Does anyone still have interest in a photo contest and thus, a wall calendar?
I'm asking because the calendar doesn't really do well in terms of sales. We got more photo entries for this past contest, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in the purchasing the calendar. I try to keep the price as low as possible, but not at a loss for me.
I love receiving and reviewing all the photos. It's awesome. It's like I get to live vicariously through all of you. And I have a lot of fun with it.
But if there's not much interest in it, I find myself wondering if I should have the calendars made at all.
What are your thoughts?
Buying the calendar is my manner of contributing a few bucks to the cause.
@norman-oklahoma I truly appreciate that! Unfortunately, we make less than $2 per calendar. 😧
I like the calendars and like @wendell stated, I live vicariously through all of your photos.
T. Nelson - SAM
Okay, I saw a post for purchasing them around the beginning of the year. I'd like to buy one but don't see where to at this point.
Ordered. Didn't the site use to have swag link?
Ordered. Didn't the site use to have swag link?
Yeah, but sales weren't enough to maintain it, so I dropped it. I'd love to bring it back, but I've tried a few times after getting confirmation from many folks that they would definitely buy stuff -- but then they didn't. I'm not saying I won't ever do it again though. I'd love to see it go somewhere.
Wendell,
Jean and I love the calendar and would love to see it continue, however, if it is not profitable, don't do it.
If you enjoy the pictures, have everyone send them in and maybe use 1 a month for a site picture.
J2
I wonder if the calendar could be marketed through state societies? Might also be a good way to get the word out about RPLS.
Maybe a screensaver/desktop image with some advertisers.
For me, the killer was the postage cost on a calendar.
The price basically doubled, then you have to double it again for nzd$.
I like the calendar and seeing the neat photos from the submissions. But I would just as soon make a donation in the calendar amount with as little of the proceeds as you get back from the calendar.
I wonder if an annual print would do any better? I don't actually use the calendar as a calendar. I just look at the pics and then put it out of the way. A nice (bigger than calendar size) print that could be framed and put on the wall would be nice.
I will probably go ahead and do another calendar and see how it goes. But that means I need to start getting photo submissions! I have several leftover from last year that I can use, but not enough.
What I've been hoping to do with the 2026 calendar since last year is to have each submitter send 2 photos: one of a monument and one of a view from the monument. Then I would use the view photo as the background and overlay the monument photo on top. I started the process last year as an option and got a few submissions, so we have a start. But if I don't get at least 12 good submissions (in high resolution, which is the biggest struggle it seems), it won't be possible.
I don't really intend to make a profit at all on the calendar. The idea is to just get the word out and perhaps generate some traffic. If a surveyor has the calendar up in his/her office and other surveyors see it, they might come check us out. But the hard costs are fairly high if I'm using Lulu's drop shipping, so I set the price to be just a hair above that -- not to make a profit, but because they sometimes raise prices in the middle of it all. And there's no way I want to do all the shipping and stuff myself.
I wonder if an annual print would do any better?
I was thinking about doing a cookbook, since it seems many surveyors are also cooks (myself included). The cookbook could be sprinkled with various photos throughout (not necessarily depicting cooking). I think it would be really cool to have a section of "in the field" recipes, too -- like maybe for lunchtime campfires or tricks for cooking on a manifold (I used to keep my burritos warm that way).
We could do some sort of photo album. I'm not sure what would need to be done to do a single photo print, but that's a cool idea. 🤗