I hate to do this, but about once a year it needs to be done. I'm making some changes to product names to better reflect what they are. That means that some of you may lose your bookmarks. Blue Birthday Cake Cookie is a much better name than "Blue Birthday Butter Cookie," don't you think?
The irony here is that I'm making it harder for some people to find things so that I can make it easier for them to find things.
We're still keeping an eye on Tropical Whatever It Is Right Now Ernesto. If you've got something going to the Atlantic coast, be aware that delivery may be delayed by a few hours as our shipping partners wait out the storm.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Labor Day and Ernesto
We're keeping an eye on Hurricane Ernesto as it heads toward Florida. In general, we've learned that shipping tends to be suspended the day a hurricane hits, so please keep that in mind if you're thinking of sending something down there. Any long-term problems will be reported on our Delivery Disruptions page.
This Monday is Labor Day, which means a lot of people who aren't me will get the day off. Our shipping partners are closed, so we won't be able to deliver anything on Tuesday, September 5. If you place an order later this week, please note the delivery dates below:
Second-Day Air
Orders placed after 2PM Eastern on Wednesday, August 30 will arrive on Thursday, September 7.
Overnight
Orders placed after 2PM Eastern on Thursday, August 31, will arrive on Wednesday, September 6.
All orders placed between September 1 and September 4 will ship on Tuesday, September 5, unless you tell us you'd like them at a later date.
This Monday is Labor Day, which means a lot of people who aren't me will get the day off. Our shipping partners are closed, so we won't be able to deliver anything on Tuesday, September 5. If you place an order later this week, please note the delivery dates below:
Second-Day Air
Orders placed after 2PM Eastern on Wednesday, August 30 will arrive on Thursday, September 7.
Overnight
Orders placed after 2PM Eastern on Thursday, August 31, will arrive on Wednesday, September 6.
All orders placed between September 1 and September 4 will ship on Tuesday, September 5, unless you tell us you'd like them at a later date.
It's a Changing Time O'Year
The end of August brings with it many things, like autumn cookie assortments and the start of a new school year. It also means that lots of seasonal products for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas will be available soon. Keep an eye on our Seasonal Treats page, which will be updated on the 1st and the 15th of the next few months with new cookie and collections.
We've also added some new categories to Shop by Occasion. Sympathy Gifts, Get Well Soon, and Baby and Bridal Showers list our most popular selections in each of these areas. Everything on our Showers page is eligible for a shipping discount as an added bonus.
Finally, there's some changes in store for this blog. Regular readers (if any) know that I tend to alternate between site-specific news and marketing-specific news. The new Blogger Beta will allegedly allow me to separate those areas out into different categories, so the folks who like the food stuff can get the food stuff, and the folks who like the marketing stuff can get that. I'm also taking the opportunity to redesign the blog a little and possibly incorporate some features found on my radio show's blog. (I'm thinking of the weather and the RSS feeds, not the funny headlines).
Does that mean you'll get twice as much content? No, just the opposite. It means I'll essentially have two blogs that get updated less often than this single one did.
So if the blog goes down for a bit or you log on and it's a mess, just check back later. My CSS skills aren't what they could be.
We've also added some new categories to Shop by Occasion. Sympathy Gifts, Get Well Soon, and Baby and Bridal Showers list our most popular selections in each of these areas. Everything on our Showers page is eligible for a shipping discount as an added bonus.
Finally, there's some changes in store for this blog. Regular readers (if any) know that I tend to alternate between site-specific news and marketing-specific news. The new Blogger Beta will allegedly allow me to separate those areas out into different categories, so the folks who like the food stuff can get the food stuff, and the folks who like the marketing stuff can get that. I'm also taking the opportunity to redesign the blog a little and possibly incorporate some features found on my radio show's blog. (I'm thinking of the weather and the RSS feeds, not the funny headlines).
Does that mean you'll get twice as much content? No, just the opposite. It means I'll essentially have two blogs that get updated less often than this single one did.
So if the blog goes down for a bit or you log on and it's a mess, just check back later. My CSS skills aren't what they could be.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
So what's hot?
