change your reality

Bucketman Update!

Greetings fellow Bucketeers!

The developments of the Bucketman Campaign have been many. We had 5,000+ unique visitors to this article just for May. Volunteers offered to design a site for us, bought us a domain and gave us hosting.

I went to work and started creating some multimedia for the site. I took a lot of photos and filmed quite a bit (I can’t upload the videos yet because I don’t have a DV cable but I will get one soon). I also gave a VHS tape Larry gave me which contains footage of an old concert to a fellow Bucketeer (Ed Summerfield) to convert it to DVD format so we can start editing it. I also have a CD which I converted to mp3’s so we can include it in the site we are building. All this material will be made available to the web designers so they can start working.

We convinced Larry it’s time he opens a bank account because the money from the online sales and any donations must be able to go somewhere. If I’m not mistaken this goal was accomplished a couple of days ago with Ed’s assistance.

I also made Larry some cool “Moo” business cards (http://www.moo.com) using the photos I had taken of him in Flickr. I’m expecting them next week.

I don’t know if you guys read the comments but Brian bought us a domain that is going to be hosted on his dedicated server with a lot of bandwith so hurray for that!

Where do we go from here? Well, I’m going to give to the multimedia to Sully and Kyle who seem to have some professional experience in designing sites and put them to work.

I have already scouted the net for some services that would allow Larry to sell his music online. Songcast for example allows him to sell his music on iTunes. If you have any other suggestions shoot an email or leave a comment.

I think the site should allow people to: 1) Hear and Buy Bucketman’s music 2) See where he’s performing next 3) Give them the option of hiring him or his band for private/public events 4) Give visitors the option to donate 5) Give visitors a rich gallery filled with photos, video and music. 6) Give visitors the story behind the man and his music, a bio of Larry. 7) And obviously give them contact information in case they want to get in touch with him.

I also think it’s better for Larry to tell us some of his concrete needs and have people donate towards concrete things rather than abstract charities. For instance, if Larry needs a new drum set, have a button that says: “Buy Larry a new drum set” and has the model and the price of the drum set he wants to buy and say that whoever contributes towards this purchase is going to have his name written on the big drum. Or stuff like that.

I also told Larry that he could start advertising on his buckets with big stickers. Why not? He could always choose which advertisements to display, and reject ones he doesn’t like.

UPDATE: Bucketads now a reality! We just launched this idea so here are the details for advertising on the Bucketman’s buckets:
Before I mention the current prices think of the following benefits of advertising on the Bucketman’s buckets:

1) Bucketman is a hot tourist attraction: A lot of people take photos or video the Bucketman and his buckets, so your ads are going to be traveling around the world in digital media.

2) By advertising on his buckets you show how creative your company is in its marketing policy

3) You show your company’s humanitarian aspect by helping out a San Francisco landmark in his pursuit of happiness.

4) Only the other day Bucketman was interviewed (plus filmed) by the NBC, so that’s extra big time exposure for your ads. In fact, in the future we might be making a special price slot for ads that we know are going to be on TV.

5) Finally, putting ads on the buckets it’s not as if you’re putting it on some passive dead billboard. The billboard doesn’t “do” anything, so it might catch your attention for a couple of seconds max. But the Bucketman plays music so you’re inclined to stay there and watch him - and his ads - longer than if they were just placed on a billboard.

So considering the above benefits here is the current price list for placing ads on the Bucketman’s buckets:

Note: All the prices are per month and for a single bucket. There are four categories which are on a sliding scale starting with the two front buckets and going outwards. So we have 4 pairs as we can see in the following picture. You can also be creative and place an ad that continues from one bucket to the other.

To advertise on one bucket from the front pair: 250$

To advertise on one bucket from the second pair: 200$

To advertise on one bucket from the third pair: 150$

To advertise on one bucket from the fourth pair: 100$

So, if you’re interested in advertising on Bucketman’s buckets send me an email using the “Contact” link on the top bar of the page with the subject “Bucketads”.

By the way, I just put a Paypal Donate button at the end of my original posting so if you guys feel like donating you can. For now the money goes to my account but when Larry gets his bank account approved etc, I’ll redirect it to his.

By the way, Larry just got interviewed by the NBC! They told us it might air as early as Wednesday.

That’s about it for now. Suggestions, comments are always welcome.

Bucketman Campaign Co-ordinator, Alexander Pagidas.