Ok, actually I have more than one person (besides Kings) who reads this blog, but considering nearly everyone is silent or just emails (someday I hope to return favors to the brave few who dare to comment openly) because they don’t know who else is reading, I thought the “ghosts” out there might be a little curious.
When the nice Dandelion people contacted me with freebie offers of stickers and posters and things, I sheepishly explained we erm, had to have actual books. I had an idea the ~300-600 daily visitors who come here….. don’t do it for stickers. (Just a hunch.)
At the time, the Dandelion book was not available in print and I basically asked for their limited edition hard cover “prototype” or first print or whatever-you-call-that-edition book to give away. Then later on I also went and “bought” two more hardcover books at USD 100 each on Kickstarter. (As in, you become a “backer” of the project, and the USD 100 contributions are the ones that get you a “free” hard cover autographed book… I have a sometime project to slowly accumulate vintage, autographed or limited edition children’s books for The Rockstars to hand down to their kids, someday I’ll write about that more…)
So anyway this was my original post about Dandelion, and then the project took off after being successful on Kickstarter, but then the publishing of the books got wayyy delayed so I only received them (the freebie and the ones I “bought” myself) months later than originally scheduled (which made me initially a bit embarrassed to mention it at all, but after this reader experience I just had to say something, and btw the Dandelion App made one of Apple’s Best Of 2012 iTunes earlier this year).
It was awhile more before I finally managed to meet up with the original reader who wrote me a personal email about her own bullying experience because by then it was almost CNY and she had family from the UK over for the holiday (I hope I got that right otherwise please hammer me dear!) and so on, and so forth, and well – this post became a Why Sticker Freebies Don’t Work With This Blog post. Or Readers, Meet Reader post.
See, what happened after I first posted about Dandelion was I would get correspondences asking where they can buy the book or at least check it out, BUT not competing for the freebie giveaway.
“Is ok, I think someone else needs the free one more…”
Ay, if I have limited edition something-by-Prada to give away how?
I don’t know if this is a thing about being in HK where the English-speakers are cynical in general because of the super-aggressive marketing calls (the ole’ advice is “if the marketer cannot speak English it’s probably not important” :D) and suspicious about little freebies, or if this is normal for English-lang blogs here, but basically I got responses like “Umm, is ok I can buy for myself. But can I have more information…” Or, “Where to buy ah?” and then I had to tell them the book really wasn’t available then at which they were all Oh. Ok….. <I imagine a shrug on an email>
In the case of this reader I finally met up with, she still came with a baby gift for Little Miss and book of stickers for Rockstar. At which point I then end up insisting on buying lunch. (Truffle pizzas yum!)
Like, and I say this with love, dear readers, freebie giveaway MAJOR FAIL.
IT. WAS. A. FREEBIE. NO ONE IS GOING TO CALL YOU TO TRY AND SELL YOU SOMETHING. NO ONE IS GOING TO SEND YOU EMAILS AND TRY AND SELL YOU SOMETHING.
I JUST WANTED TO GIVE AWAY A BOOK, DAMMIT.
The Dandelion people earlier didn’t even require I write a follow up post or whatever, they said Ok ok just give you a book instead of stickers. Then I felt bit bad and happily bought two more. Yeah you see you see I’m also like dat. And then because they were so late printing the books they then sent me another free autographed book. I would say it’s something in the water, everybody so Emily Post, but well the books came in out of Sydney.
And as for my dear readers, and I say this with love, “Is ok, I think someone else needs the free one more…” pretty much sums up you guys.
Who knew giving things away could be so hard? <sigh>
Haha, who knows that trying to give away something good can be so hard. Now I know. 🙂
Yah lah i also say…! I believe the term is “Beware The Greeks Bearing Gifts”!
Fineeeee. I’ll pipe up as one of your (300-600) silent readers…! N I say this with lurve yeah 🙂
2 ques off my head:
1) I remember a blog post where Rockstar was asking abt the US Elections. With the ongoing Msian fever, is he aware of it? N what do you say to him of it? (I’m not fishing to know which party you support yeah coz that is your right to choose)
2) How abt opening up questions for your readers to ask you (in private) and sharing your answers on the blog? I’ve always wanted to do ask you this… *Shy*… What are the Top 3 or 5 Values you wish to imbibed the Rockstars with? N what do you do to instill it?
Now, aint that ideas for a blog post 🙂
Ay no lah, that wasn’t a hint at all (and anyway you not that silent ya)
I seriously don’t mind (but have to admit rather amazed at how my only ever giveaway attempt went, as is I didn’t pick up a lot of the email queries from marketers about these already the kids were keeping me too busy) but as you have asked, I will try my best to answer (however not good my answer might be but will try anyway :P)
Re 1) Rockstar picked that up because of West Wing which caused me to be interested in the real life version of things like the Presidential Debates. I highly recommend the series though it is obviously very US-based and fictional because a lot of care went into make it real and dealing with real-life issues, just the characters themselves in the show don’t exist. The reason I initially picked up West Wing was because in the guise of leisure-tv it helped me understand how policies are set in the States, which affects the economic data that is released – which affects how stock, bonds and by default some derivatives markets trade. As a very rough example, even for e.g. gold – it’s often quoted in USD. Then there is the fact trading is often affected by human nature and the people behind the computers’ expectations and reactions to data. That was the real reason I got into habit of following US so much (and then to a lesser extent Europe), no other more personal reason… I have bought the West Wing DVD box set on several occasions as congratulatory gifts to kids going away to college too…
Malaysian elections and other events – my mum periodically endeavors to put together scrap books of Malaysian events for The Rockstars to read to make sure they don’t totally not have any exposure to it. When I see my parents they also will catch me up whether I like it or not! Re media coverage, to be honest I once endeavored couple years ago to catch CNBC’s interview of one of the most high-profile Malaysian politicians, aired in HK and intended for foreign investors. Because I’d back then been receiving Malaysian news from my mum, the interview I watched in HK was……. strikingly different from what I had learned on the news. Probably because it is closer to home than being able to simply watch the US which I considered semi-work-related and now more a leftover habit, that interview with flat out denials and so on really turned me off. Other things I hear about are sometimes heartbreaking. Especially after the “luxury” of having seen how differently some things might be done in other countries. For e.g., I felt very sorry for Elizabeth Wong and once mentioned ages ago how it was like in a totally different world than here. (As a very simplistic generalization)
Will really put some thought into (2), that’s a super good one!!
Sorry just realized I didn’t answer yr original question very well yes he knows there are elections going on (but not “fever” :), he was also listening in to kings and I talking about some of the Facebook campaigns
I describe Malaysian or US election kind of the same way – various parties or candidates campaign by putting forth their issues, ie what they feel strongly about. Then citizens get to decide who they agree with and vote for the person/party. Guy with the most votes wins. I have blogged before i think, that therefore speaking skills are important because the convincing speaker theoretically gets more votes.
Rockstar’s assumption is that everyone tells the truth and issues are debated at face value without all the history. I have started to mention that everyone is human and therefore decisions today can be affected by past experiences (with every day examples.) My stumbling block will come when I have to deal with whether everyone tells the truth.