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  1. #1
    FEP Power Member Broncojunkie's Avatar
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    Default Idea for supporting the site

    Maybe this has been tried before, but here's an idea. Do a "ride of the month" for each month of the year. At the end of the year, use the pic from each month to produce calenders for the following year. Step 3: profit lol!

    Maybe that's not feasible to get it done in time, but getting them out before Christmas would be tight, at the very least. Calenders could also help promote the site.

    Anyway, just a thought. Feel free to flame away.
    79 Pace Car - 331, t5
    79 Pace Car- 302, 4 spd
    79 Cobra - working on 351w, t5
    82 Capri- working on 302, t5
    82gt - working on 408w, c4

  2. #2
    Moderator wraithracing's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Broncojunkie View Post
    Maybe this has been tried before, but here's an idea. Do a "ride of the month" for each month of the year. At the end of the year, use the pic from each month to produce calenders for the following year. Step 3: profit lol!

    Maybe that's not feasible to get it done in time, but getting them out before Christmas would be tight, at the very least. Calenders could also help promote the site.

    Anyway, just a thought. Feel free to flame away.
    Been there done that! I tried that back in 2016/2017 IIRC. Getting good quality pictures for a calendar is a lot harder than you would think. Unfortunately most pictures uploaded for the ROTM are not great calendar quality. They have poor lighting, poor angles, too small, not enough pixels for enlarging, etc. Asking owners of cars that were selected for the calendar to supply "good" photos for the calendar was an exercise in futility and frustration. Many didn't reply or still sent in poor quality photos. Then getting the calendars made is a whole different issue. Not terrible, but does take time and energy to get it done and done right. Then the calendars have to be mailed to every purchaser. I did it as preorders to try and prevent being stuck with a box of old calendars. That worked pretty well, but even then I know I didn't exceed 50 calendars total. At that quantity each calendar costs anywhere from $12-$20 to have printed. I think I sold them for $25 or so shipped, so overall there was very little profit in the calendars to provide funds to help the site. I donated my time to the process and then donated all of the profits to the site via Paypal donation.

    It is a good idea and I wish it worked better, but we don't have enough active members here on FEP to sell a ton of calendars. If we could sell several hundred calendars then the profit margins would increase and obviously there would be more $$ to donate to the site. I am not opposed to doing all of it again, but honestly it was a lot of work to get the ROTM done every month between the nominations, voting, getting the owners to provide info and specs on their cars, etc. Then doing the individual writeup with photos. I easily had 20 hours of work for the easy months and sometimes close to 40 hours for the difficult months that had slow nominations, poor pictures, lack of owner/winner responses, etc. It was fun, rewarding, and frustrating as He## at times!
    ​Trey

    "I Don't build it hoping for your approval! I built it because it meets mine!"

    "I've spent most of my money on Mustangs, racing, and women... the rest I just wasted."

    Mustangs Past: Too many to remember!
    Current Mustangs:
    1969 Mach 1
    1979 Pace Car now 5.0/5 speed
    1982 GT Stalled RestoModification
    1984 SVO Still Waiting Restoration
    1986 GT Under going Wide Body Conversion Currently

    Current Capris:
    1981 Capri Roller
    1981 Capri Black Magic Roller Basket Case
    1982 Capri RS 5.0/4spd T-top Full Restoration Stalled in TX
    1984 Capri RS T-top Roller
    1983-84 Gloy Racing Trans Am/IMSA Body Parts

  3. #3
    FEP Power Member Broncojunkie's Avatar
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    Yikes! That sounds like a ton of work for basically no profit!
    I will say that most newer phones have much better cameras than they did just a couple years ago, though. Maybe the process could be updated, too. For instance, there is probably an online vendor (or even a local shop) that could handle the production and sales directly. FEP provides the pics and layout...printer takes orders and handles shipping. As for picture quality, just require a certain file size to qualify.

    As for the actual quality of the photography work, well... that's a deal breaker I never really thought of. For instance, I don't think I have a single picture of my cars that are worth printing lol! I need to do something about that.

    My next door neighbor has a nice 71 Chevelle ss 454 that has been in a few calendars and magazine art. In fact, I'm pretty sure his car is the November or December page of the Federated Auto Parts calendar this year.
    79 Pace Car - 331, t5
    79 Pace Car- 302, 4 spd
    79 Cobra - working on 351w, t5
    82 Capri- working on 302, t5
    82gt - working on 408w, c4

  4. #4
    FEP Power Member Broncojunkie's Avatar
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    Another idea would be a calender or book of some sort that features actual cars in progress. Interesting cars that are anything but show-queens. I had an idea for doing a book like this many years ago, but never got around to it. Just have pics and story with each car. Show what the owner has done and what his plans are with the car. Throw in some pics of what it looked like before he started and all that jazz. Again, a ton of work but a lot of it could be a collaboration and even done over the course of a few years. Something to think about, anyway.
    79 Pace Car - 331, t5
    79 Pace Car- 302, 4 spd
    79 Cobra - working on 351w, t5
    82 Capri- working on 302, t5
    82gt - working on 408w, c4

  5. #5
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    Sounds like a lot of work. May be trying to get the info and pictures first to qualify for selection would eliminate chasing people down.
    Fox Body/3rd Gen MCA Gold Card Judge
    84 SVO 24K miles, 85 Mclaren Capri Vert. 84 GT Turbo Vert.
    88 Mclaren Mustang Vert 20K miles, 89 Mustang LX Sport Vert,
    03 Mach 1 7900 miles, 74 Mustang II, 69 Mustang, 67 Mustang, 07 GT500,
    14 Mustang CS/GT, 15 F150 FTX Tuscany, 16 F250 Crewcab, 67 Tbird 47K miles

  6. #6
    Moderator wraithracing's Avatar
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    All good ideas and I am willing to take another stab at it myself. I was actually looking at my current garage calendar and was thinking how I wish I had one with cars I really like rather than just some cars I like.

