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« Last post by ericheartsu on April 09, 2025, 03:36:21 PM »
Enjoy your retirement! thanks for all the help to everyone over the years!
52
« Last post by brandon on April 09, 2025, 01:14:19 PM »
Thank you Tony for all the help over the many years. Not just us but all the print shops that have come and gone. Enjoy the future!!
53
« Last post by 3Deep on April 09, 2025, 01:12:36 PM »
Sad to say TP you won't be alone as I've had a few people in the biz I know here gave it up....but hey enjoy some peace and sanity
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« Last post by mk162 on April 09, 2025, 10:24:44 AM »
Enjoy retirement! You've put your time in.
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« Last post by tonypep on April 09, 2025, 08:28:23 AM »
Officially retired. Working on my fine art on paper and ceramics. Its been a good run but the industry is changing rapidly. Time to bow out gracefully. Best to all tp
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« Last post by ebscreen on April 08, 2025, 04:48:50 PM »
Don't self host. Just don't.
Most shared hosting will let you stack a stupid number of domains at what, a grand total of $15 a month?
And if you need root/more configurability get a VPS, it's not expensive.
There is no cost savings in self hosting, only headaches.
Also, as a 40 something, the moment I see AI slop in any way shape or form I'm hitting the "oh hell no" button post haste.
There's something just super off putting about it. Probably the same way victorian era people felt about seeing ankles in print.
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« Last post by blue moon on April 07, 2025, 08:27:09 PM »
funny thing!
I've been trying to train chatGPT to write in that style and I keep having to tweak it a lot. I just told it to do it storybrand style and BAM! on the first try!
thanx for that info!
Thats awesome! Story brand is def the way to go. Ive spent the last 6-8 months or so implementing a lot of backend systems. Really getting pumped about getting the front end going. Front end web / customer facing things have always been a little intimidating, but i 'm getting more and more confidence that it can be implemented successfully.
Main system now is two Synology NAS units that backup to each other, one local and one off site. They integrate with formstack (contract order submissions), which pushes orders to one drive cloud, which syncs to the nas (local). Order data is pushed to shipstation via zapier, so auto tracking notifications go out and we never have to input addresses manually. Zapier also triggers a mail chimp NPS survey (for retail customers) on a two week delay which includes a link for google review. All of the incoming files are stored locally the nas, so makes retrieval super easy, anyone can work on anything from anywhere. I can easily setup shared folders for clients, or just give them read access. Just having the SMB mounts on our local machines is amazing. With snapshots enabled you basically have version control over every file. Proofing is done via Ashore, which is freaking amazing if you guys havent checked that out yet.
Plan is to setup seo friendly websites to dominate local search which will act as a sales funnel (ie xyzcityshirts.com, xzycityembroidery.com, xyzcfullcolorshirts.com etc) They can all backlink which will help seo. I will host locally from the NAS via webstation, so all i have to pay for is the domains. Its relatively easy / free to get SSL certs from lets encypt. You just have to point the CNAME records and port forward. Have been learning HTML / CSS but will likely start with wordpress to just get off the ground. I like the idea of using AI to write the copy, but I do worry about is how that will affect SEO. I dont know for sure but my gut tells me that the SEO algos may have already figured out that people are doing this and will flag that type of content and de rank the page on that alone.
I like the idea of zoho, but dang its a little overwhelming to see all of the stuff they're offering. I feel like we have pretty decent systems other than the lack of CRM (yeah thats a big one), but honestly im trying to get things off of the cloud. Once you get in that ecosystem its hard to get out. I know there are a lot of benefits, but i might keep on with our peicemeal approach and add things as they're needed.
