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

New Merchant and New Contest

Good Morning, This spring has been a bustling round of activity at the Heart Shoppe. We have some great new friends and of course many loyal old friends! Our hits remain constant in a rather stale economy, along with our Alexa rankings : ) Every seems to be coming up roses!

Please join me in welcoming our newest member, Barbara of Paris Chic Boutique:
Third Avenue
I just love our international flare and the touch romance it brings to an otherwise uneventful day! Visitors seem to get lost in another era on our site : ) Pay Barbara a visit sometime today and you can visit Paris in the spring!

We also want you to be the first to see our new contest page:
$100 Contest
I love the retro look of our new contest page and the items our participants have chosen to feature. Take a look and see what's new on those sites!

Thanks and have a glorious day,
Vic

New Merchant to Welcome

Good Monday Morning, Hoping you all had a very pleasant weekend! We finally got nice enough weather to get out in the yard. Oh, my aching back : )

We are so happy to welcome a bright young face to our group this morning! Please take some time to visit Stacey of Shabby Rose Boutique on our Third Avenue shoppes. Stacey has a lovely shop featuring Romantic Shabby Chic & Cottage Style Decor! It looks like she will see some friendly, familiar faces here.
Third Avenue
Our Photo Gallery

Our new contest is almost ready for its debut. We will let you all know when it is up. Our last contest winner picked Pretty Shabby for her $100 Gift Certificate and had some really nice things to say about our mall.

Have a gorgeous day,
Vic

Welcome New Merchant

Good Morning everyone, It is a beautiful morning in New Mexico complete with a clear blue sky : ) I'm hoping this is a sign of our elusive spring! We have a new merchant to welcome to our mall. Take a minute out of your busy day to meet June of Scarlett Rose:

Third Avenue
About Us

In her own words, "...joining up with a few "kindred" souls online would be fun!" I'm hoping you will all pay her a visit and make her feel welcome!

Also, we have room for three more participants in our next Contest and we will be working on the new page this weekend. Those of you who have volunteered, look for more information coming your way. The current drawing will be held April 15th and the winner will have about a week to choose their shop. Any questions, please just e-mail us.

Thanks,
Vic