With the rising costs in fuel, delivery of goods ordered are perceived to be down.
Deals are said to be hindered by the additional cost of shipping.
We would like to research how domestic importers and distributors are coping with this situation.

How are wholesalers reacting to the situation and minimizing having sales offset by this.

Are there existing co-op organizations in place for distribution of goods?

Is there a network being established or developed to reach out to smaller operations who are feeling the squeeze?

We produce a wholesale event in Las Vegas for the garment & home/gift industry and wish to be proactive in providing our customers with the latest information to manage their respective businesses and overcome this increasing hurdle.

We appreciate your time and feedback.
Dell Holden
Business Development Manager
Tarsus US Group / Off Price Specialist Shows
www.offpriceshow.com

More and more Americans work on their vacations according to a study performed for a office furniture and supply company. The study said that 43% of workers performed some job related tasks on their last vacation. This was up from a similar study done in 1995 that showed only 23% of workers giving up their respite for company loyalty. The survey of 640 randomly selected full- or part-time workers was conducted last month by telephone. It was conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation.

The biggest contributor to the rise has been, not surprisingly, technology. People are taking their work with them to Cancun because they can. Almost hal of the polls particpants cited the lap top computer as the single biggest factor making it possible for them to work while resting. The 1995 study mentioned the beeper and cell phone as the most used vacation working tool, ah how innocent they seem now.

Technological advances might make it possible for workers to put in those sun soaked hours but it doesn’t explain why they do it. Most respondants told the pollsters that they worked on their vacations out of dedication to their job or due to pressing deadlines. A smaller precentage said they simply couldn’t relax without having gotten some work done.

Psychiatrist and author, Ed Hallowell, was quoted on Wired.com as saying people work on their vacations for reason both good and bad. He said, “The good way would be someone who says, ‘Look, I really want to get away with my kids, but I do have work to do… I’m going to combine work and vacation’,”

However, he went on to explain that many people simply can’t stop working or think of another way to amuse themselves. A situation that can lead to burn out and personality disorders. Incidently, the study showed that 39% of people don’t take all their alloted vacation tiome each year in any case.

One aspect that occured to me is, how many of these vacation toilers are doing so because they fear for their job or are under other pressures that little to do with their own work ethic to put in the hours. It’s a tough time for many American workers and I can’t help but think that might figure as much into the working vacation as work-aholicism, company loyalty, and the Blackberry.

Seven minutes and forty eight seconds. That’s the amount of time I’ve been placed on hold so far with a major Manufacturer / Distributor of networking products. I bought an Ethernet usb print server and for some reason my ibook, ( running 10.4.7 OSX ), is having a hard time configuring with this product. No music in the background, no way to leave a voice message for customer support, and no menu selection that would allow me to exit out of here.

All I know is that my problem better be solved by the time I end this, now, eighteen minute fiasco. Hold on. Someone is finally answering. Ok, 4 minute Q&A just took place. 26 minutes and counting. Oh my !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Disconnected.

Calm down. Ok, how do we avoid having to maneuver through that jungle again with out entering cardiac arrest?!!! Hmmmm…I know…Let’s try their website….Found it…..I’m emailing thier support right now :
“Unbelievable! I just wasted 27 minutes of my time with a c-support rep only to have her pretend like their was a bad connection as an excuse to disconnect the line. I’d like to receive a call in the next 5 minutes at 555-555-5555. I can only hope that your support at the email level rivals that of the experienced I just had.”

Five minutes is up. Look at how wonderful they claim to be. My product review of the D-Link DP-301-U and D-Link Corporation is…..TADAAA!!! All thumbs down. Worse customer service experience ever. Last, but not least…..I’ll probably never purchase from this company again. They say that the first impression is everything. They are right.What have you learned from this experience?

On Wednesday July19 online auction power eBay posted its quaterly earnings meeting Wall Street expectations. While on the surface that sounds like good news, it wasn’t. Wall Street had set rather low expectations and eBay lived up to them. The earnings showed that eBay’s seemingly unstoppable rise has indeed slowed down.

It hasn’t been a great year for the auction site, earnings growth has slowed and the company’s stock has lost 40% of its value since January.

In an attempt to shore up the problem they announced a massive stock buy-back and, not surprisingly, will be raising its fees on some listings. The stock buy-back will total $2 billion over the next two years.

Meg Whitman, eBay’s chief executive officer, was quoted as saying, “Ecommerce is slowing down a bit” and promised improved performance for the company. Her statement isn’t entirely accurate. Ecommerce is doing fine, it’s eBay that has problems.

Increased competition from rival auction sites, consumers are becomeing less likely to simply run into the arms of eBay as the first line of online sales, and sellers with the impression that eBay can actually depress the price of goods all contribute to the dew coming off the auction site rose.

