In Business Since 2001 We accept Paypal
Home Article Directory
More from Bill Platt
"Bill Platt for Book Authors" Youtube Channel
Training for Book Authors
Other Resources for Book Authors & Publishers
FictionPlots.com (350+ Plots & counting)
Please Support Our Advertisers

 
D9 Hosting


The Sims Don't Face Energy Cost Issues

Copyright (c) 2006-2023

Wouldn't it be nice if we lived in an entirely electronic world like the characters in the popular game The Sims do? That way we would never be faced with difficult financial challenges like the enormous rise in energy costs that we're all battling these days. Although most businesses face some additional challenges due to the rising cost of fuel, the floral industry is particularly hard hit because of the enormous impact prices have on greenhouses.

Greenhouses all over the country are watching their monthly energy bills take enormous leaps. Don Howell of Pajaro Valley Greenhouses in Watsonville, California said, "Natural gas prices have risen dramatically, with a very large spike after Hurricane Katrina. Last winter was tough for us, with gas prices in many cases twice [as high] as the year before."

Pajaro isn't the only one to experience such large increases. Mark Leider of Leider Horticultural Companies in Buffalo Grove, Illinois reports that the cost to heat his 600,000 square feet of greenhouses using natural gas has risen a whopping 350 percent over the last six years. He said, "Last January it cost $3,000 a day to heat the greenhouses. We just raised our prices and did not talk about it much-our best customers understood. They accepted the prices because they realized how much their home heating bills have increased."

Because of such enormous increases, greenhouses all over the world are looking for alternative, less expensive methods for heating. Dutch greenhouses are even looking into developing greenhouses that will produce energy that can be sold to the general public. Other growers are looking to alternatives like biomass boilers, which grow coal, beans, and waste products from other countries. Carroll Farms in Ontario has made the change from natural gas to a biomass boiler of which Russ Carroll says, "The cost of our heat has been reduced by two thirds with very little work. The cost of the boilers and plumbing has a return on investment of one to two years. There is a readily available source of fuel as more and more companies hear of a way of burning their waste products."

As great as alternative fuel sources are, the sad truth is that many businesses simply don't have the capital required to purchase the equipment necessary to make the transition. As a result, greenhouses are forced to make up the costs in other areas-and that means increased prices for flower buyers. That's just one more reason it would be nice to be an electronic character like one of The Sims-but then again, they can hardly stop and smell the beautiful fragrance of the roses with their electronic noses, can they? I guess I'll take those rising fuel costs after all.


About The Author: Shop Amazon - Top Gift Ideas
Wesley Berry is member of the American Academy of Floriculture (AAF) and President of Wesley Berry Flowers, a successful multi-million dollar floral business that was established in 1946. His shops provide flower delivery worldwide through Flower Delivery Express. Visit Wesley Berry Flowers on the web at www.800wesleys.com

VOTE ON THIS ARTICLE
Needs Work >> 0 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 << Excellent Article

Tell our authors what you think about their article.



Top-Level Category: Business Online Articles || Related Categories: Business Offline Articles and Technology Articles

10 Most Recent Articles Written by Wesley Berry, AAF

The History And Traditions Of Easter
Written by: Wesley Berry, AAF | Distributed: 2009-03-03 | Word Count: 1142 | Page Views: 5667 | Votes: 12 | Rating: 2.25
Easter, the Christian festival commemorating the resurrection of Christ, was the earliest feast day decided upon by the ancient Christian Church. Like its Jewish predecessor Passover, it is a movable feast, based on the lunar calendar rather than falling on the same Sunday every year. It is a joyous festival and a time of redemption.

Valentine's Day Is The Perfect Opportunity For Romancing Your Loved One With Flowers
Written by: Wesley Berry, AAF | Distributed: 2009-01-01 | Word Count: 396 | Page Views: 4631 | Votes: 15 | Rating: 1.67
It's a sad fact that the American culture lacks in romance-a recent survey conducted by Brusking/Goldring Research for the Society of American Florists (SAF) revealed just how bad the situation is. According to the survey, only 19 percent of men rate themselves as at least a seven on a scale of one to 10. Even worse, women agree! Only 19 percent of them rank their husbands or significant others as at least a seven.

