A Question for AOL

Why, AOL, do you insist on blocking the e-mails we send to our customers? Don't you realize that our customers like to receive order confirmations and tracking numbers so that they know the things they ordered have actually shipped?

Why did we go through the process of getting white-listed with you last year, only to have this problem creep up again as soon as the calendar turned to 2007?

And how many other companies' e-mails are you needlessly blocking? Quite a few, from what I've heard from your customers. I hear from rather a lot of them, and I always tell them the same thing: Get rid of AOL, or stop using their e-mail. If they're blocking legitimate, business-related e-mails, who knows what else is getting lost.

If you're unfortunate enough to be stuck with AOL, let me recommend Yahoo!, Hotmail! or Gmail, so you're not wondering whether or not you're getting all of your e-mail. I've got quite a few Gmail invitations I can send out, so drop me a line at derek@1-800-bakery.com if you'd like one.

King Cake Alert

Another tasty image for you to ponder, our Genuine New Orleans King Cake. This is the real deal, baked fresh to order and shipped from Randazzo's Camelia City Bakery, complete with beads, doubloons, and a bag of gourmet coffee.

Want one? Want two? Place the orders now. Due to the high demand for these around Mardi Gras, as of this writing, we'll only be accepting orders until Noon Eastern, February 14. After that, no amount of pleading or bribery will enable me to secure a King Cake for you. They're running out of baking capacity on these, as they're hugely popular again this year. How popular? They're #5 on our Bestsellers list.

I don't know when we'll have them again--Randazzo's took a well-deserved month off after last year's Mardi Gras. I also can't guarantee that we'll have them until the 14th, as a spike in orders might make them unavailable before then. The important phrase here is, "as of this writing."

Remember that you can use our calendar and have your King Cake delivered on the 20th, you just won't be able to order them after next Wednesday. As of this writing.

Welcome, Veronica's Treats!

That interesting creation to the left is a Heart Puzzle Cookie from our newest partner bakery, Veronica's Treats of Middleboro, Massachusetts. It arrives unassembled with instructions on how to put it together to reveal it's hidden shape.

We've actually been working with the great staff at Veronica's since last autumn on our corporate orders, and we're very happy to launch them onto our retail site just in time for Valentine's Day. There's an exceptional level of creativity in the things they make, and they're as delicious as they are different. Along with the Puzzle Heart, we've also got chocolate-covered Heart Brownie Bites and my personal favorite, Brownie Roses, rose-shaped brownies dusted in red sugar. I'm going to ask that you take seconds out of your busy day and click that link to see them. You don't have to buy any, but you'll probably want to.

We've greatly expanded our Valentine's Day selection this year, and there's still a couple of exclusive products here at La Patisserie to come once we've got the finishing touches just right--look for them by this weekend. And since Valentine's Day has the good sense to fall on a Wednesday this year, second-day air delivery will be available on February 14th.

As always, though, I'll caution you to order ahead, as quantities are limited and items will sell out. Valentine's Day tends to be a very last-minute thing for a lot of people, but when you were falling in love with that special someone, did you wait until the last minute? Of course not. Nothing says, "I love you," quite like ordering ahead.

Need a "Little" Christmas?

I should have posted this days ago, assuming I had the ability to rise above my post-Christmas torpor, a consequence of several hundred packages, an allergy to styrofoam peanuts, and perhaps a bit more Harvey's Bristol Cream than most doctors would advise.

Tomorrow or tonight is Twelfth Night, also known as "Little Christmas," depending on which version of the calendar you choose, and may be either the real date of Jesus' birth or the date the Magi arrived in Bethlehem, depending on which version of the story you follow. Everyone seems to agree that January 6 is the Epiphany, but whether that's the date of Jesus' birth or the date he was revealed to man is the subject of a debate that has split the Christian faith into various churches. Even the mighty Wikipedia can't seem to get it straight.

In a more practical sense, the arrival of Epiphany means that Mardi Gras is on the way, and we've got our genuine New Orleans King Cakes back and available for delivery Tuesday through Friday. We'll be adding a smaller size and a four-pack of individual King Cakes, all with a toy baby baked inside, in the next few days.