Don’t get the wrong idea, eBay is still making money, lots of it. The earnings reached $1.41 billion, up 30%. However given the company’s uncontrolled profits previous to this, the total was disappointing.

Overall listings were up 35 percent while gross merchandise volume, or the total value of items sold on eBay, rose only 18 percent. This suggests there were more inexpensive goods sold than high-ticket items, which drive growth.

Not surprisingly it is on those smaller ticket items that eBay plans to raise the fees. Good news for eBay stockholders, bad news for many eBay sellers and ultimately buyers as well.

I know that advancements in technology and the advent of the computing age has supposedly brought a whole new era of increased productivity to the world’s work force. Communication accross the globe can be achieved using email, cell phones, instant messaging, and text messaging. A worker from their desk top computer can process thousands of transactions in a day when before it would have required the efforts of a dozen clerks working for a week. The list goes on and on.

However, how often has this happened to you. Your boss or co-worker tells you of some breathtakingly advanced program or new system will change your life forever, tasks that took you minutes before willnow take seconds. You’ll have more time, your work will get done sooner, there will be more money and time for everything. So you sit down to apply this new miracle of electronic advancement and quickly discover it isn’t quite as self-expalnatory or simple to use as advertised.

You fumble around for awhile and then move to the help section. Hmm… not much help there and you call the tech guy or girl. Who regards you as an idiot and repeats the same set of inadequate directions you got in the first place. If you are lucky enough to know where the manual is, assuming it exists, you tear into it.

In the final analsys, you have spent hours to save those precious moments. But, of course now you know how to use the new program and those hours of frustration are behind you and it will be smooth productive sailing from here on out, right?

It will be until version 2.0 comes out.

For all of its terrific benefits, the computer age has turned us all, regardless of whether we are automechanics, doctors, accountants, or plumbers, into computer technicians. While that might not be all bad, it certainly isn’t the golden age of freedom of information and the dewy eyed new capitalism promised by Alvin Toffler back in the day.

Thanks for listening, or reading. Now get back to that manual.

If you’re willing to put a little time and effort into understanding Internet marketing, the rewards are enormous. I’ve done hours of research on how to make your web marketing strategy successful and I would like to share my knowledge with you. Advertisers need to first be clear on what the purpose of their web site is. Otherwise, it can just be a confusing mess. For instance, the purpose of TopTenWholesale.com is to deliver wholesale companies the highest quality traffic to their web sites. Remember, your web site should not be about you. Your potential clients are interested in what you can do for them. There should definitely be an ‘About You’ section, but beyond that it should be all about your prospective clients and how you can benefit them. Show prospects how you can solve their problems and you can be sure to have repeat visitors. I’m sure you’ve heard this a thousand times before, but collect your prospects e-mail addresses. If you’re not doing this, you might as well take a huge bag of cash and dump it out off of the highest building near you. Every time a wholesaler fails to capture someone’s e-mail address they’re turning down an opportunity to contact the reseller…for FREE! Your web designers should be able to setup a simple way of doing this. And don’t forget, once you have the e-mail addresses, use them. Pay per Click advertising can help your business be at the very top of all the search engines without spending months on search engine optimization that probably won’t work anyway. This will enable you to get to the top of the search engines but you only have to pay when someone clicks to go to your web site. How much you pay will depend on how much competition there is among other advertisers in your category. You also do not get locked in to any contracts or obligations. You choose what to spend, when to spend, and where to spend it. Make sure to ask your representative if their search engine shares your listing with affiliates. If they do, find out who the affiliates are because it may not be targeted to wholesale buyers. Search engines that operate on a proprietary network are much more targeted.

The new Wholezilla.com is set to launch tomorrow. We have put so much time and effort into this project over the last year. I’d like to thank all of those involved in the development of the 1st ever, TRUE, Business to Business Wholesale Shopping Cart Search Engine! Wolezilla’s design is impeccable, and its search results are unparalleled. Wholezilla.com will be scouring wholesale products from 1000’s of manufacturers, wholesalers, importers, drop shippers and distributors conducting e-commerce. Retailers will finally have the unbiased ability to scan multiple products, from multiple vendors, and make much more informative buying decisions. Get ready! Wholezilla is going to change the way wholesale buyers locate wholesale merchandise online.

