Memberships and other stuff

Hi everyone,

Ali has our new membership program loaded. I am going through every one's files and updating information and trying to contact everyone.

If you aren't showing up yet, give me another day or so, then if we lost you you might have to re register. Sorry gang that sometimes happens when upgrading components.

The good news is we now have members forums, puzzles, word searches, the on line phone book which has become really popular with the riders, the new events calendars and a whole host of wonderful tools.

We hope you'll become a registered member on the site and take advantage of all of the tools - it's free!

Subscriptions to the electronic version of the paper are still only $5.30 per year and include the membership on the sites and all of the freebies and tools on them....

Stay tuned - more improvements coming.....

BD Betty

What's wrong here?

Why do so many motorcycle shops and retailers not want to advertise in a phone book for your saddlebags?

Send me your thoughts on the subject at: bdbetty@gmail.com

I'd love to hear what you think.

BD Betty

PS - I have almost reached my goal of 1,500!!!!!

Pushing 1200 Entries

I'm just cooking with gas today - almost 1,200 entries in our on line phone book.

My goal, by Wednesday to have 1,500.....we are getting there!

Have a great day!

BD Betty

Sad news in Canada.....

There are some very sad things going on in the motorcycle industry here in Canada, and it looks like the motorcycle industry here is going to go through much of what our brothers and sisters south of the border are going through - a slow down.

Companies like Honda are going to the big box style of sales where you can buy a boat, generator and car from the same guy that sells you a bike - closing out all kinds of small dealerships. Here in the North you can't even demo a bike unless the dealership has a bike for that purpose. You have to make an appointment and go to Edmonton to test ride a Honda now.
Why? Economics they say.

The other sad thing is the number of bankruptcies and close outs -and the strong Canadian dollar is a huge contributing factor. Many businesses bought product when the dollar was not so strong and are still sitting on that product. Why? Because bargain minded Canadians are going south to shop be it in their cars or through the net. So, the American economy will benefit from our strong dollar and Canadian businesses will suffer for it.

Everyone wants to save money and who can blame them, yet at the same time it is causing a back lash, Canadian businesses are starting to close their doors. I know it's affected the paper in a very negative way as more and more businesses tighten their belts - their advertising budgets for little publications like the Busted Knuckle are the first thing they trim.

Why? Because the advertisers doesn't feel that they get that much out of the money they spend with us. They don't think you guys actually read this thing so....they cut their ads.

For me, it's a double edged sword - the bankruptcies have meant that businesses who owed me money are now not paying me for what they received and we have lost 10 advertisers already.

All I can hope is that I have the ability to weather the storm, many it seems have not been able to.

We need your help. Tell the businesses you see in the paper that you do read it.
If you don't, the paper may end up being another casualty.

Stay safe out there.....
BD Betty

1,100 entries and growing

It's been slow going but we are over 1/4 of the way through the data entry for the new riders phone book!

If I can keep up this pace the phone book will be ready to go to the printer in December!
I hope you will take the on line version for a test drive.

Have a great weekend and stay safe out there.

BD Betty

Free Membership

Ok gang -

Up until now we had no real way to allow people to sign up for free memberships. Spammers and hackers being our biggest fear. However, the content management system we use has now got the tools we needed and so...

So now, even if you don't subscribe to the paper ($5.30 per year on line or $47.65 in print) you can still get 90% of the benefits that subscribers receive.

AND IT'S FREE!!!!

So sign up today to take advantage of all of the tools that we have for you..... Stay safe out there.... 

BDB

Lots of interesting things happening

Ali has been adding components to the web sites in a fast and furious manner which always means a learning curve for me. The newest component allows us to manage our membership better.

Now new members get tools specific to the group they are in so Rider members see different tools than business members. This is like a dream come true - finally we are the rider's version of a chamber of commerce and Travel Canada all rolled in to one!

We still have a ton of things we want to offer our members and if there's anything you want on the site - let us know, a hunting we will go to find it!


Stay safe out there....

BD Betty