A Word About Donations

[Forum Boss]

Am working on my tax return now ... One Q? for Moderator, "What is a modest sum ?"

First, let me say we are grateful for any contribution in any amount. We have about 5000 visitors a day on the site. Over the course of a month, I just don't know, but it could well be 20,000+. If half of our regular visitors kicked in $5 a year that would be fantastic. Realistically, most people seem to want everything on the web to be free. We typically get 5-10 donations a month, ranging from $5 to $50. We probably average about $150.00 in donations per month.

 

[Gman]

Dear Jason, Did you recieve my donation? Thanks, GMan

 

[jb1000br]

Gman, how did you send it?

 

[Gman]

I sent a check made out to you, dated 4/9/07.

 

[jb1000br]

Gman - i have recieved 3 since that time, none had your name attached...maybe it'll show...I once had a check take 2-3 weeks to get here from VA, so anything could have happened to it...


JB

 

[Sal]

A small sum coming from me, just to say thanks for the great work.
An inspirational site, and endless amounts of good reading.
Thanks !
Ken
Norway

 

[JBR]

I am a new subscriber after several months of reading your fascinating array of excellent information. This has been very useful in beginning what I plan to be an exciting 600 yd long range BR experience. I used to shoot 100/200 yd competition with my father at the John Zink range in Oklahoma back in the late 60's & early 70's. Cranked up my old Sako 222 Remington last year and fell in love with it all over again but wanted to try something a little different. I'm now having a 6BRDX light gun built and hope to be shooting it in a couple of months. Fortunately I have some range choices within fairly reasonable driving distance of Louisville, Oak Ridge, TN being the closest.

My donation of $50 was sent with my VISA card this morning. Thanks for providing such a useful and fun site.

 

[CopperHead]

While all of the information on 6mmBR.com is interesting and useful, the article that you wrote on gun safes aided me greatly in my recent purchase of a new safe. When I ordered the safe I figured that since I already had my checkbook out I should send 6mmBR.com a check. My safe was finally delivered today and I was reminded to say thanks for the article and a great website.
John

 

[Forum Boss]

John,

Glad you liked that article and found it helpful. The Gun Safe Buyers Guide involved a lot of effort and we didn't take one dime from any of the safe-makers. Jason received your contribution. Thanks so much!

 

[reloader243]

Having accidently found this site, and having gained a huge amount of info, I decided I need to be a paid member. This site needs to be here for the many people that have visited and learned something, and those that have the years of knowledge that keeps some of us newbies out of trouble. Now, How do I become a paid member?...not too on-line savy, so lead me by the hand...Thanks Rick

 

[Preacher]

Reloader243,
No members here need to pay, but a donation sent in will make you a paid member if you like the sound of that 'O)

 

[NorCalMikie]

The small banner at the top of the home page states "make a donation". Support "your" site!
Paul is a busy man but he took the time and made it a point to say "THANK YOU" when I made a donation. That's all that was needed. At least he cared enough to say so.
I made a donation to another site.,Rifle brand spacific) Never got a thank you. Kinda like I owed it to him??
See if he ever gets another penny from me.

A simple "thank you" goes a long way!
And Paul, Thank You for 6mmBR.com!

MODERATOR: I've tried to send a personal Thank You to all contributors. Sometimes it takes a few weeks for those "thank you notes" to go out. Also sometimes Jason will get a check and there is no return address or email address so it's difficult for us to acknowledge those donations. But if you donate via the donation button, I'll be notafied within 48 hours.

 

[iccirvr]

I am relatively new to the site and on a fixed income. I a hoping that sept will see me clead for a $50.00 donation. Was wondering If the site was non profit orgnization w/ donations tax deductable would that help.
Vincent

 

[Jacob]

Sent a little money in. Wish I had more. Still in college and things are a little tight. Look forward to making larger contributions in the future. Thanks for the site.

 

[SeanAce1]

You all have been extremely helpful to me recently, Ive almost got four pages of a thread going with all my questions. I just spend alot of money on some rings and bases upon everyones suggestions, but as soon as I get another check you will be seeing some coming your way.

