Hi folks. August has been a disastrous month as far as revenue goes. Without any warning, the blogad sales dried up mid-month. This has had an impact on almost all of the progressive bloggers that rely on advertising revenues. In response, I’ve added the Google Adsense ads, and the Crispads.
I originally added Adsense to just the EuroTrib site, but when the blogads disappeared I added them here too. Including the days when they only ran on EuroTrib, I am averaging $2.80/day from them. That’s not enough to pay my bills, let alone pay for my lunch. The Crispads have so far raised $60. It’s helpful, but it’s only enough to pay for a few hours work.
The best day I ever had from Adsense we had 149 clicks which raised 18 dollars. The Crispads used to pay .25 cents a click, now they pay .20.
I’ve taken some actions to try to raise more revenue including joining the Advertise Liberally, Philly Ad Network, and UK Blogads Network groups. This has helped us double our revenues at EuroTrib this month, but it hasn’t prevented a drastic drop off here at BooTrib.
You can help keep BooTrib afloat by visiting our advertisers once a day, or whenever you get the inclination. You can also help show your BooTrib spirit by purchasing a t-shirt and coffee mug from our store.
There are other ways you can help too. Email your friends links to your favorite diaries or front-page posts. Invite them to become members. Make BooTrib your homepage. Post a link to BooTrib on your blogroll or link to our stories on your blog. Post comments with links to us on other blogsites you visit.
And don’t forget to visit EuroTrib too. There is tremendous content over there. And Jerome relies on people visiting those advertisers to help offset his share of the server costs.
It’s a lot of work to provide a steady diet of new content, and there are a lot of hidden costs associated with running a community blogsite like this. Anything you can do to help out will be greatly appreciated. And keep the great diaries coming too. They contribute an enormous amount to the quality and experience of being a member here.
P.S. If you have experience writing press releases and are willing to write two or three for free, please email me at admin@boomantribune.com and provide me with a sample.
Thanks to all of you for helping make the site as successful as it has already become.
Boo.
Update [2005-8-29 21:23:48 by BooMan]: Thank you to everyone that has bought BooTrib shirts and mugs. I really appreciate it.
Is there a way for us to make contributions?
way to make a contribution is to visit the store. I can’t accept contributions unless I offer something in return. I’m thinking about developing a subsciber feature where you can turn off the ads (like Kos has). But that will also involve upfront costs to write. Really, any little thing is helpful. Thank you for asking.
I’ve been to the store — don’t need any more stuff! Can’t you just have a membership that doesn’t entail killing the ads (personally, they don’t offend me)?
my lawyer tells me that I can’t do it. I mean I could charge everyone a mandatory membership fee to get a password to access the site, but I don’t want to do that for a lot of reasons. But I can’t just put a paypal donation button out there. I wish I could.
Curious as to why — I don’t know anything about it, but am interested — is it something you can share?
is that BooTrib is set up as an LLC for tax and legal liability purposes. And a corporation, even a itsy-bitsy limited liability one, can’t accept payment without returning something tangible.
BTW- I have been threatened with my first lawsuit today for something someone wrote in a diary months ago. If I wasn’t an LLC, that could wind up costing me my house.
It seems like there ought to be something totally meaningless that you could sell. I mean, what about a “Premium Membership” that entitled the member to, say, write three diaries a day instead of two — or something equally trivial?
I’d buy that!
I’ve been talking about it with Susan. We could create a freesite on blogger.com or something and provide some original content that doesn’t appear here, and we could take donations there. Lawyers have to advise me on these things.
I do kind of understand this, but what is to stop me from just sending a check to my friend and buddy in PA? I mean, what if some of us decided to help you out personally so you can make your mortgage or pay for groceries? Nothing to do with the site, just helping out a friend. Heck, if I can help buy you a case of beer, send me an email with your name and address and I will do what I can. Since my current email is clogged with thousands of emails, send it to: lynx at zimpatent dot com.
I could use a case of beer. But that kind of thing makes me feel kinda funny.