Not the weather anymore, not around here at least, which is a pleasant relief. You'll be happy to know that cheesecakes and petits fours are again making their way safely to baked-good lovers all over this great nation of ours.
During the heat wave, cookies were our most popular seller. My feeling is that nobody's sitting around on a 95-degree day saying, "Hey, let's have some more of that layer cake with the buttercream frosting." I've known people in the ice cream business, and even they will concede that too much heat is bad for business.
The recent surge of cookie sales has brought them into the Top 10 products for the first time. It's been a while since I've done one of these, and celebrating the arrival of the cookie on the list seemed like a good excuse.
Our Top 10 Sellers
1. Chocolate Birthday Cake (complete party kit)--It is a force of nature, repelling all who would dare challenge its supremacy as King of All Baked Goods. It is the mighty Chocolate Birthday Cake.
2. Vanilla Birthday Cake (complete party kit)--Should the Chocolate Birthday Cake be unable to complete its duties as King of All Baked Goods for any reason, the Vanilla Birthday Cake will assume the office.
3. Croissants--So light, so flaky, so very French. These were another popular heat-wave item. Don't skip breakfast just because it's hot.
4. Demitasse Party Petits Fours--It never hurts sales to have your product featured in InStyle and Shop, Etc. Two-for-one shipping doesn't hurt, either.
5. Baby Boston Coffee Cakes--They're like regular coffee cakes, but they're cuter because they're small. Why choose between Blueberry Blizzard and Chocolate Explosion when you can have both?
6. Sugar-Free Low-Carb Flourless Chocolate Cake--The cake with the name so long, I can't fit it all into our catalog. Chocolate again trumps all other varieties in the flavor wars.
7. King Cake--We've tried limiting delivery to Thursday and Friday. We took it off the site because of the heat. But people still love our genuine New Orleans King Cake. They'll be available again in mid-September, and in case you're wondering why we stopped selling them, each cake is baked fresh and shipped overnight. The sugar frosting doesn't like the heat, so we have to wait for cooler temperatures before we can start shipping them.
8. Lemon Lulu Cake--We sold a lot of these at Father's Day, so there must be a lot of lemon-loving Dads out there. It's also a great summer cake, without sugary icing to weigh you down.
9. Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake--It's coffee's best friend. The Chocolate Birthday Cake of the Coffee Cake world. A traditional flavor, yes, but one that stands the test of time and keeps the IT guys from gnawing off their own hands during those marathon coding sessions.
10. Gourmet Cookies Gift Assortment--Cookies in the Top 10? Cookies in the Top 10! Take a bow, you chunk-filled treats. You've attained a place that the Biscotti and Bacca di Montagnia cake can only dream of. You'll be kicked out of the limelight once Stollen returns in October, but until then, bask in the glory. You've earned it.
During the heat wave, cookies were our most popular seller. My feeling is that nobody's sitting around on a 95-degree day saying, "Hey, let's have some more of that layer cake with the buttercream frosting." I've known people in the ice cream business, and even they will concede that too much heat is bad for business.
The recent surge of cookie sales has brought them into the Top 10 products for the first time. It's been a while since I've done one of these, and celebrating the arrival of the cookie on the list seemed like a good excuse.
Our Top 10 Sellers
1. Chocolate Birthday Cake (complete party kit)--It is a force of nature, repelling all who would dare challenge its supremacy as King of All Baked Goods. It is the mighty Chocolate Birthday Cake.
2. Vanilla Birthday Cake (complete party kit)--Should the Chocolate Birthday Cake be unable to complete its duties as King of All Baked Goods for any reason, the Vanilla Birthday Cake will assume the office.
3. Croissants--So light, so flaky, so very French. These were another popular heat-wave item. Don't skip breakfast just because it's hot.
4. Demitasse Party Petits Fours--It never hurts sales to have your product featured in InStyle and Shop, Etc. Two-for-one shipping doesn't hurt, either.
5. Baby Boston Coffee Cakes--They're like regular coffee cakes, but they're cuter because they're small. Why choose between Blueberry Blizzard and Chocolate Explosion when you can have both?