As a marketing major, I have some basic suggestions. There are several online wholesalers that will make personalized items such as shirts, hats, coffee mugs etc and sell them to clubs and small organizations. You could easily craft some 6mmbr.com Merchandise and make a nifty logo, and sell this stuff in return for donations. You could sell hats for 20 dollars t-shirts for 25, though overpriced researchers find that people will donate more when they get something in return they can use to show that they donated,that whole human ego thing). You could say hey make a donation this large and get a free ________. for example. Or you could also host events at popular shooting ranges depending on the grouping of your users demographics and sell tickets. If the events draw a large enough crowd you might even find some vendors/suppliers willing to pay to have a display table of merchandise at the event to sell, market and display their products.

www.pinnaclepromotions.com
www.inkhead.com
www.promostuffrus.com
www.cafepress.com

Just some examples, avg prices are like 5 bux per hat at a qty of 70, cheaper the more you get, thats with a one color logo. If you wanna pursue this let me know ill try to donate some of my free time to pricing and picking a distributor.

 

[Forum Boss]

Some thoughts:

1. Vincent, I've considered organizing the site as a non-profit, but that involves some pretty complicated forms and tax monitoring, and I'm not sure how that would affect the debts I've incurred to keep the site going for three years now. But this is an interesting idea.

A related concept we've discussed is to make the site an arm of a larger shooters' organization. Something like the Safari Club or Ducks Unlimited, but dedicated to precision shooters and varminters. The industry is sorely in need of a Shooter-focused, non-political organization that can do real, serious testing and certification of products like spotting scopes, gun cases, and gun safes. Likewise, a collective organization could provide services such as insurance and discounts on gear and merchandise.

2. Jacob, I appreciate your contribution. I've updated our "user profiles" to indicate you are a "Site Contributor." I know money's hard to come by while one is in school, so you deserve a special "Thank You".

3. Sean, those are some great ideas. We have been working on a couple T-Shirt designs. I agree with you that more folks might be likely to contribute if we could provide a hat or mug etc.

As the site grows, yes we would love to have a presence at major events, or perhaps sponsor our own gathering. We've been toying with the idea of a "Pro-Am Tournament of Champions" where top shooters from various disciplines team up with a club-level shooter. We'd like to see different yardages and maybe 2 or 3 kinds of rifles in the event. This should make the even more fun to shoot and help get media coverage.

 

[SeanAce1]

Sent you some money today! I wish I could help you all as much as you have helped me with all my green horn-ish problems!

 

[ultramagbrion]

Sorry for waiting so long to make a donation, but its done now. Hope to use this site often.
Im very appriciative to all you folks here and the work you do.Its an outstanding vault of information that Ive just begun to tap into.

Now if I could just find the time to use the info ........

 

[reloader243]

Took me awhile to see the true value of this website.I'm a bit slow at 63...lol You have much for me to learn in this new hobby,addiction), and many, many fine people that help all of us get better at shooting little holes. I hope others will see that a simple $20.00 is small price to contribute to their hobby and interests. Please keep on being the fine place to visit and learn. SUPPORT YOUR SHOOTING FRIENDS !!!
GIVE A BUCK ,pun intended) I gave mine today ..
Rick Stahl

 

[Forum Boss]

Rick,

Thank for your words of support. I don't want to sound alarmist, but with the loss of Google Adsense revenue, user donations are more important than ever.

Google Loss
We were accepted for Google in November. That was a huge step forward for the site--that would allow me to run the site without going into more debt every month.

The Google ads were generating about $60 per day, and the trend was upwards.

Then, unilaterally, Google decided to pull the ads because they decided we "promote firearms sales." Well that might have been obvious from a quick glance at the home page... and Google still serves ads on other gun websites such as ChuckHawks.com.

Anyway, bottom line, we now have to replace $22,000/year in projected Google revenue. We need user help... from the majority of our regular users, to make up for that shortfall.