tangent4ronpaul
12-02-2007, 11:53 PM
That blimp don't fly!
I want it to as much as everyone here does, but this sudden switch from grassroots to business is most likely going to prevent it from happening.
Lets look at some numbers – before this switch, about $500,000 had been pledged. $100,000 we know was a bogus pledger, so $400,000 pledged. From the poll, 71.43% (45 ppl) said they were more likely to donate to a one time grassroots effort for $350,000 than to buy advertising time shares for $500,000 a month from a business. 23.81% would go for the business (though how many of those 15 votes came from the people that would be paid, is unknown) and 4.76%, or 3 ppl said neither. Soooo....
If 23.81% of those that pledged, follow through and donate to this new business model, that would raise $95,200 – that's worth repeating! It would raise $95,200! - a bit shy of the $500,000 needed. Lets assume it works out the same way the Nov 5th money bomb did and we get roughly twice as many donations as pledges – that's still under $200,000. Less than half of what's needed for the new way, and not even enough to get the basic blimp (original) in the air.
In the past 4 days, a very steady stream of donations has been coming in at a rate of about $7,000 a day and $29,050 has been raised so far. At this rate, we will have raised the required $500,000 is about 2 and a half months.
Now to be fair, they have not sent the e-mails out to the people who pledged to donate asking them to now buy time shares in a for profit company, so the numbers are likely to take a temporary upward spike. For something that is going to launch in 7 days, I would have thought that would be a priority. If it had simply been done with a PAC and effort had been applied there, rather than forming a business, and hiring people these past couple of days – I bet the blimp would already be paid for and we would be looking at extras if we got more than needed.
There is also the MEGA TURN OFF in their legal disclaimer: “Your purchase is not refundable. If the advertising you purchase is are oversold, or for any other reason we cannot give you the advertising you bought, we may substitute other advertising of equivalent value that expresses a similar message.”
NON REFUNDABLE. THEY PROMICE TO DELIVER NOTHING – WELL “SOMETHING” THEY CAN SPEND YOUR MONEY ON ANYTHING THEY DESIRE! FOR ANY REASON – UP TO THEM!
Gee! - can you throw another bucket of ice water on me? That REALLY makes me want to buy a time share! (sarcasm)
There are some other discrepancies – no flight hours are listed now, the background information / research page is gone, as is the original page so people can't compare the differences anymore. There was a lot of specific information available before these went down, that is not available now.
Some things I do recall – before, painting the blimp was included. Now it seams we are getting a banner draped over it and it's not included ($25,000). That's a one time expense. So is a lot of the equipment, the jackets, the 10K retainer for the lawyer, etc. yet it's still going to cost $500,000 a month, every month... why?
On the old site, it said that the $350,000 price was so high because A) it was a bigger blimp, B) we were getting it at short notice and C) we were only renting it for a month. Now other blimp companies with longer contracts charge anywhere from $200,000 and $350,000 a month for multi-month contracts, and IIRC the higher figure included one of those huge scrolling LED signs on it. My point is that the cost of the blimp should go down if we keep doing this for multiple months, yet it's still $500,000 a month... so where is that extra money (profit) going to go?
Please don't get me wrong! - I want to see the blimp fly! The question is how to make that happen. While this “time shares” idea is really brilliant, they couldn't have had worse timing and shot themselves in the foot by doing the switch now. It is now 42% more expensive, bloated with extra expenses – kind of like Bills in Congress and people are feeling stung by the “bait and switch” of pledging for one thing and being asked to ante up for another.
By pushing the new business model now, I fear that the whole project will be born earthbound and will end up as a MAJOR EMBARASMENT to the campaign! - I can see the headlines now: Ron Paul's Lead Blimp or The Blimp that Couldn't Fly...
Hows this for a solution to trying to win back some of the pledgers that just walked away from this project in disgust:
FIRST – Go back to the original plan of a PAC for the first month. People liked that, they pledged for that, not what is being offered now. Any add ons can come from $ above $350,000 raised.
SECOND – Start a new pledge for the new business model for months 2+. That removes the “bait and switch” sting people are feeling, and people would know what they are getting for the money. This also gives the project a one month trial to see how well Trevor and co can handle it and determine how effective it is.
THIRD – start a pledge for a PAC funded months 2+ continued operation at the leaner price and let the people paying for this vote by pledging to the business model or the continued PAC model.
