From Loren Nelson, NelsonEcom
Finding and Building Solutions for Your Internet Goals
Visual Design, Web Sites, Podcasts, Multimedia, & Usability Engineering

May 23, 2008 – Vol. XII, No. 16

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NetBits is the weekly newsletter keeping your informed of various chatter and delicious tidbits of potential relevance.

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In This Issue:

Item One: How to identify reliable drop shippers
Item Two: Skip the pretzels: starving may fend off jet lag
Item Three: Nutrition Tip – Organically Grown Fruits and Vegetables
Item Four: Word of the Week
Item Five: N. Pacific Humpback Whale Population Rises
Do you know…

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1. How to identify reliable drop shippers
 

The following are a few questions that can help you determine whether a drop shipper is a good fit for your biz (some of these questions may also apply to other types of wholesale suppliers):

Do you work with online retailers?

The fact is that wholesalers aren’t always eager to work with online sellers. Wholesalers operate on thin profit margins and make their money selling in large quantities.

Most feel they’re wasting the time and expense it takes them to set up lots of little accounts for e-tailers that they don’t expect to place any sizeable orders on a regular basis. Many of them also have sales territories that they’d violate if they let their customers sell across the Internet.

It’s important to establish early in your conversation that you’re talking to a wholesaler that will work with your online business.

Do you work with eBay sellers?

If you are mainly an eBay Seller, you’ll want to ask this question too. Even if a wholesaler will work with online sellers, that doesn’t always mean they’ll work with eBay sellers. This is because the manufacturers of the products fear their items will be devalued in the market if they sell for too little there.

If eBay is your main sales venue, you don’t want to waste time setting up accounts, only to discover a supplier won’t allow you to sell their products there.

Do you offer single-item drop shipping?

The key phrase here is single-item. If a drop shipper has a quantity minimum for drop shipping, then you can’t offer their products to your customers Without imposing those same quantity demands. Look for suppliers who will drop ship items for you, one at a time.

What is your minimum dollar amount requirement for drop shipping?

Some drop shippers have a minimum dollar amount (sometimes called a minimum ticket). This limits the way you can offer their products — you may have to bundle them, or simply avoid carrying any of their single items that cost less than their minimum order.

Do you offer blind drop shipping?

Blind drop shipping means the drop shippers’ name doesn’t appear on your labels, invoices, or inserts, so your customer is unaware of where package comes from. They may use a label that simply says "Fulfillment Center" or a blind PO Box.

The end result is that they remain invisible to your customers, and your small business appears larger than it really is.
Locating genuine wholesalers is a tedious, pain-staking process: from tracking down manufacturers, to attending trade shows, to finding wholesalers willing to work with home-based E-Biz. You must be patient, take the time, and do the work to find authentic wholesalers.

 
2. Skip the pretzels: starving may fend off jet lag
 

Starving yourself before a long flight may help prevent jet lag, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Normally, the body’s natural circadian clock in the brain dictates when to wake, eat and sleep, all in response to light. But it seems a second clock takes over when food is scarce, and manipulating this clock might help travelers adjust to new time zones, they said.

"A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is enough to engage this new clock," said Dr. Clifford Saper of Harvard Medical School, whose study appears in the journal Science.

health.yahoo.com

 
3. Nutrition Tip – Organically Grown Fruits and Vegetables
 

Some studies show that origanically grown fruits and vegetables have significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally grown foods. You can be assured that a tomato label "organic" has been verified and certified as organic. If a canned or packaged food, such as pasta sauce, bears an organic label or seal, then 95 to 100 percent of its contents comes from bona fide organic-food growers. However, if a label says, "made with organic ingredients", rather than simply organic, the product can contain as little as 70 percent organic ingredients.

 
4. Word of the Week
 

arriviste • \a-rih-VEEST\ • noun

: one that is a new and uncertain arrival (as in social position or artistic endeavor)

Example Sentence:
The young entrepreneur was viewed as an arriviste in the business community, and many old-timers were leery of his ideas.

Did you know?
An "arriviste" is someone who is just beginning to "arrive," in the sense of achieving success or making a name for oneself. Often the word can have slightly negative connotations, indicating a person who is highly aggressive or perhaps unscrupulous in his or her climb to the top. Like its synonym "parvenu," "arriviste" can also indicate a lack of certainty or confidence in one’s newfound position. "Arriviste" is something of a new arrival itself, relatively speaking. English speakers borrowed the term from French in the early 20th century.

 
5. N. Pacific Humpback Whale Population Rises
 

Once hunted to the brink of extinction, humpback whales have made a dramatic comeback in the North Pacific Ocean over the past four decades, a new study says.

The study released Thursday by SPLASH, an international organization of more than 400 whale watchers, estimates there were between 18,000 and 20,000 of the majestic mammals in the North Pacific in 2004-2006.

Their population had dwindled to less than 1,500 before hunting of humpbacks was banned worldwide in 1966.

"It’s not a complete success, but it’s definitely very encouraging in terms of the recovery of the species," said Jeff Walters, co-manager of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

www.myfoxla.com

 
6. Do You Know…
 
On this day:

  • Bonnie and Clyde Ambushed and Killed (1934)
    Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were notorious robbers who carried out a series of small-scale robberies in the central US from 1932 to 1934. They captivated the attention of the public during the "public enemy era" and continue to do so today through films and songs. They were tracked, ambushed, and killed on a desolate road near their hideout by a posse of officers using armor-piercing rounds.