Booman has asked me to look into getting the store portion of the site up and running. To accomplish this I am asking for your insight, pondfolk. What would you like to see? What types of logos, mottos, tag-lines, products? Obviously Darwin will be getting some prominent placement, but I’m completely open to any and all suggestions.
**For those who don’t recognize me–I’ve only posted a few diaries and commented occasionally, but I’ve been here from the beginning and I’m a daily lurker. Kind of like that quiet member of the extended family you see at reunions and weddings. You don’t hear from me much, but I’ve got a pretty good handle on the health of the family. I’d like to do a good job of this for Boo, so please help me out.
This could be fun π
What sort of store are you planning? A cafe press type store? Or something done in-house, so to speak? What sort of products are available?
I still think a ‘snark this’ contest (held only at BooTrib but open to everyone) would be a good idea for both building traffic and membership, and promoting sales of the products themselves (personal stake in it, and all that).
(P.S. you may not post diaries often, but when you do they are pretty powerful ones)
My all time favorite site product is “Preznit giv me turkee”. Count me in for a snarkathon!
As for the product itself, I lean toward long sleeve T shirts.
I would agree but with 110 degree + summers here in Az, I would overheat. Either way, I’m lookin’ forward to buying something with Darwin D. Frog on it.
Coffee cups, frog with words Frog March over to the frog pond or something of that order.
First 1000 commerative cups perhaps. Maybe even coffee with frog logo.
Posters or bumper stickers…..
Wolverine have you ever posted on a tell us about you diary, if not please do, I/we want to know about you and why have you just been lurking, and more!
through my existing online store. Clicking on the store link here in the site would bring you to the proper section of my existing store to view bt products. I offered to help in this area because the fulfillment houses out there that offer this kind of service keep an unbelievable percentage of the money they take in. I’m going to do booman much better than that. I am already up and running, so the additional work to do this for bt is (fairly) minimal. I offered to house the bt items completely separate (hidden/not connected to other items for sale) on my store site, but booman has encouraged me to list them within the site as a category, instead of a “stand-alone” section.
Coffee cups will almost certainly be the first offering. To offer them at a reasonable price, we have to buy a decent quantity, and doing that for multiple items right up front would be tough for me to do. Thoughts for a commemorative design/design addition? Numbering would probably be relatively expensive, and relatively boring. While I am trying to gather as many ideas as possible for future use, we will probably go with the logo just as you see it in the corner of the site for the initial run of coffee cups–perhaps with a text line under the logo. Again, though, I am open to any and all ideas, for immediate and future use.
As far as “snark this” goes, I must have missed the post/thread, I’m not familiar. I’ve never been a big fan of bumper stickers, but I’d put one on my car in this instance (I did for Kerry, and let me tell you, there weren’t many of those in Birmingham). I guess I just need the proper motivation.
I have not posted a “tell us” diary, though I may at some point–is there a particular format/forum/rules/morays? I lurk because of time constraints. Full time day job (where I covertly copy, paste, and print posts/diaries to read at my desk), what amounts to an almost full time side job, three kids five and down at home and one off at college. I almost never write because I don’t really get enough sleep and ya gotta draw the line somewhere. When my kids are awake and I’m not at the day job I try to be with them. So I figured, what the heck, I don’t have enough to do, why don’t I put this together too?
Nanette–glad you liked the diaries. Some day I will post more often, and they should be better going forward.
About the tell us about you diary, here is the link to the latest one.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2005/4/29/92453/6743
there is no format or rules, just say whatever you want about yourself as you just did above, and post pictures or whatever. We are really quite free here to just explore things, like who we are for example. When your info is on the tell us about you diary it is easy for members to check there if they want to find out more about another member.
I understand your time constrants, I know many have similar ones, so please let us hear from you whenever you get the chance, we need more voices speaking on this site to make it more exciting for newcomers to stay here and post. Also to keep us oldtimers happy with many more discussions.
