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I don’t have the footage from last weeks Myrtle Beach story yet, that should be next time, but here are some hits.?

Please take a look at these great people that have taken the time to promote Grill Charms: ?

http://hermashaw.blogspot.com/2008/10/october-is-breast-cancer-awareness.html

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http://www.momdot.com/feature-boutique-grill-charms-oct-31st/

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On a personal note, my sister’s wedding was FANTASTIC!? My husband married my sister and fiancé on a catamaran in the middle of the

Charleston
Harbor.? It was stunning!? Just to clarify, my husband is no man of the cloth or anything like that; here in the wonderful state of SC, any Notary Public can marry you.? The reception followed at a gorgeous waterfront facility and our little ones boogied on down until well past their bed time.? It was such a great weekend.?

My business topic today is going to be the issue of “samples”.? Now this is my first rodeo, so I’m learning as I go and I have had some expensive lessons.? This holiday gifting season I am learning about “reviews” and “samples”.?? In the beginning, any time anyone wanted a sample to do a review, I didn’t bat an eyelash, packed up the box and shipped it off happily, just thankful that someone would want to see my little product.? Now…. Many many many many samples later, I’m looking at my books and looking at the sales that the reviews have brought in and am thinking hmmmmm….? maybe that strategy of no batting and ship ship ship isn’t so smart.? Now that the holidays are approaching there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of gift guides and blogs reviewing holiday gifts that just about every day (sometimes twice a day) I get asked for a sample.? I am still just as ecstatic that people are interested in Grill Charms, love the product and want to review it, but my bank account is telling me that I need to have some sort of criteria to my sample giving.? I wish it wasn’t so, and that I had enough product to give away as much as I could to every person that wanted to say something nice about my product, but that’s just not realistic.? Right now, my “strategy” is more of work in progress.? I don’t know EXACTLY how I will decide where the samples go, but it is clear that I need some sort of budget.? A great resource is www.alexa.com.? It’s a website that basically ranks the internet traffic a particular site generates.? I now actually people that request samples for their website stats and circulation for papers and magazines before sending samples (if I don’t know them.)? Just FYI, if you have a product, be prepared to send out A LOT more samples then you think.? The proof will soon be in the pudding as the holiday gifting season begins in 29 more days.

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Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charmsâ„¢? www.grillcharms.com