Isn’t that the point of drinking beer?
Holy crap! A lawsuit? That bites — hope you and your lawyer kick their asses!
An LLC – huh. For some reason that never even occured to me, don’t know why not, it makes perfect sense.
So, lessee — what is the legal definition of “tangible” these days?
(and, yes, that was a serious question!)
I don’t mean to pry, but is there anything we should know about this so we can avoid causing trouble for you in the future? (Please don’t feel you have to answer this.)
someone who feels slandered, I guess. I haven’t seen the letter first hand yet. I deleted the diary and I have to write them telling them blah blah blah.
It’s why I have to do this as an LLC. Otherwise I am legally liable for everything anyone writes.
What a load of bullshit…. some people get off on threatening lawsuits. I hope you don’t stress too much about it.
You’ve made us a WONDERFUL home here, Boo.
I have been soooooo remiss! I just ran out and bought a tee… ack! I can’t believe I delayed this long… silly me, I ass-umed that you wouldn’t ship to Canuckland… boy, I really should have known better Boo… I am dreadfully and woefully apologetic for the oversight on my part…
and I promise to click till the cows come home (or I have to sleep… whichever comes first of course)…
Glad to be here and thanks for having me!
🙂
cheers,
spider
This is certainly a site worth keeping going.
You can’t take donations, but you can sell a service?
Are we allowed to get together independently and scrape up some money to pay for an anti-bush add on your site? Do we have to be a PAC to do that OR can any group of friends, or an individual do that? (Don’t want to skirt the campaign laws, ya know?)
Heck… I would pay $10 or $20 bucks towards that. I could buy a “X” amounts worth of add time at that price. How much money do you need to keep the site going.
I don’t know if that would help?
BUT it would cost you next to nothing and you would not need to rewrite code to put up an add, or a link.
Just short-term quick-fix suggestions. There are dozens of services you can sell to anyone.
Hey… Whatever you sell as a service would obviously have to be in the spirit of the site.
It would help carry you over until you can get the subscription code done at least.
Just some suggestions since I ain’t that big on T-shirts or mugs. I would rather every penny went in to the site.
Anyone can buy an ad. There are no restrictions on that. I review the blogads for content, but it is my choice whether to accept them.
People used to do things like set up a LLC and place ads saying “send 10 bucks to P.O. Box 1234”.
Believe it or not, a lot of people would do it even though nothing was promised in return. That’s illegal now.
Basically, if I accept money I have to give you something in return. Since this site is free to everyone with an internet connection, I can’t accept payment just for providing content.
I have no official relationship with any candidate or party, so no election laws apply. Only regular business and tax laws.
I noticed this line of attack was already going on down there
V V V V V
After I posted this…
Silly me! lol
Could you accept payment for restricted content, as in, access to a daily editorial “for subscribers only” or something like that? There would be one area of Booman Tribune that was for paid subscribers only, but the rest would be public. Your only obligation is to make sure it is available via password to the “customers” who are paying for access to the restricted content. This access is the thing you would be giving us in exchange for payment.
Hey Booman,
I have to admit, I am one of those that generally ignore ads. But since you requested that we visit your sponsors, I’ve made it part of my routine to do that before I start to read any diaries. I was delighted to find Powell books as I am a bibliophile, wow, now that is a merchant that I will visit frequently.
As far as buying a t-shirt and mug, would the shipping costs to Germany outweigh (no pun intended) the actual merchandise costs? Can you ship overseas?
Lastly, I am turning my aging hippie mom onto this site since she is relatively new to anything outside amazon.com and email on the internet, but she did just buy a new iBook so she is excited to use it.
You have my support, morally and financially, for anything you need to keep this site going. It has helped me, as you know, in more ways than one.
Thanks Boo
Powell books: me too. I almost bookmarked it, but realized that I should navigate to there from here… especially when I start buying stuff from them.