As we get closer to Mardi Gras, which falls on February 20 this year, the demand for King Cakes will be high. Place your orders early to guarantee delivery. We received so many orders last year that we had to stop taking orders a week before Mardi Gras, as there's only so many hours in a week for baking.

So very, very close

It's been a holiday tradition around here that our Stollen ends December as our top-selling product of the year. Looking at it back at the start of December, I didn't think it stood a chance, as we'd sold so many Chocolate and Vanilla Birthday Cakes.

It managed to eclipse the Vanilla Birthday cake at the start of this week, but I'm sad to report that we're 17 Stollen sales short of unseating the mighty Chocolate Birthday Cake.

Now there are still a few days left in this month, and I know that when people have a taste of Stollen on Christmas morning, they're going to want more, so we're extending our send two and pay shipping for one discount through the end of the year.

And lest you think this is some old Stollen we're trying to get rid of, we sold all but two of this week's batch, and we're making more for our retail store in Winchester, so they're nice and fresh. It's just as delicious on New Year's Day--or as an appetizer or buffet item at those New Year's Eve parties you're planning.

Just 17 Stollen. I'm sure we can do it.

Blogola

Seems I touched a nerve yesterday with the defenders of paid posting in blogs. It's not every day that I get called "small," "bitter," and "mean-spirited," to use the more polite names hurled at me. Apparently some people are fine with selling their integrity, but they don't like it when you call them on it.

And before I go any further here, I'd like to offer an apology to Sandra at the Work at Home Newsletter, who sould not have received one of my comments yesterday. I made a point of not commenting on any blog that clearly labeled its posts as paid. Sandra doesn't flag the individual posts, but she does clearly--and rather eloquently--defend her position in a link in her bio.

I don't agree with her position, nor do I agree with the position put forward by Eric Lituchy, the president of Delightful Deliveries (who shall have his company referred to by its proper name from here on out for taking the time to respond).

They both make the same argument: "Newspaper and magazine writers get paid to write about products and companies, so what's the difference?" Speaking as a former newspaper journalist, managing editor for a regional film magazine, and newspaper owner, I've looked at this issue from more angles than most people, and I can say that there's a world of difference.

Yes, journalists get paid to write about products and services, but they don't get paid by the providers of those products and services. Any journalist in America who took money from a company to write a review would be fired on the spot. Journalists' opinions are not for sale. If they were, newspapers would be nothing but advertising sheets, and nobody would read them. Anyone who's studied journalism knows this, and I count a great many reporters and editors among my friends who would never take a cent for their opinion, because they know that doing so would destroy their credibility.

I'm also a radio host, and this situation calls to mind the payola scandals that surfaced in the 1950s and again in the last two years. Record companies paid disc jockeys to play certain albums, either through cash or gifts, thus unfairly influencing the Top 40 charts. The situation got so out of hand that the Federal Communications Commission got involved, and anyone who works in radio now has to sign an agreement that he or she will not accept any gift or cash payment to play any song or promote any artist.

Pay per post is nothing more than blogola, and I'm hardly alone in my condemnation of it. John Fine at BusinessWeek (a legitimate journalist), summed up the outrage at blogola in a June article entitled, "Polluting the Blogosphere," which features this rather telling quote from PayPerClick.com's Ted Murphy: "You can't believe anything you see or read." There was a time, Mr. Murphy, when you could, and it's people like you that are destroying our faith in the media. Mr. Murphy jumped into the Comments fray over at Naked Conversations, if you'd like to enjoy more of his "wisdom."

Marshall Kirkpatric at TechCrunch puts his opinion succinctly: "TechCrunch does not accept payment for posts." The words of a true journalist.

In the interest of offering some balance, Mark Woodman at inkBlots makes the argument that the blogosphere doesn't have much credibility anyway, so why not have at it? I think that's a bit of a cyncial view, because bloggers have been instrumental in breaking some major news stories to the mainstream press. The bigger question here is why don't we have more credibility? Maybe because people are selling their opinions and not telling their readers about it?

