Let's Babble Our Way to Post #4,000,000 And Win Prizes Too!

[kittens mom]

Ooooh I likey the idea! They might let me do that, they know me pretty well at the grocery store. There's also some ad boards at the two nearby Metra stations. Trying so hard to get all my ducks in a row before my first sit. Actually, before I meet with the client at the end of the month (to get the key and also have her sign some paperwork) I'd like to have it all set up.

There's someone on one of the CKD FB groups that I was talking to, she has a grooming business. She actually placed an advertisement via the movie theater (those ads that they show before the movie), and got a lot of business from that.

I don't know your exact location but if there are any livestock feed stores you get a lot of traffic there and people use those boards as a regular way of finding services.

 

[NewYork1303]

 
It seems that every time I leave my house to walk a neighbor drops something off.  Sunday it was strawberries from the farmer's market and yesterday it was fresh peaches from the tree in their yard. They're so thoughtful and healthy.  I just give them stuff Kim bakes.  Is giving the neighbors peach cobbler made from their peaches re-gifting?  This morning I had delicious strawberries with breakfast.

@Tallyollyopia   Is it time for another excerpt?  Is this thread long enough for us to get the whole story?

@NewYork1303   What a beautiful tabby.  Does she have a name?  How long before you adopt her?  I always thought tabbies were drab.  Then I fostered one and she grew on me.  Still love the black cats though.

Hopefully I won't end up adopting her. I am hoping to find her a beautiful home that isn't mine! But... if she's hanging around in our adoption center for too long, I am going to have a hard time not bringing her home. Her name is Sensei. I don't think that fits her much. She definitely isn't fond of the name. She ignores it entirely. 

 

[donutte]

I don't know your exact location but if there are any livestock feed stores you get a lot of traffic there and people use those boards as a regular way of finding services.

There is a farm not that far away (amazingly enough) so I'm guessing there is a feed store in the area also. Not sure though. I'm in the poor part of the North Shore of Chicago, which has a lot of well-to-do people and not really sure where most of them go. There's a mall-ish type place called the Glen nearby that has a lot of small shops that might be willing to let me put some cards out, or flyers up.

 

[foxxycat]

If you have any Blue Seal feed stores or other farm type stores=Tractor Supply is one example. We have several hardware stores that also sell feed and pet supplies. you can try there too. Seems nowadays many people have pets. I see people in Tractor supply all the time with their dogs Thats why I wanted to harness honeybee. She likes people and riding in a car. 

 

[kittens mom]

There is a farm not that far away (amazingly enough) so I'm guessing there is a feed store in the area also. Not sure though. I'm in the poor part of the North Shore of Chicago, which has a lot of well-to-do people and not really sure where most of them go. There's a mall-ish type place called the Glen nearby that has a lot of small shops that might be willing to let me put some cards out, or flyers up.

The one thing I look for on a business card now is a FB or website. If that's well organized it catches my interest.  And I check out reviews. I'm not so concerned about less than perfect as I am about how a business resolves a complaint.

Most small business here lets someone put cards on the counter if there is room. you have to remember to provide your own card holder in most cases.

 

[NewYork1303]

 
The one thing I look for on a business card now is a FB or website. If that's well organized it catches my interest.  And I check out reviews. I'm not so concerned about less than perfect as I am about how a business resolves a complaint.

Most small business here lets someone put cards on the counter if there is room. you have to remember to provide your own card holder in most cases.

I work at a company that markets small online businesses.  We are constantly telling people how important it is to have a well organized and attractive website.  Do they listen though?

 

[foxxycat]

 

 
The one thing I look for on a business card now is a FB or website. If that's well organized it catches my interest.  And I check out reviews. I'm not so concerned about less than perfect as I am about how a business resolves a complaint.

Most small business here lets someone put cards on the counter if there is room. you have to remember to provide your own card holder in most cases.

I work at a company that markets small online businesses.  We are constantly telling people how important it is to have a well organized and attractive website.  Do they listen though?

I often buy herbs and some sites are so hard to get to or they are confusing. some businesses make me message someone on facebook and sometimes i dont want any human interaction. i want to click pay and ship. I think when you set up your site-make sure you have several options and a price range-you dont want to price it so high but you dont want to give away your services. people like having a ballpark price to compare. and don't forget the better priced products will shine when the reviews come out and how much detail you provide in your estimate. make sure everything is laid out of what you will and won't do. for a business point-I would imagine there are not much you won't do but don't let people take advantage of you and get you to houseclean as well. this is something I hear all the time. that the customer will say oh i forgot to take the trash out-can you do it? which doesnt sound like a big deal=until the 4th visit and you realize they tacked on 3 or more extras without compensation. Obviously we don't want to nickle and dime the customer. But somewhere there should be a happy medium.

