OK the final part of our email exchange on all topics, this time it's ebooks, do you have one?
Never apologize for brainstorming this endeavor, I can use all the help I can get! Sorry it takes me so long to get back with responses sometimes. I’ve had some important things going on in the “real world” the last few weeks. I’m working on another murder investigation. This one involves embezzlement too, and could be a paying gig for a change. The last one cost me $1,000 that I didn’t have, and I didn’t make a dime. There still has not been a decision as to whether she is taking it to trial or is going to plea bargain. It’s been almost six months. I can’t do much in the way of writing the story until it’s conclusion in real life. But, two National news programs have interviewed me, and if they pick up the story then there is a good chance that I could make good money on a book about it -especially if I do a good job writing it. See....I lose direction easy too! haha. But I tell you all this because early next year I’m going to be real busy with that, and I’m going to need help with it. I’m hoping Bangari will be stable, and earning money, without so much start up efforts required. Then we could pool some resources into this.
We all have books to promote here at Bangari. If you don’t, get working on one! ebooks are all the rage now, and self publishing is proven to be a successful route to a New York Times Best Seller...Just learn the story behind the publishing of a very popular recent book, “The Shack” - by William Young. Even if you collect a series of articles you have written in a certain category or on a certain topic, and assemble them into an ebook, each article a chapter, as we say in RI, “Bada-bing-bada-boom, you got a book!”
We can collaborate on producing these, and share the revenue they generate. If you create an ebook from articles you have written, it would be best to spin them. You need different versions to get the most SEO impact when promoting the book online. We will have a great platform for collaboratively producing and promoting content this at Bangari, when all the systems are complete.
We already have several books and eBooks which can be promoted on Bangari:
C.L.Summers has The Kama Sutra of Celibacy
Martha Jette has 7 books available online
Natasha Polak has Love, God
Angelique and Lionel will soon have their novel ready
and I am sure there are other works in the making....Kevin you'll have to tell us more about your intriguing investigative work....I didn't know we had the next Steig Larsson!
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Posting and Promoting Q&A
Hi, here is the continuation of my email chat with Kevin, it touches on subjects relating to posting and setting up the site to run smoothly and simply.
#I have some pics but where to post?
*If you could upload them to Bangari, then we can place them in the articles...artistically! We will improve on this as we go. We have to keep it looking good. That is one thing about Factoidz, that was always a very neat, organized site, and that helped get it to the top fast. We need to do the same.
For those who are unsure about what this is it is an album of pics we keep "behind the scenes" at BCG and when we want to we can add the pics to articles for public view. Which means you can all upload pics - even now - even if you haven't written articles yet.
#I think you have to imagine many writers and many clients and see if we could still run the system the same way. e.g. If we had 100 writers could/should we still have all the names at the top of the front page? If we had loads of writers all posting on BCG at the same time how do we monitor quality, maybe there should be a select few (founders) posting so they can also proof and monitor at the same time, this would also avoid sabotage by not opening posting rights to 100s of writers.
*I’ll reformat the front page as we grow. If we get to 100’s of writers, we’ll keep “editors/founders” at the top, and maybe put writers on the side. Sabotage is always a concern. I’m always looking for the best ways to prevent that and protect against it. I’m open for suggestions.
#I've found with EX_Factoidz articles I've spun to 90% or even more uniqueness when I run them through copyscape there are still bits that come up the same, is this acceptable? What percentage of similarity is acceptable to the robots?
*60% acceptable for social bookmarking.
70% good
80% excellent
90% passes CopyScape and you can’t get more original than that.
#My second biggest worry is people just taking our material off the site, we hopefully will be too busy to be copyscaping everything. We could use the system Constant Content uses of placing the articles on the site as images.
*Jing is a great tool for capturing and posting text “screen shots.” I know we want to busy writing...But don’t forget, it’s just as important to link, promote, post, monetize, do SEO and research potential clients, make sales, recruit new members, develop new ideas, learn new technology, etc. I “cheat” copyscape by using Google (saves ten cents, haha) but searching for plagiarists is a perfect first step to finding links, new clients and new recruits. That, and Alexa are the best two tools for that. There is nothing we can do if they “spin” our content, and we can do the same with stuff we find when we do our research. If they post it verbatim, we don’t have to worry because it was posted by us first. The bots now have a sort of “built in “CopyScape” and when they see duplicate content, they take points away from the reposter and give points to the original poster’s site.
Will clients buy the content already on our site, won't they want unpublished content?
#Simple, simple simple, ABC... do this then this then this...that's what will make it workable on a large scale.
*I couldn't agree more. We will be writing a lot of these step by step instructions. As editors and founders, we need to know the hows and whys of what we are doing overall. But on a larger scale, I’m sure it will begin to “compartmentalize.” some folks will be great at writing and spinning, yet suck at posting and not have a clue about SEO...Others will do everything else but write. Some will just deal with sales. Each of these departments will have step by step instructions.
So if we limit posting rights to a few who know how we also solve the sabotage threat.
#Its all still not simple enough - that's my biggest thought.
I know. I’m well aware that it is complicated. I’m hoping for two things: One, to get some decent revenue flowing so even if contributors don’t understand how the payments are being calculated, they “bottom line” it, and realize that it is better than Factoidz and AC...Two, I’m think that eventually, someone who understands accounting and algorithms will come along and say “Hey Kevin, that is a real good thing you figured out, you found a way to get content producers a fair wage for their work. Your team is going to be a huge success and we want to support you...how can we invest?”
Absolutely right, I probably made more on the Billy project than a year on Factoidz.
#I have some pics but where to post?
*If you could upload them to Bangari, then we can place them in the articles...artistically! We will improve on this as we go. We have to keep it looking good. That is one thing about Factoidz, that was always a very neat, organized site, and that helped get it to the top fast. We need to do the same.
For those who are unsure about what this is it is an album of pics we keep "behind the scenes" at BCG and when we want to we can add the pics to articles for public view. Which means you can all upload pics - even now - even if you haven't written articles yet.
#I think you have to imagine many writers and many clients and see if we could still run the system the same way. e.g. If we had 100 writers could/should we still have all the names at the top of the front page? If we had loads of writers all posting on BCG at the same time how do we monitor quality, maybe there should be a select few (founders) posting so they can also proof and monitor at the same time, this would also avoid sabotage by not opening posting rights to 100s of writers.
*I’ll reformat the front page as we grow. If we get to 100’s of writers, we’ll keep “editors/founders” at the top, and maybe put writers on the side. Sabotage is always a concern. I’m always looking for the best ways to prevent that and protect against it. I’m open for suggestions.
#I've found with EX_Factoidz articles I've spun to 90% or even more uniqueness when I run them through copyscape there are still bits that come up the same, is this acceptable? What percentage of similarity is acceptable to the robots?
*60% acceptable for social bookmarking.
70% good
80% excellent
90% passes CopyScape and you can’t get more original than that.
#My second biggest worry is people just taking our material off the site, we hopefully will be too busy to be copyscaping everything. We could use the system Constant Content uses of placing the articles on the site as images.
*Jing is a great tool for capturing and posting text “screen shots.” I know we want to busy writing...But don’t forget, it’s just as important to link, promote, post, monetize, do SEO and research potential clients, make sales, recruit new members, develop new ideas, learn new technology, etc. I “cheat” copyscape by using Google (saves ten cents, haha) but searching for plagiarists is a perfect first step to finding links, new clients and new recruits. That, and Alexa are the best two tools for that. There is nothing we can do if they “spin” our content, and we can do the same with stuff we find when we do our research. If they post it verbatim, we don’t have to worry because it was posted by us first. The bots now have a sort of “built in “CopyScape” and when they see duplicate content, they take points away from the reposter and give points to the original poster’s site.
Will clients buy the content already on our site, won't they want unpublished content?
#Simple, simple simple, ABC... do this then this then this...that's what will make it workable on a large scale.
*I couldn't agree more. We will be writing a lot of these step by step instructions. As editors and founders, we need to know the hows and whys of what we are doing overall. But on a larger scale, I’m sure it will begin to “compartmentalize.” some folks will be great at writing and spinning, yet suck at posting and not have a clue about SEO...Others will do everything else but write. Some will just deal with sales. Each of these departments will have step by step instructions.
So if we limit posting rights to a few who know how we also solve the sabotage threat.
#Its all still not simple enough - that's my biggest thought.
I know. I’m well aware that it is complicated. I’m hoping for two things: One, to get some decent revenue flowing so even if contributors don’t understand how the payments are being calculated, they “bottom line” it, and realize that it is better than Factoidz and AC...Two, I’m think that eventually, someone who understands accounting and algorithms will come along and say “Hey Kevin, that is a real good thing you figured out, you found a way to get content producers a fair wage for their work. Your team is going to be a huge success and we want to support you...how can we invest?”
Absolutely right, I probably made more on the Billy project than a year on Factoidz.
Look forward to hearing what everyone thinks, please leave comments and questions.
How're We Going to Make Money?
Here are some more musings and Q&A taken from a recent email conversation with Kevin, please get involved in the exchange of ideas by adding your thoughts in the comments.
#Kevin we don't want to make money off of you - don't pay anything from your own pocket.
*It’s okay. The money that is coming out of my pocket is being matched by a client that I’m partners with. I may do this in the future with other clients. It’s a good way to let a client know you are “in it to win it, along with them!” Plus, I want to keep everyone encouraged until we can land the next big project.
I wanted to start monetizing the site, beginning with Amazon, but I’m having major difficulty doing this on WordPress. It was never a problem in Blogger. I have to keep at it. I plan to do Adsense as well, but we need to have a good amount of traffic before Adsense, otherwise click fraud can be a problem. I have a great reputation with Google, and I want to keep it. I've been making my days all about monetizing the site, and getting sales. It has taken a lot just to prepare to do this. I’ve only made a few contacts, but I've got a good list going, and will be reaching out a lot more in the weeks ahead.
#Can you get us the code for TBS banners so we can start promoting and posting those to make more money. I can make a Squidoo about TBS and even Bangari.
*I made those Banners myself, there is no HTML for it. Just link to the TBS “landing page” on Bangari. That will be great to get back links to our site. We can sell these robots even to those who don’t want to be part of Bangari. It could be good revenue, and the affiliate system worked without a hitch. so, let’s go for it!
#Have you thought through what happens when someone contacts us to buy, what the procedure will be?
*That’s about all I’ve been thinking about. Realistically, we will be contacting them at first. It might be a while before we get customers for content straight through SEO. Bangari needs to rank much higher first. We need more links, and more traffic, and lots more SEO work.
#The BCG has not got prominent "Contact us here to buy content" blurb on it and this is the most important thing. We need them to know exactly how to contact us, it should be in their faces when they look at the site.
*Exactly! This is part of posting. When sample content is posted, it needs to have the “this content is for sale” picture attached, preferably, top and bottom. That has to link back to the page where they can input their contact information.
We need to work on a “posting” system, including the time required along with step by step instructions. Then we have to value it like we did with word count.
#We've all been less in contact lately. How come I never hear from some of the other names on the BCG posting on this blog?
*I’m trying not to pester anyone to contribute, but it would be better if there was more chatter. I like that it’s a small group as we work out details, so I thought I would hold off on contacting the others with a pep talk until we get the posting system up and running. I’m going to be offering SEO services along with the content we produce, and posting is the biggest part of that work. So I thought a good occasion to get everyone psyched about getting involved would be when we get our first big project...soon I hope!
#I read the history of Google you once posted and it seems backlinks are really at the bottom of it all.
*Yes! Linkbuilding (and repairing, as you eloquently posted on Factoidz) is essential to building the popularity of Bangari. We have the advantage of being a multi-authored site. That’s huge! I know you worry about spreading a little work too thin. But until Bangari hits the radar, we won’t get a lot of work, and no passive revenue. The more people we bring in, the more robots we sell, the more “samples” we post, the more RSA files we have in stock in so many more categories...You see? But you are right to be concerned because it is a delicate balance. I’m still a little shy about actively recruiting and think I will be until we have our posting system down pat. Linkbuilding goes hand in hand with posting, SEO, and content production. We can’t sell our services promoting other sites until we have done a thorough job of promoting our own.
Many potential clients, if they are smart, will check our Alexa ranking before they deal with us. It should be in a respectable position, even if we are admittedly “new.” If we can get into the 100,000s in the US...great!
OK so I really want to see the others on the letterhead getting involved, showing interest, in the future these first few writers will hopefully profit the most so there should be some input from them at this point. Please everyone let your voices be heard!!
#Kevin we don't want to make money off of you - don't pay anything from your own pocket.
*It’s okay. The money that is coming out of my pocket is being matched by a client that I’m partners with. I may do this in the future with other clients. It’s a good way to let a client know you are “in it to win it, along with them!” Plus, I want to keep everyone encouraged until we can land the next big project.
I wanted to start monetizing the site, beginning with Amazon, but I’m having major difficulty doing this on WordPress. It was never a problem in Blogger. I have to keep at it. I plan to do Adsense as well, but we need to have a good amount of traffic before Adsense, otherwise click fraud can be a problem. I have a great reputation with Google, and I want to keep it. I've been making my days all about monetizing the site, and getting sales. It has taken a lot just to prepare to do this. I’ve only made a few contacts, but I've got a good list going, and will be reaching out a lot more in the weeks ahead.
#Can you get us the code for TBS banners so we can start promoting and posting those to make more money. I can make a Squidoo about TBS and even Bangari.
*I made those Banners myself, there is no HTML for it. Just link to the TBS “landing page” on Bangari. That will be great to get back links to our site. We can sell these robots even to those who don’t want to be part of Bangari. It could be good revenue, and the affiliate system worked without a hitch. so, let’s go for it!
#Have you thought through what happens when someone contacts us to buy, what the procedure will be?
*That’s about all I’ve been thinking about. Realistically, we will be contacting them at first. It might be a while before we get customers for content straight through SEO. Bangari needs to rank much higher first. We need more links, and more traffic, and lots more SEO work.
#The BCG has not got prominent "Contact us here to buy content" blurb on it and this is the most important thing. We need them to know exactly how to contact us, it should be in their faces when they look at the site.
*Exactly! This is part of posting. When sample content is posted, it needs to have the “this content is for sale” picture attached, preferably, top and bottom. That has to link back to the page where they can input their contact information.
We need to work on a “posting” system, including the time required along with step by step instructions. Then we have to value it like we did with word count.
#We've all been less in contact lately. How come I never hear from some of the other names on the BCG posting on this blog?