I use Firefox with tabbed browsing. With a dialup connection, it can get tedious clicking on those ads, so here’s what I do: when online and about to walk away for a few, I go through the following:
* go to my homepage, which just happens to be Bootrib
* middle-click on 4 or 5 ads; they then slowly open simultaneously while I merrily go my way
PLUS: the crisp ads often change as you navigate from diary page to page, so when I first click on a diary, I will middle-click on every ad… they then open in seperate tabs in the background while I’m reading.
Boo, I also thought and thought about using keywords in diaries, but haven’t come up with any new ideas yet.
… Powell’s doesn’t.
I used to buy from Amazon.com for the first couple of years they were around. Then they contracted creeping corporatitis. I forget what the next-to-final straw was, but when I complained about that behavior I got a response that must’ve been copied straight out of a manual on corporate PR. It was all “we care about your business” with the usual subtext of “we didn’t actualy read your complaint, because we don’t give a fuck what you think”.
So if I buy books online, I buy from Powell’s.
Yes, we can and do ship overseas. It is slower arriving, of course, and expensive, but we do it. Shipping costs to every part of the world are listed on the store site, match the wieght of the items you are looking at to the shipping rates listed in the nav links on the left of every page on the site.
I will gladly pay a subscription to access the site. Where do I sign? I detest the ads. I think the whole idea that worthwhile content must be offered for free and then supported by advertising is a horrid model to start with.
I didn’t realize that was the case. This is a good, and important website. I’ll let my fingers do the clicking…
and ask…
are their innovative things we can do….would helping to drive traffic here contribute?
hi kid-
traffic drives advertising rates. So, the more traffic the more I can charge. So, it’s a good idea for bloggers to support each other by not just linking to MSM sites.
I’m open to innovative ideas. Chris Bowers had been working pretty hard to find ways for bloggers to meet up with advertisers. The blogad networks have been successful, it’s just that no one wants to advertise in August, ask Andy Card.
Any help or ideas from (almost) any quarter is welcome.
BooMan,
Does simply clicking on an ad generate the needed revenue, or should we hang around the link for a little bit?
I don’t know. The crispads pay .20 a click. The google ads use a secret formula. But actually buying something helps the most with google. I think if you click on an ad and someone else somewhere buys something from the same ad, that increases the payout.
Can you explain how the Powell’s bookstore link works to us? Do you get paid by the click-through or by the purchase?
I have some book purchases pending, and I might as well give Powell’s a try!
HI!
Thanks!
As long as you use the search engine on the left or click on the BANNER AD at the bottom of the page, BooMan’s ID# is attached to your shopping experience, and he gets a small percentage.
Powells has loads of neat imagery so look for those to change often!
That’s the most wonderful bookstore. Our Pt. Angeles bookstore is modeled on it — the mix of used and new books, and high quality of selection. Darcy and I sometimes buy our books at the local bookstore, even if it’s a bit more, because we want the store to thrive. Similarly, some of Powell’s prices are a bit higher than Amazon but, as BooMan says, Amazon is in bed with the Republicans, so ….
Thank you, Susan. This is great. Now that we know how to make sure our book club purchases provide a % to this site, we can go forward with it. Since I’m the Thursday host for the Froggy cafe, I’ll introduce it there, this week, and we’ll get started immediately.
Please everybody who’s interested, check in with the Froggy Bottom Cafe this Thursday.
I think we should let Powell’s know what we are doing, don’t you?
When I opened it up last night, Christopher Paolini’s new book, Eldest, was on the fron page; my little guy has been patiently waiting for it to come out, so I think it will be a nice back-to-school surprise!
It is a cool site, and an easy way for me to contribute! Thanks!
I can sing and dance a little! 🙂
Okay, sorry. Terrible bad movie reference. And I actually can’t sing or dance at all. But I did start clicking through the ads like crazy.
How about an amazon link, they pay for click throughs and also you can do book ads with amazon, not sure just how, but info is on the site.
Book ads would fit right in here, I would think.
a big fan of the Amazon corporation. Are there other book suppliers?
