Recouping Temporary Site Costs

[Mike Bobbitt]

Folks,

Because of the hardware failure last week, we‘re now operating off of my home connection until the new hardware can be put in place. Unfortunately, this is putting me *way* over my monthly traffic limit, and it may cost me up to $300 based on how things have been running so far.

I‘ve been tossing around a number of ideas, since I‘d like to avoid a $300 monthly bill. The obvious approach is to take down Army.ca for a while, to lower the usage. It‘s not my first choice, and would definitely be a temporary situation. (If we do happen to go off the air, don‘t panic - we‘ll be back!)

The other option is to try to raise a few bucks to cover the additional cost. Probably the best way to do this is to sell some Army.ca shirts, so at least you have something to show for your support. (I hate "flogging" them like this, but it seems to be the lesser of two evils.) You can go to the order form here:

http://Army.ca/shirts

There are only 15 left from the first lot, so it‘s possible we may sell them all. Thanks in advance for your support.


Cheers
Mike Bobbitt

 

[tree hugger]

What about advertisments from places like "wheelers"? Dunno..it‘s an idea anyway!

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Mike,
How do we send you a straight donation?

 

[girlfiredup]

Good idea. Just noticed the t-shirts don‘t come in small, so I‘m willing to make a donation.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Thanks for the quick response!

tree hugger: I have advertising from Wheelers already, though it doesn‘t "rotate in" very often. So far I‘ve made about $8 from that and just over $1 from the Amazon advertising here. It‘s probably because the ads are small, but I can‘t stand sites where 1/2 the page is flashing banner ads. I guess I need some marketing training...

recceguy: There‘s a form for straight donations here:

http://army.ca/donate/


Thanks!

 

[girlfiredup]

Huh? What am I chopped liver? My money is as green as everybody elses. Unless of course you only want a donation from recceguy.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Heheh, sorry, apparently we were typing our responses at the same time...

Here‘s a thought: If you donate $18, you get a free shirt, shipped to your door.

 

[girlfiredup]

hehe.. deal!

 

[PTE Gruending]

Why don‘t you check out paypal for possible donations? They offer a service where webusers can click a link on your site (ie; army.ca) to directly send a paypal/credit card payment, for donation purposes. With ease of transcaction like that, i am sure everyone could cough up a few bucks... anyways, check out the link here:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext&leafid=2524&answer_id=3119609

 

[Harris]

Mike,

To recoup the $300 this month alone you‘d need to sell at least 100 shirts? I think that people should step up to the plate and cough up $4 or $5 to help you out. I‘ve done just that myself.

 

[Infanteer]

Why don‘t you check out paypal for possible donations? They offer a service where webusers can click a link on your site (ie; army.ca) to directly send a paypal/credit card payment, for donation purposes. With ease of transcaction like that, i am sure everyone could cough up a few bucks... anyways, check out the link here:

If you followed his link, you would see that he has already done this.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Yep, already set up with PayPal... BTW I‘m not looking to completely cover the $300. Partly because that‘s an estimate and partly because I don‘t think it‘s reasonable to ask that much of the membership. So far though, folks have been very generous.


Thanks!

 

[Lexi]

I feel really, really bad because as much as I want to, I can‘t help out.
My parents just keep saying no, and I don‘t have money, nor a credit card of my own to donate with.

But I would if I could. Sorry guys, I feel I‘ve let you down when you really need me.

 

[Grunt_031]

How about a classified ad section, you could charge a $1.00 or so per ad. Limit it to miltary items, Collectables and Surplus. Lots of traffic and there is alot of people that have extra stuff laying around that are not a business. More ambitious project would be a auction such as ebay or yahoo, Military collectables only.

 

[1feral1]

It would be good to have a members only ‘equipment exchange‘ on here. See www.ausmil.com, which is a site similar to this, and they ahve one there.

Hope this helps us all out.

Cheers,

WEs

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Thanks for the ideas guys.

Lexi: Don‘t worry, not everyone is able to help out this way and I understand that. The response has been very positive, and we‘re looking pretty good.

I think an "equipment exchange" section might be a good idea, though it‘d be free. I don‘t want to charge for services as it then limits who can use them. It could also be very difficult to manage if it was a "pay to post" scenario. And most importantly, I‘m not out to make a buck, just trying to bridge things until the new hardware is in place.

Maybe we can start a new thread on the equipment idea to get a feel for how much it might be used.

 

[alan_li_13]

You‘d know what would be kinda cool? If you made the shirts Olive green just like the issued combat T‘s, then us fellows in the militia and cadets can wear them under our combats

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Not a bad idea... If this lot sells out maybe I‘ll order a 2nd batch... I‘ll probably post a poll first to get an idea of preferences for colour, size etc...


Thanks

 

[brin11]

Mike,

email (mike@army.ca) was bounced back. Please advise.....

Jill

 

[girlfiredup]

Originally posted by Mike Bobbitt:
[qb] Not a bad idea... If this lot sells out maybe I‘ll order a 2nd batch... I‘ll probably post a poll first to get an idea of preferences for colour, size etc...


Thanks [/qb]

well you can count on me for one.. olive green, size small, please.