LAST WEEK! MEMBERSHIP DRIVE!!!

FIRST, I would like to thank all at the WALL OF FAME  for helping to get us where we are today regarding the training logs AND I will be transferring you to the new donating member list this week to be good for the next 6 months if you let me know via pm on the amount you previously donated and what shirt or singlet you would like (IF per the current donating levels - click on button to see and round down) I will make this retroactive to all previous donaters who pm me 

SECOND - everything is working now and you should automatically be put on the members list with a medal.  AND i have transferred everyone over from the wall who's paypals email matched what was in the system.  should you find yourself not there and you know you donated, just provide me with your name and username and paypal email u used.  and for the few who snail mailed me, pls contact me too.

Let's get this over with in a couple of weeks so we can move forward!

See the current members here

(if the button logs you out and asks for you to register, logon again and go back to this page and hit the button again - should be fine...we are working on this issue.)

What do you get out of Beginnertriathlete.com? Is it the articles and programs? How about camaraderie? What about usage of the training logs? Since we are thinking, can you name any other site that gives you:

· Weekly articles on training and motivation.

· Training plans.

·Free training logs that, IMHO, are not too shabby.

· A place to post detailed race reports integrated into a searchable database.

· An active forum to get any other questions answered…not to mention friendship and sources of motivation.

· Very few banners. In fact, the one rotating banner is for stores giving you discounts or back to the sites of people graciously donating content. 

There are plenty of great sites offering a few of the aforementioned items but, I feel, not one even comes close to BT. Of course, I just may be a little biased.

“What is the vision of BT.com? Where does the site want to go”

Great question, glad you asked. Here’s the low-down:

1. Keep everything free, of course. 

2. We would like to become a premier online triathlon magazine - that’s how we started, a few writers trying to educate people about the sport. We have a decent foundation but we would like to focus on more advanced content and training plans for many of you that are ready for your second season and on. WE WANT TO KEEP YOU INTERESTED! We definitely intend to still provide great beginner content.

3. We want to keep investing in the training logs. We have many things we would like to do such as ‘planned training’, online training, download programs into your logs, advanced nutrition log and many other items that users have mentioned in the forum.

There are several other ‘long term’ items that BT.com would like to accomplish, but let’s start with what we can accomplish today.

“What has BT.com used in resources since it’s inception?”

Beginnertriathlete.com has been kept alive by VISA and MasterCard. Thankfully, this year, about 20-30 members contributed to the training logs since March of this year allowing debt incursion to start slowing. 

“What are BT.com’s current expenditures?”

• Training/Race Log Additions (by far the biggest).

• Server and bandwidth.

• T-shirt and singlet investment (~400 shirts).

• And lastly, the hours and hours of time that several members and myself have put in to get new articles, bug test new software, and the general administrative tasks.

“So how much has all of this cost to date?”

About a entry level small car, minus the time. But it is a very worthy investment and I am quite happy as to its growth, what has been accomplished and the lives that have been helped. So as not to risk my marriage and credit rating, its time that I came up with a plan to raise revenue.

In order to fulfill ALL of your responses to a poll we took a month back to: raise revenue, keep BT free, no banners, new log additions, more focused training content, the members (you) seemed to be for donating if I fulfilled my promises – kind of like an NPR-style member drive where you donate to keep the site free and running while getting some gifts based on donation level. We plan to have this fundraising drive twice a year – in the spring and fall.

Some of you may still ask the question, “Why don’t you tastefully allow banners on the site for revenue?” Answer:

1. We will then be ‘accountable’ to our advertisers. In order to maintain non-biased content with a good degree of integrity, we only want to be accountable to our members as they will be supporting the site. If you don’t like what we do, we don’t get funded. Simple as that. Therefore we will do all that we can to keep you satisfied as you will be mainly our sole source.

2. To accomplish what you want in the training logs, daily site running/maintenance and better training articles, we would need a veritable blitzkrieg of banners to support this. Any conservatively placed banners for the sole revenue source would be a very slow evolution indeed.

3. I hate banners.

“So what are we getting assuming enough members donate?”

1. Training Logs: By the end of the year you will get:

a. Planned Training

b. Ability for online coaching thorough the logs.

c. Download programs from the site to dump into logs.

d. Comprehensive nutrition logging for food and caloric expenditures and pretty graphs – includes requested water consumption log.

e. There have been a lot of requests for the logs by users. Download into excel, blog printing, more graphs, etc. We, of course, would like to implement these items too.

2. Main site:

a. A few more Sprint and Oly plans that will be more advanced using periodization principles.

b. 1-2 Ironman plans developed specifically for BT. A ‘for the newbie’ program and one for the 2^nd year Ironman also serving as a ‘robust’ program for year and after year with modest improvements.

c. We would like to hire a part-time content editor (we already have one in mind) that will recruit writers and secure more content with a focus on specific training issues for the beginner and the more elite. We also want to see more articles up per week. I feel we can and need to do a lot more on specific training articles for all levels – it just takes a lot of time and resources.

3. Gifts:

a. At the $25 Bronze level, you will get recognized in your forum posts, blog and profile.

b. At the $45 Silver level, you will get ‘a’ and a BT.com T-shirt.

c. At the $65 Gold level, you will get ‘a’ and a BT.com training/racing singlet.

(gifts will change every drive)

“How many members needed to donate to accomplish all of this?”

You are probably thinking a lot! It’s not as bad as you think. We only need 500 members to donate at the minimum level of $25 per 6/months. We are 5000 members here and on many days at least 1000 people update their training logs. THAT’S ONLY 10%!!! OF OUR MEMBERS WE NEED!

“How will these funds be spent assuming we meet the goal?”

“What if we don’t reach the target goal?”

Funds will first be equally taken away from the Part-Time content editor position and the training log additions. The Content Editor position will then get axed. I will continue myself to recruit for content as I have been doing for the most part. I definitely want to see the training logs evolve. I would hate for their progress to suffer. 

THEN AGAIN, I do feel very strongly about the need for a Part-time content editor to really bring in some winning articles with an emphasis on training while still providing a good all-around mix amongst the homepage categories. 

CAN - WE - DO - IT?

YES WE CAN!!!!

We would like you to give us the benefit of the doubt and donate for this first drive and let us show you what we can accomplish and will make good on our promises, you can then assess for yourself by the next drive in Spring 2005 as to whether you want to continue donating. 

Think of BT as a magazine, training/race log software and a active community complete with advice, motivation, discounts at stores, and odes. We think that the donation price – even if done once a year, is comparable to getting all of these features separately. Of course we realize that this is an expensive sport and if donating is just not feasible, THAT’S OK! Keep using the site but check-in on our affiliate links and partner sites to further help us.

We will be actively promoting the fundraising drive for 2-4 weeks OR until we reach our 500 member target. Let’s get this over quickly so the site can move forward with a large step into 2005. 

Regarding orders: Your profile, blog and forum post should immediately display your membership rank upon paypal checkout – and you don’t have to be registered on paypal to checkout.

All T-shirt and Singlets will be shipped within one week of payment. We currently have 200 T-shirts and 110 Singlets in various shapes and sizes available, should we run out of a size, you will be promptly notified and will be backordered for 2-4 weeks upon receiving more supplies.