Valentine's Day Flower Sales
Written by: Wesley Berry, AAF | Distributed: 2009-01-01 | Word Count: 438 | Page Views: 5493 | Votes: 6 | Rating: 2.17
77 percent of florists reported that their Valentine's Day sales in 2006 rose by an average of 16.2 percent. With numbers like that, it seems more and more people are beginning to understand the power that flowers have to make those we love see just how important they are to us.

Pamela Anderson Can Have A White Christmas With Holiday Party Flowers
Written by: Wesley Berry, AAF | Distributed: 2008-12-01 | Word Count: 333 | Page Views: 5326 | Votes: 5 | Rating: 2.00
Having recently married, it's likely that Pamela Anderson will want to host a Christmas party with her new husband, Kid Rock. If that's the case, she needn't worry that her home in sunny California will be lacking a white Christmas. Even if there's no snow outside, she can bring a touch of white inside with gorgeous white Christmas arrangements.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...With Flowers!
Written by: Wesley Berry, AAF | Distributed: 2008-11-25 | Word Count: 443 | Page Views: 5047 | Votes: 11 | Rating: 1.45
Which holiday is the biggest for flower sales? I'll bet you're thinking Valentine's Day or Mother's Day. Well, those two are certainly big, but it's Christmas that draws more customers into flower shops than any other holiday. Perhaps that's because flowers bring a festive feel to any room they adorn while also making people feel happy and welcome.

Hilary Duff May Choose An Artificial Christmas Tree This Year
Written by: Wesley Berry, AAF | Distributed: 2008-11-03 | Word Count: 385 | Page Views: 4659 | Votes: 6 | Rating: 2.50
According to two separate reports, more Americans are choosing plastic trees over fresh, live trees. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service reported that sales of authentic trees hit their peak four years ago at $517 million, and an ABC News/Washington Post poll indicated that 58 percent of people in the United States purchase fake Christmas trees.

Gear Up For Thanksgiving With Fall-Themed Flowers
Written by: Wesley Berry, AAF | Distributed: 2008-09-23 | Word Count: 412 | Page Views: 5263 | Votes: 13 | Rating: 2.15
The holidays are fast upon us and your florist is undoubtedly beginning to display beautiful fall flower arrangements and products just in time for Thanksgiving. And, since florists who responded to a recent Society of American Florists (SAF) survey chimed in to say that 27% of them had higher Thanksgiving sales in 2005 than they did in 2004, you're bound to see an even greater offering of autumn beauty than you did last year.

Halloween Fun At Your Local Flower Shop
Written by: Wesley Berry, AAF | Distributed: 2008-09-09 | Word Count: 406 | Page Views: 5612 | Votes: 16 | Rating: 2.63
Halloween is just around the corner and you're thinking gruesome costumes, haunted houses, ghosts, black cats, witches, bats, and...flowers! What's that you say? You're NOT thinking about flowers for Halloween? Your florist is and you should be, too!

December Is The Month Of Christmas, The Poinsettia, And Britney Spears
Written by: Wesley Berry, AAF | Distributed: 2008-06-30 | Word Count: 463 | Page Views: 5159 | Votes: 11 | Rating: 2.64
Born December 2, 1981, pop princess Britney Spears was born not just in the month of Christmas, but also in the month of the poinsettia, which is December's birth flower.

Fourth Of July Flowers
Written by: Wesley Berry, AAF | Distributed: 2008-06-25 | Word Count: 429 | Page Views: 10292 | Votes: 14 | Rating: 1.86
Your Fourth of July celebration could begin and end with a real bang when you use flowers to accent and decorate the day. If you're thinking you need to stick with the traditional red, white, and blue carnation arrangements you normally see on Independence Day, think again! Flowers come in so many varieties and they're so easy to customize to the occasion that the possibilities are endless.

All of Author's Articles on this site:

Most Recent "Business Online" Articles

Four Tips For Creating An Effective Authors' Resource Box
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-08-27 | Word Count: 1669 | Page Views: 8142 | Votes: 18 | Rating: 2.50
In article marketing, there are many factors that will affect your articles' ability to promote your website in the most effective manner. In this article, we will briefly discuss a couple those factors, before we dive into how to create an effective Authors' Resource Box, also known as the About The Author Information.

