Jeremy Herndon Blog

Guest post by Jewel Cole

Amazon Prime account, things ship in two days for free! I decided to get on-line when I got home and just check to see if the prices were any better than they were at the store. I was really surprised by how much less expensive things were. You also don’t have to pay sales tax, which saves you a ton on its own. They even have a cool feature where you can put items on auto-ship. That means they will ship you whatever you need on a time schedule with out you having to do anything. It sure saves me a lot of time and a lot of trips to the store!

Bridget sent me a link to a company that sells double glazing windows as an example of a website that was probably done by someone who did not speak English as their native language. Although the reader does learn some information about the history of windows and what double glazing is, the website itself is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors.

Reading the website was almost painful; it made me wonder if the person who created it was an uneducated relative of the business owner and that maybe the business owner was trying to do the creator a favor by giving him a job. If that is the case, then that is all well and good but they really should have had someone who is educated proof read it.

In this highly competitive environment of the Internet, professional websites are essential if you are going to be marketing your product on the Internet. Although some people may think that a poorly done web page is better than nothing, I would have to disagree with that. My opinion is that you would be better off putting a small “under construction” sign with limited contact information up and then take the time to do the web site the right way.

I was reading an article on the Time.com website about how high-end high alcohol beers and becoming more popular. These beers are sometimes being brewed by smaller, less well known breweries than the mainstream breweries, and are intended to compete with wine rather than the “average” run of the mill beer. These beers often have more than twice the alcohol content than “regular” beer. One of these beers was developed by the makers of Samuel Adams Beer and has been named “Utopia” beer and sells for $140 per 24 ounce bottle. The article was talking about how these beers are “richer” and because of that people would not WANT to drink more, they would drink less.

Most of the people that I know would rather drink MORE beer, not less! I can’t imagine going to a barbecue picnic and only drinking one beer, it would not seem like a party to limit oneself to only one! After that one beer is gone and you’re thirsty again, then what would you drink? I guess this is the kind of beer one would order at a restaurant where you are only going to be there a short time.

In many businesses, the company depends on sales. And sales depend on good leads. I don’t know anyone who enjoys making cold calls; many consumers don’t appreciate being interrupted to listen to a sales pitch for something that they have no interest in buying. That’s one good reason to do business with a company that provides good quality warm leads to the sales force.

I have a couple of friends that are in the life insurance sales business. There sure seems to be a lot of competition in that market! One of my friends told me that his company makes him just call people out of the telephone book to try to make appointments. I know that there are companies out there that will do that kind of telemarketing for you so that when the agent makes the call to the customer it is a a warm insurance lead. To be perfectly honest I think that all sales companies should do that.

This past weekend I had to travel from DC to Philadelphia. I didn’t want to drive, so I decided to take Amtrak. I have to say that the trip was a lot more pleasant than I expected. I bought the ticket in advance on line and printed out the receipt and took it with me in case I needed it. I took the Metro to Union Station. The Metro stop put me right inside Union Station, which was cool. Once inside I found a self-serve kiosk that I could use to print out my own ticket. From there I found a television screen that told me what gate my train was departing from, so I went to that gate.

There was no long waiting at a security screening section; I simply went to the gate. When they opened the doors to board the train, no one stopped me to security check me or look at my ID or ticket, all that was done AFTER I got on the train. The seats were comparable to airplane seats as far as comfort goes. I did not have to stay in my seat; I could walk around and go to the snack car or the restroom if I needed to. The train left on time, and the ride was comfortable and fast. Since travelling by air is becoming more of a hassle, and more expensive, I’ll be looking into taking the train more often in the future!