6. Sugar-Free Low-Carb Flourless Chocolate Cake--The cake with the name so long, I can't fit it all into our catalog. Chocolate again trumps all other varieties in the flavor wars.
7. King Cake--We've tried limiting delivery to Thursday and Friday. We took it off the site because of the heat. But people still love our genuine New Orleans King Cake. They'll be available again in mid-September, and in case you're wondering why we stopped selling them, each cake is baked fresh and shipped overnight. The sugar frosting doesn't like the heat, so we have to wait for cooler temperatures before we can start shipping them.
8. Lemon Lulu Cake--We sold a lot of these at Father's Day, so there must be a lot of lemon-loving Dads out there. It's also a great summer cake, without sugary icing to weigh you down.
9. Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake--It's coffee's best friend. The Chocolate Birthday Cake of the Coffee Cake world. A traditional flavor, yes, but one that stands the test of time and keeps the IT guys from gnawing off their own hands during those marathon coding sessions.
10. Gourmet Cookies Gift Assortment--Cookies in the Top 10? Cookies in the Top 10! Take a bow, you chunk-filled treats. You've attained a place that the Biscotti and Bacca di Montagnia cake can only dream of. You'll be kicked out of the limelight once Stollen returns in October, but until then, bask in the glory. You've earned it.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
More Fun with Yahoo!
You know what I love about the Internet? It's the way our stressful workaday lives have been eased through the valuable assortment of online tools that deliver information to our fingertips. Compiling sales and marketing reports used to require wading through piles of data and converting it into a usable form. Now, one merely needs to set the date range and all becomes clear.
Unless, of course, you're using Yahoo! Search Marketing, hereafter to be known as Boohoo! Search Marketing for the anguish it causes each time I dare to make sense of its bewildering interface and substandard tools.
Today, I made the mistake of trying to figure out what my pay-per-click keywords have been doing over the past year. Simple enough in Google--just set the date range, and the data magically appears. MSN's AdCenter won't let me specify a date range, but they will give me year-to-date data, which is just as useful. Truth be told, that functionality might be there, but there was a friendly dropdown menu offering me a good approximation of what I wanted, so I used it.
I saved Boohoo! for last, expecting, rightfully so, to be frustrated and defeated by their interface. Their 20-minute automatic logout "feature" also turns every Boohoo! adventure into a fast-paced game of Beat the Clock that I need to postpone until late in the day out of concern for the well-being of my coworkers and anyone else who might be in earshot.
For a change, clicking on the "Reports" link actually took me someplace helpful, and I could find the account report I wanted. I entered my date range, and waited for the report to appear.
Instead of getting a report, I received the following error message:
The date range is limited to 95 days.
Wow! A whole 95 days of tracking! Just what I needed for those quarterly reports. Unfortunately, I'm working on an annual report, so 95 days doesn't do me a damn bit of good. Had I known that my reports were limited to 95 days, I might have set up a system to download and compile them every quarter. I also might have done the smart thing and never gotten involved with Boohoo! Search Marketing.
This lack of functionality is a joke, right? There's another link somewhere I can click where it says, "We were just kidding," and gives me the data, right? No? Well at least it should be fast when I request my quarterly reports, right? One 90-day date range later, instead of a report, I get this message:
Your request is currently being processed. To obtain your report, return to this page and enter your request again. If the request has been completed, the report will be displayed at that time.
Awesome! Low functionality and slow response times! It's like tripping back in time to the 28.8 modem days. And the best thing is, every time you click on the little calendar icon to change the date range, it defaults to today's date! Think of the fun you'll have trying to figure out what the heck you're trying to do as Boohoo! error messages fill your screen--and by "fill," I mean appear in tiny, almost unreadable text.
And to think Boohoo! is working overtime to release the new and improved version of Search Marketing. Guys, you can't make a diamond any more perfect. Please, I beg you, leave the damn thing alone, subcontract to Google!, and let the rest of us get some work done.
Unless, of course, you're using Yahoo! Search Marketing, hereafter to be known as Boohoo! Search Marketing for the anguish it causes each time I dare to make sense of its bewildering interface and substandard tools.
