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:

• 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?