Oh by the way I think a good name for us is Boomers, also ties in with baby boomers which a lot of us are, it appears.
Oh and are you female? At first I thought you were male from the name and then your comment leads me to think you might be female, the juggling jobs, was a clue.
Anyway, welcome to the site, even tho you have been here for a long time.
now I can make fun of WW for getting called a girl. Hee Hee.
No, he’s a guy, and an old roommate of mine.
Pretty funny, Booman, I didn’t know, and please don’t use that against him……..You just don’t often hear men mention their kids as part of their juggling jobs, that’s what mislead me. Sounds like Wolverine might be one of the new breed of men. So kudos to you Wolverine.
Now, no teasing Wolverine, Booman, though I bet you will. We will have to send you to the Pitching like a Girl diary to make a confession.
Very difficult to convey proper message in this comment without use of body language, facial expression, sounds and hands. But hope it comes across in the light manner it is intended.
a new breed of something anyway π
stoop to taking a shot at a guy who’s down…
unless he was absolutely sure said guy was in the mid-west and therefore out of reach. ;]
Well diane101, I hope to become one of those new breed of men. My wife is in the running for a very big promotion that will increase our household income thrice. If and when it happens I will gladly become a part time worker bee in the work force to become a more full time dad to my children. I kept telling my wife she needed to do something with that damn Doctorate.lol
Glad to see other man like my self and pateacher are concerned about making enough quality time for their children. Keep up the good work wolverine.
I think there are a lot more of us than people may suspect. My father lived for his family, and does to this day. I try very hard to do the same, while keeping some time free to pursue personal interests. Next to loving their mother, spending time–lots of time–with your kids is the best thing you can do for them.
Which really doesn’t have to be the name, I’m terrible at thinking up names for things.
Thanks for explaining more of what you are doing. I think having the store connected to yours is a great idea… I’m a big fan of cross pollination and all that.
Anyway, I was thinking of a community wide contest (held at the BooTrib only, but open to anyone) where people offered up some sort of snarky (or otherwise) comment to go with the frog on the mug or whatever product. A vote could be held for the best one, the winning saying would go on the mug (along with their nickname) and viola! instant community personalised interest in the product.
You could accept pre-orders maybe, or this is something that can be done down the road when the store is more established (although I think it’s better as a kickoff) and the contest could be held every month or two, for that and the other products as they come online. Plus, people just wandering in to the store from your site might be tempted to buy as well… cool sayings and all.
Anyway, it’s just an idea, for now or later.
Baby Jesus Anti-Fornication Thong
that was awful, but had me lol. Yeah I vote for that, ha ha.
Seriously Duct, you sometimes outdo yourself. Thanks for the laugh.
LOL, oh man, that is too much. I bet it’s a big seller too!
That thong is just wrong.
I don’t think I want to know what you entered into your search engine to find that!
one should be sent to Gannon/Guckert …
Coffee cup logo:
Untie the frogs hands and have him sitting with a laptop and put on top*I’m blogging with the frog* and at the bottom at Booman Tribune.com.
Also you could have a design contest and give a free cup to the design winner, or a free tshirt if you do a design contest for that as well. Have members vote for the design winner. I would do a design for that, if you do have a contest, and I’m sure there are other ad designers out there (members)that would as well.
Another slogan could be “Lets frog march Bush right out of this pond.”
And that too draws the community in to participate.
I think the blogging frog would be a hit, lol.
Ummmm. OK, I’m fairly recent here. I didn’t ever look too closely at the frog. Why are his hands tied? Is this something obvious that I’m just not getting?
What’s with the Frog?
“It’s of keen interest to me, to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.” – Joseph C. Wilson IV.
To learn the etymology of the term frog-march you can read this column by Bill Safire. He may have spent his career shilling for the Republicans and our intelligence services, but he is a reliable source on language.
In any case, Booman Tribune encourages its users to band together to do the investigative journalism that the mainstream media has forgotten how to do.
