Offer the new mugs in a deluxe 12 oz version. Charge through the nose. I’m thinking $50-$65 plus postage and handling. It’s a fundraiser, right? (Albeit a for-profit fundraiser).
Offer selected books by known great thinkers. Works by the Bad Astronomer and Ianzin come to mind. Either charge list price OR take a smaller cut and link to the Amazon shop.
Another idea would be to provide a mechanism for third parties to buy advertisements that link to some sort of charitable organization. Or even a for-profit organization. The key is having a webpage that can handle small advertising purchases. This idea has been bounced around before, of course.
Hm. I wonder whether Google’s text-based model (pay per click) would work.
How about a series? Cecil slapping George W. Bush, Howard Dean, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, and Michael Moore. Sure-fire sales among the Great Debates crowd.
Is there any indication that profit from these items go to the SDMB servers?
Maybe I missed it, but I have never seen any discussion about selling items to support the purchase of hardware for the message boards. If I had I would have purchased stuff.
So either it doesn’t happen like that or it simply isn’t publicized enough.
A while back I had an idea for “Wildest-Bill-in-the-Box.” It would be shaped a coffin. When you turned the handle “Pop Goes the Weasel” would play, but at the end of the tune, instead of a clown, a cowboy-hatted figure shouting “GOTCHA YA!” would emerge.
Come on, SD Shop, I’m sure you could get some toy factory to knock it together. It would sell like fake Rolexes 'round here!
Why not market “Fighting Ignorance Since 1973” as a non-profit, get in the 501 c3 tax bracket and start fundraising? Write grants, etc…etc… and get a hundred K raised to get new servers? Geez people we can fundraise if we had a coordinator.
I know you’re probably enamored with the idea of selling your own stuff (which I promise to buy once I’m solvent again), but Cafe Press will turn your logo into an entire clothing line, thus broadening your appeal. Example. Have you considered this?
On second thought, though…I can’t see how we’d ever be able to raise money from a corporation or a foundation. I can see the board presentation: “So, who will this server benefit?” “The people who read the board.” “And who are those people?” “Uh…Phlosphr, some guy named World Eater…oh! and Futile Gesture! and…” “Next!”
I fear that “uncensored photos” might be misconstrued as being soft porn. I know there are several Mensa-level hotties who post here, but cannot judge their prurient appeal to virtual lechery in a state of ignorance, sowherethehell is this “calender thread”!
:gets down on knees, accepts Og into heart and prays “uncensored photos” resemble soft porn:
There was a thread on it in either MPSIMS or IMHO asking for photos for an SDMB calender. Can’t remember who was organizing it, eMail a few of the pervert posters and you might get lucky
I hasten to disassociate myself from the craven lechery of sirtonyh. My interest was entirely academic and motivated purely by a desire to hasten world domination by the SDMB.
To clarify my position, I have no interest in either acedemia or hastening world domination, just give me the URL where I can buy a giant SDMB mug with dirty photos on it.
Purely in the interest of combating the ignorance (in this specific topic only ) of elucidator and sirtonyh I feel it my duty as a member of this board to point them to Opalcat’s thread Submit your risque photos for the calendar HERE.
It is with deep regret we announce the sudden passing of Deadmeat II, the most recent SDMB hamster. He is currently replaced by a 2nd stringer called up from the “farm team”, Ol’ Lightnin’. SDMB posters are reminded of the advantages and patriotic values to be had by messages sent by the US Postal Service.
Deadmeat II died of massive coronary failure, as the wheel reached 1199 RPM (a new and excellent, if somber, record) at precisely 4:02 pm, on November 11, 2003. Sic Transit Rodentia
In Harry Turtledove’s book The Case of the Toxic Spelldump there was a small creature mentioned who might fit the needs of the SDMB. It was a “vampster”, a vampire hamster. Hey, as long as it was fed it couldn’t die! We could set up a revolving list for blood donations, perhaps based on the frequency of posting.
) of elucidator and sirtonyh I feel it my duty as a member of this board to point them to Opalcat’s thread 