[[ NEW ]] Liberty-based website!

[Creative Icon]

Hi there! My name is Steve and I'm from western PA. I have been working on this website for 3 to 4, maybe even 5 months now... could have been 6 for all I know. I put my best efforts into it and I hope everyone in the movement appreciates it, and even better I hope people lend a hand and contribute to it. This is my baby:

GearforLiberty.com (http://www.gearforliberty.com)


I quit my minimum wage job for this, I want activism to be my full time job. With the free time I'll have available I can focus my efforts on educating myself on the things Ron Paul listed in the Manifesto. I want to run for congress in my district and I figure I have two years and counting to get on task. Check out the site and let me know what you think, maybe you need some activism supplies?


P.S.
Check out the article in the "Information" section of my site, it better explains my movtivations:

G4L Info (http://www.gearforliberty.com/g4l_info.html)

[LibertiORDeth]

Good job, keep it going.

[Kludge]

Fantastic! The layout is excellent and the prices unbeatable. Thank you for this resource and good luck. I'm filling up a shopping cart as I'm writing this ;)

[Sheepdog11]

Wow, very nice.

I like the layout of the site, very professional. I'm very curious to see the Educational Material section when finished.

One thing I'd like to see is more variety (and originality) in the "Tees" section, and I'm sure that will come with time. :)

Great job, best of luck.

[Roxi]

very, very nice!

[zach]

Very nice! I'll be able to use some of that around campus. :D

[SnappleLlama]

Added to Cat Herder!

http://operationcatherder.com/index.php/Grassroots_Roadmap#Other_Pro-Liberty_Groups_and_Websites

[Creative Icon]

I seem to be getting a really good response where ever I go, I must be doing something right.

Check out my newest add, the "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Ron Paul" bumper stickers. The graphic is also available on a t-shirt.

Bumper Sticker (http://www.gearforliberty.com/g4l_banners.html)
T-shirt (http://www.gearforliberty.com/t_dntblame.html)

Once again, thanks for the support guys.

[David40]

I wish you the best of luck but let me tell you my story. I invested thousands for the equipment and materials to make Campaign For Liberty decals, banners and bumper stickers. I set up a web site and spread the word around. I did this because I wanted these advertising materials for myself and our group. I figured I could sell them to others as well to cover costs and donate a portion to Dr Paul. I tried to get sites like Daily Paul and Ron Paul for President 2008 to give me an honorable one line mention in the Resources side bars along with all the obsolete ads for Ron Paul campaign materials. The ass-hole that runs Daily Paul never gave me the courtesy of a reply after at least four e-mails. The guy at Ron Paul for President at least replied but said to contact him after he gets his new site "Ron Paul Planet" up and running. Who knows if that will ever materialize. Break the Matrix wanted some ridiculous amount of money for a small ad.
So for all my trouble I maybe sold $200 worth of stuff over the last three months and my hopes of breaking even are gone. Unless you are prepared to gamble on investing thousands of dollars in advertising I would not hold my breath about orders rolling in. I hope you did not mortgage your house to do this.
I'll continue to work for Dr Paul. I became a precinct Committeeman and a Campaign For Liberty Precinct Leader. I'll continue to do whatever I can to help. But the hay day of the movement is over, people are tapped out financially, and there is nowhere near the enthusiasm there was during the campaign.
Then there is the possibility that CFL will finally get their act together and open their own in house store.
So I just wanted to warn you. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did.

[JamesButabi]

Looks good. Il be hitting this up soon!

[JamesButabi]

David do not be too discouraged. Especially if you are become an active precinct leader, im sure that stuff will come in handy down the road. If you start gathers meetups and the like, im sure people will contribute to your initial startup.

[David40]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm not discouraged generally but I am disappointed. It was always uplifting for me to see Ron Paul signs and bumper stickers all over the place. I guess I just figured everyone would replace them with CFL stuff when we made the transition. To this day I have not seen one CFL item anywhere other than my own vans. Seems all the sunshine patriots disappeared now that it's time to do the real tough work.
I have started introducing myself to the voters in my precinct by walking door to door. I cultivated a cooperative friend in the SOE's office, and the executive director of our local REC told me how much she appreciates having someone like me around. I balked at the compliment, but she insisted that they were lucky to get 10% of the membership to actually ever do anything and she wasn't just trying to be polite. So, I'll keep chipping away at the rock.

[Xenophage]

1 bumper sticker ordered.

