Selling The Inexpensive Solar Water Pump by Walt Barrett

You know,there is only one way to prove a point really fast -- "Put your money where your mouth is!" That is why I decided to lower the price of our Solar Well Pump Kit to an insane $750.00 plus shipping. We have to get this equipment out there even if we lose money! The point is that people need the equipment and we can make up the losses with volume sales in the future -- we hope!
I have tried everything else to no avail, and I will not pay for position on the search engines. I think that concept stinks, and they (The search engine companies) are a bunch of hypocrites to be complaining about certain companies that want to charge a premium for speedier service on the Internet that is totally clogged with unnecessary spam and other crap that we just have to deal with unless we want the government interfering in that too. Paying for advertising is totally fair, but paying for position defeats all the other principles of proper web page design, key words etc, if a major big guy can shut the little guys out with his big money. Why have a web crawler at all if you are going to defeat or dilute the results with money from big business -- Our real government!
The pump for our system alone retails for as much as $600.00 on the Internet, the controller for over $100.00, and the collector for over $300.00, on other web sites, That is a $1000.00 value for only $750.00 plus shipping. We have to find out if there is a future in the solar business or not!
Walt

The Lack of Interest In Our Solar Water Pumps or, Getting Your Products Found On The Internet by Walter H. Barrett

Getting your products found on the Internet.

I have to tell you in all honesty that I am really disgusted with the lack of mail that we receive for our solar water pumping kits. I know there is a great need for this product, and I have bent over backwards to get the price down as low as possible. It doesn't make any difference! I know what part of the problem is. I just did a google search for solar water pumps and went in 20 pages without finding my pump, and gave up in despair! That means that our handful of sales are only from people who stumble across our pump page by accident. I can guarantee you one thing, and that is we are going to do something about that because we should be selling several a week at the bargain price for a kit of only $895.00!
This is the address http://www.solar100.com/swp1.html .
This kit is made entirely in North America and ships for low bucks because it is not that heavy and the quality is super. I will report my progress on this problem.
Getting your products found on the Internet is a problem. People write books, and sell all kinds of submission, and keyword schemes etc. But it seems to me that as long as the owners of the search engines are selling position on their sites it makes their sites slanted towards the big guys. I used to say all the time that the Internet creates a level playing field, but that is not really true anymore. Once the reality sunk in that there are literally billions of dollars at stake by rigging the search engines towards those who pay the most money it was all over for the little guy. Now the big money boys want to take over the whole works, and even make you pay for the speed with which you can send and receive your e-mail. They will create a high class and low class Internet if they get their way. Now we all know that when Al Gore "invented the internet" he never really intended that!
If the big boys throw enough money around congress they will surely succeed sooner or later because the reality is that big business really runs our government anyway. As long as companies are allowed to channel huge sums of money and perks to congress small business will continue to suffer and eventually will be exterminated.
My advice is to find other ways to promote your web site as cheaply as possible. It is not that expensive if you have a great product with a fair price, and a little imagination.
Walt

Let's All Help Out At Christmas and The Holidays by Walter H. Barrett

There are many of us that have seen some pretty rough times going all the way back the nineteen-thirties in my case. We have seen the endless depressions, recessions and wars, but here we are, the survivors, for better or worse. Now it is time to pay a little back. In my case there is a needy family of four that we know, and they have suffered a lot of bad breaks in life. The Mother is not lazy, and she is a very hard worker. Her husband left her with three young kids. With wages what they are, she just cannot work enough hours to make ends meet, and to top it off she is recovering from Lyme disease which her brilliant doctor misdiagnosed for eighteen months! So, my Wife Nancy goes to see her often, and gives her extra money that we will never really miss. We have decided that for the holidays this year we will give her a very generous gift certificate for the super market. I am only mentioning this to impart an idea for a way to do a good thing, and maybe even bring on some significant and sorely needed changes. If everyone would look around them for even one person that could use even a few dollars to help them over a bump in the road it would be a great thing. A lot of people give now, but there are a lot more who could , and don't. Personally I get a great deal of satisfaction by seeing where my money goes, and knowing the intended person got it. Anything from a bag of groceries to a load of fuel is good. All poor people are not lazy. They just can't make it in our screwed up economy. It is not a new idea but some folks need reminding. Please try to look after someone who is worse off than you are -- pass it along
Happy Holidays!
Walt

My New Eye by Walter H. Barrett

I am sorry that I am behind in my postings this week, but it has been a rather interesting week! As many of you know, I am now on the sunny side of seventy-four, and I recently found that I had serious cataract problems with both of my eyes. The right eye was so bad that I was legally blind in that eye. Well in the old days I would have been doomed to just quietly go blind, and that would have seriously hampered my business career. Now it seems that it was just a minor set back in my busy life.
The long story short is that I walked into the hospital Tuesday morning at 6 AM legally blind in my right eye and walked out at 10 AM the same morning with 20-15 vision, and no more glasses as soon as they do the other eye in the very near future. Fifty years ago if anyone had told me that story I would have been rolling around on the floor laughing at them. It just goes to show that in spite of our many problems we have made some progress in this world.
It brings to mind a night in the late nineteen thirties that my Dad came home from work one evening, and in the glow of our oil lamp lit dinner table he told us that he saw a radio in a box in the window of the radio store in town, and the box showed talking motion pictures. He was always teasing us with his tall tales, and my Mother called him a liar and said "There could never be such a machine!" There may be a lesson in there somewhere. I know one thing for sure; I have literally gone from oil lamps to the internet in my life!
I'll be seeing you!
Walt