Carbon dioxide increase – the winning side

 As we most likely learned in school, carbon dioxide or CO2 is the gas we breathe out from the work that our cells accomplish in our body, and the gas that plants need to absorb to thrive and produce the food that we all eat. The more carbon dioxide (up to a point far higher than present) the faster plants grow. There is geological evidence that there was far more carbon dioxide and plant life during certain periods in the past.

This is the most likely reason there is an abundance of carbon based fuel in the ground in the form of oil, gas and coal. This fuel came from carbon dioxide in the air, used by plants, and stored in the ground for us to reuse today. Scientists theorize that without plants there would be no oxygen for us to breathe, food to eat or fuel to produce energy.

When this fuel is burned for heat and energy, the carbon is oxidized forming carbon dioxide. Some of this carbon dioxide is captured, stored as dry ice, used for cooling or blast cleaning and cycled back into the atmosphere where it was previously absorbed by the plants and stored in the ground for our fuel. It is amazing how this carbon dioxide cycle can produce both heat and cooling energy for our use.

Carbon dioxide is also widely used in the beverage industry. We all are familiar with it when we drink a soda – carbon dioxide makes the fizz because it is water soluble. This means the ocean, covering over 70% of the earth’s surface, also absorbs carbon dioxide and will dissolve most of the additional carbon dioxide emitted by man. Carbon dioxide permits the growth of ocean plant food necessary for plankton, fish, whales, and other sea life to live.

ISLA Earth reports a recent Smithsonian study showing an increased amount of carbon dioxide will benefit wetlands all over the world by growing greater biomass necessary for its survival, keeping incoming water from drowning the wetlands.

Therefore we could be celebrating the very small percent increase of carbon dioxide in earth’s atmosphere over the last fifty years, from .0387% to .0400%, because of the benefits it offers us, instead of an alarmist’s attitude of gloom and destruction.

Internet sales for dry ice suppliers.

How often is dry ice purchased over the internet? Internet sales world wide topped one trillion for 2012 – up 15% over the previous year. Isn’t this a growing market worth examining?

Dry ice producers and distributors have often thought this was too difficult because dry ice must be shipped by ground and sublimation losses add up quickly. Yet some companies have worked with UPS and offer on line sales within a two day delivery radius from their plant. They can reach new customers many hundred of miles away. Two companies I am aware of are Dry Ice Express in Toronto, Canada, and Atomic Dry Ice in Minnesota. UPS will not guarantee delivery and delayed delivery must be replaced by the supplier and not UPS, so prices must be enough to cover these additional efforts and risks.

The first requirement is a good dry ice shipping container. These containers when added to a dry ice supplier’s inventory are also available to sell to the public. Next, set up daily shipping procedures. This service can also be offered to the walk-in public allowing them to ship their frozen goods. Finally be sure to advertise these new services on line to reach many new customers.

The added value of offering internet dry ice sales to a limited local area, along with new products and shipping services will expand your customer base and customer satisfaction.

Welcome to the internet age.

How well do search engines work for your business today?


There are a lot of spam emails and ads to “optimize” your business website. Most charge monthly fees in the hundreds of dollars. They succeed in signing up new businesses because all business owners want to help their customers find them. But actually, what are the best ways to accomplish this task?

First, let’s explore some essentials about search engines in general.

Did you ever think about why Google is the top search engine? Why, more often than not, do you find your answer fairly quickly? Think back just a few years ago when it took longer to find the right information on the Internet, if you could. Today we search with confidence that we can find a quick answer. But do these answers give us the best choices?

Urban myths abound among new business website owners. “Google only lists those at the top that pay Google for ads.” “Google’s top listings are only the largest companies.” “You must pay someone to get to the top.” "This program will show your ranking” Etc., etc, etc. (These are only a few of many that I have heard – and all, I believe are false.)

Here is what I have found over the past year.