Maybe a big indie, like Powells? (I notice they’re advertising on Salon.)
According to BuyBlue Barnes & Noble is a completely blue bookstore.
Funny. Two Powell’s ads just appeared on the front page. I don’t remember ever seeing them there before.
Gee, I wonder how that happened :):)
You had a great idea! And BooMan couldn’t resist … i helped a little with setting it up.
That’s such a lovely site. And it’s perfect to SUPPORT an independent bookstore.
Cool! It was Diane who started it, so yay for her!
I was hoping we could use the Froggy Bottom Photography Fair to help. But, the more I tried to get an image ready for cafePress — the more scared I was that it would look horrible on a finished product (the resolution/size for print job issue).
I’m just not sure that it’s workable.
If it was — then maybe you could open a store — some of us could donate photographs, and you could sell products from links into that store.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/affiliate/intro.asp?linkid=6&cds2Pid=946
check this out and what about an ebay link…haven’t checked to see if they have one.
http://affiliates.ebay.com/join-program/ here is ebays affiliate program page
Hey BooMan,
Thanks for the reminder about the store. I have been meaning to buy a few things and this diary gave me the impetus I needed. Can’t wait to get my T-shirt & mug.
. . . and I just bought a shirt. Any chance of printing up some tote bags? I’d buy a couple of those.
Me too. I have tons of them for grocery shopping, but I can always use more.
And someday I’m going to renew my library card, so they’re good for books too. And taking clothes to the gym. I even have a little one (about 12 in x 12 in) that I use for my lunch!
My husband teases me about my many tote bags.
The issue is with the initial purchase amounts. To get a reasonable rate, you have to buy in bulk, so we are actually out money for a period of time–up until about 80% of the merchandise is sold, we don’t see a dime.
Aw hell Booman, sorry to hear that. Just remember August is always the biggest month of the year for family vacations.
I have a suggestion for members. Make clicking on the ads part of your sign on routine. BEFORE you read all these great diaries and in order to continue gathering here we need to do all we can for the Booster!Then, at the end of the night before you sign off(Manny…lol)at 3am click through the ads once more. Just pretend it is part of the process. I mean think of all those news sites we visit to get our information from and all the typing and clicking one must do before they will even let you enter their domain.
I for one am so grateful for this site, the administrator, the frontpage queen and all the folks that contribute and gather here. So heh you lurkers click on the ads please.
Thanks Leezy-
so other than brinnainne, who wound up with the shirts? And thanks for wearing yours so proudly 🙂
Rick/Adastra, Brinnainne, a new friend from Nashville named Dennis who liked my shirt and I told him all about Booman and what a great site it is and he wore it proudly at the rally. I think that is who legillo mentioned in his diary. I brought one for Cindy but I couldn’t get close enough to her. I am going to try and find out where I can mail it to her. I tried to give one to JanetStrange/Jackie but she already had one. Someone else, maybe it was Scott, I don’t remember. I have two left(one to send to Cindy) and one that I can send back if you like.
I’m sure you can find someone worthy for the extra shirt. If no one wants it, send it to Ahnawld. Thanks again.
Awhnold is NOT worth you ham!
;o) ;o) ;o)
I’m glad you wrote this. I need regular reminders about the ads. I get so caught up in reading that I already forget to recommend and rate. I need to be reminded to click the ads. And I talk about Booman all the time to friends. Don’t know if its the quality of people I hang out with – but most of them think my blogging habits are pretty weird. But I do think a few have at least checked in here. Maybe I’ll have to look around for a higher class of friends.
Hey, don’t feel bad about your friends. I tell people about Booman all the time and most ask what a blog is…lol! I must admit, I didn’t know either until my son introduced me to Dkos before the election. God, was that a year ago already?
Bootrib seems the perfect site to have ads from socially conscious stores/free trade…a great way to buy upcoming Christmas presents, etc. I have links to at least half dozen of these places from my charity clicking every day. Everything from free trade(organic)coffee and chocolate to sweatshop free sneakers, books, jewlery, clothes, gardening equipment any and everything you can think of.
