What do you think of the idea of subscribing to buy a calendar (or calendars)? The thought is to allow me to get the calendars printed by a “real” printing press, which would lower the unit cost enormously, while enabling me to judge the print run and fund some of the printing ahead of time.
Instead of a calendar costing $20 plus shipping, it would probably bring the price down to $10 + shipping, and perhaps even a quantity discount (1 for $10, 2 for $16, 3 for $20, that sort of thing).
I would have to figure out a minimum quantity and a way to refund via paypal if enough weren’t sold by “press day.” In other words, if I needed 50 pre-orders to create a specific calendar, and only 20 came in for the Healey version before Nov. 15, I’d refund those folks–but if 70 people had pre-ordered the XK calendar, that one would definitely be a go.
Your thoughts welcome.
I’m currently working on a few things as I find the time. Here’s the current list:
New Features
- New & improved interactive color charts
This is going to be pretty incredible but is also consuming a lot of time. I’m hoping to roll out a test version in June.
- A light redesign of the site(s)
This is mainly to allow a bit wider layouts, clean up search forms, place common navigation in obvious places, etc. The general look and feel will remain very similar.
- Some small, unobtrusive ads
In an effort to find more time (ie pay myself/others) to accomplish some of the items on this list, and more. Ads would have to be at least generally on-topic and from reputable businesses. Get in touch if you might be interested. Of course, I have to figure out how much to charge, a complete mystery in many ways.
- Component tracker
A way to enter engine, body, gearbox numbers without knowing the car number. For example, I have an XK140 block in my shop, it should be on here in case the car exists and it could be matched to it.
Fixes & Completing the Incompletes
- Allow the early Series 1 E-Types to be entered without the “1E” prefix
- Database stats on all sites
- General knowledge articles about the cars covered (from Wikipedia, most likely) on all sites
- Finish the license plate project
- Easier entry forms (especially photo uploads)
Things I’m Thinking About
- Creating a registered user feature
The main purpose here would be to allow you to log-in for purposes of on-site bookmarking (for your favorite cars/photos), entering comments without re-filling in name fields; and other similar convenience items. There would be no charge, use it or not as you wish.
- “Likes” on photos
Not sure about this…but possibly a way to add a facebook-style thumbs-up for great photos, and some way to share with users the photos which are most liked. (Not thinking of it as a popularity contest but rather as a way for people to not miss some great content.)
- Unknown cars album
This would be a place to add photos of cars where we don’t have the chassis number. I’m reluctant to add this as it’s not all that valuable as a resource, in some ways, and I fear folks might just use it to dump photos they don’t want to spend the time entering with the right car.
What else should be on this already ambitious list?
