Private Showing

Good Morning everyone, We are really excited about our upcoming "Christmas in July" page. We have worked really hard on this event with lots of publicity and our pre-sell campaign : ) We would like to invite all of you to a "private showing" of our event that officially starts tomorrow. Here is a link to the page that will take over the Contest Page for the month of July:

Christmas in July Preview

Each of the merchants involved have worked very hard to display a special product, price, and in some cases page of delightful Christmas sales. We have snail-mailed invitations all over the country and hope that we have an influx of new visitors. We have advertised this event with news blasts at both Qflea and Tea Bureau as well as other places online. We want to put the Victorian Heart Shoppe on the map and in hearts across the country. Thanks for your preview of this event and we would appreciate any comments or feedback : )

Join the fun,
Vic

Upcoming Events: Christmas in July Sale

Good Morning Everyone, We did our second blast of invitations this morning and hope to see an increase in traffic on July 1st : ) Some of you have inquired where our invitations have been mailed! Our first batch went to Victorian shops across the country, the second to Victorian towns such as Cape May, NJ and our third will go to Christmas shops across the country. Again, if you have one such establishment in your area and would like them to get an invite, just send us their full name and snail address and we will see to it. Thanks to all of you who have already put up our special "Invitation Link" below. Direct links to the holiday page:
Christmas in July Sale
This is fun!

Thanks,
Vic

June Feature and our new Wholesale page!

Good Morning and Happy June 1st! We have loads of exciting news at the Heart Shoppe this morning but I will try to be brief : )

Our feature page for June is brought to us by Kellie of "Pretty Shabby". Kellie and her mom, Carol, have a very pretty selection of goodies for the home! Pay them a visit sometime today and be sure to check out their "SALE ITEMS" link.

June Feature

Our wholesale page is up and we think it looks great. More importantly, we think it will provide a much needed service for those businesses looking for uniqueness, quality, and affordability:

Wholesale Page

We have included a bit of "wholesale info" in our most recent Rack Cards which are directed toward both shoppers and business owners.

Lastly, we will begin sending out "event tickets" for our Christmas in July page this month. Look for more on this later : )

Summer is almost upon us, time to shine : ) If your business has been a little down in the dumps, "DO SOMETHING" to perk it up!

Thanks,
Vic

Introductory Offer

Good Morning Everyone, We wanted to give everyone one last chance to participate in our "Grand Opening" of the wholesale page : ) This will be ready to upload on June 1st and we have decided to give everyone who participates one free month at the end of their year. So that's 13 months for only $25. I wanted to let you know that some of our merchants are looking for wholesale prices and believe this will be a quick and easy way to find them:

"As having a brick and mortar shop I am always looking for specialty handmade products to sell in the boutique if they are a good fit here. Those products I usually do not put online but offer locally to my regular customers so I will look forward to viewing some of the wholesale merchants products. I think this could be a good service to offer."
Thanks,
June @ Scarlett Rose

Thanks to June for sharing this with the group! If you are interested in getting in on this great introductory offer, just e-mail us in the next two days and we will let you know what you need to send.

Thanks,
Vic

Coming Soon - Wholesale Page

Good Morning and Happy Friday,
We have already received a handful of interest about our "Wholesale page" so we will lay out the objectives for this campaign.

To fill a need: I receive phone calls and e-mail at Victorian Laurels requesting wholesale prices mostly for "brick and mortars" and "indoor mall" booths. Wholesale orders have actually kept my shop in steady business this calendar year. There are times when these vendors are looking for items beyond my limited stock. I always refer them to the Heart Shoppe, but don't really have a handle on which of you might offer wholesale prices to these vendors.

The plan: We will be adding a page to the mall for our "wholesale merchants". The price will be $25/yr for a listing similar to the "contest page" listing. We will feature an image logo and a 50-75 word description of your wholesale program. We will also include an e-mail link with your name so that it is readily accessible to interested vendors.

Grand Opening: We will have everything ready for a June 1st "online showing".

Those of you who have already e-mailed with your interest will receive further instructions today. Anyone else who would like to join us is welcome, just drop us a note. The listing will begin alphabetical with rotations throughout the year so each merchant will have equal time at the top of the list.

Thanks,
Vic

"20th Wedding Anniversary" Road Trip

Good Morning, We are back and totally refreshed : ) Take a peek at our Blog sometime today and you will see some of the highlights of our 20th Wedding Anniversary road trip!

See photos below on the right!

We just had a fantastic time with the highlight of our trip being Mickey Gilley in Concert at the Tropicana Express! Mickey is responsible for us "getting together and staying together" in a very round about way : )

Have a great day,
Vic & Jeff

Happy May Day!

We have a few bits of news to cover this morning so let's get right to it : )

Our Feature page for May is brought to us by Angela and Jo of Gilded Rose Collection:
"May's Featured Shoppe"

It is nice that so many of our shoppes are a family affair. Jo and Angela are mother and daughter which seems fitting for Mother's Day! Take a peek sometime today at their lovely unique creations!
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We made the Vendor's Spotlight once again at Qflea for May 1st. You can link to their newsletter on our join page under media blitz highlights:
"Join Us"

It is nice to have this international exposure!
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Lastly, we hit a bit of a milestone this week on the internet. Our Alexa ranking for the "United States" is 97,958. We've been waiting for five years to hit the top 100,000:
"Alexa Traffic Ranking"

Hit the link above and scroll to the bottom of the page, it is the last tidbit on the left! I know that this is not the "be all and end all" of ranking systems, but they do provide some very valuable information such as time on site, page views per user, bounce rate, keywords, etc. Their Stats don't exactly match our more defined Stats, but it is useful. I have been reading about "Bounce Rate" and anything under 50% is considered really good. This refers to the number of visitors who just "bounce off your front page" and leave your site w/o looking around.

Have a great May Day,
Vic