People on this site are socially and environmentally conscious and I would think would like sites to shop that promote these things.
That sounds like a good idea, Chocolate, Booman I hope you will consider that.
One should always consider chocolate.
http://store.gxonlinestore.org/index.html This is one of the sites I’m talking about-Global Exchange-Fair Trade and Socially Conscious Gifts Online…very big site..and I’ve done my clicking today Boo.
On a blogad at $70/week, how much of that do you actually get?
Probably about $55 or $56. Of course I have none sold at the moment. The only ad up is for my friend Wolverine Writer’s store where you can get BooTrib merchandise. I’m not getting paid for it.
So I’m ready to buy an ad — does anyone here have anything they want to say (hint: this would include providing the artwork in jpg or gif)?
Maybe an ad for the photography fair??? Katiebird???
We’ve got a committee that should be meeting soon. I’m feeling kind of stunned at the idea of spending $130 for a 2 week add ($70 for a week).
Maybe someone else on the committee has an idea about how we could raise the funds for an ad?
I’ll pay for it. Just provide me with the artwork. I’m looking for a way to support the site, so this should work out for all.
Cool! Wow, ok.
My email is at the bottom of this message (minus some junk). Send me a message (so I can reply to it) and I’ll try to have something to you tomorrow evening.
Thank you!
you peeps are great! The requirements for a blogad image are Max: 150 X 200 pixels and 16KB.
16kb isn’t very big, so it’s hard to get a sharp image. Thank you very much.
That is all we need to know…
I think I feel the urge to make an add as a community service… Maybe something like:
“Have you had your pet neocon spayed or neutered?”
Hope the site doesn’t crash and burn before Thursday? (Payday… lol)
Are there any laws against paying to advetise someone else’s site? lol
Call me curious, ok?
I got a drawing of a Justice statue on my site (in sig), however, it’s not finished!
Thanks Dean!
I think I’m going to go with the photography fair for now, but the next time I buy an ad, I’ll contact you about Lady Justice. I really like the concept — justice is never complete, is it?
No problem, photo fair is WAY more important.. just seeing if you wanted to use the image..
and I am the only paid advertiser you have had on board continuously since the beginning.
I didn’t mean to slight you. I only meant that the ad that is appearing right now is a freebie. You did pay for ads for what? the first four months?
I was probably due on the 15th, wasn’t I? Sorry! ;]
I never knew how the system worked. I didn’t understand that I need to check out the ads in order for the funds to float in. I am not very computer cool, I’m admittedly getting better but I didn’t understand that part of things. I swear of advertisements usually but I will listen to some schmooze to the pay the bills for the things I need. Very sorry! I just got a whole new take on why the pie ads were something that maybe Kos wouldn’t necessarily want to take down. I remember reading something that he posted about all the traffic that the ad was getting. I didn’t realize it was paying the bills. I thought the ads paid if they were up there.
Tracy-
Actually you were right. The pie ad was a flat fee. To take it down he would have had to return somewhere between $600-$1000, possibly more depending on how long the buy was for. Clicking on blogads only helps in one way. It makes advertisers more likely to be repeat customers, but it doesn’t directly effect revenue.
The google ads and crispads pay based on clicks and are not pre-paid.
So, you pretty much understood the pie controversy correctly. Of course, I think the real issue was the way Markos said no, not that he said no.
Maybe BT needs its own little controversy to generate more traffic. Hmm… sly wink
I would prefer to donate directly and eliminate the middlemen.
but buying an extremely expensive bumper sticker might accomplish roughly the same thing. Boo, what do you think?
a limited edition thing? I think it would probably be okay. There must be some law about it though. I mean you can’t sell a bumper sticker for a million bucks and call it a sale can you?
a bumper sticker for whatever you want. This isn’t a publically controlled company, so I think only the market sets the value for the item. I’m sure we could come up with some very fine stickers, several different price levels, perhaps.