If you disclose the status of paid postings, plainly and clearly, I can almost live with it. If you don't, it's blogola. Either way, wouldn't you be better off seeling some things on eBay? Because while you're making a few bucks a post, you're also showing readers that, as Ted Murphy says, "You can't believe anything you see or read." That devalues your genuine posts, along with the blogosphere in general.

I hope that clarifies my opinion on this in a way that's not too mean-spirited.

As for the accusation that I deliberately went after a competitor, that's true. I make no claims toward being unbiased here--read anything I've written about our products--but I do not, and would not, under any circumstances, allow someone to buy my support in any blogging endeavor.

And to that end, I'd like to quote Mr. Lituchy:

"What I've asked, through PayPerPost, is that bloggers go to our website or be customers in order to write a blog about DelightfulDeliveries.com. I believe this is essential to our post otherwise it would be junk. I've also asked for bloggers to review the site. While they are only paid if the post is postive, bloggers are free to write whatever they like. I think that is were you are missing the point."

I think you just made my point, when you said, "they are only paid if the post is positive." That's the point where ethics get thrown out the window in favor of making a buck, and that's why journalists get paid by newspapers, not advertisers. If you paid equally for a negative review, then there's no problem, so why not start doing that? We run negative reviews on our site, right next to the product descriptions, because we value the honest opinions of our customers. I can't seem to find any reviews on DelightfulDeliveries.

By and large, Mr. Lituchy, you run a good business that's an example for the industry. Why would I chastise you for looking for an innovative way to promote your business? Because you only pay for the good reviews, and that's unethical from a journalist's perspective. You're buying links instead of earning them on merit, and you're contributing to the distrust readers have of the commentary found on blogs, which is bad for the entire blogosphere.

I think your company is above this kind of behavior. You're a category leader in part because you've taken an honest approach on your site and in your promotion, apart from this bit of blogola. My hope is that you'll see this as I and many concerned bloggers and journalists see it, and that you'll also understand that while this may be an easy way to get blog recognition now, it will hurt your ability to have legitimate bloggers write about you in the long run.

Dishonest? You Decide

It's nice when bloggers write about businesses they like. After all, bloggers are impartial, everyday people, right? That makes them worthy of our trust.

Or does it? The folks at Pay Per Post seem to think, with some level of success if their new round of $3 million in venture financing is any indication, that the opinions of bloggers are for sale. Here's how it works: You sign up with them, decide which companies you're willing to blog for, and you get cash, either a single payout or, in some cases, affiliate referral fees.

In other words, MAKE FAST CASH WITH YOUR BLOG!!!!, without all that tedious mucking about in AdSense. immomsdaughter claims to be having a "love affair" with the service. Who can blame her? Where else but in America can your integrity be sold for $4 a post?

I'm afraid my integrity costs a bit more than that, in the sense that no amount of money in the world would ever posess me to write favorably about a company just to make a buck. The concept is a slap in the face at the integrity of bloggers everywhere, but if you happen to feel a twinge of remorse at selling yourself out for less than even beer money, they've got a little disclaimer you can add to your blog to explain that you've sold yourself out for less than beer money.

This came to my attention after a bunch of posts about Delightful Deliveries showed up in the blogosphere, all with the same images. It took me all of two seconds to realize that these people were being duped into becoming marketing shills for some small green.

But hey, it takes time to search out and solicit legitimate blogs and try to get them to write about you, and even if you send them some free samples, you can't control what they write. They might say something negative. Let's bypass all that hard work and risk by bribing Suzy Homemaker with a couple of bucks. She's too stupid to understand what we're doing here, and she's sure to sell out.

More reprehensible behavior from the snake oil salesmen who've found their new footing in the online world. It won't be long before the blogosphere is crammed with useless blogs full of this crap. People in China spend more time clicking on links for a smaller payout.

I'm appalled, and any bloggers out there who respect what little integrity the blogosphere retains should be similarly appalled. It's predatory, dishonest, and despicable, and companies like Despicable Deliveries that utilize this service betray their "anything for a buck" ideals.

