BL Merchandise (previously calendar voting)

[Perpetual Indulgence]

yeah sure you will

 

[ocean]

Dave, you can PM me or N3o on this and let us know what you come up with.
We are actually working on BL Merchandise and setting up an online sort of store front where we will sell these Calenders and hopefully other things like posters, cards, possibly t-shirts, cups etc.
This thread is hopefully going to get the ideas flowing to give us a better idea of what directions we should be going in.

 

[Keaton]

Maybe make some cool t-shirts?

I'd buy one!

:D

I'd buy a BL tshirt right away if they were available.

 

[Dave]

ocean: will do. Didn't get as much time as I had wanted to work on it yesterday, and today will probably be shot, but I should have something preliminary tomorrow. Expect a PM by tomorrow evening, and if I flake, then feel free to release the krakken.

 

[Legerity]

Can there be a ladies of TDS photo with ocean/n3o/Asclepius?

Id love a BL t-shirt and coffee mug too.

 

[alasdairm]

instead of harvesting existing works, why not create a photo contest and select works specifically for the calendar? there could be a central theme or something more general (e.g. choose a month and create a work inspired by that month).

alasdair

 

[felix]

Can I just do some pre-emptive proofreading here and point out that it's spelled CALENDAR. thanks. :D

I love the idea of using the photography contests. But not just from the winners, there's been loads of amazing entries that didn't actually win but would still be worthy of inclusion. We have contributors from all over the world here, so perhaps the theme could illustrate that? Just an idea.


edit: what ali said works for me too.

 

[ocean]

^Thanks for pointing that out. I'm retarded so, you'll have to forgive me.

 

[ocean]

We've got Pets, Photo Contest Entries, Art of BL, and BL's got Talent ............
I'm gonna start the poll tomorrow so get your entries in!!!

Also, Leg, I'll likely be putting my picture in for the Girls of BL Calendar this year- MAYBE I'll get chosen, and then you'll have a calendar w/ me in it

 

[Asclepius]

^ I wont! Yes, yes i'm horrible with the team spirit...I will however be voting for you; 'Miss legs and socks'!

Thanks for the compliments Leg BTW-eh, what about the Men of TDS?? Unfair! and I think a poll would be a good idea to determine possible outcomes ie with regard to whether a new idea of calender will potentially sell (this was prob done already i think... though).

 

[BrokedownPalace]

Does the 'no drugs' mean no picutres of drugs? Or nothing about drugs in general? If it is the former, I think we should try and incorporate the BDD "facts of the month contest" fact submissions, maybe as a small aside or footnote at the bottom of each calender page.

 

[Bearlove]

PILL TESTING KITS - not these 'one use' vials being offered by the likes of EZTEST but bottles of reagents (maybe with an eyedropper applicator). I get so many requests asking about these and it pains me that we get zero / little profit back from the sales.

These are not hard to make / even if we could offer the standard 'Marquis' bottle (Sulfuric Acid, formaldehyde) then we make a lot of profit.

 

[papa]

iPhone skins with the BlueLight logo ..

 

[Keaton]

iPhone skins with the BlueLight logo ..

...you know what an iPhone is?

 

[CHiLD-0F-THE-BEAT]

How about stubby holders (coolers) with the logo?

Also, any of the pasty-faces that have been doing the rounds through the years would make amazing posters.

 

[n3ophy7e]

Why not run a photo competition with the theme "Bluelight" where people submit photos or art that represents what bluelight means to their life. Obviously the no drug policy would mean it would highlight all the other aspects of our bluelight community.

Love that idea

A quick logistical question if I might: how were the last calendars printed? Were they be batch printed, and then sold 'off the shelf', or printed as they are ordered? Because if it's the latter, we could probably do a bunch of these ideas, and have a little BL merch store. I know that there are a few print-on-demand online bookshops out there, and I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a calendar equivalent. Maybe if we could get consent from photo contest winners to donate the rights to their image, we could do prints? We could do a mod-curated collection of poems/short fiction/what have you from Words. Hell, with the Words idea we could generate an e-book very cheaply.

