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Lily

New Member
May 1, 2007
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Houston
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TX
Hello,

I have been a passionate flower fan my entire life: planning landscapes and flowerbeds, growing flowers from seeds, bulbs, propagation, collecting, sharing. In winter I could be found poring over each new year’s seed catalogs like winter “wish books” until they were dog-eared.

So when I began my first website earlier this year, I knew it was going to be about flowers. I decided that my focus will be helping people send the best flowers they can, beginning with their patronage of a real brick-n-mortar florist shop. To that end, each page of my site will soon encourage visitors to “find a local florist” from a searchable database I am compiling.

Should you visit my site you may notice the complete absence of Google ads, as order-gatherers predominate in PPC advertising. Promoting them is contrary to the spirit of my site.

From my research at http://floristdetective.com/ as well as study of four years’ back issues of Florist Review Magazine to learn about florists’ issues, I am aware of the disreputable tactics of order-gatherers. I wish to contribute my support for an FTC investigation into their dishonest tactics.

Josie Mayes a.k.a. “Lily”
www.send-great-flowers.com
 
Welcome to Flowerchat. I love what you are attempting to do, but when I go to your website I do not find any directory. Am I doing something wrong??
 
re: Florist Directory

Hi Lori,

Thanks for taking a peek at my website. No, you did not miss it. I will be uploading it to the server soon.

Currently it consists of only 5,000 florists located in the ten largest metro areas of each state, so it will be a "bare bones" start to what I hope will include real, live florists in every zip code in the country.

I know there are more than 20,000 *real* florists, but finding them all would be impossible.

Among my ideas to reach & include as many florists as possible (inclusion in the database will be free): I plan to advertise in Florists Review Magazine as well as ask my site visitors to "recommend" their favorite local florists to be featured/included.

All in good time, of course. First, my visitors need lots of reasons to come back to my site often, so lots of new flower-related pages will be added over the coming months. Only then might they remember - when it's time to order real flowers - that they can find a local florist from any one of my pages :)

Cordially,
Josie
 
Lily said:
Currently it consists of only 5,000 florists located in the ten largest metro areas of each state, so it will be a "bare bones" start to what I hope will include real, live florists in every zip code in the country.

I know there are more than 20,000 *real* florists, but finding them all would be impossible.

Among my ideas to reach & include as many florists as possible (inclusion in the database will be free): I plan to advertise in Florists Review Magazine as well as ask my site visitors to "recommend" their favorite local florists to be featured/included.
Click to expand...
Hi Josie,
Like Lori, I agree with the spirit of what you are doing. But I have to ask, what exactly is in it for you? Advertising in publications costs money, updating your site is time, which costs money - yet your listings will be free?

I'm curious as to what you hope to achieve with your site. Please know that I am asking this respectfully - I really don't understand why someone would do something that clearly take so much time and financial resources, if there were nothing to be gained personally.

Thanks very much!
tracy
 
Monetization of Flower Site

Hi Tracy,

Thank you for your message and interest.

Yes, inclusion in the database will be free. However, as you point out it is necessary to monetize somewhere.

As my site traffic increases, web page "real estate" can become valuable.

In addition to making "premium" listings available (first to appear in the results for a city/zip search), I will probably offer city/state-specific ad visibility based on the location of the web surfer viewing a particular page.

I.E., a florist's ad could be configured to appear only to people who live in his "neck of the woods." There are many possibilities/variations.

In short, this is a "labor of love" for me, with the potential of monetization in a few years.

I believe you will agree that, having discovered & joined FlowerChat 6 months ago, spamming the site does not appear to be my motive ;)

Regards,
Josie
 
One more thing...

I almost forgot. There are a couple things that would be nice to receive from real florists...

My attempts at DIY videos are horrendous; I shudder to make more.

I would absolutely LOVE to publish some real videos, made by real florists, on how to make body flowers for special occasions. Attribution would, of course, be given to the shop & owner.

Or, original articles for my site on subjects of floral interest, with credit given to the author & shop.

I'm sure there are many more benefits to membership here that I haven't discovered yet :)

Cordially,
Josie
 
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