Before this gets too far out of hand, let me make two suggestions to the responsible bloggers among us:

1. If you see this stuff on someone's blog, leave a comment asking them if they realize they've sold themselves for a pittance.

2. Google, take action now to filter out any blog results that contain these paid placement posts. You've got parasites feeding off Blogger's success and making it harder for those of us who try to publish legitimate blogs to be found.

Edit: It seems I spoke not soon enough on that last point. Run a search on "Delightful Deliveries" in Google Blog Search, and by the time you hit Page 5, it's almost all spam.

Now How Did That Happen?

Site development is an imprecise science, in much the same way that computers are an imprecise science--they work often enough that we tolerate them without too much complaint.

For those who've never done this before, relaunching a Web site involves taking the existing site, moving it to a development server, upgrading it, then moving everything back. Since it's an imprecise science, some things can get lost along the way, like our separate Cakes and Tarts categories, which seem to have morphed back into Cakes, Pies, and Tarts, ruining all the bookmarks you've set.

Now I'm going to ruin them again by putting things back the way they should be. No more Category changes after this one for the rest of the year. Promise.

Major Changes

Today marks the culmination of almost a year's worth of development for us here at 1-800-Bakery.com, as we unveil the biggest public-facing part of our newly enhanced site. Pick a product, any product, and take a look at the calendar at the bottom of the page. Not only will it tell you when things will arrive, it will allow you to compare shipping methods and pick the delivery service that offers you the best price.

The new calendar also allows us to bring back Monday delivery, this time with a much larger group of products than were previously available. It also allows us the flexibility to introduce seasonal items earlier and keep them available on the site longer. Plus, it explains why certain shipping options aren't available for certain days of the week, and automatically blacks out days when there's no shipping.

It may look simple, but as you can see, it does a lot, and it's been a lot of work getting it to do all the things it needs to do. We think it's the best calendar-based ordering system online, and we'd love to know your thoughts. Love it? Hate it? Leave me a comment.

Over the next two weeks, we'll be rolling out additional enhancements. Some of them you'll see, some of them will just work quietly in the background to make life easier for our Bakery Partners. As with any site enhancements, there may be the odd moment of downtime or something that doesn't quite work the way it should. If you experience any problems with our new site, please call us at 1-800-287-9870, and we'll resolve them as quickly as we can.

Thanksgiving Desserts

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays--number two to Christmas most years--but let's face it, if you're cooking dinner like I am, it's a ton of work. Other people might be out watching football, but I'm straining to pay attention to the Macy's parade while I'm buttering and stuffing an obstinate turkey.

One of the great things about this job is that I don't have to give a second thought to dessert. Chef Steve shows up with a variety of pies from La Patisserie, and everyone gets a slice of their favorite. After spending all day checking on the bird and making sure the squash is cooked, the mashed potatoes aren't lumpy, and the onions aren't cooked to mush, it's nice to know that I don't have to jump up after my second bite of stuffing and make sure that a pie is cooking.

I can't say enough for letting someone else make dessert, and we've got some good ones. No, we don't have the tradtional pies online, but if you're near the Winchester, Massachusetts area, we've got them in our store--stop by and order by November 20, please, or call 781-729-9441 and we'll be happy to help you.

We do have petits fours, cookies, our fabulous, amazing, astounding Turkey Cookie Centerpiece (pricey, but very impressive), pumpkin cheesecake, and pumpkin and pecan tarts. You'll find them all on our Thanksgiving Desserts page.

Without going back and rereading all my old posts (mildly amusing but largely painful), I'm pretty sure I promised to have pies by this Thanksgiving. I tried to find some--oh, how I tried, knowing that I could hardly call this a full-service bakery site if we couldn't meet your pie needs.

Then we got caught up in a site development cycle, and football season began. So no pies.

But we've got tarts! Tarts, I say! Really extraordinary tarts. And what is a tart, if it's not a pie in a butter cookie shell with a saucier name? And let's admit it--you're sick of pie in the same way that you're sick of turkey year after year. So once you've ordered your Turducken, why not order a tart? I've even made that easier for you by setting things up so you can get two of our pecan or Rum Pumpkin tarts and pay shipping for one, as long as they're going to the same address. If you're expecting a big crowd, that'll save you money, money that you'll need when you realize on Thanksgiving day that you're out of Bell's Poultry Seasoning and have to go buy some at the gas station, which has opportunistically stocked it for the holidays.