[Creative Icon]

Maybe you'll have better luck than I did.

Sorry to hear your story and it actually makes me feel a bit better concerning my situation. The equipment I bought was relatively cheap, but surprisingly high quality. I'm actually in a pretty good position, it seems that once my site is better known, this will be a good little side venture to pull in enough cash to pay off my school loans (which is all I really would like). I plan on doing some advertising on Lew Rockwell which I think will pull in some customers. I figure if I can get a couple hundred people to buy a liberty-minded tee shirt, I'll be free from the bank's ball and chain.


But I have future plans for this site. I would like to make the "education materials" section a hub of information. I figure, yeah selling t-shirts and stickers is nice, and it gets people fired up about liberty, but education is most important. I know the C4L has an awesome education section, but I would like to make a youtube series that puts things into perspective. A wake up call to America.

Let's see where all this goes. Thank you everyone who made a purchase, and tell your friends!

[raystone]

I tried to get sites like Daily Paul and Ron Paul for President 2008 to give me an honorable one line mention in the Resources side bars along with all the obsolete ads for Ron Paul campaign materials. The ass-hole that runs Daily Paul never gave me the courtesy of a reply after at least four e-mails. The guy at Ron Paul for President at least replied but said to contact him after he gets his new site "Ron Paul Planet" up and running. Who knows if that will ever materialize. Break the Matrix wanted some ridiculous amount of money for a small ad.
Then there is the possibility that CFL will finally get their act together and open their own in house store.
So I just wanted to warn you. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did.



David (or Creative Icon), have you contacted the C4L directly ? To proposing serving as their unofficial store until they get one going ? Much like the original Colbert store :)

[ItsTime]

looks great! GL! Ill pass this around a bit for you.

[AdamT]

I wish you the best of luck but let me tell you my story. I invested thousands for the equipment and materials to make Campaign For Liberty decals, banners and bumper stickers. I set up a web site and spread the word around. I did this because I wanted these advertising materials for myself and our group. I figured I could sell them to others as well to cover costs and donate a portion to Dr Paul. I tried to get sites like Daily Paul and Ron Paul for President 2008 to give me an honorable one line mention in the Resources side bars along with all the obsolete ads for Ron Paul campaign materials. The ass-hole that runs Daily Paul never gave me the courtesy of a reply after at least four e-mails. The guy at Ron Paul for President at least replied but said to contact him after he gets his new site "Ron Paul Planet" up and running. Who knows if that will ever materialize. Break the Matrix wanted some ridiculous amount of money for a small ad.
So for all my trouble I maybe sold $200 worth of stuff over the last three months and my hopes of breaking even are gone. Unless you are prepared to gamble on investing thousands of dollars in advertising I would not hold my breath about orders rolling in. I hope you did not mortgage your house to do this.
I'll continue to work for Dr Paul. I became a precinct Committeeman and a Campaign For Liberty Precinct Leader. I'll continue to do whatever I can to help. But the hay day of the movement is over, people are tapped out financially, and there is nowhere near the enthusiasm there was during the campaign.
Then there is the possibility that CFL will finally get their act together and open their own in house store.
So I just wanted to warn you. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did.

David, thanks for your efforts. Could the design of your site be part of your problem? Consider doing a complete re-design and clean it up. It might draw in more customers.

[Wendi]

David, don't be too discouraged. It is early. The election was less than two weeks ago. And yes, people are tapped out financially right now for a variety of reasons - including the economic downturn. But the movement isn't dead. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare...

[David40]

David, thanks for your efforts. Could the design of your site be part of your problem? Consider doing a complete re-design and clean it up. It might draw in more customers.

I love to, but I don't know a thing about HTLM programming. I used a simple "Make your own Web Page" program that has very limited abilities. There is no money for hiring a designer. You'll note the site is hosted for free, I can't even afford to pay for hosting. My hope was that the people in this movement were more concerned with substance rather than superficiality. I'm not a good looking man but I get the job done, and I guess my site reflects that. It ain't pretty but you can get what you need, and for me that is all that should really matter.;)

[Creative Icon]

Hey Dave, I would be more than happy to put a banner on my site linking to yours. We all gotta hang together, right? Got one about this size: LINK (http://creativeicon.net/parts/g4l_468x60ad.gif)
I'll make one for you if ya' need it.

[Creative Icon]

David (or Creative Icon), have you contacted the C4L directly ? To proposing serving as their unofficial store until they get one going ? Much like the original Colbert store :)

Ya know what, I think I'll do it. I'm a precinct leader in training so I should get a timely and favorable response from the staff, thanks for the inspiration.