    I have tried different approaches with the ROTM and members over the years. Unfortunately we are all busy and sometimes visiting here just isn't a priority, or we just don't take the time to deal with it. The other issue was getting information about their car out of them was seriously like pulling teeth. The details supplied were minimal at best and when asked for a funny or inspiration story about their car, many were at a lost of words. Made writing the article much more difficult and lengthy. Not that the article has much to do with a calendar, but definitely affected the ROTM and traffic flow to that. Facebook and Instagram have also lowered the daily traffic here on FEP, so that is something else to consider too.

    I do agree that today's phone cameras are pretty good, but as you alluded to, taking a good print worthy picture of our cars does take a little bit of planning and forethought. I honestly to this day don't understand all the pictures I see of cars in a car wash bay dripping wet, or covered in soap , sitting under the canopy at a fuel station, or my all time favorite (especially in a For Sale Ad) of a car hooked up on a wrecker! Not implying that anyone here has submitted any of those phones for ROTM, but just had to vent a bit.

    I have thought about trying to bring the ROTM back, but just haven't had extra time lately to work on it. I liked the member nominated rides and the voting, but that takes a ton of time and unfortunately we generally only averaged 100-150 votes every month and sometimes not that many. Might change it up a bit and try again starting next year. Who knows.
    ​Trey

    "I Don't build it hoping for your approval! I built it because it meets mine!"

    "I've spent most of my money on Mustangs, racing, and women... the rest I just wasted."

    Mustangs Past: Too many to remember!
    Current Mustangs:
    1969 Mach 1
    1979 Pace Car now 5.0/5 speed
    1982 GT Stalled RestoModification
    1984 SVO Still Waiting Restoration
    1986 GT Under going Wide Body Conversion Currently

    Current Capris:
    1981 Capri Roller
    1981 Capri Black Magic Roller Basket Case
    1982 Capri RS 5.0/4spd T-top Full Restoration Stalled in TX
    1984 Capri RS T-top Roller
    1983-84 Gloy Racing Trans Am/IMSA Body Parts

  7. #7
    FEP Power Member 87gtVIC's Avatar
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    I feel your pain on the ROTM thing. I handled this on another forum I frequent for a vehicle even less popular than the mustang and you can imagine how ghostly those monthly polls were. It was big years back but slowed down tremendously with social media platforms capturing peoples attention. I could only imagine dealing with creating a calendar on top of it.

  8. #8
    FEP Senior Member BMW Rider's Avatar
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    Default

    Perhaps a less intense undertaking would be to do just ROTYear. Then the calendar could be a poster type rather than a monthly.

  9. #9
    Moderator wraithracing's Avatar
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    I had considered just picking a FEP member car at random to feature at the ROTM and hopefully be able to get that worked out with good pictures, write up, etc. That would spread things around and give enough cars to do a nice calendar with. I will kick it around a bit and think about it. I just don't want anything to get upset or angry if I am the one picking the ROTM. Hopefully that wouldn't happen, but I don't want there to be any "favoritism" perceived or not in regards to what cars get featured. Tried to do some "In Process"/"Build up"/ "Project Car" features, but none of those went very well which was disappointing to me as I know so many of us have unfinished projects and I had thought that featuring some others with cars in the same position might help to motivate many of us to finish them.

    The other big issue still is the price point on the calendar. $20 dollars often seems to be the upper limit. That unfortunately doesn't leave much room for "profit" to donate back to FEP. I can look into other options in regards to printing, but gloss color printing and binding are not cheap and you need a decent quantity to get any significant discount. Add shipping costs on top of that and there's virtually nothing left over. Again this is with no cost to do all the leg work to put it together either. Have to do some research to see what if any cheaper options are out there.
    ​Trey

    "I Don't build it hoping for your approval! I built it because it meets mine!"

    "I've spent most of my money on Mustangs, racing, and women... the rest I just wasted."

    Mustangs Past: Too many to remember!
    Current Mustangs:
    1969 Mach 1
    1979 Pace Car now 5.0/5 speed
    1982 GT Stalled RestoModification
    1984 SVO Still Waiting Restoration
    1986 GT Under going Wide Body Conversion Currently

    Current Capris:
    1981 Capri Roller
    1981 Capri Black Magic Roller Basket Case
    1982 Capri RS 5.0/4spd T-top Full Restoration Stalled in TX
    1984 Capri RS T-top Roller
    1983-84 Gloy Racing Trans Am/IMSA Body Parts

  10. #10
    FEP Power Member Jerry peachuer's Avatar
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    FEP monthly magazine 7-15 pages with glossy pages and 2 staples for the binder
    11 x 17 pages folded in half type of thing

    FEP failed section where things didn't go as planned
    FEP cover is ride of the month and the middle is for co sponsors to advertise and help offset the cost of paper and imaging

    FEP shirts all proceeds go back to FEP

    This type of magazine has been done for the pool world and car cruisers
    Inside English was the pool magazine
    Cruise-news for the car world
    Both are no longer in the works to my knowledge but they were informative and relative to the hobby and my opinion very well done

    Certain pages repeated and the cover changed to the topic or month per season but I know everyone gets the point

  11. #11
    FEP Power Member Jerry peachuer's Avatar
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    Default

    Maybe even go digital magazine but a paid link to unlock it and possibly print from that page as you choose

    I seen it this way in the past and was well done but not sure how involved this would be just a thought

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