Bitcoin Forum

I am not making any promises yet, just gauging interests, but it occurred to me the other day that the best thing I could do help the Bitcoin community, my career, and Bitcoin Magazine's exposure all in one go would be to use some of my winnings to print 50,000+ issues of the Bitcoin Magazine and mail them to everyone on the forums (and off, if anyone asked).

I think people are afraid of purchasing the magazine because of the original late issue (in fact, there are some people who ordered -recently- who are still waiting because we -just- got a large 4,000 issue shipment in Romania and are only beginning to disperse them), but I am confident that we'll make it up over time with consistent issues (we've already printed September's issue, so it should be fine from here on out). I think Bitcoin Magazine is important to the community and that once people see the high quality, especially with recent issues, they are going to fall in love with it.

So why wouldn't I just do it without even asking? Because a few months ago one customer asked us if we have a digital release because they didn't want to ever give out their address. I thought this was -really- odd considering it's unlawful for us to share our records with anyone else, but I guess to each his own.

So here's the question...


If I win the 10,000BTC bet and I pay for 50,000 issues of the Bitcoin Magazine to be printed and shipped, would you accept one?

It would be a very nice thing to do, but I'm afraid people could take it as a sort of spam, and it might bring a total negative effect on Bitcoin if people walk around saying they got the magazine "for free". This would turn it into a pamphlet in the general public's eyes.

Yea, I thought about this too, but since it's sold for $8.88 at bookstands across the country and on our website, and this is a -personal- thing I'm doing unrelated to the Bitcoin Magazine itself, I doubt it will have any bearing on things.

Id take it. It would be my consolation prize for losing the bet.

Not gonna happen though...no way pirate pays in full. I like to dream though too.  ;)

It's generous of you Matthew - but I think if you want to be generous with that bet, there are other projects which would be more beneficial to the btc economy.

Here's an idea... make a high profile campaign to get some well-known charity/foundation/organization to accept Bitcoin. If you offer them $100k, they'll listen, no matter what currency it's in.

If I could pick any organization to whom you should make this offer, it would be A) Mises Institute or B) Cato Institute.

Or, if you want to REALLY pour some fuel on the Bitcoin economy, set it up as a bounty for a massive porn website to accept BTC. Basically, meeting with someone from Kink.com or Brazzers and tell them you'll donate $100k if they accept Bitcoin. You can do it in an epic creative way, like I know you're good at :)

If you do this, for the $100K demand that you be in one of the videos too.

Rofl

He can play the guy who delivers the bitcoin magazine to a house full of young korean girls.

Printing 50,000+ issues of the Bitcoin Magazine seems to me a step back to the 20th century.

I like Bitcoin Magazine, and therefore I read it online. Like many citizens of the net I read everything in softcopy (online or in e-format on a pc/phone/tablet screen) and I have not bought a physical dead tree book or magazine for years.

I suggest to invest something (much less) in a good adSense campaign.

ORRR, you could invest it in my friend who out of the blue asked me earlier today if I wanted to invest with him, and buy land in Nevada to build a Solar Farm and eventually a power company. BTW, we aren't Bitcoin millionaires, more like Bitcoin hundredaires, we are in Maryland, and probably have about $500 in $ to invest between the pair of us. We may need another one or two hundred to buy the land, solar panels, and setup wiring equipment if you are feeling generous  ;D

But then again, if I were you, Id go with the porn option.


Edit* Or then again, better yet, why not do it all?


Instead of paying them off, threaten to give their "actresses (or actors, I don't know you and I'm not one to judge)" STDs, making them no longer useable for the industry.

And then find something fun and reckless to blow the $100K on. A new sports car? A modest house in a decent area? A very nice house in a ghetto? Or a solar farm in Nevada.

Good advice! I'll be thinking about it.

My advice would be to bet it all on satoshi-dice.

I can't wait to read future news of the past!

I can't wait to trust my full name and physical adress to this endeavour. There's no way this could go wrong in any way....  :D

You mean past news in the future, right?

Print 5000 two BTC notes or just contract casascius for his physical coins and hand them out with a crew and flyers on wall street or in some other high profile financial area.  Some of them would go unused but you would get a lot of people who would not be involved interested.

Id personally prefer a digital version.
However, a public awareness campaign could be a nice idea.

Instead of a free magazine, you could pay my costs for doing Bitcoin conferences like the ones going on in Japan (in the UK).

I'd just be looking for costs for travel, the conference room and whatever is available for advertising.

We could set up a Ltd company called The UK Bitcoin Foundation and we'd build a consultancy.

Over time the business would expand and some of the revenue could go towards sponsoring/creating/venture capitaling Bitcoin businesses in the UK.

It's just a shame you're in Korea.

I think this is dead on, Maybe some ad's in papers along with some canvasing would be good. If we can increase the visibility of bitcoin we all will gain from this including your magazine. Maybe a small TV spot in major cities, like 15 second adds or whatever, buy some annoying add space on google or whatever.

Digital copy yes please, hard copy maybe. Public spotlight HELL YES!

Yes, I think this is the best line of thinking.  I would rather see funds invested in promoting Bitcoin to people who don't know about Bitcoin and who might potentially be interested, than giving a free gift to those who already do (by definition, everyone on these forums).

Also, I already subscribe to the magazine, and ordered several copies of #1 to pass out to friends as an evangelism tactic....so getting one extra free copy doesn't excite me too much.

Why do you think would he buy everyone Issue 1 when there are 2 more issues to be had? I think its interesting so many people are only interested in a digital edition because only one has been released in digital format so far. You can have your hands on the other 2 physical issues already. In fact, some people in the UK probably already have them.

