests. Building your lists in-store . Using them effectively. Reward cards. Layaway. Gift certificates. New gift registry ideas (see the last post on this blog, too!). Catalogs. Gift-with-purchase ideas. Parking lot ideas. Cross-promotion. Home parties. Are you tired yet?

And while you're at it, up your social networking skills, too. Check http://howtodoitfrugally.com/retailers_books.htm for more retailing ideas. 


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Gift Registires Not Just for Brides! Try Back to School!

In my A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion, I include gift registries as a kind of in-store promotion that shouldn't be neglected. But now the LA Times business section reports in their continuing retail column about a trend toward encouraging customers to use gift registries for back-to-school needs.

So, OK. I admit I didn't think to include this particular use of registries in that chapter! But now that I have my thinking cap on, what a concept this is.

It works for high school kids. Is Staples missing a bet? Is your store missing a bet? They need pens, computers, backbacks, etc. 

And sporting goods stores sells backbacks, no?  What else could parents and students add to the list from those stores that includes a top-of-the-line backback.

And what about college students going off to school. They'll need everything from linens to microwaves.  What's in your store you could suggest?

And, no, you don't need a big computerized system. You could do a display with back-to-school needs. Use signs to suggest your registry.  And when someone likes the idea, make up an index card file for your customer's wish list. Maybe offer free shipping to the college of their choice with orders over a certain amount.

And yeah, this could be done for your online store. If you have one, you're a tech wizard!

What other kinds of gift or essential-needs occasions could you tout to your customers with this simple kind of registry--the kind we used in the 80s?  Leave your ideas in the comments on this blog.  You may not think that's smart competition, but if you do, it's obvious you haven't read up on the value of cross promotion or the zen of great marketing in my retail books.  (-:

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Learning from Gap, Adidas, Nike, Target Other Environmentaly Conscious Retailers

Not to put a too much of a commercial twist on it, but how can other retailers--no matter what you sell--follow the model being set by Timberland, North Face, Adidas, Gap, and lots of other big guys? They're making eco chic according to Time magazine and it's an example worth copying.

More than 60 big name brands and retailers pilots a program for apparel makers. They assign a Higgs Index to the eco friendliness of clothing. It's all voluntary. Anyone can join. Anyone can apply to get a rating for their clothing item.  It was only last week my workout spot (Total Woman) featured a rack of yoga clothing that is eco friendly. They were expensive but also stylish, soft to the touch, and wickable. 

I like both the idea and the inclusiveness of the thing. It's great marketing. Should prove profitable--for the businesses and the planet. Everyone wins. So don't we need this for other industries, too. What retail organization could help rate independent stores and chains? What organization could offer (Zagat style?) ratings on paper or home cleaning products?

So far the US government has nothing to do with this program. Thus there's no penalty for a low score and no roses to pin on the noses of those who rate high. 
Well, OK. Rating high gives a company (vendor, retail store, whatever) bragging rights.  And maybe a write-up in in Time?



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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it: