| | After posting on this forum for a while, I have noticed a few areas that seem to hold back its growth, thus retard its impact in spreading Rand's ideas to the rest of the world. Rather than do the standard list of complaints, I would like to offer a few positive suggestions and leave the area of the negative for the time being.
One of the key elements in any capitalistic growth whatsoever is money. If there is no income, there can be no investment in expansion, except from donations/contributions. From what I see of the structure here, the Solohq website structure is pretty much privately funded by donations/contributions (technically speaking, privately funded by owners like any personal use site is, so it is private property) and is not generating much in the way of profits. Well, donations/contributions are a good source of income, but there are others. Here are some ideas on products and profiles.
Target public
From what I see, there are two types of people who can and would purchase Solo products.
1. Website users and Free Radical subscribers.
2. The rest of the world.
Website users and Free Radical subscribers
To rely solely on this small public for generating income is a huge error in marketing. The website users are providing content through articles and discussion at no cost, so there will be an automatic built-in resistance for users to reach into their own pockets. The feeling is that they are already contributing.
Still, there are a few things that can be done. Some books are being sold and, of course, the magazine comes with a price (although I have no idea of how Free Radical ties in with Solo financially). Still, I see these activities as generating low profits, both in turnover and in outlay/profit percentage. (This is due primarily to the limited small target audience of website users, but also to the restricted nature of the products - i.e., Solo's current products are products only for people who have medium to advanced familiarity with Ayn Rand's works.)
Before starting with the suggestions, let me state that I believe that the idea of charging a fee for using the website would thin this target public down drastically. The paltry income from this simply would not be worth the exodus.
So how about a Solo boutique? T-Shirts? Coffee cups and drinking glasses? Rings and jewelry? Bumper stickers? I could go on and on here, but I think the idea is clear. How much would this cost? Probably nothing if you use a company already set up to provide these things on the market.
How about a raffle of some kind for the collected works of Ayn Rand or even other products? I see there is a tie-in with Amazon for purchasing books, but I would bet that the profits are pretty negligible from this. A raffle or something of that nature could potentially generate a much larger one-event-at-a-time income. It probably would not be a huge profit, but it certainly would stimulate interest and fund some minor costs.
Some might feel that this would come with a "sleazy" type aspect. Well, the market does it all the time and since when has basic capitalism been sleazy - especially if an income generating technique is used by an organization that preaches capitalism?
How about contests?
How about a book-of-the-month type structure for Objectivist and selected Libertarian literature? This would "push" book sales to this target audience.
How about even getting in contact with musicians who produce Objectivist-type stuff and sell their productions - and even help place some of their stuff with small recording companies who would be interested in having a target audience. Robin Field comes to mind. Some Soloists, maybe, depending on the appeal of their music. It could even be advertised by using sound on loading the home page.
One area is to format products to Objectivists and Libertarians in other organizations. ARI does this already, but it has Rand's works as default. It doesn't even need to do anything special to get TOC, Solo and Libertarian people to purchase its published products. This would need some thought and market planning, but I see it as highly feasible.
These are just a few ideas for the Solo (and Objectivist and Libertarian) market.
Using the website as a marketing tool
The website is a wonderful place to generate publicity and stir interest. It offers something for free for posting on it. It offers reader approval in a tangible form - Atlas points. This, I feel, is one of the genius marketing ideas behind the website. It generates no income, but it keeps people coming back for more, even when interest in the ideas abates a bit.
One of the largest marketing capabilities present on Solo is its backlog of articles. There are over 1,500 at present and the inventory is growing by the day. I see huge possibilities in administrating this wealth.
Just one idea. How about audio tapes of compilations of Solo articles? This is very inexpensive to produce and can even be distributed in MP3 format. I even see a better product. When some selected threads to articles have gotten interesting (both intellectual-wise, comedy-wise and Jerry Springer-wise), have the threads read by different voices after the article. Not only would the articles be informative, some of the comments would be highly entertaining. A simple signed release from posters would solve copyright (and even then, I am in doubt that this would even be needed in some cases - this would need study.)
The rest of the world as a target audience
One of the greatest sources of income that is being neglected is in licensing the use of the Solo brand and Solo images. Solo now has a well-defined profile and it could be used by companies as a highly attractive (and even polemical) add-on in selling their own products. If a license were offered at a very competitive price, as say against a Disney character or whatever, I think many companies would jump at it, depending on their product and their own target publics.
Placement of Solo products in retail outlets is also an area that could benefit Solo greatly. (However, the variety of Solo products and the different appeal of them to the general public needs defining first.)
Getting key Solo people on radio and TV - even in mainstream newspapers and magazines - is also important for publicity (and I don't mean myself, since it is constantly and repeatedly pointed out that I do not speak for Solo) .
These are just some ideas off the top of my head, but I sincerely believe they deserve more discussion and study. I feel that I have only scratched the surface.
Solo will need income to expand the way it should. It does the standard low-cost e-business stuff pretty well (Google crawling, Amazon tie-in, etc), but the whole world is wide open as a market. It is simply waiting for new products with open arms and buying oodles of intellectual-type stuff in all kinds of formats.
I think the people who post on this site have a great deal of talent to tap into. So thoughts anyone?
Michael
|
|