All excellent ideas Dave! Yes, the way we did the Girls of BL calendar last year was from an online store that prints as they are ordered, not in batches. I think that would be the only way to do it, for the risk of having 1,000 calendars printed and then sitting in a box in someone's garage not getting sold :D

I think I was one of the few people people who actually bought one of the Girls of Bluelight calendars. Xsie did an amazing job and it's really a shame that more people didn't buy one considering the skills she put into it and the amount of copies bought. It's a great idea but I don't think it's a feasible idea to really put into practice again.

Maybe make some cool t-shirts?

I'd buy one!

:D

I would really like us to do some t-shirts too!! I would buy multiple
Also, I think more people bought the calendar than you might think jj?? I'll check the online store and see if I can find out how many exactly.
And YES, chrissie did an amazing job on those!!

Can there be a ladies of TDS photo with ocean/n3o/Asclepius?

Id love a BL t-shirt and coffee mug too.

Oh you
I will most likely be entering a photo again this year

PILL TESTING KITS - not these 'one use' vials being offered by the likes of EZTEST but bottles of reagents (maybe with an eyedropper applicator). I get so many requests asking about these and it pains me that we get zero / little profit back from the sales.

These are not hard to make / even if we could offer the standard 'Marquis' bottle (Sulfuric Acid, formaldehyde) then we make a lot of profit.

Bear I think this is an excellent idea and it is something we should try and look in to at some point. In the capacity of the online store we've got set up, we can only do merchandise that they already have in stock (i.e. plain t-shirts, mugs, caps etc which then get printed on), so if we were to do the BL Logo'd Marquis tests we would have to look in to that separately. Do you have any thoughts as to how/where we could do something like that?

iPhone skins with the BlueLight logo ..

Excellent idea

 

[ocean]

Poll created.
This poll is for the calendar only.
All of the other ideas are awesome and we will run with those as well, but this vote is only going to be for the calendar.

I think we could have bumper stickers, cards, T-shirts and such from any category, really.
I think n3o and I had an idea of running with 3 or more options for T-Shirts and then we're still open to all other ideas and input- you guys are coming up with GREAT ideas! It's exciting!!

I wonder if we could get buttons or keychains in the mix?
We'll have to see.

Do you think a separate vote in a week or two on WHAT you'd want to purchase would be of benefit?
I think that'd be a good idea. This would give us a better idea on what we'd be looking to have produced.
For example, if we had a multiple choice option and you guys liked the ideas of T-Shirts and Bumper Stickers, we could then run threads for those images......?

 

[_a_A_C_c_]

^if you use something like cafepress.com, its easy to create all sorts of items once the images are created. so if there is an image that gets selected, it can easily be put on t-shirts, keychains, bumper stickers and whatnot.

I think I was one of the few people people who actually bought one of the Girls of Bluelight calendars. Xsie did an amazing job and it's really a shame that more people didn't buy one considering the skills she put into it and the amount of copies bought. It's a great idea but I don't think it's a feasible idea to really put into practice again.

i wonder if making something that is more work safe would be better. i know i was a bit deterred because i could not use it at work. and it would have been a bit odd to explain to people if i had it displayed in my apartment.

 

[CHiLD-0F-THE-BEAT]

Sounds perfect ocean - I like the idea of having our in-house artists cook up a batch of awesome incorporating the Bluelight logo (or at least name) to go onto the various items.
I would be reluctant to buy a Bluelight bumper sticker or keychain for fear of too many questions from those I'd rather not know about my involvement with the site, but a shirt would be totally awesome and something of a collectors item.

I can imagine people having several calendars and different shirt designs if we keep doing merchandise drives.

 

[CHiLD-0F-THE-BEAT]

i wonder if making something that is more work safe would be better.

I also agree with this. I LOVE our calendar, but it's relegated to a special place in our house - there would be all sorts of questions from Busty's kids and ex-wife if it were on display. :/