[David40]

Hey Dave, I would be more than happy to put a banner on my site linking to yours. We all gotta hang together, right? Got one about this size: LINK (http://creativeicon.net/parts/g4l_468x60ad.gif)
I'll make one for you if ya' need it.

Wow that's a very generous offer. Sure, I would welcome any help. I really don't know how to do a web banner. The little program I use lets me import an image and assign a link to it but I'm not sure that's what a real banner is. I've tried to grab banners from the major Ron Paul sites to place on mine but it never works right. They provide some HTML code but I don't know how to integrate it into the pages this program generates. I just end up importing the image and assigning a link to their site. I haven't really spent any time on designing anything like that for myself. If you can come up with something I would appreciate it. I'd be happy to reciprocate too.
Would also be happy to send you a decal for your windshield if you would like one :)

[heavenlyboy34]

I'm impressed, OP! If I had the financial resources to do this, I would too. :D

[newyearsrevolution08]

I wish you the best of luck but let me tell you my story. I invested thousands for the equipment and materials to make Campaign For Liberty decals, banners and bumper stickers. I set up a web site and spread the word around. I did this because I wanted these advertising materials for myself and our group. I figured I could sell them to others as well to cover costs and donate a portion to Dr Paul. I tried to get sites like Daily Paul and Ron Paul for President 2008 to give me an honorable one line mention in the Resources side bars along with all the obsolete ads for Ron Paul campaign materials. The ass-hole that runs Daily Paul never gave me the courtesy of a reply after at least four e-mails. The guy at Ron Paul for President at least replied but said to contact him after he gets his new site "Ron Paul Planet" up and running. Who knows if that will ever materialize. Break the Matrix wanted some ridiculous amount of money for a small ad.
So for all my trouble I maybe sold $200 worth of stuff over the last three months and my hopes of breaking even are gone. Unless you are prepared to gamble on investing thousands of dollars in advertising I would not hold my breath about orders rolling in. I hope you did not mortgage your house to do this.
I'll continue to work for Dr Paul. I became a precinct Committeeman and a Campaign For Liberty Precinct Leader. I'll continue to do whatever I can to help. But the hay day of the movement is over, people are tapped out financially, and there is nowhere near the enthusiasm there was during the campaign.
Then there is the possibility that CFL will finally get their act together and open their own in house store.
So I just wanted to warn you. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did.

Assuming that other ron paul sites are simply going to give your website free advertising is crazy in itself though. Not talking down on your business effort in the least but gambling an investment in the hopes of getting free advertising to generate your income makes zero sense.

[raystone]

Ya know what, I think I'll do it. I'm a precinct leader in training so I should get a timely and favorable response from the staff, thanks for the inspiration.


Great, in the meantime, I put a link to both your stores at our C4L state site here:

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/usa/WI/

[David40]

Assuming that other ron paul sites are simply going to give your website free advertising is crazy in itself though. Not talking down on your business effort in the least but gambling an investment in the hopes of getting free advertising to generate your income makes zero sense.

If it were a normal business venture I would agree but in this case I have to disagree. This movement is not a commercial venture. All I ever wanted to do is break even and use any extra to donate back to the movement in some way. Those other Ron Paul sites I mentioned are not charging for the links they put in the side bars any more than I charge anyone for the links I place on my site. They are not ads they are just links to other people that support the movement in some way. If they can keep all those links for obsolete RP campaign material it would be an easy thing to swap them out for stuff that is relevant to what we are doing now. Aside from Daily Paul who pissed me off by not replying to my emails, I put links to a bunch of CFL supporting sites on my site and I don't ask a dime from any of them. The day money becomes more important than what we are doing I'm out of it, totally!

PS Rick, Thanks!

[newyearsrevolution08]

David, don't be too discouraged. It is early. The election was less than two weeks ago. And yes, people are tapped out financially right now for a variety of reasons - including the economic downturn. But the movement isn't dead. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare...

I think people want a political break... it was a long election year... or so it seemed.

[LibertiORDeth]

Hey Creative, could you do a hoodie?

[Kludge]

I received my order yesterday (well -- didn't check the mail until today...). I don't know why I decided to order 2XL... I can swim in the shirt.

Anyway, the shirt actually has three images on it. On the front there is the logo ordered in the center and a small "Gearforliberty.com" image in the bottom right. On the back, there is a large centered "campaignforliberty.com" image.

