FYI re Teleflora's New Selection Guide

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Originally posted by jbarb
Hmmm, even so, I still prefer it over the FTD book. [/B]
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You can say that again!


We did finally get ours today.

It certainly does have a wide variety of tastes included. Now that can be seen as a good thing, ya know? I think it reflects a wider range of shop styles unlike any selection guide in the past from either wire service. (Not so sure if that's a good thing, but it is true none-the-less)

It'll do!:dunno:
 
We are no longer with TF as of the end of the week. I would have enjoyed seeing the new guide...I have heard many good things about it.

V
 
Is it true ??

Taht they have "Models" in the Sympathy section ??

Did they get them from the LA morgue ?:eek:
 
I still say that "they" are out to pick your pocket change. $400 dollar guide, increased Dove fees, incoming and outgoing fee of .75cents, and the best one they did for us Florists who requested "do not codify me in the Nov-Jan directory is the CODIFY. I guess they want to make sure those Flower Club orders will all get filled.

Yea they are looking out for their members don't you think?

Oh yea forgot...the new TF website launches soon for More Orders being eliminated from the Mom and Pop.

And I wonder why we sent in our termination letter yesterday....
 
The new TF site is still 100% orders ... I don't understand the complaints coming from people who pay dues to FTD so you can get .com orders at $0.70??
 
Originally posted by Infinite
The big plus is the CD with images on display in an environment setting and on a white background. They are already sized for thumbnail and large display on your website. This is huge, too - the entire selection guide exports to an Excel file. Absolutely perfect for people using database driven dynamic websites like mine. It is SOOOO easy to add the new items with descriptions, sizes, the works. Kudos to the TF staff who put this together - very user friendly.
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Yea,
That alone paid for the selection guide for me. I shaved off about 30 hours worth of work just because I could import directly into my site's shopping cart.

Also what is with the $400 deal. I was told the guide was $300 to be billed at $100 a month for 3 months by Teleflora.
 
the guide is $299 US I talked to TF yesterday about it. And nobody should be surprised that TF started charging for incoming phone orders since FTD started it first. What FTD was a month or so ahead of TF in doing this? FTD raised their merc fees so TF raised the Dove fee. It's all hand in hand everytime one of them does something, the other one follows right away.....
 
Hummmm

Originally posted by Infinite
The new TF site is still 100% orders ... I don't understand the complaints coming from people who pay dues to FTD so you can get .com orders at $0.70??
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Must not be talking about ME..havent been FTD since 2000.
 
Calculator Bill posted something that bears reposting here, in response to my lack of "100%" orders for 10 months, so here is a paste of it:

Some of your points are well taken. However, the one point that I'm trying to make is that florists keep referring to these orders from this website as FULL VALUE orders. THEY ARE NOT!

Forget about the money spent to initially get it set up. Let's just look at monthly costs. Let's say that a florist is receiving 4 orders a month off this site. That florist spent $50 monthly charge, plus $1.95 for those 4 orders and 75 each for transmission charge. Total cost is $60.80. If the 4 orders received totals $200, the cost paid out is about 30% which is MORE than a traditional wired order. It is easy to figure why the wire services like this program, but, but maybe someone can explain to me why the florists should be happy with it?

Florists in larger towns may be able to get more than 5 orders a month and therefore can say that it is no worse than a traditional wired order, but less, the florist is just putting more money into the pot.

No one should expect that any new program is going to get a great return in the first couple of months, but there has to be some time that you have to evaluate the true results. In Bloomzie's case, maybe we should run a contest and ask the florists to calculate if their website didn't yield them an order for 10 months and then on the llth month, they received 4 orders for a total of $200, what is that actual profit on those orders?? Better yet, could you afford to actually fill them??

Now in your case, if you are getting 12-14 orders a month, I can understand why you are pleased with the results. That is one of the advantages of being in a larger city and if currently there are only a couple of other "paying" florists sharing the city with you then it is going to be to your advantage. It just isn't going to work the same way in smaller towns.
(end of quote)

Important points which opened my eyes. That said, I love the new selection guide, dang near everything about it. But does anyone know how long it takes to cut backgrounds out of images and create shadows for a good clean web look? That's something FTD don't do so you have to go find and hork the images elsewhere than their cd.