Buy ads. I would but I have nothing to sell…sorry.
I’ll buy some stuff from the store once I sell my useless kidney on Ebay. Until then, I’ll glady click on the ads as much as possible!
catnip – the poor Canadian herb who wants to contribute somehow
Would you think about broadening the selection at the store? My problem is that I’m not crazy about the frog in handcuffs and I hate to buy something just to put it away. How about a coffee cup that says “Booman Tribune” and “Don’t be a prick.”?
I love the frog, but I love “BooMan’s Rule” even more. I have too many mugs but I would definitely buy one with BooMan’s Rule on it.
And how about a T-shirt that says, “BooMan’s Rule: Don’t be a prick.” on the front with the BooTrib logo (minus frog, for those who don’t love the frog) and the url under it. Same back as the current shirts. When I’ve worn my shirt, I don’t get much reaction to the front but people tap me on the shoulder from behind me and say, “Love your shirt! That’s great!”
[Course I turn around and give a little sales pitch for BooTrib at that point 😉 ]
Received my t-shirt last week. Had it on Saturday – at the news stand, a guy behind me asked to see the front. Guess he liked the frog-march theme…
I love that. Of course, minimum run for mugs, at a relatively reasonable price, is 144. We would have to do an awful lot of them initially to defray the upfront cost. Shirts we can do in more limited numbers, especially if the number of colors is less than the current shirts.
I hope you are able to keep the Powells ad up regularly. I buy a lot of books online and would gladly go there rather than one of the chains. I don’t need anything now (need to get through the half dozen I have waiting to be read) but I will soon.
Very cool place. Living in the backwoods here we spend a lot of money at Barnes and Noble and they often have free shipping on orders of $25 or more. Powells is very cool on political topics, I will be glad to spread some of our book money their way.
If you can’t visit your local independent bookseller, Powells.com is worthwhile. (And if you’re ever in Portland, do not fail to visit Powell’s.) They are a huge independent bookstore that really treats books with the respect they ought to have. Friends don’t let friends do Amazon.
Unless you’re in Colorado, in which case order from TatteredCover.com.
if you spend at least $50.
One of the best things about Powell’s is that they sell both new and used books directly. The quality of every used book I’ve gotten from them has been very good.
<Waves hand wildly, jumps up and down in seat>
What if we had a Powell’s book club right here at Booman’s? I just clicked there and noticed a new book that looks so interesting–WHAT WOULD JEFFERSON DO? A Return to Democracy, by Thom Hartmann. It wouldn’t have to be that book, of course, but we could do a book every couple of months and urge folks to order their copies from Powell’s. Others could use their libraries, of course. And maybe we could concentrate on political/historical books.
Who’d be interested in that?
I’d be interested. I wonder if there is a way to set up the book club so that if someone from here buys books, Booman automatically gets a cut. Or if we’d have to click from BT to Powells to order for Boo to get any $$.
Boo, Susan? What about that? How could we do this to maximize the goodness for the Tribune?
EXCELLENT Idea, Kansas!!! I’m in. If we could get Boo a cut for every book sold, woo hoo! Boo, I hope Powell’s will be a permanent fixture here one way or the other.
how they do this — I bought my copy of Jon Stewart’s America the Book through their site and I know that they feature a lot of different merchandise that if a reader buys it through BuzzFlash, BF gets a “donation” — they pretty nice folks over there and I don’t know if they are set up as an LLC like you are, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask how they went about, it and then run it past your lawyers!
Me! Maybe some book reviews, too.
Book reviews, yes! Great idea, Bearpaw. We could become the liberal salon of the blogsphere. 🙂
Looks like we already have a group, hooray, and the more the merrier. Also, the more, the more profitable for the site. I’d be glad to organize and moderate it to begin with and then we’ll see how it goes.
Let’s see what Mom and Dad 🙂 have to say about the financial end of it, and then let’s just dive in and give ourselves a name and pick our first book. No point making this any more complicated than it has to be. ha! That should be my new sig line.
