The London Group Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary WIth Unique Products And Services

It started in 1997 in a small metal warehouse in rural Mississippi. Nobody would rent to Rick London because he
"owned a dog". Indeed he did have a dog, but he also had
what Winston Churchill called "His Black Dog" or severe
depression. A friend of London's owned an old abandoned
warehouse with a phone line and electricity, but no heat
or air, and he lived in it, slept on the concrete floor on
a sleeping bag for a year and launched Londons Times Cartoons.

His only assets were app. $100 cash, a very old IBM 386 computer, a phone line with dial up Internet, and a book
titled "Internet For Dummies".

Ten years later Londons Times Cartoons boasts over 6000
originals that London wrote and his team of artists rendered.
It ranks in the Alexa top 200k and Netcraft top 100k most popular sites. www.londonstimes.us (A subsidiary of Rick London's The London Group)

Last year London launched Londons Times Superstore which features his licensed image items; everything from tee
shirts to mouse pads, to wall clocks to gourmet coffee gift baskets...over 65,000 items in all. www.londonstimessuperstore.com (The London Group)

As if that were not enough, he launched his own private label brand of gourmet coffee gift baskets "Ruth London's Exquisite Coffees" named after his grandmother which include cartoon coasters and mug.

Last week, he launched his own line of cartoon clothing
called Rick Londonwear www.ricklondonwear.com (The London Group)

He also signed with one of the Internet's top digital
content providers www.blish.com. If one does a Londons Times Cartoons on their search engine they can find cartoons for any profession from lawyers to psychiatrists.

London says they work great for journals, websites, ads,
newsletters etc. "Remember, newspaper editors have known for years that cartoons build loyalty. Why else would they devote an entire ad-free non revenue producing page every day? They know why and so should other publishers.

London has also launched his own subscription-based
ecard site "for the high IQ right-brainers" who he says
"simply aren't fascinated with the flash and fast one
liners. Yes, it is a bit erudite but well worth it and
has a 30 day free trial and after that only 8.50 a year,
half of our competitors. http://www.londonstimes.us/ecards/ecards.html

London is a return-to-college adult at 52 living in
the Ouchata mountains of Arkansas and is learning
business. He says most of his focus is on e-business
which fascinates him the most.

He also just created a website with a ticker tape rss
feed which feeds news from major media outlets and
blog feeds from his own site, all worldwide to anyone
who has the ticker tape. It's all free, the membership,
the blog, etc; it even has a chat room and ezine.
In addition Adsense pays bloggers to blog. It can
be found at www.theaffiliatetoolbar.com or
www.seostreetsmarts.com. (The London Group) It also works as a network
solution for affiliate managers and candidates and
to learn SEO from experts often invited in to chat.

"It has been an amazing ride this ten years," says
London. "Everyone told me not to try this because
I would fail. If this is failing, I prefer it to
succeeding...but to be humble, I would be lying to
not admit I had many more failures along the way than
successes. I guess that is how we learn this, and I'm
certain I'll have many more.

Rick London
CEO The London Group
www.londonstimes.us
www.londonstimessuperstore.com
www.ricklondonwear.com
www.seostreetsmarts.com

Londons Times Cartoons In Netcraft 100,000

Well it was exciting to hear from my webmaster that our cartoon site is in
the www.netcraft.com top 100k at number 98,000 give or take a few hundred.

I had never heard of Netcraft but that doesn't mean anything, apparently they
are a well-known site and I'm happy to know the site is retaining its popularity
this long, and frankly surprised.

I hope the same type thing happens with our superstore which is linked to
our cartoon site. That address is http://www.londonstimessuperstore.com and
it is a great place to gift shop. I like the store myself but of course I'm prejudiced.

Single Panel Offbeat Cartoon Londons Times Suddenly Top-Ranked At Netcraft And Alexa

Rick London started Londons Times Cartoons in a metal run down warehouse donated to him by a friend in 1997 for his "studio". He was 43 years old and decided to become a cartoonist (though he didn't draw very well).

London says "People thought me of dubious character at best, first for wanting to become a cartoonist, and secondly because I was not all that artistic. Nobody wanted me as 'the odd neighbor with a vision'.

But that didn't stop him. With $300 (all he had) he bought a used IBM clone computer, a phone line, a lot of rice and beans, a book called "Internet For Dummies" and a sleeping bag. He slept on the concrete floor. He learned the Internet, started recruiting illustrators who would render his ideas on speculation (he had written about a thousand), and got to work.

By 1998, he had a website on a free web server, could not yet afford a domain, one illustrator partner, and about
70 cartoons up (more popup ads than cartoons).

Fast forward to 2005. London, by now was living in a high rise in Hot Springs, Ar, had his own domain, an inventory of about 5000 cartoons; an illustration team of seven
nearly-full time illustrators and was in the Alexa top
100,000 websites on the Internet.

Fast forward again to 2006. London has a worldwide following, about 6500 cartoons, and his site remains one of the highest ranked on the Internet. It receives about 4000 visitors per hour, or 5.6 million hits since January of 2005 (today is December 1, 2006), a superstore
with over 65,000 cartoon image products in 23 categories, his own private label of gourmet coffee gift baskets (complete with gourmet mug and coasters), and much more.
The Superstore address is http://www.londonstimesssuperstore.com and it boasts one of the largest if not the largest collection of cartoon gifts and collectibles on the Internet.

Many have compared the cartoon favorably to Gary Larson's Far
Side, but London says "To me that is a compliment. If anyone was
my inspiration he was...along with Leigh Rubin, Jon Mcpherson, and
Dave Coverly. In fact Dave, Jon, and Leigh spent countless hours
with me on the phone and email showing me the ropes when I started. I'll never forget their generosity."

London also just launched Londons Times Ecard site which
features his cartoons in ecard form complete with music
and a place for a private message for senders. It can
be accessed at http://www.londonstimes.us/ecards/ecards.html . He offers a free 30 day trial and then just charges 8.50 a year, half of other quality ecard sites.

London is also a full-time business student at
Western Governors University, and plans to go on for
an MBA "if my health and sanity hold out," he jokes.

For more information contact sales@londonstimes.us
or call 501-442-0099