Be nice to the delivery guy (or gal)

As Christmas is approaching, I thought I might point out something easily overlooked.  Your delivery guy(s) or gal(s).  If you get a lot of stuff online, you will get many visits from your friendly UPS, FedEx and DHL drivers.   So much so, you develop a bit of a friendship of sorts.   You know their schedules by heart, and when someone else drives up in the truck you may even inquire ‘where’s my regular guy?’.  In my case, I communicate my vacation schedules with my UPS guy and he gives me a heads up on his, because I see him every single day.  If I happen to be out and about for a couple days in a row when he delivers, he’ll teasingly chastise me the next day for not being home.

It’s good to develop a friendly relationship with these people because they are carrying a lot of stuff for you.   Be kind and courteous!  And consider getting them a gift this Christmas.   Perhaps a gift card to a local convenience store, or restaurant.   Maybe a tin of homemade cookies… it doesn’t matter so long as you take time to acknowledge their hard work and let them know you appreciate what they do!

 

Blog Archives, and GO!

Advertisement

Amazon by the numbers

Remember back in 1994 when Amazon was primarily about selling books?  Now, it’s morphed into a gigantic retailer of every product imaginable.   Let’s take a look at Amazon by the numbers:

• The latest estimate (which is 2 years old now) says that Amazon has 244 million customers. 54 million of those subscribe to Amazon Prime.
• Amazon’s customers are mostly male 61% (compared to only 39% female).
• The average user spends $1500 each year at Amazon.  (Is that because we get free shipping with Prime?)
• Amazon made $107 billion in gross sales last year.
• Amazon sells about 2 billion items each year.
• 51% of online consumers do most of their shopping on Amazon.
• Number of Amazon employees : 268,900.

 

Check out my archives!

 

 

Amazon Badges

Amazon Badges are icons that Amazon places on your profile (and by your name when you review) to recognize something unique about you or something that would distinguish you from other reviewers.

Anyone can earn badges by contributing great content on Amazon (although in many cases it takes a lot of time).   Most badges are of a temporary nature tied to your review ranking or participation in an Amazon program, and some can be permanent.

To see if you have any badges, check your profile page.

What kinds of badges are there?  Most badges relate to reviewer ranking.   Some badges like “#1 Reviewer”, “Top 10 Reviewer”, and “Top 50 Reviewer” would be arguably hard to achieve since there are millions of reviewers on Amazon and only a limited number of people can get to the highest levels.  It’s not even certain how Amazon determines what a “top reviewer” is.   It’s probably a combination of factors, but none are public knowledge.

There are also “Top 500 Reviewer”, “Top 1000 Reviewer”.  I myself am currently a Top 500 Reviewer, but tomorrow I could just as easily drop back down into the Top 1000 range.   In this case my badge would change from “Top 500” to “Top 1000”.   Ranking badges are not permanent and they change as you move up and down in the rankings.

“Hall of Fame” reviewer badge is from what I can tell, a permanent badge.  This badge is given to reviewers who have been consistently high ranked in previous years.  A reviewer who gets the ‘Top 10’ rank on Amazon, even for a day, will become a ‘Hall of Fame’ reviewer for that year. They will receive the ‘Hall of Fame Reviewer’ badge and will be listed on the Hall of Fame page permanently.

“THE”.  This badge is given to famous people using their real name.  This is a permanent badge.  This lets you know that the review is written by the actual famous person and not just someone with the same name, or someone pretending.   Not sure how well known one has to be to get this badge.

Amazon employee representatives get their own special badge “Amazon Official”.  This (according to Amazon) is permanent, so presumably even if the person is fired or quits.

“Author” badges are just what you would think.  Someone wrote a book that sells on Amazon and they are permanent.  So too with the “Artist” and “Manufacturer” badges.  I have never seen anyone with the last two badges.   I’ve seen a couple reviewers who had the “Author” badge though.

“Vine Voice” badge is one near and dear to me.  Vine Voice is an invitation only program through Amazon.  This is not a permanent badge (although Amazon states it is).  You can voluntarily exit from the program, or be kicked out by Amazon for violating its rules.   I saw one occasion that someone left the program and the badge no longer appeared on their subsequent reviews.   It did however appear on the past reviews they had written for the program, so perhaps that is why Amazon describes it as a permanent badge.

“2008 Holiday Team” badge is one I am not familiar with.  Here is the Amazon description.  Amazon states this is a permanent badge.   So to with the “Community Forum 04”, this one is a permanent badge for people who participated at the corporate headquarters in Seattle.

Hey – check out my archives.   You won’t get a badge for it though.

Matheroll Karaoke Microphone

12/14/16

Get yours on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZ3FZPB

 

Giveaway from LEVIITEC

12/12/16 –

(This is a giveaway from seller LEVIITEC.   Must have an Amazon account to participate.)

Please See this Amazon Giveaway for a chance to win: LEVIITEC Solar Christmas Lights (Multicolor).

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/8690783fd8acff37

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends Dec 15, 2016 11:59 PM PST.

10 winners will be randomly selected after the giveaway ends. All winners will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond.

Good Luck!

Thank you

Tracy (from LEVIITEC)

They have everything on Amazon

Amazon (and Walmart) are where I buy nearly everything I need.   And these days I rarely even visit a store since I can get most things (even groceries) shipped now.  Click, click, click and I’m done.

You really can buy pretty much everything on Amazon, and I have the list to prove it.

• Synthetic urine (I am sure this is for novelty purposes only, right?)
• Dog wigs
• Butter churn
• Preserved pig carcasses
• Mankini (You can’t un-see this, extreme caution is advised.)
• Brick phone from the 1980’s
• Poo-pourri Master Crapsmen set

If you want it, or even don’t want it… Chances are Amazon has it.   I can’t think of an instance where I went to go buy something and I could not find it there for sale.

 

Visit my blog archives, there may be other strange things hidden there.

Google Home or Amazon Echo?

12/6/16-

Much to our surprise, Amazon Echo wins.   Watch the video to discover why:

Google Home Tutorial

12/6/16 –

How to set up (and use) your Google Home personal assistant:

Reviewing after the policy change

It’s been several weeks since the big policy announcement regarding discounted and free product reviews on Amazon.  It has had a dramatic effect on the number of emails that I get, I’d say emails are down 50% as most sellers have given up their review programs outright to presumably focus elsewhere.   Many sellers are still offering discount codes and free product, but not requiring an Amazon review – and some even expressly forbid an Amazon review, instead they ask the review be put on other social media outlets.    The review clubs seem to also be adapting to this new style.   I rarely used review clubs in the past, and I haven’t at all since the change but I do get email solicitations and on the surface it seems that they have all made significant changes.   Either they require reviews on other social media but not Amazon, or they are offering their products at a discount instead of free.  Is that sustainable for them?  I guess we’ll see.

The situation is still evolving and I suspect if you ask me in a few more weeks how things are going, there will probably be more developments.

 

Check out my blog archives !