July Updates

Hey Guys!

Just wanted to cover a few things you've probably noticed popping up on the site in the last couple days...

First is the new Commissary button in the main menu bar at the top of any page. I have opened our Cafe` Press store back up and presently have shirts and a few other items available with three different graphic options. I will be adding additional items for women and kids in the coming weeks as time allows. A few notes on these products since I know it will come up.

Yes the prices are a little high - I can't help that. The most I make on any item listed there is $2, the rest of the price is Cafe`Press's price for the item. This is the trade-off of these products being printed to order rather than my having to order in quantity and keep them in inventory myself with my money tied up in them hoping they'll sell.
Some on FB have asked for shirts with a small logo on the left chest and a large logo on the back. Based on past experience with this outfit I won't do that as they are very inconsistent with where they place the left chest logo. I've had some show up with the logo darn near in the armpit and others with it almost centered in the chest. I will be adding a couple options with the large logo on the back through for those who prefer it there, and they will likely just say "Savage Shooters", "Brotherhood of the Barrel Nut," or something similar across the chest.
Cafe`Press handles all orders, returns and refunds directly - all I do is provide the graphics, specify what products I want it offered on and set the final price. As such, if there are any problems with an order you have to take it up with them, not me. That said, based on what others have told me when they had issues in the past they're very easy to work with and take care of problems (wrong size, mis-print, etc) pretty quickly.

Next up is the July Membership Drive. In the past we used to average around 1,100 paid members at any given time (roughly 2% of the total member base), with an all time high of just shy of 1,600 in the year following the Sandy Hook shooting. Presently we are at well less than half of that average, mostly as a result of my opening up access to all of the articles and reviews to everyone a few years ago rather than having them restricted to paid members. The last thing I want to do is put that restriction back in place, but if that's what I have to do to get people to support the site, but it's a move I'll make if I'm left with no other choice but to do that or shut the site down.

When I first implemented the paid membership system in 2007 my hope was that it would only be a temporary means of sustaining the site financially, that eventually the site would grow to a point where we could make enough advertising revenue to cover everything and afford me a meager income for my time. We were actually on the verge of achieving that goal about three years ago, but then things went sideways and we're pretty much back at ground zero now on that front. Interest in Savage's seems to have peaked about two or three years ago and has been in a slow decline since - no surprise really as interest has shifted to higher end custom builds and several other brands that have come on strong in recent years such as Tikka, Bergara, Ruger, etc.

Unfortunately, with so many other revenue streams having been either taken away from us or substantially restricted in the past two years (YouTube demonetization, GoogleAds restrictions, etc.) we're back to having to rely more and more on paid memberships to financially sustain the site. Simply put, it costs money to create the content you enjoy reading here and if we don't have the money available to create that content there won't be nearly as much new content on the site and ultimately it will kill the site as new content is what keeps people coming back to a website.

This is a niche site dedicated to those who have a passion for Savage Arms firearms, and it relies on those same people to support it.