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Are you a Smart Customer?
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2003 by johndilbeck
Last week, I became a certified Executive Sales Representative (ID #6014540450066408) for the Smart Customer discount loyalty card.
It's just now being introduced in the United States and will become International in scope before long.
Are you a merchant who wants to retain your current customers and gain new customers? Look into the Smart Customer Merchant discount program.
Go to SmartCustomer.com and click on the Merchant tab at the top of the page to get more information, or contact me and I'll be happy to help. There is a special running for the next few weeks for merchants who are the first to sign up in their communities. Save money, don't delay.
Would you like to get in on the ground floor selling the Smart Customer card? Contact me. I'm looking for Independent Sales Representatives in the area between North Atlanta and Knoxville and between Chattanooga and Asheville. I'd like to have a rep in each of the counties in this area.
If you join my sales team, I'll help you sign up merchants and sell the Smart Customer cards. This is a lucrative opportunity and it's just now being introduced. (Go to the SmartCustomer.com site and click on the Opportunity tab for more information on becoming a sales rep.)
Are you a member of a non-profit organization that would like to raise funds? Contact me for more information. Help your members save money and send more business to the merchants in your area.
By working together, you can save money by purchasing from participating merchants and merchants can grow their profits by participating in the discount and rebate programs.
Look for more information about this in early June.
If you're in Cherokee County or Clay County, NC, and you'd like to buy a Smart Customer card, let me know. I have them available right now.
New SFI Affiliate shirts, mugs, and more
Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2003 by johndilbeck
ShoeBooties Cafe -- Downtown Murphy, NC
Posted Thursday, May 22, 2003 by johndilbeck
I was going to talk about this last week, but I got sidetracked by my hard disk crash.
Last Thursday evening, I had a wonderful meal and conversation with George and Muffy Kerber, the owners of ShoeBooties Cafe.
We talked about lots of things pertaining to business in Murphy and the surrounding area and some new things I'm about to introduce related to promoting businesses and helping customers save a little money when shopping and dining.
I saw quite a few people I haven't seen in ages and met some new folks. It was quite an enjoyable evening.
When the appetizers were ordered, George suggested their fried oysters and Muffy said that the sauce was what made it special.
I didn't tell either of them that I worked at a seafood restaurant over 30 years ago as an oyster opener and I shucked and served about 200 dozen oysters every night. I was always careful and checked each oyster before serving them on the half shell.
Once, in a fit of bad judgement, I smelled one that didn't smell quite right, but it didn't smell bad. I was a know-it-all college kid and, impulsively, I just ate it. It was bad.
That was the last oyster I ate until last week. So, it was with some trepidation that I put a couple on my plate and got some of the sauce.
The first taste was wonderful. So was the next, and the one after that. I'm still not interested in eating raw oysters on the half-shell, but I loved those fried oysters and I'll eat them again one of these days. Thanks for recommending them!
Everything on the menu looked great, and I knew from past experience that I enjoyed everything I'd ever eaten there.
Again, I followed George's advice and tried the Chicken Melanesia, which is a lightly-breaded and sauted chicken breast topped with seasoned mushrooms and onions sauted in white wine. It's one of their regular weeknight specials.
It was an outstanding treat. I highly recommend this dish the next time you're in ShoeBooties.
I also recommend their honey Dijon mustard salad dressing.
I had an outstanding meal and the company and conversation was delightful.
You can check out their website at:
ShoeBootiesCafe.com
If you'd like to be notified about their lunch and dinner specials, go to the website and ask Muffy to put you on her special mailing list.
For fine, upscale dining in Murphy, NC, I heartily recommend ShoeBooties Cafe, right in the heart of downtown Murphy, on Peachtree Street between the courthouse and the center of town.
Tell 'em I sent ya.
When it rains, it pours!
Posted Saturday, May 17, 2003 by johndilbeck
After dealing with two weeks of server crashes, I came home on Thursday after enjoying lunch with my friend, David Sumpter. I wanted to check my email before going back to town and having dinner at ShoeBooties Cafe with the owners, Muffy & George Kerber.