Website Traffic Generation: Winning the Love of the Traffic Fairy
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-08-24 | Word Count: 1149 | Page Views: 9022 | Votes: 14 | Rating: 1.86
Some people still believe that all they have to do is build a website and customers will magically appear on their site... Once they have built their websites, they wait anxiously for the "Traffic Fairy" to come and sprinkle its magic dust on their website too, so that they can make lots of money like other success website owners.

What Kind Of Backlinks Are Best At Helping Your Website In Google?
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-08-21 | Word Count: 439 | Page Views: 10081 | Votes: 23 | Rating: 2.74
I was in the Warrior Forum, and someone asked what kinds of Backlinks are worth pursuing. This is my answer to that query.

Understanding the Mechanics of Effective Article Marketing and Article Syndication
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-08-01 | Word Count: 1399 | Page Views: 6663 | Votes: 10 | Rating: 1.80
Visit several marketing blogs or marketing forums, and you will find dozens of people proclaiming the death of article marketing as an effective marketing tool. Before we start agreeing with them, consider this...

Top 10 Reasons Why Online Marketers Fail With Article Marketing
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-07-31 | Word Count: 1025 | Page Views: 7932 | Votes: 13 | Rating: 2.08
If you've been marketing products online for any length of time, you've likely heard people talk about the power and promise of article marketing for the promotion of your online business. Unfortunately, many online marketers have tried to utilize article marketing to benefit their online business and failed. In this article, I document the top ten reasons why people fail to find success with article marketing... And how to fix your article marketing campaigns...

Article Marketing Tip: Stop Trying To Sell From Within Your Articles
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-07-30 | Word Count: 1229 | Page Views: 6109 | Votes: 10 | Rating: 1.40
The basic premise of article marketing is to present people information that will be important to them, then at the end of the article, present information "about the author" and offer to the reader a means to see how the author can help the reader further. When done well, article marketing continues to be one of the most effective methods of promotion that one could employ online.

The Six Degrees of Internet Marketing
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-07-30 | Word Count: 991 | Page Views: 8536 | Votes: 14 | Rating: 2.43
The theory behind the Six Degrees of Separation is that all people on earth can be connected together in as little as six steps. Now, I know what you might be thinking at this juncture... That sounds fun and interesting, but what does that have to do with Internet Marketing? That is a great question that I am going to answer for you in this article...

How To Win More Eyeballs for Your Offers and Websites
Written by: Bruce Lansing | Distributed: 2013-07-29 | Word Count: 1373 | Page Views: 6022 | Votes: 11 | Rating: 1.45
Most people using search engines on the Internet are looking for answers to questions and solutions to problems. If you can give people what the answers they want, you will be able to position your business as one worth hiring today or tomorrow.

How To Increase Your Rates and Earnings As a Freelance Writer
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-07-29 | Word Count: 1191 | Page Views: 6043 | Votes: 11 | Rating: 1.55
Freelance writers fill a very important role in today's business marketplace. They create the on-demand, customized content that business owners everywhere need to push their businesses forward. In this article, the author explains what freelance writers should do to ensure that employers will pay them well for their services.

Promoting Your Business With Content:: Defining Your Writing Strategy
Written by: Bruce Lansing | Distributed: 2013-07-25 | Word Count: 677 | Page Views: 5747 | Votes: 11 | Rating: 2.00
Many people suggest that you should write articles on the basis of the benefits that people will get from reading your articles. I'd like to suggest that there is a better reason, and that is to write your articles on the basis of what problem people will be able to solve, as a result of reading your articles.

Most Viewed "Business Online" Articles

Attracting Readers to your Book
Written by: Alastair Hall | Distributed: 2006-05-18 | Word Count: 708 | Page Views: 46613 | Votes: 17 | Rating: 2.06
One of the common and obvious ways to market a self-published book is having your own website. The harder part is how to attract your target audience and then convert the sale.

How To Make Visitors Bookmark Your Site
Written by: Cheryl Miller | Distributed: 2006-10-10 | Word Count: 536 | Page Views: 38909 | Votes: 21 | Rating: 2.19
When visitors bookmark your site it is a sign that you have built a great website and are pleasing them. Visitors think highly enough of your site to want to return and possibly tell others about it. You are not only increasing traffic from your existing clientele you are encouraging new traffic by means of viral marketing.

