Article Distribution Service Time Frame
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Up until November of 2007, we consistently turned around article distributions in one to three days.
In December of 2007, we ran a special promotion that was far more successful than we had planned for. With that one promotion, we were suddenly facing a backlog of six weeks. It took some time, but we got our backlog back down to roughly eight days, between the receipt of an article and having that article set up for distribution.
During all of 2008, our standard setup time was the eight days spoken of in the previous paragraph.
We also met other problems in 2008, in our ability to produce ghost written articles. The problems we experienced with the development of “inexpensive ghost written articles” led us to discontinue that service as 2008 wound down. We still offer ghost writing, but only if Bill Platt writes your articles. We no longer offer inexpensive ghost writing solutions.
As we were preparing for 2009, we had decided that with the elimination of ghost writing as one of our services, we felt we could trim the article distribution setup time back down to the 3-8 day turnaround we were able to do in years past.
But 2009 brought new surprises – unanticipated bad news.
I missed a lot of work time between Jan 20th and Feb 20th of 2009. My dad got sick – bad sick.
At a certain point in the process, he asked for either my sister or I to accompany him to all of his doctors’ appointments. My sister was not able to do so, but since I work for myself, I was able to say yes.
On the 13th of February, we got the bad news. My dad has terminal cancer – throat cancer to be specific. Many people have asked if he was a smoker – he was not. He gave up smoking nearly forty years ago, when he suffered his first bout with throat cancer.
He nearly died of cancer all those years ago, but they were able to use radiation to eliminate all of the cancer from his body. This is important to the understanding of why they won’t be able to cure him this time around. When he took those radiation treatments in the late 1960′s, the treatment killed all of the flesh around his throat. Due to what was done forty years ago, they will not be able to give him radiation this time around. And chemo cannot cure cancer, just slow its growth.
We are talking “weeks or months”, where my dad is concerned. To be truthful, I have probably spent more time with my dad in the last two months than I have spent with him in the last twenty years.
One of my goals when I started this business is to be able to have time for my family when they need me. And right now, my dad needs me. So, I am making myself available to him as often as possible.
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For the last month, we have been slow on all article distributions. We got about 3 weeks behind, but in the course of the last week, I have been able to trim our backlog to less than two weeks.
The clients who have been with me for years, have shown a great deal of care and understanding in this matter. I have to say that I have the best customers in the world.
Those who had purchased my services for the first time after January 20th were disappointed and angry. My absence was unacceptable to them.
So be it.
I am disappointed to have lost their business.
I work a lot of hours, and I always have. I have consistently put in 80 hour weeks for more than seven years now, in order to be able to serve my customers and to help them grow their businesses through the use of my services.
At this moment, I am working my normal 80 hours per week, but if my dad calls, I will get in the car and drive the one hour to his house to help him with whatever he asks me to do.
So here is the deal.
We are trying to get our work caught up and get back down to our normal eight-day turn-around, from the receipt of an article and having that article setup in our system. Once we get passed the current crisis, we will be working to get closer to a three-day turn-around time.
Our official stated turn-around time has always been to get articles set up in three to eight days, though we prefer to stay to the low-end of that range as we had done for more than five years. We will get back there again soon.
Even with the current situation, we are working hard to keep our schedules.
Our absences right now will be temporary – according to the doctors, a few weeks or a few months, no more.
My mom called last week. Her brother is also facing the same “few weeks to a few months” with esophagus cancer. So instead of one pending funeral, we now have two pending funerals on the horizon. The outcome is certain – the timing is not certain.
Given the prevalence of cancer in my family, I guess I know what I am going to die from – hopefully a few dozen years from now.
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Bill Platt – owner of The Phantom Writers
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