Jim Crammer, from Mad Money, just proclaimed that “Print is dead…” in his reference to News Corp and their recent acquisitions ( Myspace ). He just told that world that News Corp got a steal on their $800 M takeover of Myspace. News Corp, one of the largest multi media conglomerates and publishers of newspapers in the world, is placing their bet online and hoping that Madison Avenue opens the wallet in Cyberspace. Is Jim right about print advertising be dead?
Print advertising will never die, or go away. It’s very clearly hear to stay. The online divide is still very much a factor for advertisers. Industries, like wholesale general merchandise, automotive, sporting, and tobacco will always need to target its audience with every marketing weapon available. Our industry is primarily dictated by flea marketers, jobbers, small retailers, and independent store owners. While most of them have adapted to sourcing wholesale products online on wholesale search engines ( Toptenwholesale , Wholesaleu , Wholezilla.com and Offpricenetwork.com ), they still rely on those monthly trade magazines that pour in their way many publishers every month. Yes, it’s true, the online wholesale search game is very strong right now and over 60% of wholesalers host a website. Those numbers will continue to grow.

The online marketplace for flea market items is growing and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. According to Pew Internet and American Life Project, online flea markets have grown more than 80% in the past year. It is estimated that 1 in 6 American adults have sold something using the internet. That’s 25 million people selling over the internet. This is great news for wholesalers. If you want to remain competitive in the online flea market game, you need to take advantage of this growing trend. Wholesale companies need to have a presence in the top search engines, such as toptenwholesale.com, where flea marketers and power sellers are looking for products and suppliers.
The proliferation of the internet gives every wholesaler a chance to directly target the eager buyers and resellers like no other time in history. The internet has made it easier to source a nearly limitless number of in-demand products, which can be bought cheaply from domestic and overseas suppliers and resold for a hearty profit. With the ease of a mouse, resellers can buy products cheaply from thousands of suppliers worldwide, and make profits on e-commerce web sites like eBay.

No matter how great your web site or how low your prices, if no one can find your web site you aren’t going to create sales. In comes SEO.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing your web site for organic search engines. A few years ago this simply meant stuffing as many keywords into your site’s meta tags. But those days are long gone and now the murky, mysterious topic of SEO is usually ignored because of it’s mysterious reputation.

But SEO isn’t as bad as it is made out to be. For the most part it really is just a set of common-sense guidelines that help the search engines find your site and your content with ease. This series will help you with the 10 most important thing you can do for your site to improve its organic search results placement. Keep in mind that along with good organic listings, industry specific vertical search engines like TopTenWholesale.com are important as well in bringing targeted wholesale traffic to your site.

In order to understand and really benefit from Search Engine Optimization, you need to understand how the modern organic search engine works and operates.

Almost all of today’s organic search engines use what is called a spider. A spider is an application run by a search engine company that goes all over the web visiting sites, indexing them, and ranking them on various conditions. Spiders find pages by following the links on each site it visits. This means that the more sites that link to your site, the more times you pages will get indexed giving you a higher page rank. This is just a brief overview of how search engines crawl the web. For a more in depth description try reading the Wikipedia article on search engine optimization.

Now that you know how search engines work, you need to know how to optimize (key word here folks) your site for these spiders. I am going to outline what I believe to be the Top Ten for your site. Don’t be intimidated if you don’t understand what everything means. E-mail me with any questions and I’ll do my best to clarify. Also keep in mind that there are no guarantees for improving your site’s listing. Be weary of companies promising #1 listings as this is impossible to do.

1. ) The Title Tag. The title tag is what tells the browser what to display at the very top of the web browser, is the name saved for bookmarks, and is displayed in the search engine results pages. In addition to all that, a relative and descriptive title is key to increasing your page rank. Try and stick to a common naming convention like “PageName – Section Name – Site Name.” For example… if have a men’s clothing page in the urban wear section on your wholesale apparel site, a good title for you page would be “Men’s Clothing – Urban Wear – Your Wholesale Apparel Company.” Not only will this give your page a higher rank, but it will give web surfers a clear and concise listing in the results pages of search engines. Be careful not to stuff your title with keywords. Spiders are getting smarter everyday and these so called “Black-Hat” practices could lower your ranking or even get you banned permanently from a search engine.

2.) Keep Important Text (links, company name, etc.) as Text, not Images. It is important to remember that spiders are computer programs, not humans. This means that a spider cannot extract your company name or any other relevant information from an image. Try to keep images for graphical information and actual text for textual information. If you must use an image, be sure to include the alt attribute with a relevant description.

3.) Get Linked! Google has made it’s internet search empire based on the fact the quality, relevant site will have other quality sites link to them. While this is true, it makes it hard for a small or young company to get a high page rank. This makes the things you can do to get linked very important. First sign up for industry directories. For wholesalers and wholesale companies site like WholesaleU.com and OffPriceNetwork.com offer an affordable way to get quality links to your site (not to mention the wholesale traffic) and increase your rank.

That’s all for this week. Check back next week for part 2 in my 3 part SEO for Wholesale Companies series. As always feel free to leave a comment or e-mail with a question.

-Brad