When I booted my computer, I got the icon asking for the disk.
I haven't seen that icon in years.
Then it slowly dawned on me and I got that massive sinking feeling. For the first time in almost 19 years of using Macintosh computers, my main hard drive had crashed.
So, I booted from the system CD with every intention of running Norton's Utilities and fixing the drive. It didn't even show on the SCSI chain. The drive wasn't just corrupted, it was as if it didn't even exist.
Tonight, I verified the worst and I've lost everything on that drive. I have backups of parts of it, but they're not as current as I would have liked. So, the damage is that I lost all my email address book, filters and mailboxes. If you've sent me email in the last three months, it's totally gone.
I'm still not sure what all I've lost, and I've been working to restore as much as I can. It will take days before I'm back into production, and probably weeks before I'm totally aware of what's gone for good.
So, I had the choice of looking at it as a disaster, or as a chance for growth. I quickly realized it wasn't as bad as a flood or tornado destroying my house, and that put it back into perspective.
I'll be able to recover some, recreate others, and lose the rest.
Life goes on.
All sites are working, again.
Posted Wednesday, May 14, 2003 by johndilbeck
I've removed some of the stories I posted over the last couple of weeks as I had server problems left and right. Now that it's working, it's time to get back to other, more important tasks.
As far as I can tell from spot checking all the sites I manage, everything is working again as it should.
Thanks to all the support folks at AssortedInternet for working around the clock to find, diagnose, and solve the problems related to the two failed servers. Y'all are awesome, and even in the midst of all their work, they continued to respond promptly and courteously to all my support requests. And, most of all, they fixed things. You learn how good support is when things get rough, and the AssortedInternet techs passed the test.
I made the right choice in December to move all my sites to their webhosting service. I highly recommend them. See the links in the left column on just about any page of this site. You want a good webhost that provides outstanding support, great features and great prices? Check 'em out.
Far West Mountain Economic Partners - Heritage Tourism Roundtable
Posted Tuesday, May 6, 2003 by johndilbeck
(Andrews, NC) Today, the Heritage Tourism Roundtable had it's first meeting at St. Andrews Lutheran Church in Andrews, NC.
Over 50 people representing dozens of organizations came together for a cooperative and productive meeting to form a regional approach to Heritage Tourism in Cherokee, Clay, Graham and Swain counties in far western North Carolina.
Our next meeting will be Tuesday, June 3, 2003 at the same location at 10:00am.
If you'd like to participate, or get more informationa, contact Kelly Long at 828-389-8336, ext 207 or via email at kellylong@dnet.net.
(More information in this message on my forum.)
Together, we can build better dreams for our tomorrows.
New resource for affiliate marketers
Posted Tuesday, May 6, 2003 by johndilbeck
Over the years, I've learned a lot from Ken Evoy. Using techniques he outlined in his books and affiliate training materials, I've managed to build JohnDilbeck.com into a site that is now, in terms of traffic as monitored by Alexa.com, in the top 2% of all sites on the Internet.
It's taken a lot of work and a long time, but it's finally starting to pay off, both in terms of satisfaction and in income.
I'm not getting rich, but I'm getting regular checks every month, now.
You can do it, too.
Ken's added a new resource at:
http://6thpillar.sitesell.com/sellmoreonline.html
This was originally written for his 5 Pillar Club affiliate team, and it is very useful. Useful enough, in fact, that he published it for affiliates of any other company to learn from.
If you're new to affiliate marketing, or if you're just busy and easily distracted by all you have to do, this is a great overview of how to start. Basically, set aside 15 minutes one time per week and follow the steps outlined in the presentation, one per week, and you'll accomplish something.
When you finish, start again with a different affiliate program, or promote a different aspect of the one you just finished promoting.
A little now, a little later, and -- with persistence -- you'll get a lot done.
What do you have to lose? Start now.
http://6thpillar.sitesell.com/sellmoreonline.html
All the best,
JD
I almost forgot! If you'd like to know more about Ken and his outstanding products, visit my Does Your Site Sell? page.
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