The bumper sticker I ordered was packaged in a way which bent the back-paper a bit, but didn't affect how it appeared on my car. It showed up very well at a distance and doesn't appear to be falling off any time soon ;)

[newyearsrevolution08]

Hey Creative, could you do a hoodie?

A hoodie would be cool and with the weather changing it is perfect for one...

[newyearsrevolution08]

If it were a normal business venture I would agree but in this case I have to disagree. This movement is not a commercial venture. All I ever wanted to do is break even and use any extra to donate back to the movement in some way. Those other Ron Paul sites I mentioned are not charging for the links they put in the side bars any more than I charge anyone for the links I place on my site. They are not ads they are just links to other people that support the movement in some way. If they can keep all those links for obsolete RP campaign material it would be an easy thing to swap them out for stuff that is relevant to what we are doing now. Aside from Daily Paul who pissed me off by not replying to my emails, I put links to a bunch of CFL supporting sites on my site and I don't ask a dime from any of them. The day money becomes more important than what we are doing I'm out of it, totally!

PS Rick, Thanks!

I get your point BUT maybe asking for link exchanges BEFORE spending thousands of dollars might have made more sense is my point. The links on those sites you talk about whether you look at them as "advertisements" or simple "links" does not really mean the two are any different from each other. A link is an advertisement whether someone pays for it or not. Maybe the sites didn't want MORE clothing sites asking them for free traffic because I can count 20+ sites doing the same exact thing especially when things were really going strong odds are there were a TON of people with clothing sites selling and odds are contacted them non stop trying to get the free exposure as well.

Whether your intentions are good or not, the sites still saw a for profit business even if you were going to donate everything to the campaign. They might just like those sites they had on the site, or they actually were partnered in them whether backend or up front OR using affiliate links which I saw plenty of times as well.

As far as you putting links of other sites on yours.... Ask for a link back and if they don't want to then remove their link if you feel you need to. I think it is more an issue of assuming everyone with a site is more than happy to link to others. You do know that KEEPING traffic on your site is what most people are after versus having it leave them and generate income somewhere else.

Some of these ron paul sites even if they seem NOT for money, the ads say otherwise. Not that I have anything against it BUT don't think they are all out for the cause and helping others move up in "ron paul topsites" or whatever either.


The only person I really ever saw OUT FOR MONEY was trevor. He still charges for advertising, for email lists, for setting up money bombs among other methods i'm sure. I do agree, once it becomes all about money it will NOT be fun. The great thing though, the "ron paul for president" momentum is gone and now we can focus on the next candidates.

I don't know what will happen with the CFL at all BUT I hope it does something productive before 2012.

[David40]

Don't get me wrong I don't regret buying the equipment. I did not borrow the money, and I actually enjoy printing work. If nothing else our meetup group and myself will have the best looking signs around and at cost.

[newyearsrevolution08]

Don't get me wrong I don't regret buying the equipment. I did not borrow the money, and I actually enjoy printing work. If nothing else our meetup group and myself will have the best looking signs around and at cost.

+1776 indeed

[Creative Icon]

Wow that's a very generous offer. Sure, I would welcome any help. I really don't know how to do a web banner. :)

I'd be glad to make you a banner, just give me some time and then I'll e-mail through your contact info on your site. You don't have to send me anything though, my car is already plastered with my own C4L banners. Thanks for the offer and I'll be contact you as soon as I can.




Great, in the meantime, I put a link to both your stores at our C4L state site here:

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/usa/WI/

Thank you thank you thank you. I appreciated that so much!




Hey Creative, could you do a hoodie?

I can, but it has to be a white hoodie because of the printing process I use.




The bumper sticker I ordered was packaged in a way which bent the back-paper a bit, but didn't affect how it appeared on my car. It showed up very well at a distance and doesn't appear to be falling off any time soon ;)

Yes, since the sticker is actually made of a fabric, it won't leave creases if you fold it. That stuff is so durable, you could pull it off you car right now, crinkle it into a ball, then flatten it back out and it would STILL stick. Just make sure that you place it on a clean surface though. If you happen to get the sticky side dirty, you can actually WASH it off in your sink under warm water. Once you let it dry it will still cling to you car with no ploblem, no matter the weather, rain or shine.

[David40]

Looks like CFL announced the opening of their online store Dec 2nd, so I guess that answers the question about filling in till then.