*I’m trying not to pester anyone to contribute, but it would be better if there was more chatter. I like that it’s a small group as we work out details, so I thought I would hold off on contacting the others with a pep talk until we get the posting system up and running. I’m going to be offering SEO services along with the content we produce, and posting is the biggest part of that work. So I thought a good occasion to get everyone psyched about getting involved would be when we get our first big project...soon I hope!
#I read the history of Google you once posted and it seems backlinks are really at the bottom of it all.
*Yes! Linkbuilding (and repairing, as you eloquently posted on Factoidz) is essential to building the popularity of Bangari. We have the advantage of being a multi-authored site. That’s huge! I know you worry about spreading a little work too thin. But until Bangari hits the radar, we won’t get a lot of work, and no passive revenue. The more people we bring in, the more robots we sell, the more “samples” we post, the more RSA files we have in stock in so many more categories...You see? But you are right to be concerned because it is a delicate balance. I’m still a little shy about actively recruiting and think I will be until we have our posting system down pat. Linkbuilding goes hand in hand with posting, SEO, and content production. We can’t sell our services promoting other sites until we have done a thorough job of promoting our own.
Many potential clients, if they are smart, will check our Alexa ranking before they deal with us. It should be in a respectable position, even if we are admittedly “new.” If we can get into the 100,000s in the US...great!
OK so I really want to see the others on the letterhead getting involved, showing interest, in the future these first few writers will hopefully profit the most so there should be some input from them at this point. Please everyone let your voices be heard!!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Organizing Bangari DOCs
I know Kevin has rightly said that the organizing of the DOCs is less important than the writing and other functions within Bangari but it's either the housewife or the artist in me that has lead me to organizing my articles in DOCs and I think when we have 100's of writers organization will become essential. So if you have the time and patience to play around with this aspect of Bangari try this.
If every writer has a primary collection under their name: (for example) Petal Mashraki
then within that collection, sub-collections for each project: (for example) Ketubah Project
Site Reviews
Exodus Article
Tattoos Hebrew
and within these collection files all of the relevant article DOCs.
This way it will be easier to find you and your work when needed.
Apart from this there are two other things that could make Bangari DOCs easier to navigate:
**Mark all of your collections and article with a tick - EXCEPT your primary name collection.
then go to "Action" or on the new DOCs "More" and select "Don't show in Home".
This way when we have hundreds of writers with thousands of articles, the home page of Bangari DOCs will just have a list of writer's names.
**Another way of making it all a little easier to read is if you select a color to mark all your content on DOCs. You can look at mine and see that I've made my icon orange. You do this by ticking the box next to your DOCs and then going to "Action" or "More" and selection "change color", then choose your color.
Of course this is only a suggestion and only if you have enough time, but in the future when Bangari is banging we'll need everything organized, easy to navigate and colorful!
If every writer has a primary collection under their name: (for example) Petal Mashraki
then within that collection, sub-collections for each project: (for example) Ketubah Project
Site Reviews
Exodus Article
Tattoos Hebrew
and within these collection files all of the relevant article DOCs.
This way it will be easier to find you and your work when needed.
Apart from this there are two other things that could make Bangari DOCs easier to navigate:
**Mark all of your collections and article with a tick - EXCEPT your primary name collection.
then go to "Action" or on the new DOCs "More" and select "Don't show in Home".
This way when we have hundreds of writers with thousands of articles, the home page of Bangari DOCs will just have a list of writer's names.
**Another way of making it all a little easier to read is if you select a color to mark all your content on DOCs. You can look at mine and see that I've made my icon orange. You do this by ticking the box next to your DOCs and then going to "Action" or "More" and selection "change color", then choose your color.
Of course this is only a suggestion and only if you have enough time, but in the future when Bangari is banging we'll need everything organized, easy to navigate and colorful!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Linking to Bangari Content Gallery
This post is an attempt to get Bangari Content Studios properly linked to Bangari Content Gallery.
Right now, our studio site is ranking twice as high as our gallery site. This is because we are making so many more regular posts and comments in BCS rather than BCG... It is also due to the fact that BCG doesn't seem to be registering a link from BCS...I'm working on that!
Natasha has a penchant for rank and stats and all that...I'm glad! It isn't just about producing content. It's about 1/3 producing, 1/3 posting, and 1/3 promoting...that will make us successful in this biz! So, for Natasha and everyone else, here is a link to the Private Studio Site.
https://sites.google.com/site/bangaricontentstudios/bangari-stats
This post will show you some of the stats that we are concerned with. Look it over.
I'd like to request that when you take in any information posted on BCG, BCS or BCS (private) you post a short comment. Try to use keywords found in the post, in a natural way. (for the robots) (For me) the comments help me monitor who is reading what. I'm having a lot of trouble tracking "who knows what" and right now, we don't have many people involved. When that number gets in the 100s, I'm screwed! LOL...
So, even though I hate MLM and pyramid schemes, when it comes to "teaching" new recruits our ways, we may have to create a pyramid type structure that will disseminate the info on a person to person basis in addition to directly from the posts. Any Ideas?
Right now, our studio site is ranking twice as high as our gallery site. This is because we are making so many more regular posts and comments in BCS rather than BCG... It is also due to the fact that BCG doesn't seem to be registering a link from BCS...I'm working on that!
Natasha has a penchant for rank and stats and all that...I'm glad! It isn't just about producing content. It's about 1/3 producing, 1/3 posting, and 1/3 promoting...that will make us successful in this biz! So, for Natasha and everyone else, here is a link to the Private Studio Site.
https://sites.google.com/site/bangaricontentstudios/bangari-stats
This post will show you some of the stats that we are concerned with. Look it over.
I'd like to request that when you take in any information posted on BCG, BCS or BCS (private) you post a short comment. Try to use keywords found in the post, in a natural way. (for the robots) (For me) the comments help me monitor who is reading what. I'm having a lot of trouble tracking "who knows what" and right now, we don't have many people involved. When that number gets in the 100s, I'm screwed! LOL...
So, even though I hate MLM and pyramid schemes, when it comes to "teaching" new recruits our ways, we may have to create a pyramid type structure that will disseminate the info on a person to person basis in addition to directly from the posts. Any Ideas?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
International Living: A great potential client!
I've been following this site for a while, and it is one of the first ones I am going to approach for an SEO contract. In this article below, they are asking for some help in that area. We have to have the right balance of niche topics (like ketubot) and popular topics (like travel)
Read this:
Read this:
Join International Living’s Syndication Program Today
International Living has been called the ultimate travel newsletter… It’s that—and more. It’s a newsletter for anyone who is interested in broadening his horizons, by considering opportunities to improve his quality of life…and lowering his cost of living…by looking beyond U.S. shores… read more
The first article should be about how "Online writing" is a portable job. This makes it conducive to International living. Compare how a one person writing operation could allow a person to walk in the Cloud Forest, just as the bagle maker in this story does, and maybe even be able to expand, and hire locals, maybe to do translation work?
How would you like to be one of those on the ground editors?
Please come back to comment here on what you think about this prospect. We could use a Project Manager for this one.
Bangari Payout System: Vineyard Analogy
If Bangari was a vineyard, a {co-op|Kibbutz|Community Shared Agriculture (CSA)} vineyard, and every word we type was a grape worth a credit, and we sold these grapes fresh at a farm stand, and also made our own jelly and wine...
We are all working together to grow, harvest, process and sell these grapes. How do we share the revenue?
If we were just harvesting grapes, and selling them fresh, it’s easy. Each person gets $100 per bushel that they pick, and that is paid as soon as the grapes are sold to the winemakers and jelly makers, and those that will sell our grapes at retail in their grocery stores.
But, at our Kibbutz, we are cutting out all those middle men. We will make our own wine and jelly with our own grapes, and sell our stuff retail. What happens then is:
As our vineyard gets more seasoned, the time delay won’t have such an effect. However, the $5,000 job we did for IV was like our first harvest. Even though we sold 125,000 grapes for .03 each, so IV could make wine with it, we didn’t sell the entire harvest. I think we sold a third of it. The other two thirds are being processed into wine, and when that sells a year or two from now, we could get another $10,000 from that July 2011 harvest.
Hence the credit system. Bangari Bucks are like a cross between an I.O.U. and stock. This is why it’s important that I’m not seen as the “owner” of this vineyard. I’m the director of the co-op. We all own this vineyard, just like share holders own a piece of a company equal to the amount of money they invested. We are not investing cash, but our efforts instead. Those efforts can be assessed by word count. (we still need to assess other things like editing and posting, that’s why time keeping is so important, and we can’t do “freebies”)
By pooling our resources, we also pool risk. Windfalls and losses are shared equally by the entire Kibbutz. For instance:
After the harvest, Petal had picked 100 Bushels, Natasha 20, before they came to harvest, I spent time and effort equal to picking 1000 bushels. If we get $10 (fake money) for each bushel, or bushel equivalent, Then:
Petal = 100 x 10 =1000
Natasha = 20 x 10 =200
Kevin = 1000 x 10 =10,000
We are holding these I.O.U.’s until our co-op takes in real money. Then we can cash them in. However, they are not “real I.O.U.’s, they are just “markers” because we don’t know what our product is worth until it sells, and finishes selling.
Here is where I want to make it clear why we can’t “earmark” this stuff. It’s enough effort to track how many “bushels” each of us harvested. It has to stop there. This is a co-op. Some of those bushels will go to the wine press, and some to be sold fresh, and I don’t want to track each grape, note what it sold for, and trace back to the person who picked it, and pay them according to what it sold for. Wine from the same grapes; some could be worth $50 per bottle, five years later, some could have turned to vinegar.