Top Ten Update

I haven't seen a product move so quickly into the Top Ten as our Halloween Cookies did this year. They're the big hit this season, and the good news is that they'll be available for your treating needs until Friday.

If you're looking to order any of our other Halloween items, act fast. Orders will close for our Halloween Gift Baskets on Wednesday at 2PM. Halloween Petits Fours will be available only until noon on Wednesday for second-day air delivery, and noon on Thursday for Overnight delivery. Two-for-one shipping will be available on the petits fours as long as they're in stock.

Next year, Halloween is on a Wednesday, and all of this is much easier. In the meantime, here's our Top 10 Products:

1. Chocolate Birthday Cake (complete party kit) -- still the reigning champion of baked goods. Coming soon to a college campus near you--and if you need to send one to a school, take a look at our Ten Easy Steps to Successful School Shipping, which will make your life easier whenever you order something online.

2. Vanilla Birthday Cake (complete party kit) -- gaining in popularity, we now sell three of these four every four Chocolate Birthday cakes. Did you know that you don't have to get the Party Kit? If you know the recipient has plenty of plates and serving stuff, use the Coupon Code NOPARTY at checkout. We'll leave out the party kit, and you'll save $5.

3. Stollen -- it's not quite Stollen season yet, but we're baking fresh batches, and they're every bit as good as they were last year. Why not get an early start on enjoying this year-end favorite? Strong birthday cake sales mean that our Stollen has a long way to go to reclaim the top-selling spot this Christmas, and I'm counting on you to help it get there.

4. Croissants -- a perennial favorite--did you know that you can order custom assortments? Want all plain? No problem. Don't like the Raspberry ones? No problem. How about a dozen with six plain and six chocolate? We've done all of that. Just tell us what you'd like in the Comments section when you place your order. It takes us an extra day or two to put together custom assortments, depending on the breakdown, but we're happy to make them.

5. Demitasse Party Petits Fours -- still riding high from their appearance in Shop Etc. and InStyle, and you can send up to three boxes and pay shipping for one. Look for the Christmas version of these in late November.

6. Halloween Cookies -- at every holiday, something breaks out and becomes the must-have item for our customers. Last year it was our Jack-O-Lantern Cookie, which sold out almost as soon as it appeared on the site. This year, it's our Halloween Minis. Maybe it's the buy up to three tubs and pay shipping for one option, or maybe it's just the Ozzy Osbournesque thrill of biting the head off a bat without the unpleasant rabies shots afterward.

7. Baby Boston Coffee Cakes -- Do you need a corporate gift for a small office? Maybe something for someone who really loves coffee cake? These are the perfect choice, which is why they're always in the Top 10.

8. Sugar-Free Low-Carb Flourless Chocolate Cake -- who says you can't have cake? Lots of folks have had this cake, and they love it. Chocolate emerges victorious against all other varieties once again.

9. Gourmet Cookies Gift Assortment -- we actually sold out of these for more than a week when we got hit with a lot--and I mean a lot--of orders. We wound up using every bit of cookie dough we had in the bakery and had to order the ingredients to make more. They're back now, and while we'd love to run out again, we'll do our best to avoid that.

10. Lemon Lulu Cake -- just because summer is over, that doesn't mean you lemon lovers out there need to surrender your desire for this cake. They're made fresh straight through the winter months, and they make a very tasty Thanksgiving dessert for those who avoid pie.

Shopping.com: A bunch of liars

Deceptive advertising really ticks me off. You've got enough misinformation to sort through without some "marketing genius" trying to mislead you when you want to buy something.

Boohoo Search Marketing apparently does a much poorer job than Google of protecting it's advertisers' interests. Case in point: This new ad from the liars at shopping.com:

1 800 Bakery at Shopping.com
Find, Compare and Buy 1 800 Bakery. Choose from Thousands of stores.
www.shopping.com

I won't dignify the rats at lying.com with a link. You shouldn't dignify them with your business, because, as I've said many times, if someone's going to lie to you, how can you trust anything they say?