Treat Online 'Guests' With Respect
Written by: Rick Sloboda | Distributed: 2007-07-27 | Word Count: 472 | Page Views: 30406 | Votes: 33 | Rating: 3.33
Does your website show your customers lack of respect? Review the following checklist to find out.

How I Got 70,000 Useless Visitors To My Site In One Day! (One Internet Marketer's Analysis of Social Bookmark Traffic)
Written by: Titus Hoskins | Distributed: 2007-11-06 | Word Count: 1545 | Page Views: 28416 | Votes: 10 | Rating: 1.70
Is social bookmark traffic useless? Is it even worth cultivating for your site? Can it be used from an online marketing perspective? Read to discover one Internet Marketer's analysis of social bookmark/media traffic...

Successful Article Marketers Help Readers Solve Problems
Written by: Bill Platt | Distributed: 2013-07-24 | Word Count: 816 | Page Views: 26149 | Votes: 34 | Rating: 2.79
Every week, I have the opportunity to speak with people about the benefits and challenges of using article marketing to promote an online business. Article marketing is about getting your sales message in front of potential customers and to get links to your website. Many interpret this to mean that an article should directly promote a website within the article, but that approach is wrong and will reduce one's success using this methodology.

Tips For Building Your First Website
Written by: Benny Tsabba | Distributed: 2007-05-30 | Word Count: 1511 | Page Views: 19471 | Votes: 18 | Rating: 2.11
New people are coming online everyday. And many of those people desire to turn their spare time into spare cash. So begins their journey.

The Importance Of Effective Follow-up
Written by: Kate Smalley | Distributed: 2007-01-15 | Word Count: 493 | Page Views: 14417 | Votes: 22 | Rating: 2.55
Marketing experts say that following up with clients is crucial to successful selling because most prospects do not buy the first time, according to Aweber, a leading autoresponder company. People must encounter a marketing message multiple times before making a purchasing decision.

Today's Google Bots and What They Do
Written by: Kim Roach | Distributed: 2006-08-02 | Word Count: 1061 | Page Views: 14110 | Votes: 16 | Rating: 2.63
Google currently indexes over 8 billion web pages. However, before these pages were placed in the index, they were each crawled by a special spider known as the GoogleBot. Unfortunately, many web masters do not know about the internal workings of this virtual robot. This article will attempt to reveal some of the most important Google spiders, their function, and how they affect you as a web master. We'll start with the well-known GoogleBot.

Ten Tips For User Friendly Online Registration Forms
Written by: Jim Romanik | Distributed: 2009-02-24 | Word Count: 775 | Page Views: 12748 | Votes: 15 | Rating: 0.93
Have you ever registered or attempted to register for an event and spent half an hour trying to figure out what you needed to do? Or have you used an online registration form that lost your data or was so complicated that it seemed like more work than faxing the form?

Successful Forum JVs and How To Get Them
Written by: Diana Barnum | Distributed: 2006-06-15 | Word Count: 648 | Page Views: 12487 | Votes: 19 | Rating: 2.11
The forming of common alliances, also referred to as a joint venture (JV), happens nearly every day in the business world. One of the most popular means of linking people up online of so that they can work together on their projects is via forums, where people of all levels of business and expertise post in common threads.

Highest Ranked "Business Online" Articles

Is Your Business 'Out Of Site'? Employ The Ultimate Marketing Tool
Written by: Rick Sloboda | Distributed: 2007-01-09 | Word Count: 445 | Page Views: 5516 | Votes: 21 | Rating: 3.76
With the rapid expansion of the digital economy, the web site is conceivably the most powerful marketing and sales tool you can employ. Find out what a web site can do for you.

How To Use Your Race To Get Rich
Written by: Herbert Harris | Distributed: 2009-07-07 | Word Count: 1407 | Page Views: 5916 | Votes: 48 | Rating: 3.71
Amid recent news reports that there continues to be an ongoing and substantial gap between the net worth of Whites and other racial groups, it is easy to be distracted and overwhelmed by the raw data. However, I am immediately reminded of a quote offered by an economic expert from the past... "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics!"