All search engines’ main goal is to have satisfied customers. Otherwise you won’t return. (And their ads won’t work.) Therefore they keep track of the last site you stop your search on. More than likely you have found what you want. This will boost that site’s ranking by one satisfied customer. The more satisfied customers you have, the higher your web site ranks. (Far less likely is the possibility that you have given up, therefore falsely boosting this final site.) These “exit” results count more than other publicize ideas such as “links from popular sites”. Without any promotion or links from top sites my latest website dryiceReporter.com took less than sixty days for Yahoo and less than thirty days for Google to move it to the top ten. This certainly defies all the publicized benefits for paid results.

All search engines are dynamic and change each and every time you search - even if only minutes apart. This is because the search engines are constantly collecting new information that changes their rankings. This is easier to detect in the third to fifth page results, but may be noticed by you when your ranking changes.

Search engines give greater weight to matching words to the title of the web page than to key words hidden within the page. Therefore don’t label your first page” Home” as I have often seen in new sites. Get feedback from a website analysis program (many are free), in order to find the search words used by visitors choosing your site. Then modify your title if needed.

Finally, if you have a “brick and mortar” business, be sure to register on Google Places for Business to be mapped by Google in their search results.

These key steps will help your new searching customers find your business quick and keep your website in the running.

Ken

The Value of Your Internet Web Site

In our global world today, the internet has become the first and foremost way for new customers to find your business. We also must consider returning customers who use the internet to find more about you and perhaps your competitors too. Therefore your investment on your website is the number one consideration for your business public presence. Any other level of
consideration lowers your business vitality. Your website is the key portal that many use to view your strength and success.

I remember when I started my first business – a gift and jewelry store, that the investment in the local telephone company Yellow Pages was the most important place to announce my presence. I was astounded at how much it cost to advertise there. Then when competing yellow pages came out – it compounded my advertising expenses. I felt forced to keep even the smaller directories when new customers said they used these yellow pages for convenience because they would find the results quicker. Not many of our younger generation will remember the four to six inch thick yellow pages of a moderate sized city. The larger cities had multiple thick directories and if we wanted customers from each section of the city we would pay hundreds of dollars each month to look better than our competitors. By now everyone cal tell my age – and I hope the wisdom that comes with it.

Now it seems so much easier to make a website with free software and other low cost considerations. If you are not careful, though, they will produce a cheaper looking website. Investing a reasonable amount of money with an experienced web site developer will give you a better return that most anything else for your business.

The first job of your website is to reach potential new customers with easy to find information about your company. Your products, services, and location must be on the home page or indexed on your tabs because these are the crucial inquiries new customers are seeking.

Second, use your website to teach your customers about your products and services. Remember the internet is now the primary source people use to find new information.

Give your customers easy to find information they need. Organize your navigation system in the order of the most frequent asked customer questions.

Use depth to teach your customers about your products and services. The better educated your customer is – the more likely he or she will choose the right product and have a high satisfaction rate.

Finally, inform your customers about your company goals. How do you plan to satisfy them? How do you plan to help them? What will you do if they need help? All these things can be presented in your web site.

Use your web site as a dynamic, always evolving representation of your company – especially as your company grows and changes. Listen to customer feedback. Your website is the first impression for many new customers and may be the final impression for lost customers.

Ken

Food for thought:

How much do you spend each year on your website? Is it enough?

How easy is it for your customers to contact you?

Think of examples of good websites that are easy to navigate?

What do you dislike the most on a website? What do you like the most?

What does your website need the most?

You may have heard the joke about the repairman called out to get the factory machinery running again. He arrived quickly – looked around at all the workers sitting back waiting for something to happen – didn’t see one machine running – went to the control box and opened it up. He then put his screwdriver inside and turned something. Then he pulled the lever and everything started up and ran impeccably. When he presented his bill, the owner complained about paying $100 just to turn the screw. “OK,” the repairman said, tearing up the bill and writing a new one: $1 for turning the screw, $99 for knowing which one to turn.

This introduction can instruct us: “To be successful we must know which screw to turn.”

