Depending on how the logo was done I’d probably want a t-shirt and coffee mug as well. Honestly, I find that more exciting than trying to supply questions for columns.
Not at all. I appreciate the useful suggestions that have been made. For example, I don’t argue that we need to make better use of social media. In my mind the best place to start is to make better use of the social medium we’re on right now, namely the board. Engaging the membership in the editorial process isn’t a trivial task. If and when we establish that it’ll work, we can move on to other things.
I do have to gently advise that not all suggestions are practical. We sold merchandise for years - books, T-shirts, coffee mugs. The volume of goods sold was never large, and when you subtract the expenses we probably netted fifty bucks. I’m not eager to go down that road again.
As for the philosophical issues, shall we say … I mean no disrespect, seriously. But think of this as a sort of football match. We can get into debates about whether the whole game is stupid, the coach is out of it, I don’t like this ball, we should get a cubical ball, we should sell indulgences, etc. However, this doesn’t really help us get down the field.
I mean, can you blame him for getting a little snarky? The dude was basically accusing him of being a scam artist over multiple, aggressive posts. It’s fine if one doesn’t like the idea and doesn’t think it will work, but maybe dial back the aggression if you want to be listened to.
I’ve been told I’m the most ignored person on the Dope.
(That’s some street cred, right there)
I’ve been told I’m exasperating, embarrassing myself, and stupid.
Roundly chastised, told to just STFU.
Myself? I’m pretty sure I am a ‘pollyanna’ and not at all aware of the big bad world.
Not to garner sympathy but I have been sheltered my whole life. I’ve only recently discovered big ideas and worldly viewpoints.
I think the money problem can be easily fixed. There’s enough people here who would throw in cash.
Getting new Dopers is gonna be a problem. I’m noobie enough to remember the hazing. It’s tough.
Dopers are not very welcoming of new members.
PS…can I be a cheerleader at the football game?
Hard to say without knowing at least the approximate magnatiude of the problem. As one who’s willing to chip in, I think we need to know if we’re trying to get $50,000 or $500,000 (or $5,000,000?) in new revenue before we can offer intelligent suggestions.
So joining the violent mob?
From what I remember, this site is hosted by Discourse. You can see their pricing models here:
There’s a $100 standard plan, a $300 business plan, and a custom Enterprise plan. I would guess that we are in either the $100 or $300 plans based on the feature sets they mention.
If I may gently suggest that you fail to appreciate that the value of merch is not its immediate direct profit margin.
Get people to accept and wear a free button supporting a cause or product and later they donate more to the cause or are more loyal to the product. Others ask about the button … any actual profit is gravy.
I would 100% pay good money for Straight Dope T-shirts and wear them with pride. I have to wear T-shirts sometimes, might as well wear ones bearing the logos of things I enjoy.
I do see the point that it needs to be worth a few buck in profit, of course, but it’s branding as well, on a number of levels. It’s not just that someone might see my T-shirt and ask about the board, it’s that it gives the board an air of legitimacy and creates brand loyalty in people who’ve bought the swag.
Have we talked about referral incentives yet?
I’m not sure how widespread the effect of logo’ed merchandise would be on attracting new members. I think we should do it because the on-demand merch sites can generate free money for the SDMB with no downside, but I don’t think that enough people will display the swag in public for it to affect membership in any significant way. One reason is that the membership is pretty small so the potential exposure is going to be small. But another is that “Dope” is in the name, and not everyone would be comfortable having that word on merch that might be seen by friends, relatives, and coworkers. Most people will think “Straight Dope” has something to do with drugs and I would guess that most members would not want that kind of misassumption associated with themselves.
Yes, and these days, it literally is as easy essentially setting up some basic info and uploading a logo to the merch provider. Hell, one more piece of that “user input” could just be creative SDMB artwork for inclusion to the merch provider.
I honestly don’t think “dope” holds the same connotation with younger folks that it does with the board demographic.
I just don’t want those assholes coming around here.
My point is that the general public may misunderstand the word Dope. It’s not about attracting new members. It’s that I’m not going to have a mug on my desk with the words “Straight Dope” because I don’t want my boss and coworkers to mistakenly assume I use drugs.
Have you been paying attention? There aren’t expenses anymore. It’s totally free and you get pure profit. I bet you could sell a couple of hundred t-shirts and mugs and make at least $5 each. It would take you less than an hour to get it going.
Dude, people have been literally begging for this. Why in the world wouldn’t you do it?
And is it $5,000 as a one-time need (doable) or is it $5,000 this month and every month thereafter (much harder)?
To expand on my earlier comment, there’s no reason that a wide variety of logos and slogans can’t be made into swag to make everyone happy. With an on-demand site like Cafe Press, there’s no cost to have as many logos and slogans as you want. People pick whatever they want on whatever they want and the SDMB gets a cut. There could be be a simple logo for folks who don’t want the word ‘Dope’, like this:
Something like that would only be recognizable to people who are already familiar with the SDMB. I could have that on my coffee mug at work and no one would care. But then they could also have cheeky slogans that lean into the Dope slant like:
- I’m addicted to Straight Dope
- Ask me to hook you up with Straight Dope
- Straight Dope is the path to Truth!
At a minimum, the site would get some money from whatever swag is purchased. If it also brings in new members, great!, but that would be a bonus.
What I’m getting out of all this is that the whole thing is being grossly overanalyzed.
The Straight Dope is owned by a business concern, granted. So some lip-service needs to be paid to the usual hobgoblins of profitability and revenue and all their hobgobliny cousins. It’s a sop for the number-crunchers at The Chicago Reader. Give 'em a business plan and tell 'em to stand back. A website does not take a whole lot of cash, comparatively speaking, to keep running and analyzing this business plan past that is a fool’s errand in my arrogant opinion.
What really matters, really matters, is getting back out on the field to kick another field goal. It’s fun, and it beats farting about painting barns in retirement. If it involves the community that have gathered here largely because of those columns, and results in more columns, it’s a massive checkbox in the win column.
I totally get that. I haven’t done anything remotely as successful, but what I did do was fun and I miss it.
Since the majority of us were here because of thos columns, making new ones is more likely to draw in new membership than not making any.
Small correction: Currently The Straight Dope is owned by The Sun Times.
I mentioned it upthread, but apparently didn’t get noticed. But what about shifting more to a multimedia e-zine-type site? Same philosophy and mission as always, but with more content than just the straight dope column and boards. Blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and columns. This site is full of smart, creative people who are champing at the bit to contribute both financially and creatively. Tap the Teeming Thousands to write, create, blog, edit, research etc. (And I’m aware others have suggested videos, podcasts etc. I’m just thinking of going full-on e-zine. Stop thinking of ourselves as just a column and/or message board belonging to a larger content creator corporation, begging for scraps from our corporate overlords, and more as a content creator in our own right.)
Create a “Friends of Cecil” group that fundraises. Perhaps organize it as a 501c3 (eventually).