Exaggeration and hype are a normal part of advertising.  You see that everywhere.  All of us have learned to take advertisements "with a grain of salt". Of course, exaggerating is one thing; lying is another.

In my wandering around the Internet, I often check out other web sites dealing with antiques and estate sales.  It is always entertaining to see what other similar businesses are putting on their web sites.

I recently spent some time looking at estate sale web sites all over the country.  It was really entertaining. 

Few estate sale businesses have very effective web sites, but there are some good ones out there. Few compare to my partner Vivian's site, http://estatesalesbyvivian.com. Of course, I have a little prejudice there, since I developed that site.  But check for yourself.

I believe that a business' web site reflects the business itself.  Simply put - a quality business has a quality web site.  Just like a quality business has a high standard in everything it does from its business cards, to its signs, brochures, ads, and recordings on their voice mail. When you see the quality and care in those types of items, the odds are pretty good that is the way the company operates in every way.  The opposite is true.  If you are not professional enough to have a professional appearance, then I would sure have my doubts about how professional you are.

I strive for high quality in all of my businesses and in their web sites.  I also strive for honesty and integrity.  That is why I stand by every word I have on my sites (and those I operate for others such as Estate Sales by Vivian).  All of that reflects how we operate our businesses.

One fact that we advertise on Estate Sales by Vivian is that we have nearly 2,000 people on our email list.  I have seen other estate sale services claim they have many hundreds of people on their list when the size of their business would seem to indicate that would be unlikely.  They also don't realize that it is easy to check.  It is not that difficult to get a very close estimate of the actual number.  Just for fun, I did that with Vivian's site and with another who advertises that they have about 70% less than hers and then with another site that claims to have about 25% more.  The results were interesting. Estate Sales by Vivian shows an estimated 1800 to 2100 members (actual number is 1921 as of April 4, 2010); the site saying they had about 70% of her numbers show an estimate between 700 and 900 (or 40% instead of 70%); the site showing 25% higher show an estimate between 200 and 300 (13% instead of 125%).  Quite a difference in the latter two.

So the question is where do hype and exaggeration cross the line to become an untruth - to put it politely.  More importantly, what does that say about integrity and honesty?  That doesn't mean every company that lies in advertising is not to be trusted in anything else.  But I wouldn't say it was a good sign.

I have no trouble with hype and sales pitches.  We almost all say we are great and the best at what we do.  I don't think there is usually an attempt to deceive when a company says that.  We had better think we are the best or we should pack up and go home.  However, when we make claims that are absolutely not true, I believe that is dishonest.  Everyone has to decide for themselves if it means that lack of integrity permeates the business or if it is just related to advertising.  If someone lies to me about one thing, I don't think it is unexpected for me to be suspicious of everything else they say. Yes, I know businesses do it every day.  A couple of hours watching TV and listening with an open mind will show you that.  But it doesn't make it right and it is not the way I want to run my businesses.

NOTE: How can you tell if a mailing list number is exaggerated?  It is easy.  The easiest way will give you a good rough estimate. There are any number of web sites that measure traffic to a web site.  You need a baseline to start with.  You can compare the increase in traffic following the email list being used with the normal traffic.  This is then compared to the results from a web site where you know the real number of emails.  There is more to it than just this simple explanation, but it does provide a good estimate as long as the types of emails are the same such as the announcement of an upcoming estate sale.

I know Soupy Sales has nothing to do with antiques, but I still wanted to make note of the fact that Soupy Sales died yesterday.

While I was never a big fan, I must admit that through the years he did give me a smile or two - like he did almost everyone.

Farewell to the Pieman: Soupy Sales, 1926-2009

His silly brand of humor would have few fans these days except maybe the very young, but there was always something so infectious about his smile and the way he was always having so much fun.  You had to laugh.  You just had to.

Okay.  I have been experimenting with some different commenting solutions and finally found a great one.  Now you can make comments to any of the Blog posts.  All you have to do is click on the Add A Comment line and then complete the information.  It is so easy.

Have fun.

Okay.  I have changed the nameservers so this version of the site should be live soon.  It used to take 24 to 48 hours but these days usually happens in a few hours.

I haven't quite finished the SEO but I can have that done in a an hour or so.  All that is left is some work on the titles and a few metatags here and there.

The new site is visually similar to the old one, but using JOOMLA! has so many advantages over the old standard Dreamweaver inspired HTML site.  I now have a tremendous improvement in functionality and it is just so versatile.  (Old site appears to the right).

Okay.  We will be back to talk about antiques and the shops soon.

I have to start somewhere.  This is a test of the new blogging system