It's a great product, that selection guide and cd. Before it came out I liked the FTD one best, but now TF has outdone them. Gonna save me a lot of time and make me money.
 
Bloomz,

Good points about the monthly costs & setup charges. But let's remember that they apply to ANY website. There are domain and hosting fees, design and modification charges, internet access costs.

Matter of fact, that applies to ANY form of advertising, direct mail, YP, internet. If any particular form of advertising doesn't bring enough orders to make $$$, it's not worthwhile.

Some people, myself included, have the skills and contacts to bring these costs down. I do all our website design, handle the hosting, and register the domains through my site at www.rkfdomains.biz. On the other hand, Mikey does all his contractor work, tiling, electrical, coolers, computers... so he saves $$$ there. Other people have other skills.

All advertising has costs involved. If you're only getting less than 20 web orders a month, it probably isn't worth while to pay for a TF site. You're better off to invest in a copy of Macromedia Dreamweaver ($159), your own domain ($9.95 or less at www.rkfdomains.biz) and a hosting package ($9.99 a month at RKFdomains.biz or www.nxserve.com). Buy a template for $20 - $50 and play a bit. Lot's of free advice, tutorials, tips and scripts to be found. Total investment, under $340.

Cheers :)
 
This is really getting off the subject - but, why do you recommend Macromedia Dreamweaver over FrontPage?

Also want to add that in figuring how many orders you receive from your site, don't forget to include the phoned-in ones. We use the referral codes on Daisy and it has been a real eye-opener as to the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and the sources of our new customers.
 
I like Macromedia because it's nice and easy to use - has an excellent tutorial system and a ton of features.

Audra
 
Hey Ryan
Where can you get a copy of Dreamweaver for $149?

I just looked and they want 399 for it! Also I would love to start using it, being only FP savvy, but tho I do have a *copy* of it, it intimidates the hell out of me. Did you experience much learning curve? Some have told me 6 months and I really don't have that much time to learn it when FP is adequate.

Thanks
 
Message for Rock..about the Subject.

its easer to just go to the other board and read about me being a "Test Dummy" for the NEW SELECTION.
 
Macromedia Dreamweaver is head & shoulders above Frontpage. Most frontpage features require "extensions" be enabled on your host. These extensions are quite easily corrupted, causing your site to fail.

FP is notorious for corrupting and altering code, adding unnecessary HTML tags, using proprietary code that many browsers don't understand, and generally making a mess of things. Dreamweaver has an awesome Template system that makes site-wide updates a snap.

Learning curve is about a week. Advanced features after that, but it depends on how much you use them. Bottom line, Frontpage is pure, absolute amateur domain, Dreamweaver is profressional grade. And easy to use. Check out http://www.discount-software.ws/discount-software/dreamweaver-mx-2004.html

I know it's the academic version, but who doesn't know SOMEONE in school who they could borrow an ID from?
 
I forgot to mention, Dreamweaver even has a feature to "Clean Up" code from MS Frontpage and MS Word. :)
 
Originally posted by bloomz
Hey Ryan
Where can you get a copy of Dreamweaver for $149?

I just looked and they want 399 for it! Also I would love to start using it, being only FP savvy, but tho I do have a *copy* of it, it intimidates the hell out of me. Did you experience much learning curve? Some have told me 6 months and I really don't have that much time to learn it when FP is adequate.

Thanks
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If you are not a professional web designer, Dreamweaver's learning curve can be fairly steep if you don't use it every day.

Since you already know Front Page, if I was you, I'd wait for the new version of Front Page which is about ready to be released and it's supposed to correct all the old problems with bloated code and rival Dreamweaver in the features department. Much easier to use.
 
Nice to see you're an optimist, George - I haven't seen a Microsoft product yet that lived up to that expectation.

Audra
 
George, no edition of front page will rival Dreamweaver. Short of "pure coding" (using notepad), Dreamweaver is the best code you're going to get. It also automates database connections and assists with scripting code. No comparison, really.
 
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