Here's an honest statement:

We are not affiliated in any way, shape, or form, with the liars who run shopping.com. You will not find our products there, only lies.

That should get the point across. The filthy lying liars at lying.com need to stop buying ads on our company name and misleading our customers. Boohoo Search Marketing ought to do a better job of preventing this. I've rewritten our ad in Boohoo, and I'm fully expecting a rejection for "trademark violation," at which point a lovely conversation will begin with them about why one company is allowed to break the rules and another isn't.

You can rest assured that I'll post every word.

All Comedy Is Local

I'm normally above using this blog for shameless self-promotion, but since I know there's a few of you out there who enjoy my humorous take on things, I'd like to let you know that you can get a quick fix at votegerry.cf.huffingtonpost.com, where I've posted an excerpt from my Campaign for Governor speech.

It's work-safe and contains a few good laughs, so I've been told.

Meanwhile, to justify this waste of corporate time, I should remind you that we've got all kinds of Halloween Treats available for your gift-giving and seasonal snacking needs. In my oh-so-unbiased opinion, the Jack-O-Lantern Cookie and Halloween Candy Cake are two of the coolest things you'll find anywhere online this season.

Combating Chinese Click Fraud

If you're following the latest news, there's a good chance that you came across the BusinessWeek story on click fraud in the current issue. I've been involved in a battle of my own on this issue that runs beyond the scope of their article, so I thought I'd share the story.

We started looking at our server logs after a quarterly report showed around 12% of our traffic was coming from China. We don't sell our products in China, and we've only had a couple of orders sourced from that part of the world. I knew it was fraud as soon as I saw the numbers.

The traffic was coming from a handful of sites, listed here so that you can see if they're showing up on your own servers:

http://aries-search.com/index.php
http://buddah-search.com/index.php
http://800-search.com/index.php
http://www.hit2seek.com/
http://www.agafra.com/

If you look at these sites, on most of them you'll see the same text: "80% bid, $5 payout," which should be your cue that you're dealing with fraud. Here's how they work: These "search engines" are actually scraping content from pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. They sign people up to sit and click links all day, then give the clickers a portion of the revenue generated from the clickthroughs--in the case above, 80% of the payout on the clickthrough (if you're unfortunate enough to wind up on these sites, you'll see the value of the click to the clicker) up to $5.

Imagine an Internet cafe filled with people clicking away on your ads to make a few pennies. That's what you're up against.

Since I was batting a thousand on instinct, I decided to blame Google AdWords. They've had problems in the past, the search terms that were coming up had been pulled from Boohoo Search Marketing, and the traffic was out of line with our daily bill from MSN.

That decision lowered my instinct average to .500. If I'd thought about it, I would have realized that Google could not be the culprit. We've taken steps to prevent this from happening, including limiting our ads to the United States and opting out of the Content Network. I sent Google an apology after I heard back from them, one that I'll reiterate here. It wasn't Google--they've done right by us so far.

I did a little research based on the landing pages the fraudsters were seeing. As it turned out, all of the fraudulent clicks were coming from two second-tier advertising networks that I'd forgotten about--ePilot and Miva. I suspended our accounts with both providers, and sent an e-mail explaining the situation to ePilot, but I haven't heard anything back from them. I'll assume that's because they're busy finding ways to stop these fraudulent clicks.

What tipped me off was the ads that were appearing on these click fraud engines. I always vary the copy from ad to ad, partly to A/B test, and partly so I know where the traffic is coming from.

With the accounts disabled, the fraudulent Chinese traffic disappeared. I'm still keeping an eye out for it, but so far we're clear. It wasn't a huge amount of money, but anyone in small business knows that a penny lost to fraud is a penny better spent on promotion.