Lets get this airship over Boston on the 16th!
Nathan
I want it to as much as everyone here does, but this sudden switch from grassroots to business is most likely going to prevent it from happening.
Lets look at some numbers – before this switch, about $500,000 had been pledged. $100,000 we know was a bogus pledger, so $400,000 pledged. From the poll, 71.43% (45 ppl) said they were more likely to donate to a one time grassroots effort for $350,000 than to buy advertising time shares for $500,000 a month from a business. 23.81% would go for the business (though how many of those 15 votes came from the people that would be paid, is unknown) and 4.76%, or 3 ppl said neither. Soooo....
If 23.81% of those that pledged, follow through and donate to this new business model, that would raise $95,200 – that's worth repeating! It would raise $95,200! - a bit shy of the $500,000 needed. Lets assume it works out the same way the Nov 5th money bomb did and we get roughly twice as many donations as pledges – that's still under $200,000. Less than half of what's needed for the new way, and not even enough to get the basic blimp (original) in the air.
In the past 4 days, a very steady stream of donations has been coming in at a rate of about $7,000 a day and $29,050 has been raised so far. At this rate, we will have raised the required $500,000 is about 2 and a half months.
Now to be fair, they have not sent the e-mails out to the people who pledged to donate asking them to now buy time shares in a for profit company, so the numbers are likely to take a temporary upward spike. For something that is going to launch in 7 days, I would have thought that would be a priority. If it had simply been done with a PAC and effort had been applied there, rather than forming a business, and hiring people these past couple of days – I bet the blimp would already be paid for and we would be looking at extras if we got more than needed.
There is also the MEGA TURN OFF in their legal disclaimer: “Your purchase is not refundable. If the advertising you purchase is are oversold, or for any other reason we cannot give you the advertising you bought, we may substitute other advertising of equivalent value that expresses a similar message.”
NON REFUNDABLE. THEY PROMICE TO DELIVER NOTHING – WELL “SOMETHING” THEY CAN SPEND YOUR MONEY ON ANYTHING THEY DESIRE! FOR ANY REASON – UP TO THEM!
Gee! - can you throw another bucket of ice water on me? That REALLY makes me want to buy a time share! (sarcasm)
There are some other discrepancies – no flight hours are listed now, the background information / research page is gone, as is the original page so people can't compare the differences anymore. There was a lot of specific information available before these went down, that is not available now.
Some things I do recall – before, painting the blimp was included. Now it seams we are getting a banner draped over it and it's not included ($25,000). That's a one time expense. So is a lot of the equipment, the jackets, the 10K retainer for the lawyer, etc. yet it's still going to cost $500,000 a month, every month... why?
On the old site, it said that the $350,000 price was so high because A) it was a bigger blimp, B) we were getting it at short notice and C) we were only renting it for a month. Now other blimp companies with longer contracts charge anywhere from $200,000 and $350,000 a month for multi-month contracts, and IIRC the higher figure included one of those huge scrolling LED signs on it. My point is that the cost of the blimp should go down if we keep doing this for multiple months, yet it's still $500,000 a month... so where is that extra money (profit) going to go?
Please don't get me wrong! - I want to see the blimp fly! The question is how to make that happen. While this “time shares” idea is really brilliant, they couldn't have had worse timing and shot themselves in the foot by doing the switch now. It is now 42% more expensive, bloated with extra expenses – kind of like Bills in Congress and people are feeling stung by the “bait and switch” of pledging for one thing and being asked to ante up for another.
By pushing the new business model now, I fear that the whole project will be born earthbound and will end up as a MAJOR EMBARASMENT to the campaign! - I can see the headlines now: Ron Paul's Lead Blimp or The Blimp that Couldn't Fly...
Hows this for a solution to trying to win back some of the pledgers that just walked away from this project in disgust:
FIRST – Go back to the original plan of a PAC for the first month. People liked that, they pledged for that, not what is being offered now. Any add ons can come from $ above $350,000 raised.
SECOND – Start a new pledge for the new business model for months 2+. That removes the “bait and switch” sting people are feeling, and people would know what they are getting for the money. This also gives the project a one month trial to see how well Trevor and co can handle it and determine how effective it is.
THIRD – start a pledge for a PAC funded months 2+ continued operation at the leaner price and let the people paying for this vote by pledging to the business model or the continued PAC model.
Lets get this airship over Boston on the 16th!
Nathan