Enamel pins, first time at a bate party, paid subscriptions and more…

Welcome to a new feature, one we might deliver weekly depending on how this one goes. Let us know in the comments if you like this format.

On enamel pins…

I was just curious if there may one day be a possibility of purchasing enamel pins as well as the buttons?

Chris

It’s something we’ve been planning for a while, but the cost to set it up is quite considerable for a small operation like ours. We were ready to hit the “Yes please!” button on it this month, then Tumblr decided to commit suicide and we had nightmarish visions of being stuck with a few hundred useless pins after spending too much money on them.

We now have to wait until January, see how things go with Tumblr (does traffic from there just die on the 17th?) or how much you guys can get the word out around the internet on our behalf. Sales of buttons are already slowing down, so we’ll have to wait and see how it all goes.

On shipping to Australia…

Hi there – I recently purchased a couple of buttons which just arrived! Great idea – love what you guys are doing!
I regularly attend a bate club in Melbourne, called Strøke, https://www.melbournestroke.club

And there are plenty of guys there that would probably be up for getting buttons/stickers. Just looking at the map of Australia it seems that purchases are a little light on down here. I wonder if it’s to do with the exchange rates and shipping costs? It occurred to me to wonder whether you’d be interested in having a local distributor of the merch in Australia? If the stuff could be shipped locally rather than internationally there might be better uptake? Just a thought but if you are interested I’d be happy to chat more about it. The world needs more bator visibility!!!

Paul

We have actually thought about how we could more easily ship merch around the world and maybe have partners who could do that in each region, but it’s gonna require a lot of logistical planning and with things the way they are (Tumblr again) future sales aren’t guaranteed. I do think you’re right about the cost being a factor, so maybe in January when we look at how things are going we can look again at lowering prices. If we can press ahead with the enamel pins then we could probably lower the cost of buttons and stickers sold with them. We’ll make more announcements about this in January so make sure you’re subscribed to the NEWSLETTER.

On paid subscription…

There’s been a fair bit of honest response in the first few days. It’s obvious 100% of the guys Love BuddyBate!
However – 77% say “Not Interested” – 23% say “Yes Please” – Now What?

Brad, you’ve got a lot on your plate, it’s true. However, right now might be a good time to create some kind of BuddyBate Appeal. A simple paragraph to encourage Everyone to Individually Reach Out, On Their Own! Maybe asking ideas for direction of the group, suggestions like creating a signature on every email, Facebook, or other social media, being more Courageous Displaying the Buttons and Stickers, making Cards, etc., and then send it to every member every day, as a reminder, until Dec. 17th. If kept short it won’t be annoying; just a reminder… we’re all concerned about this! – RJ

JOBudRJ

It was never intended that all fiction posts would be behind a pay wall, we were merely suggesting that an additional selection of weekly content would be for paid subscribers. I think this was lost on a lot of those responding to it. Sometimes my bad with wordies.

However, it’s clear the plan was rejected by our readers more forcefully than Trump at a Swedish liberal party conference.

We did ask readers to share the site in their own ways and that weekend we saw a good increase in visits, sales of buttons and newsletter subscribers, so we will be thinking about this more and seeing what we can do to encourage sharing.

We could really use the marketing skills of Ryan Reynolds, but he won’t return our calls.

On alternatives to Tumblr…

Do you have any plans for where you’re going to move to after Tumblr is dead? There are a few alternatives opening up and preparing to launch but no one seems to know where they’re going to move to.

Jake92

We’ve seen four new platforms preparing to take up adult content after Tumblr dies (there are probably ten more that we don’t know about) but three of those are just email sign-up pages with “coming soon” messages. I think a few people wanted to create something straight away and maybe get into the business using the death of Tumblr as an opportunity, but now they’re starting to realize how hard it is. It’s going to be expensive to run servers with thousands of users all posting media, and while some might be prepared to pay a small monthly fee for it most won’t. Getting advertisers for such a business is also going to be hard to do. Both Google and Amazon allow far-right hate preachers to use their ad services, but they think any adult content is a risk.

We plan to sign up to any we can find, but we know that a few of those will probably only last six months. It’s going to look like a bad Mexican Standoff for a while, but some of them will shoot themselves before this is all over. Hopefully a viable contender for Tumblr will emerge from that maelstrom with the kind of audience we need.

All I can say at this time is watch this space. We’ll let you know when we move to another platform from Tumblr, so make sure you’re subscribed to the NEWSLETTER for updates on that.

On attending a bate party…

I have the opportunity to attend a circle jerk/bate party in January and I’m pretty nervous about it. I’ve had experiences with a couple of guys in the past and it was a lot of fun but this one is going to have maybe 10 different guys in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s there. They all seem like decent guys but it doesn’t stop me feeling nervous about it.

Billy

The first time is always a little nerve wracking, but they’ll know that and probably try to make it easier for you. Once you get over that initial anxiety things get a lot easier and I can almost guarantee you’ll leave the party eagerly looking forward to the next one.

All you need to remember is that they all started out with the same anxiety you now have about the same thing. Once you get there and see what friendships they have you’ll probably want to be a part of that, aside from all the bate fun.

And remember, you can leave at any time. You’re not obliged to stay or participate in anything that’s beyond your interest. If you just want the social aspect while you enjoy yourself without physical interaction with any others then you have that right and they probably wouldn’t expect anything more.

It’s all about respecting each other’s personal space and having a good time, I’m sure you’ll be find. And don’t forget to come back and tell us how it went!

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