The Festival of February Electric Quilt 6 Competition

Surely there is a friendler way to say all of this.

Jerry in North Alabama

LOL - I agree! I stopped reading after the 4th 'You MUST..."=20

-Irene

Arghh! I didn't mean to make the rules sound so serious - but I've run so many contests online, there always seem to be those two people who try to fudge the rules if they are not totally explicit.

I used to give away loads of stuff - but then the sweeps enthusiasts invented this Robotool to automatically enter sweeps - and I was getting thousands of entries from people who really didn't care a hoot about quilting.

I feel really bad now that I seem unfriendly - I'm not - I was just in a dreadful hurry to get the rules up so people would have time to enter.

Quiltzine has been around since 1996 - and I haven't updated it much in the past couple of years, for various reasons.

One of my resolutions for this year was to get the thing going again - and my hope is that folks will click on the Amazon and Joann's links often enough to cover the server fees.

There are so few "free content" sites out there anymore - and to be honest, if the site isn't self-supporting by June 1st, I am probably going to have to come up with some sort of subscription or paid downloads or something myself.

I actually appreciate your comments - I am going to go look at those rules again and see if I can make them less sterile.. LOL!

It was just a friendly jab. Good luck with you site.

Jerry in North Alabama

What a pity that those of us living out of USA/Canada can't enter.

It's all those international laws - but I do have an idea that might work for a later contest.

April

which laws?? no law here says I can't be sent something (non $$) in the mail that I won

I'm asking as I always hear of laws that stop me but there aren't any here

The problem is that there are literally hundreds of countries outside the US and Canada, and many of them have different laws regarding contests and competitions.

It would take weeks, maybe months, to research which countries allow me to send prizes. US export laws prohibit the sending of certain kinds of software to some countries, and the laws of some countries prohibit receipt of certain kinds of software.

I'm just the one person. I am not independently wealthy, I have a very busy life outside the web - if you want to enter the contest, ask a US or Canadian friend to let you borrow their address and phone number.

I'm not going to check, who could know who lives at what address?

April

well they best way to deal with that is just to say: that people are only eligible in countries that allow such competitions and that you yourself are not responsible if someone enters and can't receive the prize. people do know the rules in their own countries and can be responsible for entering.

the idea was that the entrants took responsibility for their own actions and signs a statement saying they are allowed to win prizes in their country so that the shopkeeper doesn't *have* to check it out. if a problem arises then it's the entrants fault not the shopkeepers.

I think you are missing the main point here. I am NOT a shopkeeper. I have never been a shopkeeper.

There was another one, I seem to remember it as Turtle for some reason

- they closed up long ago for bandwidth reasons.

This is what is going to happen to me - bandwidth. I pay for Quiltzine out of my housekeeping money. For a long time, links to Amazon earned enough to pay the server fees and give away some sort of prize every month.

Sometime around 2002 or so, people stopped clicking on links. I cut back my giveaways to one per year - but it was still costing me more than the ads earned - just to pay for the traffic.

I pretty much stopped updating in 2003, but gave it another try in

Last fall, I decided I would give Quiltzine one more chance to pay for itself. Understand, I am not looking to make big bucks here, but the thing is, I pay for 40 gigabytes of data transfer every month - $35.

Every megabyte over that 40 gigs costs me 2 cents. Doesn't sound like much, but with an average of 1 gigabyte per day, every month that server bill has the potential to cost me at LEAST an additional $100 per month, and the prizes for this contest - with the exception of EQ6, which Penny donated, the prizes will cost me an additional $425.

My hope was that I could increase the traffic enough so that, by sheer numbers, the Amazon and Joann's commissions would cover the server fees. I also put up a Paypal donation button, in case people appreciated the site enough to want to keep it free.

The other, more important goal, was to get people to download that FREE cookbook from Barilla - every download donates $1 to Second Harvest, which feeds the homeless.

The traffic to Quiltzine has increased by tenfold, but I the commissions from sales via Amazon and Joann's links has actually DROPPED.

The WORST thing is that people aren't even willing to take 2 minutes to download that free cookbook to help the homeless. That just floors me.