If we sold a third of these fresh grapes to a wine maker for $5000 (real dollars) and the other two thirds went to make our own jelly and wine, then:
5000 / 11,200 = .44 (44%)
So, each of us will be allowed to “cash in” 44% of our shares. We can choose not to cash them. Or cash in only 50%. Why would anyone want to do that? I’ve been doing it all along, because I’m trying to get this thing rolling. I’m reinvesting a big portion of what I’m making from this. If any of you feel inclined to “donate” word count to this project, that’s nice, but I would prefer that you accept your “credit” but if you want to not cash them in 100% every time, that will allow newbies to get a little more money as we go. I am also working on an “activity bonus” type system like at Factoidz, but I can’t develop that without the team’s input. And until the system is understood, as is, by the entire team, we have to wait to discuss the “activity bonus”
Petal cashes in 44% of 1000 Bangari Bucks for real money = $440
Natasha cashes in 44% of 200 = $88
Kevin cashes in 44% of 10,000 = $4,400
Then, before the next payout, we will all have less credits going in, but will probably have earned more...
Petal = 560 (1000 - 440)
Natasha = 112 (200 - 88)
Kevin = 5600 (10,000 - 4,400)
Now we work at making jelly. Petal takes a break. Natasha does a bunch of work. Kevin cultivates some new vines indoors.
We earn/ produce:
Petal = 0
Natasha = 1000
Kevin = 1000
Then, we sell $1,000 worth of jelly. At this time this is what we have for total credits:
Petal = 560
Natasha = 1112
Kevin = 6600
1,000 / 8272 = 12%
We each get to cash in 12% of our shares:
Petal = 560 x 12% = $67
Natasha = 1112 x 12% = $133
Kevin = 6600 x 12% = $792
Or, if I felt like I wanted to refrain from cashing in so others on the team could get a bigger pay out, and be that much more encouraged:
1000 / (560+1112) = 59%
Petal= 560 x 59% = $330
Natahsa= 1112 x 59% = $656
I have been paying myself in Bangari Bucks, but haven’t been cashing them in, 100%. I’m looking a little further down the road. Remember, like other contributors to Bangari, we have our own domains, and books to promote and we want Bangari to be the perfect place to do that.
We have to be careful to not look like a “content farm.” This is a reason I’m holding off on posting AdSense. We know that there is much better money in sales. Passive revenue should just be a portion of our income.. We need to establish ourselves as freelance writers, content producers, SEOs, and even robot salesman. We have to get the most out of those things, and that’s going to take study and practice.
There are other tech products besides the spinning robot that we can use for our craft. We can try them, review them, sell them, teach them...all by writing about them, or making video tutorials and other multi-media stuff. Let’s try to upload original photos too. We need “Factoidz-like” photos to head our articles. original pet pictures, photos of ketubot, etc. Is anyone good at close ups... like of computer keyboards, and other things that go well with articles on certain topics? Anyone know an aspiring model who would let you take their picture, acting out for example: “Frustrated at tax time?” Can some one draw a cartoon image of that subject?
We are all working together to grow, harvest, process and sell these grapes. How do we share the revenue?
If we were just harvesting grapes, and selling them fresh, it’s easy. Each person gets $100 per bushel that they pick, and that is paid as soon as the grapes are sold to the winemakers and jelly makers, and those that will sell our grapes at retail in their grocery stores.
But, at our Kibbutz, we are cutting out all those middle men. We will make our own wine and jelly with our own grapes, and sell our stuff retail. What happens then is:
- We get more money for those same efforts.
- We get “retail” instead of “wholesale” on a larger selection of goods. (jelly, wine, etc.) Thus appealing to a larger customer base. I.e.; Those not just looking for flat spun content but those looking for SEO services, and complete Web sites, stuffed with content produced by us.
- Drawback - on the fresh grapes it’s a quick turn around, but it takes longer for the jelly, and over a year to get revenue from the same grapes that were grown and harvested to make wine, longer if it’s allowed to “age” increasing the value even more before it’s sold.
As our vineyard gets more seasoned, the time delay won’t have such an effect. However, the $5,000 job we did for IV was like our first harvest. Even though we sold 125,000 grapes for .03 each, so IV could make wine with it, we didn’t sell the entire harvest. I think we sold a third of it. The other two thirds are being processed into wine, and when that sells a year or two from now, we could get another $10,000 from that July 2011 harvest.
Hence the credit system. Bangari Bucks are like a cross between an I.O.U. and stock. This is why it’s important that I’m not seen as the “owner” of this vineyard. I’m the director of the co-op. We all own this vineyard, just like share holders own a piece of a company equal to the amount of money they invested. We are not investing cash, but our efforts instead. Those efforts can be assessed by word count. (we still need to assess other things like editing and posting, that’s why time keeping is so important, and we can’t do “freebies”)
By pooling our resources, we also pool risk. Windfalls and losses are shared equally by the entire Kibbutz. For instance:
After the harvest, Petal had picked 100 Bushels, Natasha 20, before they came to harvest, I spent time and effort equal to picking 1000 bushels. If we get $10 (fake money) for each bushel, or bushel equivalent, Then:
Petal = 100 x 10 =1000
Natasha = 20 x 10 =200
Kevin = 1000 x 10 =10,000
We are holding these I.O.U.’s until our co-op takes in real money. Then we can cash them in. However, they are not “real I.O.U.’s, they are just “markers” because we don’t know what our product is worth until it sells, and finishes selling.