Today, I made the mistake of trying to figure out what my pay-per-click keywords have been doing over the past year. Simple enough in Google--just set the date range, and the data magically appears. MSN's AdCenter won't let me specify a date range, but they will give me year-to-date data, which is just as useful. Truth be told, that functionality might be there, but there was a friendly dropdown menu offering me a good approximation of what I wanted, so I used it.
I saved Boohoo! for last, expecting, rightfully so, to be frustrated and defeated by their interface. Their 20-minute automatic logout "feature" also turns every Boohoo! adventure into a fast-paced game of Beat the Clock that I need to postpone until late in the day out of concern for the well-being of my coworkers and anyone else who might be in earshot.
For a change, clicking on the "Reports" link actually took me someplace helpful, and I could find the account report I wanted. I entered my date range, and waited for the report to appear.
Instead of getting a report, I received the following error message:
The date range is limited to 95 days.
Wow! A whole 95 days of tracking! Just what I needed for those quarterly reports. Unfortunately, I'm working on an annual report, so 95 days doesn't do me a damn bit of good. Had I known that my reports were limited to 95 days, I might have set up a system to download and compile them every quarter. I also might have done the smart thing and never gotten involved with Boohoo! Search Marketing.
This lack of functionality is a joke, right? There's another link somewhere I can click where it says, "We were just kidding," and gives me the data, right? No? Well at least it should be fast when I request my quarterly reports, right? One 90-day date range later, instead of a report, I get this message:
Your request is currently being processed. To obtain your report, return to this page and enter your request again. If the request has been completed, the report will be displayed at that time.
Awesome! Low functionality and slow response times! It's like tripping back in time to the 28.8 modem days. And the best thing is, every time you click on the little calendar icon to change the date range, it defaults to today's date! Think of the fun you'll have trying to figure out what the heck you're trying to do as Boohoo! error messages fill your screen--and by "fill," I mean appear in tiny, almost unreadable text.
And to think Boohoo! is working overtime to release the new and improved version of Search Marketing. Guys, you can't make a diamond any more perfect. Please, I beg you, leave the damn thing alone, subcontract to Google!, and let the rest of us get some work done.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Lowering Your Cost of Living
As Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve meet over the next few days, everyone will be focused on the rising cost of living in America. Here at 1-800-Bakery.com, we're doing something to help.
Thanks to our growth, we're able to negotiate discounts with our suppliers, which allows us to offer $19.95 Overnight shipping on all of our cakes and tarts from Bittersweet Pastries. That's a savings of seven dollars and change over our old Overnight rate, and one of the best values on the Web.
To compare, the FREE shipping liars offer their nine-inch cake for $69.99. Our ten-inch cake, which serves more people, costs $68.90. These prices will be in effect until Second-Day Air shipping returns, assuming it ever cools off around here, anticipated for late September.
You can take the seven bucks you save and buy some more gas, knowing that you're getting the same great cake, customer service, and reliable shipping, just for less money.
It's our way of trying to help lower your cost of living. Our hope is that Ben Bernanke will take note of our efforts and leave interest rates unchanged. If he does, you can thank us for helping to stabilize the American economy, and there's no better way to do that than by buying a nice cake or tart.
Thanks to our growth, we're able to negotiate discounts with our suppliers, which allows us to offer $19.95 Overnight shipping on all of our cakes and tarts from Bittersweet Pastries. That's a savings of seven dollars and change over our old Overnight rate, and one of the best values on the Web.
To compare, the FREE shipping liars offer their nine-inch cake for $69.99. Our ten-inch cake, which serves more people, costs $68.90. These prices will be in effect until Second-Day Air shipping returns, assuming it ever cools off around here, anticipated for late September.
You can take the seven bucks you save and buy some more gas, knowing that you're getting the same great cake, customer service, and reliable shipping, just for less money.
It's our way of trying to help lower your cost of living. Our hope is that Ben Bernanke will take note of our efforts and leave interest rates unchanged. If he does, you can thank us for helping to stabilize the American economy, and there's no better way to do that than by buying a nice cake or tart.
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