I decided I was being a little silly about not informing users of certain things. As I just posted in this forum we are still trying to get to the point where we can afford a better, faster, and more scaleable server. To that end we can basically use all the revenue this site can get. I have always seen a small amount of money each quarter from our Amazon links (the books and movies in The Library). And for a short time I saw some profit from the ArmoramaWares store selling shirts and the like. Alas that store has sold little in the past 5 months so almost all the profit has been eaten back up from the monthly fee the store is charged. So...I want to ask everyone who is thinking about the following items to think about doing them here:

1. If you are buying a book from the Library area please put the book in your cart on the FIRST page you see after leaving Armorama. It's silly but if you add the book after hitting the "more info" link the commission rate can go from %15 down to %5.

2. Are you thinking about signing up for Ebay? Please do it from the banner link on this site. It will net us $5 (you get $5 too) once your account is all confirmed.

3. Buy Armorama shirts! Hats! Coats! Bears! Mouse pads! ....err....okay well at least give me some ideas about what you would like to see in that store. I admit I haven't had the time to spend creating some fun graphics for various military and modeling related interests. I wanted to make a DSB shirt for example. But I need to find the right piggie graphic. I can make just about anything imaginable for this stuff.

4. Do you frequent any online hobby stores and speak to them via the phone? Tell them about this site and that we need their support! They will most assuredly get all their investment back when they advertise with us.

That's it. And thanks so much for your support!

Cheers,
Jim

Allright!

(Gasp - a DSB T-Shirt!?! Man, Piggies stampeeding isn't a pretty sight...)

Gunnie

Fellow Armorama folks---good tip from Jim here! I picked up one of the shirts a bit back---very good quality, comfy fit, and fast service. Go for it! Add to your wardrobe, and look great supporting this site.

A Piggie shirt????-----well if one Company can put a penguin on their shirt, why not a pig on ours? Neat idea.

Steve

Jim,

the Dutch and Belgian members are on their way to buy some shirts.... I'll also continue my quest to find us some European Advertisers / Sponsors.

DSB Shirt......Mppppfff, better start preparing some Fluvian shirts.....we outnumber the pigs bij thousands..... only we are camouflaged so well....nobody can find us.... #:-)

Danny,
Lol...the DSB shirt should have a funny Fluvian quote.

Jim

Jim, what's the minimum quantity you need for a DSB shirt? maybe we can have a drive in the DSB forum as well.

Well, looking around the room, I have two denim shirts, 2 polo shirts, and a coffee mug...

I'd love a DSB Shirt that I could put my number and perhaps Ministry assignment on - with a funny Fluvian quote somewhere on it too!

Gunnie

Good idea for the DSB shirt.

As I a new guy here...I'd like to point out that from the front page (with any focus selected) you'd never know that there was Armorama gear for sale. I actually never even new the stuff existed until I saw this post.

Maybe you can create a custom block towards the top publicizing the gear for sale...right around the MSN Group and Cheapesthobbies.com blocks. That way it would be visible to all. Just my $.02 worth.

Now that I know about the products I'll be more than happy to buy a shirt, hat, and/or a mug or two. Anyone going to the IPMS National in OK should wear an Armorama shirt or hat to advertise the site, too. Every little bit helps.

Ok, this may sound really stupid, but here goes.. along with shirts hats and mugs, why not a raffle a few times a year.. Grab a kit or a set of figures and raffle them off?? Again, just a thought...

Greg,
Thanks for that valuable input. I did have a banner running with it at one time but the interest seemed to die off. It is accessable under the Shopping area link in the main menu but again that area is not yet fully developed so I doubt many people even frequent it.

I did just add an IPMS 2003 shirt for anyone going that wants to show their support for the site.

Cheers,
Jim

Do those DSB t-shirts come in pork sizes too ? (++)

On the subject of Piggie shirts, my father is/was a (retired now) artist who did some designs for a police mountain bike race that his (Michigan State University's) department used to put on. It was a different "Pigs on Bikes" theme every year, maybe if we come up with some good ideas I can convince him to do a shirt design for us?