you are probably right about AI copy, but in my eyes as long as it is quality content, the styling si probably going to be acceptable. Any article we are putting up is now at least an hour or two worth of work and is heavily massaged before being put on line. We'll see how much difference it makes. My guess in our contract field probably not much since there is a limited umber of companies doing it. As far as data, all our stuff is in the cloud now. No more worries about 4 different backups, power surges compromising the database and computer maintenance issues (and I owned 3 computer companies, one being IT support). it's a personal preference... Zoho has a lot to offer and I would not tackle it on my own (again, another one of I could, but should I?). We can set up a video call where I can share a screen and show you what we are doing. We are still working out the kinks, but you'll get the gist of it. I am also working with the Zoho partners to make a pricing calculator so might be able to share it if you go with the Zoho platform. Their web site software is not bad, take a look at our new web page and you'll see it has pretty much all you need. After doing many Wordpress sites, I would not go back. Too many updates and things to keep track of. This is fire and forget, might have to pay every few years for couple of hours in case of some drastic changes (not sure what that would be, but you never know). We will pay one of the guys to do all the web site blogs and email campaigns with the articles we generate. That might end up being about $50 per week. 'just talk ed to a friend today who is looking at retiring and he has a marketing company. I'll see if he is interested in selling. So there might be another angle here too. Right now he manages everything we talked about here for his clients. We, as an industry, could really use somebody who knows their crap in the marketing field. let me know about a video call. Offer is open to anybody else who is interested! pierre
58
« Last post by Atownsend on April 07, 2025, 07:37:36 PM »
funny thing!
I've been trying to train chatGPT to write in that style and I keep having to tweak it a lot. I just told it to do it storybrand style and BAM! on the first try!
thanx for that info!
Thats awesome! Story brand is def the way to go. Ive spent the last 6-8 months or so implementing a lot of backend systems. Really getting pumped about getting the front end going. Front end web / customer facing things have always been a little intimidating, but i 'm getting more and more confidence that it can be implemented successfully. Main system now is two Synology NAS units that backup to each other, one local and one off site. They integrate with formstack (contract order submissions), which pushes orders to one drive cloud, which syncs to the nas (local). Order data is pushed to shipstation via zapier, so auto tracking notifications go out and we never have to input addresses manually. Zapier also triggers a mail chimp NPS survey (for retail customers) on a two week delay which includes a link for google review. All of the incoming files are stored locally the nas, so makes retrieval super easy, anyone can work on anything from anywhere. I can easily setup shared folders for clients, or just give them read access. Just having the SMB mounts on our local machines is amazing. With snapshots enabled you basically have version control over every file. Proofing is done via Ashore, which is freaking amazing if you guys havent checked that out yet. Plan is to setup seo friendly websites to dominate local search which will act as a sales funnel (ie xyzcityshirts.com, xzycityembroidery.com, xyzcfullcolorshirts.com etc) They can all backlink which will help seo. I will host locally from the NAS via webstation, so all i have to pay for is the domains. Its relatively easy / free to get SSL certs from lets encypt. You just have to point the CNAME records and port forward. Have been learning HTML / CSS but will likely start with wordpress to just get off the ground. I like the idea of using AI to write the copy, but I do worry about is how that will affect SEO. I dont know for sure but my gut tells me that the SEO algos may have already figured out that people are doing this and will flag that type of content and de rank the page on that alone. I like the idea of zoho, but dang its a little overwhelming to see all of the stuff they're offering. I feel like we have pretty decent systems other than the lack of CRM (yeah thats a big one), but honestly im trying to get things off of the cloud. Once you get in that ecosystem its hard to get out. I know there are a lot of benefits, but i might keep on with our peicemeal approach and add things as they're needed.
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« Last post by Homer on April 05, 2025, 10:58:51 AM »
I have the original blue prints and electrical diagrams for this dryer too if yall ever need a copy.
Ding dang. Are they in digital format already? That would be good to have on hand.
they are not, they're huge blue prints. I'll ship you the entire manual, scan or whatever and ship it back to me if you want.
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« Last post by Evo on April 04, 2025, 12:11:14 PM »
While we're at it... https://www.replacementlightbulbs.com/lampqh1500t3_240v_1007211.htmlI keep a spreadsheet with all our spare parts listed with both M&R and OEM part numbers, with alternate sources when available.
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