Maybe other friendly sites will let us issue invitations to their readers, too. Until they steal our idea. 🙂
All of you interested in the bookclub. . .
Susan explains in a comment elsewhere in this thread how we can make sure this site gets a cut:
“As long as you use the search engine on the left or click on the BANNER AD at the bottom of the page, BooMan’s ID# is attached to your shopping experience, and he gets a small percentage.”
I’ll introduce the club during my hosting stint at the cafe on Thursday. (Just want to make sure you see this since the other explanation is way upthread.)
I will gladly click on all the ads here at BMT each time I visit. (Ctrl+Click is my friend.)
As much as I love the frog-march logo, I really don’t need another t-shirt or coffee mug. So I’ll make as many click-throughs as I can, and I hope that helps. I also continue to recommend to all net.people that they seek out BMT. I had a nice long conversation with Suzy Turnbull (1st Vice Chair of the DNC) on Saturday at the Colorado Democratic Party Summit, and told her to check out BMT. (She was hinting that she found posting on dKos chaotic and highly male-dominated.)
If it becomes feasible to offer a subscription that hides ads, a la Daily Kos, I would also gladly sign up for that.
I love BT and the vibe here. What might help drive traffic to the site is more “exclusive” diaries. A lot of the diaries here are crossposted on dKos or My Left Wing and I understand that people want to get the most readers for their works as possible. But when I’m on dKos and see a diary that’s been crossposted here, what is my incentive to come here?
I think there should be some special “BT only” content to email around and generate buzz about the site.
I’m not saying to never crosspost ever again, I would just be more selective in what gets crossposted. That’s my opinion, take it for what it is worth.
I generally make a point of not recommending diaries cross-posted to the other “big sites”, no matter how good they are. I figure the diaries will get plenty of attention there, and I prefer to recommend and draw attention to content that’s only published here, or here and the author’s blog.
Also, a suggestion for the T-shirts… More snark. The ones there now are kind of… Plain. Things like snark and in-jokes can go a long way towards making a t-shirt appealing. For example, a “Got Pie?” shirt with a frog hand holding a cream pie could be amusing. Or “Booman Tribune: Proud Home of Women’s Studies 101”. Or “Booman Tribune: Your source for infidel baby-eating granny-mugging satanic liberal propaganda. (On the back)Disclaimer: Site may not actually contain any infidels, baby-eating, granny-mugging, satanism, or propaganda.”
To illustrate what I’m talking about better than my crappy attempts at merchandize design… A good example of the kind of thing I’d like to see are the shirts offered by websnark. He’s got a small selection, one with the site mascot, and two with “in-jokes” about recurring themes in the blog or major events in its history.
It bothers me to go to dKos, BT and MLW and see a majority of the same diaries posted at each one. It doesn’t make that site special.
If there was a way to “tease” people into coming over to BT to finish reading a diary, that would be great, but I doubt Kos or MaryScott would be too appreciative of that.
.
and have been credited with many new readers and members at BooMan’s Place for sure!
The major push has to come from diaries at dKos and C&L that hit the recommended list:
BooMan23 | SusanHu | Jerôme à Paris.
The major blogs do not appreciate too overt advertising for another blog, I’ve noticed many times when you reference a diary @BooMan on dKos open thread, you will be ignored.
The “exclusive” to BooMan I have tried, sometimes I publish here first and wait half a day or a full 24 hours before publishing elsewhere. The sort of diaries I write, scroll off the list at dKos in no time – less than 2½ hours. My topics usually need some homework, additional reading of linked articles or diaries. Doesn’t work at dKos, but here and at EuroTrib, many comments are welcomed days later, often added recommendations make the “lost” diaries reappear on the recommended list.
Therefore, cross-posting at Daily Kos, MLW or Village Blue is selective on topics and content, and will be appreciated in those communities.