Well...I have a 12-issue subscription so any issue below 12 will be (for me at least) an unexciting dulplicate.  But more importantly: issue #1 works better for giving out to strangers because it potentially also has value as a collector's item.  They are less likely to throw it away.  It creates an perception that they are coming on board early.  What sounds better & more exciting:

1. Friend, I'm excited about Bitcoins, you must check them out, here's my gift to you, the first ever issue of Bitcoin Magazine!
2. Friend, I'm excited about Bitcoins, you must check them out, here's my gift to you, the third issue of Bitcoin Magazine!

NO I WOULDNT GIVE YOU MY ADDRESS!!!

If i did, the next thing I know I would have a truckload of giggling Korean girls at my door.

On second though... at least I wouldn't have to pay for electricity anymore.....

I'd donate to a Bitcoin Mag PR campaign.

Promote bitcoin to outsiders. Donate to that Tesla thing and get a really positive article in The Oatmeal, then get coverage on random billboards and the New York Times!

62,489 members, I'd guess < 2% take you up on the offer. There's just tons of free magazine offers out there, lots of dead accounts, lots of users that won't see the offer, lots of users that don't want to give their address, etc.

So a 50k run of one issue for distribution to bitcointalk.com members seems like a bad idea.

Flawed logic is flawed.

For one thing you can not assume that everyone has seen this thread.

Biggest flaw in the logic would be that people who are into Bitcoin would even consider "Bitcoin Magazine" on the same par with other random magazines. It's fucking Bitcoin Magazine.

Uhh what? Are you saying my guess that "less than 2% of the registered bitcointalk.org members would take him up on the offer" is flawed .. because I'm "assuming everyone saw this thread"? I didn't say anything about the people viewing this thread, and it's irrelevant anyway.'

If you think 83%+ of bitcointalk.org registered users would take up the offer for a free magazine (as awesome and relevant as it may be), that's a bet I'd be all in on.


I'm not trying to put down the magazine at all... just using common sense. An 83% response rate is unheard of in marketing.

And it's just that, a marketing expense. Most mags give away trial subs. Even ones that are thousands usd annually.

It depends what issue would you be giving away?

The newest at that time.

It's an odd question. Your winnings are also yours to do with as you please, and if you feel guilty for taking it, you can at least boost your reputation (and thus career) by doing something altruistic like providing patronage to other community enriching projects (hint sig hint hehe).

In what way do you expect it to help your career? are you just giving away all of your hard work? (serious question)

Nah, I'm just confident that if people get their hands on an issue, they'll subscribe.

The magazine has my address and sadly this has never happened to me. What would be so bad about this anyways or am I just missing a troll?

If you look at the user list you'll see 98% of these 60000 members are spambot accounts that just can't do their job correctly due to the newbie restrictions. There's maybe 1000 real accounts here if even that.

False.

Administrator: 2
Brand new (SPAM): 41547
Donator: 76
Founder: 1
Full Member: 996
Global Moderator: 5
Hero Member: 363
Jr. Member: 7612
Newbie (SPAM?): 11220
SCAMMER: 101
Sr. Member: 447
Staff: 18
VIP: 28
Whitelisted: 1

If Newbies and Brand new are considered all spammers, then there are still almost 10000 "real members" on the forums.

Interesting fact: Even if founders were also considered spammers, the number of real members does not decrease by a lot.

Interesting. Thanks for the numbers. I retract my statement.

If I win the 10,000BTC I'll be cosmopolitan and travel all over the world

I agree. Instead of giving out bitcoin magazines which would be perceived as advertisements, I think the best use would be to buy a large lot of casascius bitcoins and give them out to random people everywhere.

Yes the ship has sailed on hard copy magazines IMO (although I still buy the occasional car mag)..........that said, for the non-bitcoiners I can see it being an easier thing to get them to read a magazine, than research BTC on the internet.

Maybe do a pamphlet, like an informational piece around bitcoin introducing the general public to its merits (keep it simple and non-geeky as much as poss), with 0.1BTC (around $1 USD) on an expirable claim. I could see that having a greater impact. In fact I would personally hand some out around the streets in my local town. We could also distribute them on the tubes or in the streets if a team of us were around the Bitcoin London conference timeframe.

in response to sails, ships and printed magazines: http://bitcoinmagazine.net/advertise-with-us/

Good video with some good points. However I work for one of the largest companies in the world with one of the most succcessful partner marketing schemes of all time, if our marketing specialists suggest we move from 70% spend on printed ads to 30% printed and 70% online (arbitary figures), I think they may be right.

Vladimir drops everything else and resumes work on proper digital edition. No seriously.

Well, I still think a pamphlet is a good idea to raise awareness, though imagine lots of 0.1BTC being thrown away in the streets, you would have ppl running around collecting the pamphlets.

Actually, that could be a way to pay the garbage collectors..... 8)

EDIT: And, targeting known thought leaders in the IT Industry with the magazine, could be a plan......

He could personally deliver all those magazines :D

she could... :p
sure :)

With "he" I referred to Matthew, and I am pretty sure he is a he.
That being said, chances are that I would prefer having it delivered by you ;)

Yehovah's Witnesses crap the place with magazines and they create more rejection than acceptance.

That's more or less the image you're bound to create.

Of course! But you are not going to win...

How much is a yearly subscription to Bitcoin magazine? If I win my 10 BTC bet, I'm willing to put some of those winnings towards a subscription.

I wouldn't worry about the free magazines.  Just be ready to pay up.  You know it's coming.

Hes gonna pay up and print the magazines anyway.