 

[Margret]

I've seen a heck of a lot of poorly designed business websites.  Things with buttons that simply aren't there!  You search around, moving your cursor over every millimeter of the screen, waiting for it to turn into a pointing finger, and it never happens!  Having an invisible button is bad enough, but no button at all?!  How on earth do they expect to sell anything?

As for FaceBook, I have no objection to businesses having FB pages.  However, when you can only buy something by going to their FB page, they don't get my business.  I don't belong to FB, I don't want to belong to FB, and I have no intention of patronizing any business that requires me to join FaceBook.

Margret

 

[foxxycat]

ok i figured out how to save as photos from facebook to add here without having to upload via the phone as i have tons of photos on my phone. I also have a page on facebook for honeybee. It is :Honeybee The Ham Feline Adventures if anyone is interested. I have been trying to upload new photos weekly of my darling girl.

and some photos just because:

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[margd]

@foxxycat  - I love your new avatar.  I really should change mine, as well.  Give Paul a chance to shine.  While writing this, you post with all the pictures of Honeybee popped up.She is such a stunner.  And what a sweet face!

@Donutte  - Have you considered posting on care.com?  I don't know how much it charges providers.  They charge people looking for services out the nose so I'd like to think the providers are getting a better deal.

My pet peeve today - I tried to donate a few dollars to a political campaign  and they wouldn't process it without getting my phone number.   That's just what I want - robocalls from politicians during dinner.  I ended up bailing and within 30 minutes I got an email asking me to finish my donation.  Then my new voters registration card arrived - with my old address and polling place on it.  Sigh.   

 

[foxxycat]

Thank you Margd-she is a sweetheart! She was glaring at me because she doesnt like me taking her picture. And I was touching her-she doesnt like to be touched when she is grooming herself. Then she layed down and went to sleep. Last night was too hot. she didnt sleep on me at all. but she did scratch at the back door at 5am letting me know that it's time to let her out. I don't . I wait until 5:30 then at 6 she comes back in all wet and wants treats..then i am off to work. 

This morning was annoying on way to work-why do they insist on construction on the lanes that are the busiest on the commuting way? why dont they do it later in the day? rt 16 is so small with 2 lanes that it doesnt take long to make traffic back up if some fool is going slow in the left lane. I really wish they would make it 3 lanes in dover and portsmouth. would help the flow of traffic.

 

[donutte]

@foxxycat
 - I love your new avatar.  I really should change mine, as well.  Give Paul a chance to shine.  While writing this, you post with all the pictures of Honeybee popped up.She is such a stunner.  And what a sweet face!

@Donutte
 - Have you considered posting on care.com?  I don't know how much it charges providers.  They charge people looking for services out the nose so I'd like to think the providers are getting a better deal.

My pet peeve today - I tried to donate a few dollars to a political campaign  and they wouldn't process it without getting my phone number.   That's just what I want - robocalls from politicians during dinner.  I ended up bailing and within 30 minutes I got an email asking me to finish my donation.  Then my new voters registration card arrived - with my old address and polling place on it.  Sigh.   

I actually am on Care.com. It got weird a couple months back though, every link in ever email they send me now says "page can't be found". I tried to re-register, and it's like they were only taking British addresses as they wanted a postal code, and at some point I specifically saw them mention England (yep, double checked to make sure I was on the right site). And I've seen some awful reviews there from the sitters, since it has often charged them to read messages from potential clients! So I decided to forget that route. I am also on Sitter City, which is how I got my first client. She contacted me actually!

Oh, the political robocalls are driving us bonkers. I've lost count of how many calls we get a day. We basically ignore 95% of the phone calls we get.

 

[margd]

@Donutte  - that is very odd about Care.com  mixing up countries on their website.  I dropped them when my $79 annual membership shot up to $156 and they took it out of my account without notifying me.  I seem to remember it was without my permission as well since I didn't sign up for recurring membership.  That left a very bad taste in my mouth so I canceled them and got my money back.  

Once word gets out about how knowledgeable, loving and responsible you are, I imagine you will have a lot of business.  Pet sitters are really in demand and we're all terrified we'll leave the kids with someone who doesn't actually do the job.  