Why I'm A 'B-Level Marketer!'
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2007-07-16 | Word Count: 917 | Page Views: 6772 | Votes: 26 | Rating: 3.58
At a recent Internet marketing seminar, I was sitting around the hotel lobby with approximately 20 other seminar attendees and speakers. The seminar's host was in attendance, and the conversation covered a range of internet marketing topics with extreme frankness. Our proximity to the hotel bar certainly contributed to our 'conviviality.'

15 fixes for a failing website
Written by: Rick Sloboda | Distributed: 2007-02-07 | Word Count: 593 | Page Views: 3490 | Votes: 25 | Rating: 3.48
Employ these 15 tactics to improve your search engine rankings, engage visitors and convert more sales.

The Most Important Ingredient for Info Product Success (is You)
Written by: Judy Murdoch | Distributed: 2008-04-15 | Word Count: 981 | Page Views: 5963 | Votes: 15 | Rating: 3.47
Last week I was attending a conference and mentioned to someone I help small business owners create information products. The other person was very friendly until I said "information products." Then the temperature in the room dropped about 10-degrees

How to Keep Your Article Content Fresh and Interesting
Written by: Craig Ritsema | Distributed: 2006-08-29 | Word Count: 699 | Page Views: 5504 | Votes: 25 | Rating: 3.44
Webmasters everywhere are constantly on the lookout for fresh and interesting content for their website. Along with these content qualities is the requirement that it be unique. Everyone wants their website to stand out above the others in the search engine results. So what is the trick for you to keep a steady supply of this quality content coming your way?

How To Build A Profitable Twitter Profile
Written by: Harold Hemmings | Distributed: 2009-08-06 | Word Count: 1357 | Page Views: 2662 | Votes: 8 | Rating: 3.38
Online marketers everywhere are finally starting to tap into the Twitter Marketplace. Marketers are getting involved in Twitter at awesome rates, but all seem to have one unanswered question: How do we actually monetize this marketplace? It is my goal that by the time you have read this article, you will have a clear idea of exactly how to monetize your activities in Twitter.

Increasing Productivity In Your Online Business
Written by: Willie Crawford | Distributed: 2006-06-14 | Word Count: 1407 | Page Views: 7365 | Votes: 40 | Rating: 3.35
Running an online "empire" of approximately 1600 websites and blogs, selling a variety of products, services and ideas, I have to be much more productive than the average person in a "regular job."

Turn A One-Night-Stand With Google Into A Long-Term Relationship
Written by: Diane Metz | Distributed: 2007-07-10 | Word Count: 882 | Page Views: 2648 | Votes: 6 | Rating: 3.33
Want to win the favor of Google? Then you've got to build a long-term relationship with her. Many new SEO strategies are simply recycled old-tricks. And Google is a smart gal who can see right through them. Position your website for the future by understanding what Google really likes â€" and what she really loathes.

Treat Online 'Guests' With Respect
Written by: Rick Sloboda | Distributed: 2007-07-27 | Word Count: 472 | Page Views: 30406 | Votes: 33 | Rating: 3.33
Does your website show your customers lack of respect? Review the following checklist to find out.











Download an eBook today
 
Directory Navigation
Locate By Category:

ALL Categories
Arts & Crafts
Arts & Entertainment
Automotive
Business - Offline
Business - Online
Career
Computers
Education
Family
Finance
Food & Drink
Health & Wellness
Home & Garden
Humor
Internet
Nature & Pets
Real Estate
Religion
Self Improvement
Shopping
Society
Sports & Recreation
Technology
Travel & Leisure
Uncategorized
World Events
Writing & Speaking

Change Number of Results:
50 - 100 - 200 - 500
Article Reprint Rights
Creative Commons License

This work is
licensed under a
Creative Commons
License


You are not required to show the creative commons license notice when you reprint this work.
Article Statistics
Word Count: 452

Total Views: 4559

Article Rating: 2.29 of 5
Votes Cast: 21

More Articles By Author:



Last Distribution Date:
2008-05-16 12:00:00

Internal ID: #3694





All Articles are Copyright © 2001-2023 of the Defined Authors.

All other material and images on this site are:
Copyright © 2001-2023, ThePhantomWriters.com