Great news we are now located on the popular side of highway 19 on the First Monday Trade Days.  We are located in space 73 in Trade Center Pavilion IV.  This is a great accomplishment since December is one of the busiest months for the monthly event..  We were persistent in our efforts to get on the highway 19 side of the Trade Days.  Our Old Mill location was a great preparation experience.

We have already had kudos for making it into the "big time".
 
If you can't make it to Canton, Texas for First Monday Trade Days visit our website www.arkladecor.com.  We have added our latest popular items and the site sales have increased.

Visit our website www.ArkLADecor.com to see new items we have added Armadillos painted like Zebras, LSU colors, Dallas Cowboy colors, New Orleans Saints colors, Texas Flag.  We have added giant frogs, leopard frogs, blue herons and other new items. 

Visit us at The Village Shops #404 in the Old Mill Market Place in Canton, Texas for First Monday Trade Days.  Items can be found at Delicious Arts, Dorchester Drive in Alexandria and Deanne's Hitchin Post, Fountain Plaza, Magnolia, AR.  And soon all items to be available in O.C. Mercantile, Highway 112  in LeCompte, LA.

I finally figured out how to include the meta tag for Google's verification of www.blog.arkladecor.com.  So perhaps it might get a higher listing than the main website www.arkladecor.com. 

I have to mention the pelicans, pink flamingos, alligators, and herons we have on the website.  They would be a great addition to any restaurant, marina or casino that has a tropical or water theme.  They are great addition to any boat dock, pond, water feature or flower bed.  The smaller pelicans and flamingos are great on the deck or patio. 

The pelicans are particularily popular in Louisiana (state bird). 

I think one of the reasons we are not getting any sales is the website does not appear in Google's list unless you type more specific keywords in the search.  I have added more keywords today. 

A web designer is VERY expensive.  Locally it is $1250 for 10 pages and our site has 1600 pages. 

GoDaddy's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools are not made for a shopping cart because it returns errors for items that are "built-in" to the cart.

The shopping cart has embedded programming (that I can't get to) that shows as an error in the SEO tools.  The SEO tool says a colon ( is an invalid character and the shopping cart adds a colon after the title on every page of the website.  The SEO tool indicates errors on pages that have the following: title:category, title:about us, title:help, title:welcome. 

The pages about us, help, welcome are limited access pages on the shopping cart feature with GoDaddy, you can see the source code, you can copy the code, modify the code BUT you can't get to the hosting site to upload the modified code.  The hosting address is not available for the shopping cart feature.

So I have decided to ignore the error messages about the colon (, maybe the SEO software from GoDaddy has a problem with the colon ( but spider/crawlers don't.  Google finds the page when I type in REALLY specific keywords so the colon ( must not be too much of a problem.

I can't seem to get a handle on getting other like sites to link to our site.  Links-in and traffic are a higher priority for the Google spider when it crawls a site, the keywords are no longer used to return your site high on the list after a search..  If the crawler sees a lot of links and hits to your site it deems it popular and ranks it higher the list when searched.

I am bummed.  We have not gotten any response from the mass mailing of the brochure.  I am sure I have unrealistic expectations.

Today I am working on a new brochure to mail to restaurants, casinos, gift shops and any general business with a Pelican or Flamingo theme.  I hope this mailing will generate some business.  I think the small pelicans and flamingos would be good gift shop items in a casino.  The Flamingos and Pelicans would be great in lobby or court yard water feature.

This is the second week of the advertisements I have placed in the Shopper's Guide.  I am thinking of advertising on the radio next.

I guess I will stop by some local businesses to see if they will display our brochure.

Pittman's in El Dorado just gushed all over the sample Pelican and said it was just what they were looking for and I have heard nothing.  I even offered them on consignment.

I guess we will need to set up in Canton were the items are popular and people are willing to spend money.  After all if you go to Canton you are looking to spend money.

How sad to have so much and not feel it.  To die so young; 50 is the new 30 for goodness sake.  I just refreshed my MJ CD collection from Amazon.  Music can soothe so much, put on a song you know and love, sing the words out loud and you will no longer think about your problems.  Give it a try.

I am waiting a return call from a Lawn Sprinkler guy.  My neighbors said I could get a good deal in this heat.  My pond is almost completed.  I purchased additional stones, 500 pounds, and I have redesigned my waterfall.  It lost 3 inches of water overnight so I think my waterfall has some problems.

I am trying to develop a back drop for product shots for the website and brochures and of course, a nice addition to the landscape.  Please visit our site www. arkladecor.com to see the latest product pictures.

I visited a local nursery this week in hopes they would display our garden sculptures, they said they were just what they needed but they have not called.  We are mailing out brochures to gulf area casinos and businesses who might like to decorate in flamingos, pelicans and alligators.  We are not just focusing on the gulf area but that is our first campaign.

If you can think of a business with a theme that might be interested in our products let me know.  Leave a comment on this blog.

Hello I have been working hard rebuilding my backyard pond.  I have removed the flimsy plastic shell and replaced it with a plastic pond liner.  These in ground pond liners are better for me and I can design my own shape.  I have a waterfall and fountain and now that it is bigger I need more rocks.

I have a new waterfall feature that includes a clay pot at the top spilling over the water onto the rockfall.

I have placed ads in the local Shopper's Guide for 4 weeks beginning this Wednesday.  I hope it drums up business for the booth at Deanne's Hitchin Post and the website www.arkladecor.com.

It has been hot for sure and I have more projects.

I worked late removing a word that was repeated throughout the website, I hope I found all. If that word was a paramount issue I hope customers will now flock to the site in droves.

This is a test to see if the two social networks are talking to each other.