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11-08-2025 - It's 6:00 AM, and I'm waiting for my Folgers Black Silk coffee to finish brewing. While that's happening, I'm putting together another "site announcement" ad order to mail to another Mail Order advertising publisher. Let's see what the day brings.

--- A few years ago, a young mother was ordering from the deli at one of my local Walmart stores. Her son, about 2 years old, was behind her. To amuse himself, he was down on all fours, licking the floor. When mom saw this, she came unglued. I hope the kid is still alive but he might be a Walmartian by now.

--- From the U.S. Postal Inspection Service - A former U.S. Postal Service mail handler was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after a joint investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG) into multiple St. Louis metropolitan area mail theft incidents that occurred in late 2023 through 2024.

--- As mentioned above, I did mail another "site announcement" ad to a well-known adsheet publisher. Once ads are received for this site, I'll try to do business with those advertisers if possible. Meanwhile, my Letter Carrier is on the block. Let's see what goodies he has for me.

--- It's time to give my Briggs & Stratton Q6500 generator its regular exercise run. It saved us during the "Great Texas Freeze" of February 2021, and it should keep the Mail Dealer Times office up and running in the event of a future commercial power outage.

--- When I was a kid, we had a gas furnace, but our next-door neighbor had a coal-fired unit. In the winter, on a regular basis, a coal truck would arrive, extend a long chute into a ground-level window on the front of the house, and the driver or an assistant would shovel coal onto the chute. Down in the basement, the coal piled up on the floor in an area enclosed by a low wooden fence. Anyway, that's how old I am.

--- Last year, I saw an ad for mailing list names supplied on a 3.5-inch disk. When was the last time computers came with a 3.5-inch disk drive? It's been a while.

--- Co-Op advertising group - I thought about this type of program back in my "disk publishing" days of the mid-1990s. It will work just as well, if not better, on websites. It involves bringing together a handful of advertising publishers who agree to place the advertising of all members of the group in their publications. So, when one member sells a text ad, he sends it to the other web publishers who put it on their websites, at no charge. This requires that members agree to the types of advertising they will accept—text is a lot easier—pricing, and how long ads will stay posted. Members can advertise something like "Buy ad space on my site and that ad will be posted to (insert number here) other websites for the same term". Adjust this idea to fit your needs.

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11-07-2025 - According to a news item, auto repossessions are up. This is one of many negative effects of the current economic situation. One article reports that more and more people are doing the DoorDash thing. Those who have an established Extra Income Mail Order operation going might be in a better position than many others. If you don’t have such a business going, start now, as it takes time for any business to become profitable.

--- Today, I'm mailing another "site announcement" ad order to another well-known Mail Order adsheet publisher. I might also mail a few ads to some of our "small" adsheet publishers. We need more “low-circulation” adsheet publishers.

--- From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Employment Situation - Total nonfarm payroll employment changed little in August (+22,000) and has shown little change since April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today. The unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, also changed little in August. A job gain in health care was partially offset by losses in federal government and in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction. (This is the most recent report due to, you know, that shutdown thing!)

--- From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Economics Daily - From August 2024 to August 2025, nonfarm payroll employment increased in 20 states and was essentially unchanged in 30 states and the District of Columbia. The largest job gains occurred in Texas (+195,600), New York (+125,100), and Pennsylvania (+101,200). The largest percentage increase occurred in South Carolina (+3.1 percent), followed by Hawaii and New Mexico (+1.9 percent each). (This is the most recent report due to, you know, that shutdown thing!)

--- This is a call for a different kind of 100-circulation adsheet, a "progressively mailed" adsheet. How does it work? These adsheets hold a maximum of 100 100-word ads. No display ads. New ads go to the top, and the 101st ad falls off the bottom. The latest dealer to post an ad gets a copy—about 6 sheets of paper. Every ad gets 100 mailings; they just don't get it very fast. This means no pressure on you, the publisher, to mail a certain number within a certain time period. This pressure has caused more than a few adsheet publishers to grow noses a foot long! I don't think we can have too many of this type of adsheet. No dealer has to advertise in every adsheet every month. Rotate through them. Since each publisher is mailing to their own in-house list, an endless variety of prospects will see your ads. You'll have to give away some ad space in order to jump-start the publication.

--- Speaking of adsheets, I recently received another offer to advertise in hundreds of adsheets. The list is quite lengthy, the circulation shown is high, and the adsheet names are interesting. As I've mentioned before, I'm curious as to why I've never seen any of these adsheets during my 30 years in Mail Order. Maybe they'll show up one of these days.

--- Here's an idea for a "universal website" that can be applied to many products and services. As an example, let's say you are the head honcho of the Acme Mail Order Association. You can put up a simple one-page website promoting the club and its benefits. At the end of the page, place text such as: "To join, send your membership fee to the member shown in the ad that sent you here." Hopefully, you'll use a short web address such as acmemoa dot org. Then have your members publish the small ads supplied with their membership. Orders go to them, and they send the club's portion to you. With no addresses on the website, members will not be circumvented and will be fairly rewarded for their efforts.

--- I received a circular promoting a well-known program. I'm well aware of it because I get a lot of mail promoting it. But it's not the only one that floods my mailbox. Why would I want to jump into that madhouse? Who would I mail it to? Who hasn't seen it already? I'll let someone else have my spot! In another mailing, I received an 8-page sales letter promoting another program. I can't tell you much about it because I don't read 8-page sales letters.

--- According to news reports, the Farmer's Almanac will cease publication in 2026 after 208 years. I think they deserve to retire. Certainly, they've made a few dollars in all those years.