I haven't asked him yet, thought that I would put it before the Pork Forum first.

Let me know,
Chris
(Still just a piggie wanna-be....) (++)

I wonder if we could get little name plates made up for folks to buy and wear while at modeling events. Little Armorama logo with the user ID or just first name on it, maybe a register user # or other group number. They wouldn't be too expensive.

I found the shirt link, and I'm glad the embroidered stuff is still available. I wore my denim shirt often, and I need a new hat to keep the sun off of my bald head. Have to ask the wife what color shirt I should get.

Rob,
With the number of people with nice color printers I wonder if I could just make a template up in Word that would work for that. Of course it would be nice to have the....Ooo....getting an idea here. Hmmm.... Sorry to think and type at the same time. I just had an idea.

Armorama Support Pack
1. an Armorama T-shirt
2. a personalized name tag for events
3. a cd-rom of Rob's Motorpool (?)
3. a signed letter of appriciation from yours truly
4. what else?? I am picking my brain here

Anyways something like this would do 2 things. The user would get something for their money and the site would generate some funds for cost of operations. But the trick to the above would be cost. What would members be willing to pay for such a package, what else should it contain, etc.

Thanks for any feedback.

Jim

#4 - What about a special ribbon similar to the ones awarded as campaign prizes?

I like that package idea :-)

I don't think more than $25 because this is something that would equate to membership dues elsewhere and you just can't go over $25 if you want guys to join a club, I feel the same would apply here, you can't go over $25 if you want people to buy the pakage.

Here's an aside idea I just thought of (see what you started with this thinking thing!). What if we made the whole gallery into Rob's Motorpool. I have been thinking of ways to increase public awareness about the sight and I think we need a stronger gallery. Consolidating the whole thing under Rob's well known gallery and focusing more attention on it on the main page might be a way to increase draw. On the down side this would increase bandwith draw as well. This is just throwing stuff out there for input. I don't know if Rob would be willing to take on the added responsibility, but it would shift some load away from Jim as well. If I was told what to do I might be willing to help out as well.

Rob

I like the idea of an Armorama Support Pack - and if it could come in at $25 bucks it would be great!

An idea for #4 might be a simple and useful Calendar. Either wall mounted or desktop - if they could be done to keep the cost down.

Gunnie

I also like the idea of the support pack. Could we have them tailored to suit the different interests of the members? ie. Armor, Aircraft, Figures, etc...

I've been trying to reorganize the motor pool so that there is a main picture of the vehicle type on the album page and then in nested albums inside, the various detail photos are logically organized in sub albums. Like for an M1, there would be a nice photo of a tank and inside is a sub album of the exterior, engine/engine bay, turret interior, hull interior. I'd like to do that for all of the albums instead of having the mountain of photos just jammed in one large album.

Kind of like a book where you can turn to the chapter on the M113 and then see a section on the exterior, interior, engine, etc. Too bad it's not as easy as just shuffling a bunch of photos in a photo album. I've started reorganizing a couple albums (M113 one comes to mind), but it is time intensive and every once in a while the connection fails and I have to dial in again.

I hate the thought of having to manage all galleries out of my motor pool. We must have thousands of reference photos uploaded on this site. I'm having enough of a time managing my small piece of the pie. Besides, I doubt my gallery will surpass what this site has become. It only really interests those modelers who are interested in modern US (and some modern NATO) vehicles. I think this group is a rather small portion of overall model builders when compared to WW2 German, Allied, Sherman-only, Vietnam era, Soviet, etc. groups.

I really like the raffle idea- once every month or two, a couple of bucks for a chance to win a nice kit- or, have a few things available, figure kit, armor kit, aircraft kit- winner gets to choose 1 of the kits, so you generate more interest across the boards.