The frog is a reminder that politicians do occasionally get drummed out of office for corruption or unethical behavior. And we would like to speed that process along.
In fact, our motto is “We Won’t Rest Until They’re Frog-Marched Out” So, even if the amphibian is a criminal, you must learn to love the frog.
Well, that’ll teach me to do a little research before asking questions. Thanks, BooMan.
Free merchandise for winners, personalized by Booman himself, and/or Boo the first? Sounds interesting, raises the personal stake, as mentioned. We could give it a go.
And don’t worry, diane101, Booman would NEVER stoop to taking pot-shots at a guy like me…though I think he may have choked when he read your comment.
I like the “blogging with the frog” line too. We would have to see if we could get the original logo artist to make some alterations–odds of that, boo?
Again, all ideas accepted and catalogued for immediate and future use.
Wolverine, nice of you to take your friends ribbing so well.
As to the cup idea, It could be a limited edition for the first 1000, never again to be produced, signed by Booman, some where on cup, pre fire, not after. With limited edition printed on the face of cup.
Then second in series would be a new design, maybe next 1000 and so on.
You could add a poll question to this diary or in a new one asking would you buy one, or what would you pay for a cup, etc. I think properly marketed it could sell for $15.95 or higher. Shipping should be low and included in price.
Maybe you could get a tie in with a coffee producer to offer coupons for coffee, or include a coffee sample with the cup for free as advertising only.
Perhaps you could get a coffee company to sponsor cup if a cut of profits could go to a charity or such.
A lot of the bloggers drink coffee so may just work to get a sponsor. Booman might want to think of searching out coffee producers like Starbucks, to advertise on this site, or cigarette manufactures or distributors.
I’ll try to talk this over with booman and make some decisions about the contest. If ready, I’ll/we’ll throw something out there tomorrow and see how it goes. Please feel free to keep sending suggestions here, though, I’ll be keeping an eye on this. Lots of suggestions.
And thanks, all.
Sign me up for a set of 4!
I love interesting coffee mugs and would love to give these to friends – as well as keep on for myself!
Great idea for the front of the t-shirt also…
“Frog-March the Rethugs” on the back of the t-shirt or on baseball caps
Nothing this girl likes better than blogging except shopping!
Hey Sally, do you want of those wooden coffee mug trees with that? π
Tree Stand for mugs….heavens no…that would mean killing a tree!
I just line them up on my credenza for guests to use at work!
How About:
suggestions. On the list for future product line expansions. Thanks.
Wolverine,
I grew up in an insane asylum, both parents alcoholic and violent, lived a pretty destructive life until 17 + yrs ago. Found a New Way of life and haven’t looked back. I have a 2 1/2 yr old and a 5 month old and I just turned 51 8 days ago. I vowed to the Great Spirit that my children would know that love, honor and respect are the cornerstones of my joy in having these children in my life. I demonstrate daily to my children that they are the most important thing going on in my life and I show my wife the same devotion. I never thought I would have children and yet here they are and I am the most grateful human being for having been blessed with them. Thank you all for allowing me a place to come to and be amongst those who cherish the great values of our Republic.
is for me. Don’t thank me, necessarily–thank Boo, and thank the whole community (wait, you did!). It’s a friendly place, and not “strictly political”. I’m enjoying my time here and I’m going to try to spend more. Of course, I have the same concerns as you with the family, so time to spare is tough.
if it is a T-Shirt, and it is cool, and it is less than 20$, I will buy one.
i am the only person I know (although there must be lots) who has bought a Kos T-shirt… and please learn from my experience:
the T-shirt I bought was gray, but the orange Kos logo is semi-transparent and made to be printed on white, so the whole logo is sort of a bit fuzzy and grayed out, not at all like the image shown at the online store, where they just imposed a digital version of the logo over a digital version of the shirt. My guess is that if I had bought, say, a black shirt, the logo would have been opaque with a white background and looked much better. If you have control over this kind of thing… check it out.
and I will keep an eye out for problems like that. Thanks for the heads-up.