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It's not as if people haven't been warning us for years that if we didn't curb our addiction to oil we were headed toward an economic tsunami.It's just that we've been treating them as if they were Chicken Little.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost.
For business owners across the country its a time to re-tool, re-think and search for cover. Industry after industry is asking itself and its members, "How are rising gas prices affecting your business?"
Liz Fuller of Business and Blogging is reporting on an iCongo survey that indicates,...33% of online U.S. adults are more likely to shop online rather than in-person at a store due the the high price of gasoline.
This is good news for online businesses - if your customers can find you.
One of the best ways to help customers find you is by creating a meaningful business blog.
- Blogs increase your relevance to search engines, meaning you’ll show up higher on search engines such as Google and Yahoo!
- Blogs enable your customers to get to know you - by posting your opinions, advice and expertise online, customers develop a relationship with you without leaving their homes
- Blogs enable you to post specials, sales and discounts online directly to your readers
- Blogs promote word of mouth advertising as your customers can easily refer their friends to the url of your blog
If you’ve been thinking about starting a blog for your business, the rising costs of gas might be the incentive you need to give it a try.
Yvonne Rusell at Home Biz Notes shares that in Australia Petro is running $6.40 a gallon.
Some large supermarkets offer discount fuel vouchers. When you buy $30 worth of goods, you get 4c off per liter at the pump. The petrol stations honoring this are owned by the supermarkets, so they can’t lose.
It seems that telemarketers think that gas rebates can help them deliver results. It's a trend I blogged about last month.
In the past 30 minutes I have gotten two calls from two very different companies offering me a Gas Rebate for trying their products.
The first was a $15 gas rebate for trying a new accident and hospital policy. The company got my name from my life insurance carrier. The gist of the conversation was I could try the accidental policy for 30 days and if I didn't like it could cancel the policy and keep the $15 gas rebate.
About 15 minutes later, I got a call from a company associated with American Express offering me a $60 rebate for joining a new discount shopping program.
Can I hear 100? $200? How about a year of free gas. Then you'll have my attention.
In an interview with Wayne Hochwater,Jim Moran Professor of Management at Florida State University's College of Business, Lockergnome at Tech News Watch shares that as gas prices rise, employee productivity declines.
“People concerned with the effects of gas prices were significantly less attentive on the job, less excited about going to work, less passionate and conscientious and more tense,” Hochwarter said. “These people also reported more ‘blues’ on the job. Employees were simply unable to detach themselves from the stress caused by escalating gas prices as they walked through the doors at work.”
[...] Survey respondents said gas prices were foremost on their mind, including a disgruntled factory worker who wrote, “I spend more time at work trying to figure out what I need to give up to keep gasin my tank than thinking about how to do my job.”
At About.com,William T. Lasley asks crafters if the high gas prices are affecting sales at shows. So far no answers.
On the JP Fitness Forum personal trainers are indicating a strategic move away from one- on -one sessions to group sessions.
In Teeth Gritted: Drivers Adjust to $4 Gasoline, Jad Mouawad and Mireya Navarro of The New York Times tells the story of Marty Badegian, the 72-year old owner of the Red Work Ranch Bait shop in Round Lake Illinois who sells "a wriggling tangle of new crawlers in a dirt-filled styrofoam cup" for $3. Badgian says "he might have to raise prices after his vendor imposed a $5 an order gas surcharge."
However, it is Kim at Viral Marketing who has the most