 

[Anne]

Don't be shy and just click any of them. Nothing will happen automatically. It will just bring up a pop-up of the relating service where the title and link to the article will be ready for you to post/pin/tweet etc, if you're logged in to that network. Just a handy little shortcut, really. Here's one to try -

 [article="0"]Tcs Cats Reveal 52 Reasons Why Cats Must Get Inside Boxes​[/article]  

It's a new funny photo list and you can share that with your cat loving friends. If each member were to share it on one social media site and urge others to do that, it could potentially become viral and bring in a lot of fresh traffic. Which would end up bringing long-term revenue for the site.

Just a thought. I'm trying to figure out how to improve on our very lacking social media presence these days and building awareness to the social share icons is a way to do that.

 

[segelkatt]

I actually am on Care.com. It got weird a couple months back though, every link in ever email they send me now says "page can't be found". I tried to re-register, and it's like they were only taking British addresses as they wanted a postal code, and at some point I specifically saw them mention England (yep, double checked to make sure I was on the right site). And I've seen some awful reviews there from the sitters, since it has often charged them to read messages from potential clients! So I decided to forget that route. I am also on Sitter City, which is how I got my first client. She contacted me actually!

Oh, the political robocalls are driving us bonkers. I've lost count of how many calls we get a day. We basically ignore 95% of the phone calls we get.  I have only a cell phone, no landline at all. So any call that comes in without a name or a number that I know, does not get answered. At my leisure I listen to messages, almost all of them don't leave a message, so I don't know what that was and don't care. The last thing I need is robocalls from politicians. I get enough emails hitting me up for money. Besides the ones that promise me money from someone I don't know if only I would respond to their scam, or an invite to date some "hot girl" sorry my tastes don't run that way or to enlarge some part of my anatomy that I don't possess, funny! Why don't they promise that they  would enlarge my brain capacity, now that would be something I could use!!!

 

[margd]

Don't be shy and just click any of them. Nothing will happen automatically. It will just bring up a pop-up of the relating service where the title and link to the article will be ready for you to post/pin/tweet etc, if you're logged in to that network. Just a handy little shortcut, really. Here's one to try -

 [article="0"]Tcs Cats Reveal 52 Reasons Why Cats Must Get Inside Boxes​[/article]  

It's a new funny photo list and you can share that with your cat loving friends. If each member were to share it on one social media site and urge others to do that, it could potentially become viral and bring in a lot of fresh traffic. Which would end up bringing long-term revenue for the site.

Just a thought. I'm trying to figure out how to improve on our very lacking social media presence these days and building awareness to the social share icons is a way to do that.

I've noticed before that there are usually far more guests reading than members but had no idea it was as high as 90%.  It's a very odd feeling to think about all those silent observers!  [emoji]128064[/emoji]

Well, I just tweeted the cats get inside boxes article.  I think I only have 5 followers but it's worth a try.  

Today was Amazon.prime day where all these tremendous deals are offered.  I went for a Swiss Army knife at $11 and a book on the brain for $7.00.  Funny thing.  It turned out the knife was actually $19.00 and the book was almost $12.00.  This was the same day a package from them was marked "Delivered" but actually was not.  

   

It seems I've babbled a lot of complaints in the last 24 hours.  Hope to be out of gripe mode soon.  

 

[Margret]

Don't be shy and just click any of them. Nothing will happen automatically. It will just bring up a pop-up of the relating service where the title and link to the article will be ready for you to post/pin/tweet etc, if you're logged in to that network. Just a handy little shortcut, really. Here's one to try -

 [article="0"]Tcs Cats Reveal 52 Reasons Why Cats Must Get Inside Boxes​[/article]  

It's a new funny photo list and you can share that with your cat loving friends. If each member were to share it on one social media site and urge others to do that, it could potentially become viral and bring in a lot of fresh traffic. Which would end up bringing long-term revenue for the site.

Just a thought. I'm trying to figure out how to improve on our very lacking social media presence these days and building awareness to the social share icons is a way to do that.

Anne, did you follow the saga of Naomi and Wynonna (http://www.thecatsite.com/t/317180/this-poor-cat)?  @Wendydelmo was live streaming Naomi giving birth and Wynonna midwifing on her Facebook page.  Since then there's been some talk of maybe getting this into a segment on My Cat From Hell, Jackson Galaxy's show on Animal Planet.  I'm not certain whether this is actually possible -- for one thing Mark Zuckerberg claims to own the copyrights to everything posted to Facebook, though I doubt the legality of that -- but if it were possible this might be a way to get some excellent publicity for the site.