With that in mind, I'd like to offer the following Five Tips for Combating Click Fraud:

1. Avoid second-tier advertising networks. Stick with the Big Three.
2. Opt out of international placements and content-network placements in your campaigns. If you can't do this (Boohoo Search Marketing, I'm looking at you) then carefully consider your ad spend.
3. Vary text between different PPC providers, so you can track sources.
4. Watch your server logs for suspect traffic.
5. Immediately suspend any account that generates suspect traffic. Print a copy of the server log and keep it in case you need to file a claim for a refund.

It's That Holiday Closing Time of Year

As we head into the autumn months, we've got a few holidays coming up that will affect our delivery schedule. Take a moment to check the dates below before you place your order.

October 2, 2006--Yom Kippur
Bittersweet Pastries and Steve's Mom will be closed to celebrate the holiday. There will be no deliveries from either of these bakeries on Tuesday, October 3, and orders for delivery on Wednesday, October 4 must be sent Overnight.

All of our other partner bakeries will be open and operating on a normal delivery schedule. If you really, really need a birthday cake on October 2, please call me at 1-800-287-9870 by 12PM on September 27, and I'll be happy to get one out to you.

October 9, 2006--Columbus Day
1-800-Bakery.com will be open and on a regular delivery schedule.

Looking a little further ahead, we'll be open as usual on Veteran's Day, and closed on Thanksgiving and the Friday following Thanksgiving.

We'll also be moving our ordering deadline ahead as we get closer to Thanksgiving, so that we can manage the volume of orders that come to us during that time of year. I'll have more details about that in the coming weeks.

Where Did the English Muffins Go?

If you're looking for New English Muffins, you're out of luck for the next couple of weeks. They're in the process of moving to a new facility and can't accept any online orders. They should be back soon, and I'll let you know once we hear some news.

Categorically Speaking

One last bit of tweaking to our catalog that will ruin the best bookmarking intentions of our customers. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry--but it makes the site easier to use, so you'll like it in the long run.

And I'm done with these changes for the year. Promise.

The biggest change is in the navigation on the right-hand side of the page. The too-inclusive Cakes, Pies, and Tarts category has been split in two. Cakes now houses all of our layer cakes, coffee cakes, and cheesecakes. A little further down the page, Pies and Tarts is home to our Tarts, which Chef Steve assures me will be joined by pies in time for Thansgiving.

If you've got a favorite place for pies, please send me an e-mail at derek@1-800-bakery.com, and I'll make sure the bakery gets considered.

The product categories are also alphabetized now. It's more sensible than the old system, which was ranked by popularity and product variety.

Finally, just in time for Thursday's NFL Kickoff, our Football Cookies are back in stock. A tub of these will satisfy any armchair quarterback, and we've decided to extend our multiple-quantity shipping discounts on all of our mini cookies, so you can send up to three tubs and pay shipping for one.

Shop Ahead and Save

As I mentioned last week, the coming of cooler weather lets us bring back Second Day Air shipping on our cakes and tarts from Bittersweet Pastries. On the down side, that means that Overnight shipping is going back up to $27, because we're not getting the discount that let us reduce that shipping price anymore.

I like to say "order ahead" a lot. It's a good idea when you're buying gifts online, and if you can add an extra day to your delivery time, it'll save you $11.

All of this business with shipping options gets confusing, and we're working to make things even simpler when you place an order with us. You should see the results of that by the end of this month.

Last Chance to Save

I'm passing along a little bit of secret insider information here that's useful only to those in the following situation: You know someone who's celebrating a birthday on Wednesday or someone who'd just like to have a very nice layer cake on Wednesday or you know someone who's celebrating a birthday on a Tuesday in September.

If this applies to you, place your order by Monday morning, because Second-Day Air shipping will return for almost all of our Layer Cakes on Labor Day. If you can wait an extra day for the cake, you can send it for a mere $16.00.

On the downside, the summer special we negotiated will also end on Monday, so Overnight shipping goes back up to $27.00. Yes, I know gas prices are coming down, but have you seen how much butter costs these days? That's a bigger factor with us.

Any orders placed before 10AM on Monday will get the $19.95 Overnight shipping rate, and we'll still offer two-for-one shipping on our tarts.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Labor Day weekend.

Tiny Things That May Annoy You

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.