These are the teasers that worked well recently at dKos ::
The Two Wolves Within
Stu-pitty
Nuclear Spy AQ Khan – CIA/America Policy
CHEERS for Cows In Pasture!
We all try to spread the word of BooMan’s Place, when possible I add a personal touch to have bloggers take a peak.
~~~
Date Visits Clicks
August 24, 2005 20,949 19 $2.74
August 25, 2005 20,792 19 $2.17
August 26, 2005 19,448 4 $1.20
August 27, 2005 14,381 17 $5.14
August 28, 2005 14,632 12 $3.93
August 29, 2005 16,699 78 $14.62
August 30, 2005 4,131 55 $19.28
This is to show you all what a difference it makes to visit out advertisers. These are this weeks google adsense numbers. As you can see, it’s hard to predict how much a given click will produce in revenue.
Only people I work with see my mug…
I can only wear my shirts so often…
But hundreds, if not thousands, of people see my car each and every day.
Bumper stickers could be a great way to not only make cash up front, but to advertise the site as well.
Actually, I just had an idea. We could offer stickers, and we could offer two different designs. One could be fairly average, and the other could be “limited edition” – those would, of course, be pricey, and the extra funds generated for the site would be completely legal.
Excellent and easy. I like it!
but had problems with the Tee Pad site. First, it died while taking my info. Now, it never takes me to a place where I can tell it how I want to pay — it keeps just showing me what’s in my cart or letting me return to the store. I sent Tee Pad a note.
thanks for the support. I’ll send Scott an email at work too. I want him to look at all the suggestions for merchandise in this thread, too.
Hopefully, he can clear it up for you quickly.
Thanks, again.
Alan,
Sorry for the trouble with the site. I have ongoing problems, on occassion, with the payment processing portion of the site. If you log in again in a short time it will almost certainly work fine. At some point I will be moving to another provider, but that is expensive and time consuming–thus, a ways off.
Again, my apologies, and my thanks for supporting BooTrib.
Scott
it seems to have worked. However, I still haven’t received the e-mail acknowledgment they said they’d send. I’ll keep you posted.
so all is well. Thanks!
That I love your sig line. Boo wouldn’t let me play the Girls when we roomed together in college, I tended to get moody when I spun their stuff.
I always find them uplifting. Even their darker songs from their first album have a persistent message of “It’s possible to break out of this misery.” And “Hammer and a Nail” from “Nomads, Indians, Saints” is a perfect antidote to depression (even though it feels like years since I’ve picked up a physical hammer and nail).
By the way, does “Boo” refer to the man, or the dog, or both?
Yeah, moody, usually good, though. First time I played it for him though I was working on a drunken snit, and he attempted to banish it from the apartment. Buster Newfington wasn’t but a twinkle in his momma’s eyes at that point. Boo, when I write it here, is Boo the man/the myth.
First, I could use a little help with pics. I just don’t have anyone I can convince to model the shirts, so any pics that you might be able to provide sporting your BooTrib shirts would be greatly appreciated. Second, I can’t seem to get my camera to cooperate and give me a good image of the mugs, so I’m hit there too. Third, just information for anyone considering a purchase, the lady’s shirts run really small (that’s what I’m told, and I don’t doubt it a bit). Fourth, unfortunately, the store site can be cranky during checkout. If that is the case, please log out and return a little later to give it another shot. Most of the time this is not necessary, but it does happen. My apologies in advance. Rest assured, if I see multiple orders from the same person, I will check with you before filling them.
Fifth, thanks to all of you so much for your support! I mostly lurk here, but I love the site as much as any of you. Hoping the future might hold more time for me to interact more on the site.
like mad. I was a little upset to see that one of the crisp ad sites offered term papers for sale, because I am a college professor. But now it is gone. Besides Booman has no control over what crisp ads advertises anyway.
I have an eagle eye for plagiarism anyway. Just let a student try to get away with a bought paper! I will smoke him/her out.
I abhore such things. I was “somewhat” accused once, though, by a prof–I was shocked, then offended.