ETD: 876 Froogle problems; The Hired Hand; Survey Finds
Workers Average Only Three Productive Days per Week
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Thu Apr 7 11:41:02 GMT 2005
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0876 April 7, 2005
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Froogle problems
[3] The Hired Hand
[4] Survey Finds Workers Average Only Three Productive Days per Week
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
Our Bermudian list member Richard Woolnough offers his experience with
Froogle, which is that free resource for promoting your products
online. Froogle could be a great resource for us all. Does anybody else
have experience with Froogle?
If you are wondering where your time goes, you may want to check out the
Microsoft Personal Productivity Challenge (PPC) survey. In surveying
38,112 workers in 29 languages they learned that workers average three
productive days per week. For those of us who bill by time, that means
that we have to work 67 hours to get 40 hours billable time. This also
ties into a paper I wrote years ago on how to calculate billing rates. You
should base your rates on 100 days a year.
List member Darcy Silvers tells us about her company - The Hired
Hand. Tell us about your business which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?" site. This is a courtesy to our members who
contribute to our forum, and not merely a way to advertise for
free. Anything to do with the retail world, i.e., supplier, retailer,
consulting, etc. http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And
we have a form there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first
proposed this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we
often don't know anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and
what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Froogle problems
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Yes, we have tried Froogle for our site selling USB handsets for
Skype (www.Skype.bm)
It is for a very concentrated market - Skype users in Bermuda - so hard
to give you any idea of results.
However, did find the initial signing up and upload of files a
little daunting, but it worked.
Did Froogle tell you what the error was? It may be that one of the
column headings on your spreadsheet was wrong (must be exactly as they
say) and did you send the spreadsheet as a text file?
Hope this might be the answer for you. Support take a long time to get back
to you and then you have a seven day wait to be approved.
Best regards
Richard Woolnough
Bespoke Solutions Ltd
www.BespokeSolutionsLtd.com
+1(441)295 0951
We can tailor your business
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
Thanks Richard. They haven't replied yet (it's less than a week
:-(). However your comment got me to thinking about a possible error which
we will check out today. The headings should be OK, as we downloaded their
sample and modified the content. We do have one image listed multiple
times, so that may be the problem. I'll let you know.
As far as your limited market (Bermuda), I'm sure the beautiful environment
outweighs any other shortcoming :-)
George
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[3] The Hired Hand
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The Hired Hand offers copywriting, editing and public relations services
which will help increase sales of your product/service with copy targeted
to your specific audience.
With a degree in journalism and more than 25 years of experience in
advertising/marketing/PR, I pride myself on my versatility -- direct mail,
e-commerce, B2B, B2C, public relations, FSIs, collateral, feature articles.
Plus, I have professional accreditation in PR.
I started The Hired Hand for the creative challenge - and additional income
The Hired Hand is 15 years old and is marketed online and via word of
mouth. Rates may be obtained from our website:
http://home.comcast.net/~thehiredhand/
Contact me for a free consultation
Darcy Silvers
The Hired Hand
write2sell at comcast.net
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[4] Survey Finds Workers Average Only Three Productive Days per Week
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Unclear objectives, lack of team communication and ineffective meetings are
among the top time wasters that workers around the world say make them feel
unproductive for as much as a third of their workweek on average, according
to results of an online Microsoft® Office survey announced today. Survey
respondents also said that, as they grapple with the need to work longer
hours and the desire for better work-life balance, they rely heavily on
technology tools to help optimize their personal and team productivity.
The Microsoft Office Personal Productivity Challenge (PPC), which drew
responses from more than 38,000 people in 200 countries, rated workers'
individual productivity based on their responses to 18 statements about
work-related practices. Worldwide, survey participants revealed some
interesting conclusions about the nature of productivity in their
workplace, including these (U.S. findings are in parentheses):
o People work an average of 45 hours a week; they consider about 17 of
those hours to be unproductive (U.S.: 45 hours a week; 16 hours are
considered unproductive).
o More than half the participants, 55 percent, said they relate their
productivity directly to their software (U.S.: 61 percent).
o People spend 5.6 hours each week in meetings; 69 percent feel meetings
aren't productive (U.S.: 5.5 hours; 71 percent feel meetings aren't
productive).
o Only 34 percent said they are using proven scheduling tools and
techniques to help them gain more free time and balance in their lives.
Likewise, 60 percent said they don't have work-life balance, and being
unproductive contributes to this feeling. (U.S.: 31 percent said they are
using proven scheduling tools and techniques; 66 percent said they don't
have work-life balance.)
o Women had an average productivity score of 72 percent, compared with 71
percent for men (U.S.: women, 70 percent; men, 68 percent).
o Workers said they receive an average of 42 e-mail messages per day (U.S.:
56).
o The most common productivity pitfalls are unclear objectives, lack of
team communication and ineffective meetings -- chosen by 32 percent of
respondents overall -- followed by unclear priorities at 31 percent and
procrastination at 29 percent (U.S.: procrastination, 42 percent; lack of
team communication, 39 percent; ineffective meetings, 34 percent).
Microsoft Corp. developed the PPC assessment as a way for workers to
evaluate their work habits and receive tips on how to be more productive in
their day-to-day activities. Dr. Larry Baker, president of the Dr. Larry
Baker Management Center Inc. in Atlanta and an associate professor at
Shorter College in Marietta, Ga., developed the survey questions.
"In my three decades of studying what makes workers productive, I've found
the most crucial skills are their ability to efficiently communicate across
all kinds of boundaries, share important documents and manage the
increasing volumes of information," Baker said. "These new survey results
confirm those trends and highlight the opportunity for workers to get
better training and tips on how to get the most out of software tools they
use. Clearly, this is a focus area for Microsoft where it can help people
be more productive with the Office products."
Details at...
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/mar05/03-15ThreeProductiveDaysPR.asp
The findings for the survey were collected in 29 languages from
participants in the Microsoft Office Personal Productivity Challenge via
their local Microsoft Office Experience Web sites from September 2004
through January 2005. Survey results were evaluated by ConStat Inc., an
independent research analysis firm. The firm evaluated responses from
38,112 participants worldwide.
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