Margret

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
Hopefully I won't end up adopting her. I am hoping to find her a beautiful home that isn't mine! But... if she's hanging around in our adoption center for too long, I am going to have a hard time not bringing her home. Her name is Sensei. I don't think that fits her much. She definitely isn't fond of the name. She ignores it entirely. 

Wow, do you have any idea what they were thinking when they named her that? It seems odd for such an affectionate cat. 

 
@Donutte  - that is very odd about Care.com  mixing up countries on their website.  I dropped them when my $79 annual membership shot up to $156 and they took it out of my account without notifying me.  I seem to remember it was without my permission as well since I didn't sign up for recurring membership.  That left a very bad taste in my mouth so I canceled them and got my money back.  

Once word gets out about how knowledgeable, loving and responsible you are, I imagine you will have a lot of business.  Pet sitters are really in demand and we're all terrified we'll leave the kids with someone who doesn't actually do the job.  

When I was job hunting, because I have caregiving and petcare experience, people told me to sign up with Care.com. At the time, they had a free sign up option--but they wanted my credit card number. This made me suspicious so I read through the entire  user agreement. You did give them permission; part of the agreement is that they can change the amount of your subscription at any time without letting you know. (I never signed up with them, in case you're curious.)

 
I've noticed before that there are usually far more guests reading than members but had no idea it was as high as 90%.  It's a very odd feeling to think about all those silent observers!  [emoji]128064[/emoji]

Well, I just tweeted the cats get inside boxes article.  I think I only have 5 followers but it's worth a try.  

Today was Amazon.prime day where all these tremendous deals are offered.  I went for a Swiss Army knife at $11 and a book on the brain for $7.00.  Funny thing.  It turned out the knife was actually $19.00 and the book was almost $12.00.  This was the same day a package from them was marked "Delivered" but actually was not.  

   

It seems I've babbled a lot of complaints in the last 24 hours.  Hope to be out of gripe mode soon.  

It is odd. Kind of makes you wonder what they're all thinking...

 

[foxxycat]

I wasn't impressed with Amazon's prime. I thought it was all marked up bargain junk personally. But then again I am the queen of second hand shopping and I see stuff all over for much less. I know its the thing now to buy everything online but I just can't justify spending that kind of money when I see it for a $1 or less at a yard sale or estate sale. Plus this year going to these sales I notice people don't take care of their stuff like the older generations do. I saw lots of things that should just be tossed in the trash. Why people sell chipped dishes or toys missing parts? I saw someone selling puzzles without the box and picture. Sorry that's just wrong. And other stuff that was thrown half hazard in boxes and looked like it sat in a damp location for years.

This morning I had to pull another tick off honeybee, she was squinting her eye. I couldn't see anything so I got some of her prescribed eye ointment from a prior time and it helped flatten the fur so I could see the bugger. Plus the stuff helped suffocate the bugger so it pulled out easier. I just put Revolution on her and she is gallivanting outside again after screaming at me for 15 min to let her out.

 

[tallyollyopia]

 
I wasn't impressed with Amazon's prime. I thought it was all marked up bargain junk personally. But then again I am the queen of second hand shopping and I see stuff all over for much less. I know its the thing now to buy everything online but I just can't justify spending that kind of money when I see it for a $1 or less at a yard sale or estate sale. Plus this year going to these sales I notice people don't take care of their stuff like the older generations do. I saw lots of things that should just be tossed in the trash. Why people sell chipped dishes or toys missing parts? I saw someone selling puzzles without the box and picture. Sorry that's just wrong. And other stuff that was thrown half hazard in boxes and looked like it sat in a damp location for years.

This morning I had to pull another tick off honeybee, she was squinting her eye. I couldn't see anything so I got some of her prescribed eye ointment from a prior time and it helped flatten the fur so I could see the bugger. Plus the stuff helped suffocate the bugger so it pulled out easier. I just put Revolution on her and she is gallivanting outside again after screaming at me for 15 min to let her out.

There was a book I got last year via Amazon Prime, called The Lord of the Wings  (that's not a misprint; it's a Donna Andrews title). I had to get it four  times because the first three were damaged. I highly suspect (I can't prove it) that they sent me the first book twice. (After that I sent them an email telling them that I wasn't sending any of them back until I got a pristine copy.) It was frustrating and horrible. (This year, for the book Die Like and Eagle, I'm going to get it from the book store. It might cost more, but long term it's just less hassle.) 

Ticks on a cat are horrible to get off. (At least dogs don't dig into the skin with their claws. Well, medium to large dogs don't.) Good job getting it; and I'm glad that you were able to suffocate the little bloodsucker. (I hate ticks.)