So - here's what is going to happen - I bought more bandwidth for this month. When the hits exceed what I've purchased, the site will automatically shut down, and not reopen until the next billing cycle.

And - on March 1st, downloads of EQ projects and PDF pattern files will cease being free. I'm working on something that offers ONE free download per day, and the archived projects will be available for a fee.

It's very sad, but I don't see any way around it. If you had a choice between offering a million strangers free quilt patterns, and buying the top of the line Pfaff or Bernina sewing machine - which would you choose?

I gambled and lost. I was prepared to lose, but it still makes me sad.

April

Howdy!

Nice website, April.

FYI: I don't need more patterns, not really, so I seldom spend much time on pattern sites. As for the advertising links, even tho' they say they'll contribute a dollar to a cause for downloading their recipes, I think they should pay me a dollar for harvesting my addy. (Same reason I've never worn "designer" jeans-- when they pay me $ to put their name on my butt, fine.) I don't click on most advert. links 'cause I don't need 'em; when I want something I'll go looking specifically for that.

Inspiration, that's what I want from a quilting site. Like the Heart Strings quilt, I like to look at a quilt, decide if that's something I would/could make, then decide whether or not to keep it on file, order the pattern, or just keep the pic around to inspire me some more. I was making that kind of quilt 15 yrs. ago, in blue, hearts on hearts on muslin, sold as many as I could make and stock in my craft mall booth. ;-) It's a good reminder to update the look (w/ my now-favorite fabric), make one to keep. Sites like Pie in the Sky Quilts are inspirational:

Good luck, April. You've made a commitment to yourself and to your audience; best wishes in keeping it going.

Ragmop/Sandy--handquilter-- btw: I don't eat pasta ...

You may not be a "shopkeeper", trading goods for money, but you are in the business of publishing an online site. Now you are complaining about the cost because your business model is faulty. You thought people would click on ads and that would pay for the site. That didn't happen. At this point, you can change your model (perhaps offering the 'zine for a subscription fee), you can continue to pay out of pocket and decide it's an expensive hobby, or you can quit the business.

Claiming you are not a shopkeeper does not mean you are not in business. And just because you want your site to offer a way to help a charity doesn't mean that I should run there and click what you want me to click. I prefer to do business with sites that restrict my exposure to unwanted ads. I even prefer to donate to charities that limit my having to deal with ad banners, etc.

Am I being harsh? Well... most business people don't come to this newsgroup and complain without getting called on it by somebody. It was my turn this month.

Wendy

auntiedotcom wrote:

Shopkeeper is shorter than saying "person who is offering a service" several times in a message hence the usage.

I will admit that I was responding more to what you posted than to your site as I barely have time to read all my emails and posts between life, writing patterns (some for free on my site, some for a magazine) making quilts and the kids so I haven't even looked. I have a free site - well 2 actually and they shut down all the time due to bandwidth issues.

I am also a person who rarely clicks on ads - if I'm looking for something I google it as that gives me more choices and I think many people prefer that nowadays. Quilters cache had the same problem as you did till she got sponsored adverts on her site and made it very clear that she needed donations to keep the site there and free and it has worked so maybe this would be a good option for you as well.

re the cookbook: that isn't something I would do just because I have so many real paper ones here - it's not always about who it's for but if it's something people need themselves

Good luck! Your "twisted tails" still brings me lots of emails from folks looking for the pattern. I, for one, do appreciate how much time and money goes into providing a "free" site. So many don't seem to understand that "free" patterns aren't really free...somebody is paying for the site, and putting in the time and effort to write patterns, maintain the site, answer emails etc etc etc.

Like you, I also am rethinking the cost in time, and dollars. (And the bad taste from answering emails from folks are offended by the cost of patterns that used to be available on-site for free but were removed to make room for new free patterns ). At some point, we all have to weigh pros and cons and decide if our creativity and generosity is better directed elsewhere! Whatever you decide, I, am very grateful for the gift you've given me and others in the past...and I'm sorry if I haven't said so before!