Here is where I want to make it clear why we can’t “earmark” this stuff. It’s enough effort to track how many “bushels” each of us harvested. It has to stop there. This is a co-op. Some of those bushels will go to the wine press, and some to be sold fresh, and I don’t want to track each grape, note what it sold for, and trace back to the person who picked it, and pay them according to what it sold for. Wine from the same grapes; some could be worth $50 per bottle, five years later, some could have turned to vinegar.
If we sold a third of these fresh grapes to a wine maker for $5000 (real dollars) and the other two thirds went to make our own jelly and wine, then:
5000 / 11,200 = .44 (44%)
So, each of us will be allowed to “cash in” 44% of our shares. We can choose not to cash them. Or cash in only 50%. Why would anyone want to do that? I’ve been doing it all along, because I’m trying to get this thing rolling. I’m reinvesting a big portion of what I’m making from this. If any of you feel inclined to “donate” word count to this project, that’s nice, but I would prefer that you accept your “credit” but if you want to not cash them in 100% every time, that will allow newbies to get a little more money as we go. I am also working on an “activity bonus” type system like at Factoidz, but I can’t develop that without the team’s input. And until the system is understood, as is, by the entire team, we have to wait to discuss the “activity bonus”
Petal cashes in 44% of 1000 Bangari Bucks for real money = $440
Natasha cashes in 44% of 200 = $88
Kevin cashes in 44% of 10,000 = $4,400
Then, before the next payout, we will all have less credits going in, but will probably have earned more...
Petal = 560 (1000 - 440)
Natasha = 112 (200 - 88)
Kevin = 5600 (10,000 - 4,400)
Now we work at making jelly. Petal takes a break. Natasha does a bunch of work. Kevin cultivates some new vines indoors.
We earn/ produce:
Petal = 0
Natasha = 1000
Kevin = 1000
Then, we sell $1,000 worth of jelly. At this time this is what we have for total credits:
Petal = 560
Natasha = 1112
Kevin = 6600
1,000 / 8272 = 12%
We each get to cash in 12% of our shares:
Petal = 560 x 12% = $67
Natasha = 1112 x 12% = $133
Kevin = 6600 x 12% = $792
Or, if I felt like I wanted to refrain from cashing in so others on the team could get a bigger pay out, and be that much more encouraged:
1000 / (560+1112) = 59%
Petal= 560 x 59% = $330
Natahsa= 1112 x 59% = $656
I have been paying myself in Bangari Bucks, but haven’t been cashing them in, 100%. I’m looking a little further down the road. Remember, like other contributors to Bangari, we have our own domains, and books to promote and we want Bangari to be the perfect place to do that.
We have to be careful to not look like a “content farm.” This is a reason I’m holding off on posting AdSense. We know that there is much better money in sales. Passive revenue should just be a portion of our income.. We need to establish ourselves as freelance writers, content producers, SEOs, and even robot salesman. We have to get the most out of those things, and that’s going to take study and practice.
There are other tech products besides the spinning robot that we can use for our craft. We can try them, review them, sell them, teach them...all by writing about them, or making video tutorials and other multi-media stuff. Let’s try to upload original photos too. We need “Factoidz-like” photos to head our articles. original pet pictures, photos of ketubot, etc. Is anyone good at close ups... like of computer keyboards, and other things that go well with articles on certain topics? Anyone know an aspiring model who would let you take their picture, acting out for example: “Frustrated at tax time?” Can some one draw a cartoon image of that subject?
Friday, November 4, 2011
Q&A-Payment, Posting and more...
As we get established, and stumble through the policy forming process it is important to ask questions which often lead to new policy or ideas. Kevin is our go-to guy for answers so I want to share this e-mail with you where he answered a few of my questions. Please add any comments or other questions you have so we can be completely clear about how Bangari Bangs!
I really don't mind waiting until things are running smoothly before getting money, but thanks!
No Problem. Maybe later, when we've recruited some hard working new writers, some of us "original" Bangari writers can hold off on a payment, or cash in only 50%, so new writers can be encouraged. Remember, you don't "lose" the money if you don't take a payment. You just get more at a later date.
I managed to post a Ketubah article in 36 minutes including proofing and learning how to post. I haven't added links or images but will go back to that. If we give easy instructions to writers on how to post it shouldn't be a problem, some of them may already know how.
That's awesome! Very encouraging news! I think you are great at writing instructions, and the glossary and such. I think once I get you to completely understand our payment system, you will be able to do a better job than I can when it comes to explaining it to others. Adding links and pictures is very easy on WordPress. point and click & drag and drop.