When we first started ABC Ice we got many calls asking for dry ice. One of our competitors told us it was a pain in the neck to sell and hardly worth handling. Another competitor even used part of his Yellow Page ad telling everyone, “We don’t carry dry ice!” He told us that even that didn’t stop the annoying phone calls. When I called the suppliers, they all said I was too far south from Los Angeles to get scheduled deliveries. At least one offered it for double the price my competitor was selling his for. I couldn’t make any money that way. Finally I decided to drive thirty miles north into another city where I wasn’t selling ice and buy dry ice from a distributor that was willing to give me a slight discount off his retail price anytime I needed it. At least this way I could wait until I nearly ran out by selling it or watching it sublimate away unsold – before getting more. Many times my wife, Ellen would call me to ask how soon I would get back to the plant – a customer may be willing to wait.

That solved one of the key points of selling dry ice. Getting the quantity needed when it is needed – “just in time.”

This alone didn’t make us successful or even profitable in the dry ice business. It simply allowed us to be able to offer a product for an obvious need as indicated by the many telephone calls.
I believe the key to successful sales is a two way street involving our customers and us. First we must learn to listen to our customers’ needs and requirements. Do they really need dry ice when wet water ice will do? Are they purchasing the dry ice at the right time? Are they buying enough or too much? Will they handle the dry ice so it won’t “burn” them? An unhappy customer costs more than we imagine. Therefore we must be able to talk to our customers and explain to them the proper use, handling, and storage of dry ice so their desires will be met successfully. The most important thing to control while talking to our customers is our attitude. We must not become impatient or exasperated just because we have heard this question one thousand times already.

When we develop a positive supportive and caring attitude, our customers will feel free to ask even the easiest questions that may make the difference in their experience using dry ice. These customers will pass on that close comfortable feeling to others and allow our business to grow. Sometimes we only have a few moments to give the right impression so we must always make the most of the first impression – even a simple smile to start things off – and build a lasting relationship that will reward us with repeat business and success.

Ken
dryiceInfo.com

Bright Future for Dry Ice

The amount of information available about dry ice is growing due to the success of internet search engines and sustained curiosity about it. Now there are many – often copied – similar descriptions about anything anyone wants to know about dry ice. When I started dryiceInfo ten years ago there was more bad information than good helpful information on the internet. So I started the website as a hobby to better inform the public. Now I will continue sharing information in this blog by giving updated and current trends for the dry ice industry.

The latest economic downturn, primarily due to young innovated and creative minds using the power of computer programming to find new ways of squeezing higher interest rates for banking investment has churned the world because of unforeseen shortcomings as nothing else has in such a short time. Other forces from the internet's quick and easy availability of information has closed many businesses and made others that sell to walk in traffic obsolete.

News organizations are also in tumult and disarray trying to find the vehicle to earn a living and pay for their resources to provide news in their old traditional way as well as new internet ways. Only by understanding the new power that each of us individually have when we can gather and share news and other information on the internet for all to see, will the news companies succeed in providing a public service that someone will support with their wages.

Yet in these changing and challenging times dry ice is still selling in increasing quantities to walk in customers – note the increased number of grocery stores carrying Penguin brand dry ice. It is still the most economic way to store cold energy. And it is growing in popularity for photography special effects. In addition, dry ice blast cleaning is a growing industry, as contractors for various business with cleaning, maintenance and refurbishing requirements, discover more and more innovated applications for using dry ice blasting.

For dry ice blast cleaners, the opportunities for new business is mitigated by the increasing number of people willing to get into the blasting business themselves. Those who are successful because of good customer relationships combined with experienced gained from careful preparation, planning, and execution of the cleaning project in a safe orderly manner, build their trustworthy reputation in these hard times.

The blast-cleaning contractors who are willing to sell or rent blasting equipment to their existing and prospective customers as well as train them in their use, are the finding new sales opportunities, although they may be loosing some of their contractual business. The question that needs to be answered is “How can I support my customers in the best possible way for their benefit?” When this is answered with our customers’ interest first, we become a valued service provider and a friend that can be counted on in a substantial lasting relationship of worthy character that will provide valued referrals.

Therefore I see a bright future in the dry ice business – both selling dry ice and the growing opportunities in dry ice blast cleaning – and not an antiquated symbol disappearing as fast as the desk hogging vacuum tube computer monitor has.

Ken