Catsailor Blog Spam

No, this is not the 'merican way. We usually nuke people

To answer Jay, which I think is important,

I guess my more pertinent question is why Rick's web-store isn't performing as expected. I doubt it is due to pricing. Is the format out-dated? Is it being marketed to the wrong demographics?

A bit of history is required, I suppose. We started the store in the early 2000s with software that was not easy to use, but were doing excellent revenue and had a staff of three to work it. Not much profit, but doable.
At that time we were sending out a similar newsletter which was well received and enjoyed. Consequently, good revenue.
Then I invested in much more sophisticated store software, and quickly were able to put up around 17,000 items in the store with graphics. It has lots of bells and whistles.

Then in the late 2000s the bottom dropped out. I blamed the economy, the government, or whoever. But, I had also stopped doing the newsletter.
About 2 years ago I made the discovery that Search Engine Optimization was required to get internet biz. No longer did Key Words do the trick. So, hired at least 4 companies that promised the moon, but cost to high heaven, and no response.

Last year it was down to just me and not much income. My niece is in the internet sales biz and got me started on Wordpress and blogging. And sending out newsletters. I did a few, but let it go, and now have started again.
By the way, I did a complete face lift to www.OnLineMarineStore.com and the landing page is quite impressive.., or at least I have had folks so tell me. It is easy to navigate and has a great search engine.

And indeed, revenue is beginning to come back, albeit not like in the early 2000s. Again, with 96 million unemployed people in the USA, there a far less buyers than before.

Also, this latest thing is not a whim.., this is a MUST.., this is now survival. Times have been very tough and my resources are very thin.
The store and this Forum need to survive and that is what I am attempting to do.

Don't let us fool you Rick. Most catsailors are not unemployed although we complain like we are...

Thank you for the history. Good to know you've got folks working on SEO (or whatever voodo they call charging you money).

Perhaps the easiest is to get people who use the site often to refer their catsailing friends to the site (and store). Patronize those who support your interests... right?

On totally other (and far more important) topics, how is Mary?

These are not the droids carbon fiber foils you are looking for.

Not good, and thanks for asking.
Really never thought she would make it that first week in January when she was in that coma while intubated. Good genes, I guess.

I had no idea.
Sending positive thoughts and prayers your / her way

From Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Department Of Labor

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — MARCH 2016
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 215,000 in March, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 5.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in retail trade, construction, and health care. Job losses occurred in manufacturing and mining.

Household Survey Data
In March, the unemployment rate (5.0 percent) and the number of unemployed persons (8.0 million)
were little changed. Both measures have shown little movement since August.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.5 percent), adult women (4.6 percent), teenagers (15.9 percent), Whites (4.3 percent), Blacks (9.0 percent), Asians (4.0 percent), and Hispanics (5.6 percent) showed little or no change in March.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 2.2 million in March and has shown little movement since June. In March, these individuals accounted for 27.6 percent of the unemployed.

In March, the labor force participation rate (63.0 percent) and the employment-population ratio (59.9 percent) changed little. Both measures were up by 0.6 percentage point since September.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part- time workers) was about unchanged in March at 6.1 million and has shown little movement since November. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part- time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

In March, 1.7 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, down by 335,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Among the marginally attached, there were 585,000 discouraged workers in March, down by 153,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.1 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in March had not searched for work for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 215,000 in March. Employment gains occurred in retail trade, construction, and health care, while job losses occurred in manufacturing and mining.

Retail trade added 48,000 jobs in March. Employment gains occurred in general merchandise stores (+12,000), health and personal care stores (+10,000), building material and garden supply stores (+10,000), and automobile dealers (+5,000). Over the past 12 months, retail trade has added 378,000 jobs.

Construction employment rose by 37,000 in March. Job gains occurred among residential specialty trade contractors (+12,000) and in heavy and civil engineering construction (+11,000). Over the year, construction has added 301,000 jobs.

Employment in health care increased by 37,000 over the month, about in line with the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months. In March, employment rose in ambulatory health care services (+27,000) and hospitals (+10,000). Over the year, health care employment has increased by 503,000.

Over the month, employment continued to trend up in food services and drinking places (+25,000) and in financial activities (+15,000).

In March, employment in professional and business services changed little for the third month in a row. In 2015, the industry added an average of 52,000 jobs per month.

Employment in manufacturing declined by 29,000 in March. Most of the job losses occurred in durable goods industries (-24,000), including machinery (-7,000), primary metals (-3,000), and semiconductors and electronic components (-3,000).

Mining employment continued to decline in March (-12,000) with losses concentrated in support activities for mining (-10,000). Since reaching a peak in September 2014, employment in mining has decreased by 185,000.

Employment in other major industries, including wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, and government, changed little over the month.
The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.4 hours in March. The manufacturing workweek edged down by 0.1 hour to 40.6 hours. Factory overtime was 3.3 hours for the fourth month in a row. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 33.6 hours.

In March, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 7 cents to $25.43, following a 2-cent decline in February. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.3 percent. In March, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 4 cents to $21.37.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised from +172,000 to +168,000, and the change for February was revised from +242,000 to +245,000. With these revisions, employment gains in January and February combined were 1,000 less than previously reported. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 209,000 per month.

Hi,
One thing that could possibly help with costs of the site would be a donate button with a option for auto repeat donations for those that want.
Advertisers could be another possibility. The catracing blog guy has all sorts of advertisers on his little blog.

blessings.

since only us dinosaurs use this type of format (web/forum) vs. the yoots (social media/instant message feed)... I think the demographic is limited.

But how do you go and search FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc for the depth of topic information that you can easily do here on CS?

Is CS available as an app? I've never accessed this site with my phone/tablet...

The Forum is cell friendly, but not the site in general. I was told it would be pretty expensive to do so.
Rick

I think you're right, but think of the billions of $$ (great marketing there, <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" /> )

A cheap and simple (possible) way to go .... would be to create a mobile landing page (m.catsailor.com) which has 2 links. 1 - store. 2 - forum. This way at least you could still drive traffic (currently you get a broken screen if you try to directly go to www.catsailor.com on a (my) mobile device)

Thanks.., good thoughts. Looking into it.
Rick

Have you considered switching the site to something like Wordpress
Wordpress sites use

themes

which include mobile layouts for multiple device types (Phones, tablets, desktops).
The content stays the same regardless which device you use, converting the main Catsailor page to Wordpress wouldn't be that much work since its a pretty simple layout.

Simple in theory, but every page must be rebuilt into a new site/platform.
I don't know how many pages are on this site, but I would charge at least $100 per page

I just spent over 250 hours on a wp project I did for an old co-worker. I under bid it by about 100 hours and am still paying the price (doing more work for free)

We probably have close to 1000 pages. I do use Wordpress for the blog. I think it is very clumsy to use.

WP is a very useful application that is widely used and supported (not suggesting you use it, just stating).

I don't love it personally, but it can be a very economical (cheap) way to get a robust, reliable, responsive (desktop/tablet/mobile) website that can look good, and pretty easily upgrade/change the look and feel of.

I'm a tech-bicil, but can't seem to get to the web-store using my phone. Thoughts?

It won't work with your phone... may be time to upgrade

PS works on my iphone 5s

www.OnLineMarineStore.com is mobile friendly. Just got it on my droid

and there you have it... Thanks for the address. I was using the catsailor.com which came up blank.

Operator? Key Largo 6533, please....

Despite opting out AND closing down my other account that was getting SPAM from this site - that email address continues to get SPAM from this site blog

I am a man of my word, and since you won't respect or honor my opt out request ... i have now requested to have this account closed