Mike...ideas to help BF (low knife content)

A

Arizona

Joined
Jul 21, 1999
Messages
200
Mike,
I've been thinking about your dilemma with the BF cash flow, and while I as well as many others have subscribed to the online mag, I was trying to come up with a more fluid solution to your woes.
What we know:
- about 4,200 members and growing
- all interested in cuttlery
- all somewhat computer savy
- some dealers, some makers, some end users (Probably most)
Also we know:
- you don't want to charge for BF
- you don't want to compete with internet dealers

What can we draw from here? Anyone feel free to jump right in here if something strikes you.

I think that in order for you to make some money more without charging anyone, or always having something to sell for profit, be it a knife or a mag or what have you, we need to look beyond knives. (<-- there was the mention of the word "knives", so it's relevant forum content
smile.gif
)
What if...here comes my idea...:
you get together with say Citybank or First National, First Union, it doesn't matter and offer a BladeForums Mastercard/Visa. Of course at a reasonable APR. Yahoo offers a Yahoo Mastercard or Visa Platinum, NASCAR.COM offers MC/Visas with your favorite driver on the front. So Someone can design a nice looking BF MasterCard/Visa (Joel Pirela?). Then you have to figure out if how the bank works that out. In the best case, you get a percentage of the charges. Everyone on here probably uses one CC or another. Everyone buys something. But with this idea, people help you out by doing what they normally would do anyway - buying groceries, fuel, dinner.
Now the only thing I don't know for sure is how the bank rewards you. Could be flat fee per account, percentage of sales, percentage of collected interest. Don't know. But I'm sure Yahoo isn't selling cards for First USA because they have nothing better to do. There is something in there for them somewhere.
Anyway, just a thought.

Ingmar
 
Arizona,

I could think of nothing cooler than pulling out my BFC titanium Visa card for my next cutlery order
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If it is profitable enough for Mike, I think it is a great idea.

------------------

Louis Buccellato
http://www.themartialway.com
Knives, Weapons and equipment. Best prices anywhere.
-------------

"only the paranoid will survive":)


 
That's what I was thinking. People at the next knife show will be envious and will want one too thus generating more revenue for BFC. Even if you buy groceries, so it's not like anyone will have to buy $300 knives every month to help out. Just charge your fuel or dinner, and of course your next knife purchase.
 
Arizona,

We were running a banner which allowed you to apply to a Credit Card online and we would get credit. We got 0 applications so I turned off the banner.

Here is the banner we ran.
nextcard.gif


Also to get your name on a credit card costs a lot of money as you have to have a minimum print run and the maker of the card will put you through a rigorous set of standards.

Keep the ideas coming!

------------------
Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!

Support BladeForums! Check out the BFC Store!
www.bladeforums.com/store
Subscribe our NEW online magazine!
www.bladeforums.com/magazine
Enter our Raffle!
www.bladeforums.com/raffle
 
Mike,
I've never seen this ad. Then again, it would have not caught my eye. Most everyone has a CC or two, so I wouldn't look for just any other card. Having a "special" card like the BFC titanium card is more of a pride thing than to aquire another piece of plastic money.
I understand that you'll need a minimum run. What I was hoping was that the bank would cover those expenses (design and printing), as they will be the ones making the big money off the interest that's undoubtly going to be paid. They should look at it as an investment. And I can't really think that it's an outrageous amount to make those cards. One nice image and the printers will crank out the cards like the state patrol cranks out drivers licenses.
Oh well, it was just a thought.
 
Mike,

I bugged Spark about my idea for BF email addresses. But I don't think I ran it by you. And when I made the initial suggestion to Spark I had free in mind. But maybe there are enough members interested to make enough money for the server. Charge say $12.00/year for a knifenut@bladeforums.com email account.

I like bigmailbox.com because it notifies me through ICQ I have new mail. Plus it will allow you to run your banners.

------------------
"A knifeless man is a lifeless man"
-Nordic proverb
 
What about pre-paid tel. cards with BF logo with any transaction over xx dollars (from BF store)for some reasonable amount. I know there is big competition in US in this area but have you considered this?

David

[This message has been edited by David1967 (edited 16 December 1999).]
 
Silver card? Gold Card? Platinum Card? No. Bladeforums.com cards would come in 420j, 440, ATS-34, and maybe, for the really big spenders, even Talonite.

Mike, I don't want to say anything about the company offering the credit cards you bannered for, nor do I want to disparage your site at all, but there are so many other sites with banner ads for so many other financial offerings that are really poor deals to downright rip offs that most savvy internet users ignore any and all such ads and offers.




------------------
Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.4cs.net/~gollnick
 
C'mon guys, let's be realistic. How many people are going to rush right out and get a credit card from us? I know I wouldn't. Credit cards are a lot more of a step than Photon's and Krills.

As for the email, that's a no go at this time, for a variety of reasons, I'll go into them later.

Spark

------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
Spark,
I would. There are over 4000 members of all age groups. Maybe not everyone would even qualify for any CC, but I bet the majority would. I used to have a ton of cards but reduced them down to just one. Since there usually isn't a cost to the user (well, some issuers charge an annual fee), it means little to apply for another card. When making purchases it basically never mattered to me which card I used. With having a BFC titanium card I would choose to use that card because I know it would help something that I care about. I don't care about Net Bank, First Union or CityBank, but I do care about BFC. So other than applying for the card and then choosing to use it over my normal MC there is no skin off my back. I don't have to save to use it, I don't have to buy a particular item in order to help BFC. Hey, conceivably, I could use the BFC card to buy stuff from the BFC store - double whammie
smile.gif

I guess you as the webmaster could easyly create a little poll with counter to gauge interest among the membership.
 
We can't do credit cards, so drop the Chalupa on those
smile.gif

We can't do anything that costs us a ton of money just to try, like credit cards.

I am exploring ways that will work right now.
You will see us test plans first.

One idea I had last night is to auction things at Ebay. Our software we had did not do us good. So we can make a link that will take you to a listing of all our auctions at Ebay. Then you get something you may actually want.



------------------
Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!

Support BladeForums! Check out the BFC Store!
www.bladeforums.com/store
Subscribe our NEW online magazine!
www.bladeforums.com/magazine
Enter our Raffle!
www.bladeforums.com/raffle
 
Never! Never will I drop the Chalupa!
smile.gif

But ok, so CCs are dead. The Ebay idea sounds like it could have merit. I'll keep my eyes open.
 
Hello,

A possible idea I had last night, while making dinner, was the possibility of opening Bladeforums up into the kitchen knife venue.

While the 4200 members of Blade forums can be divided into different camps, such as folders vs fixed blades, tactical vs traditional, every single member here has to eat, and for that, many people use kitchen knives.

Would it be feasible to set up a kitchen knife forum, and try to attract a larger audience? This has the possibility of radically increasing the number of Bladeforum members by appealing to the "non-knife nut" general population, and you could perhaps stock quality kitchen knives in the Bladeforums store.

Most of the internet knife dealers I buy from don't specialise in selling kitchen cutlery, possibly alleviating the competition issue. If you charged decent prices and combined speedy shipping with the vast array of knowledge by the current Bladeforum members, this might entice a lot of the general population to buy from the Bladeforum store.

This could even be a way to win more people over to the idea of AKTI, once they realise how useful a nicely sharpened, quality kitchen knife can be. And how useful a good knife can be in everyday life.

Just a thought.

Ian
 
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