I want to take this one article and go through the whole process - in a week I'll post the other spunout versions on the other places (blog etc).
That will be great. Make sure you keep your time on each step. Once you do that, I'll take your timekeeping notes, and make a time study form. This way we know how many credits to pay for other types of work that we do, besides producing word count.
We need to mention that word count for spunout versions don't need to be added to the trade table as they are paid for the RSA which is the same words - right?
Or do writers claim payment for ORG, RSA and Spunout word count?
You are 100% correct about all this. Although, I'm trying to figure out the process of spun outs. It still takes time and effort to use the robot to pull one out of the RSA, proof, edit and post. We should get times on this so we can document it all and pay for it.
We also need to figure out a fair way of distributing the spun out versions inside Bangari. All Bangari content producers should be allowed to take spun out articles, even if they didn't work on that RSA. These can be used for their own personal sites, or to promote sales of their own books or products.
When we figure out the value in credits, then this won't be too difficult. That's why I made the "trade tables" It will enable us to trade credits with each other. E.g.; Maekela could pay you 10 Bangari bucks that she has in her account, for a spun out, proofed and edited Ketubah article to post on her site where she promotes her book: The Kama Sutra of Celibacy.
See...Just when you thought the payment system couldn't get more complicated! LOL
I'm still worried about keeping the balance between incoming money and payments to writers. There could be a month where writers write but no income comes in, then where are they getting paid from? If there were several months like that, what then?
True. But we need everyone to understand that we are all in the same boat. We are all new authors. Every writer writes their first book "on speculation." All that work, and they only get paid if they find a publisher who likes it. Even that first payment is just an advance on what the publisher believes they will make in book sales. (Like the $50 I just sent you) After that, the author gets royalties, like, a buck a book, each time one sells. It's only after the first successful book, that the publisher will pay the author on another title, before that author has written a single word.
The most important thing to remember is: Unlike the content farms, your work will never be taken from you and used to generate revenue that you don't get a share of.
Bye for now
Bye!
PS. Could you start a thread w/ this email on Bangari Content Studio Blog? (not the private site)
I really don't mind waiting until things are running smoothly before getting money, but thanks!
No Problem. Maybe later, when we've recruited some hard working new writers, some of us "original" Bangari writers can hold off on a payment, or cash in only 50%, so new writers can be encouraged. Remember, you don't "lose" the money if you don't take a payment. You just get more at a later date.
I managed to post a Ketubah article in 36 minutes including proofing and learning how to post. I haven't added links or images but will go back to that. If we give easy instructions to writers on how to post it shouldn't be a problem, some of them may already know how.
That's awesome! Very encouraging news! I think you are great at writing instructions, and the glossary and such. I think once I get you to completely understand our payment system, you will be able to do a better job than I can when it comes to explaining it to others. Adding links and pictures is very easy on WordPress. point and click & drag and drop.
I want to take this one article and go through the whole process - in a week I'll post the other spunout versions on the other places (blog etc).
That will be great. Make sure you keep your time on each step. Once you do that, I'll take your timekeeping notes, and make a time study form. This way we know how many credits to pay for other types of work that we do, besides producing word count.
We need to mention that word count for spunout versions don't need to be added to the trade table as they are paid for the RSA which is the same words - right?
Or do writers claim payment for ORG, RSA and Spunout word count?
You are 100% correct about all this. Although, I'm trying to figure out the process of spun outs. It still takes time and effort to use the robot to pull one out of the RSA, proof, edit and post. We should get times on this so we can document it all and pay for it.
We also need to figure out a fair way of distributing the spun out versions inside Bangari. All Bangari content producers should be allowed to take spun out articles, even if they didn't work on that RSA. These can be used for their own personal sites, or to promote sales of their own books or products.
When we figure out the value in credits, then this won't be too difficult. That's why I made the "trade tables" It will enable us to trade credits with each other. E.g.; Maekela could pay you 10 Bangari bucks that she has in her account, for a spun out, proofed and edited Ketubah article to post on her site where she promotes her book: The Kama Sutra of Celibacy.
See...Just when you thought the payment system couldn't get more complicated! LOL
I'm still worried about keeping the balance between incoming money and payments to writers. There could be a month where writers write but no income comes in, then where are they getting paid from? If there were several months like that, what then?
True. But we need everyone to understand that we are all in the same boat. We are all new authors. Every writer writes their first book "on speculation." All that work, and they only get paid if they find a publisher who likes it. Even that first payment is just an advance on what the publisher believes they will make in book sales. (Like the $50 I just sent you) After that, the author gets royalties, like, a buck a book, each time one sells. It's only after the first successful book, that the publisher will pay the author on another title, before that author has written a single word.
The most important thing to remember is: Unlike the content farms, your work will never be taken from you and used to generate revenue that you don't get a share of.
Bye for now
Bye!
PS. Could you start a thread w/ this email on Bangari Content Studio Blog? (not the private site)
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