I was doing one of my periodic searches for backlinks and found an archive of a mailing list where some folks (including at least one customer) were talking about new ideas in teaching reading for the next year.  One person pointed to my page and gushed enthusiastically. 

(I won’t link to it because, hey, they deserve their privacy — it is quite possible they don’t know their words are being archived and almost certain that they don’t know folks are searching for them as we speak.  Awareness of how much Google does to upend the expectation of privacy hasn’t quite seeped in yet.)

Anyhow, while I certainly won’t say no to the nice little side income and intellectual challenge Bingo Card Creator brings me, I’m most happy when folks mention how psyched they are about using it to teach their kids.

Hideho again everybody.  Based on the stunning success of my last call for freelancers, I decided to do this here rather than wasting time and money going through one of the freelancer sites.

What I need done: I want someone to take the basic template for www.dailybingocards.com (the one for each individual card) and reskin it so that the layout is roughly the same but the overall color and scheme theme is different.  I’ll tell the specifications of the theme to the designer I end up selecting.  This will involve skinning the top banner and all graphics (except the card, naturally) to match the new theme.  Design to be done in HTML, and you can grab any of the existing structure as a base if you want.

Why I need this done: I have a linkbait idea.  It involves bingo cards and is highly topical.  After you get the theme done, I’m going to integrate it with a bit of Rails and some content that I’ll develop, and then launch it.  And, mark my words, this is going to spread.

How much work is this: I’m anticipating this is under an hour or two of work to a decently talented designer.  I’m not doing it myself because, let’s face it, my design and visual skills suck.

What do you get paid: $100, payable via your choice of either check delivered in the US or Paypal.  I’ll also pay for the expenses for any stock photos needed, within reason.  I estimate it takes about 2 weeks for the check to arrive and Paypal would be pretty close to immediate.

How you can be sure I pay: If you’re reading this blog, presumably you have trust in me already.  Anyhow, the last time I hired a bunch of freelancers this way, I paid out as expected and was pretty generous with the bonuses.  References upon request.

Bonus: You can include a link to yourself in the footer.  If I do any decent job promoting this concept, and I’ve got high hopes, that will be a fairly valuable link and your design will be seen by, conservatively, tens of thousands of people.  No, I will not let you use the link to sell Viagra or mortgages.

Any restrictions: Work has to be done new for this project.  I don’t really care where you live and what language you grew up speaking as long as you can follow directions.  However, there is one significant requirement here which will be obvious once I tell you what the theme is that is going to favor Americans and others who have a good understanding of American culture.  I’m not saying you have to be American, but it will help you complete the job quickly.

The usual legal disclaimers: You are acting as an independent contractor and represent that you have the legal permission to work wherever you’re working from.  After I pay you, the design and other deliverables (images, etc) are mine.  (I’ll let you keep a copy around for your portfolio.)  I’ll be blogging about this project after it is launched, and if you want I’ll mention that the visual part of it was created by you.

How do I apply: I expect to get many folks interested in this opportunity, and will choose on the basis of caprice, any previously existing reasons I have to trust you, and your portfolio.  It would be a good idea to submit a few links with your e-mail.  The general visual style is a bit Web 2.0ish and a bit on the American-as-apple-pie.  Shoot me an email at my-first-name@bingocardcreator.com if you’re interested.  Feel free to pass this offer along to anyone you think might be interested. 

Regards,

Patrick McKenzie

Hideho everybody, and welcome to 2008.  If you’re still reading this after me taking nearly a month off to crunch at work and visit my family, I owe you a double-plus helping of good wishes for the new year.  So, let’s see, what is up for Bingo Card Creator and this blog in January:

1)  Bingo Card Creator 2.0 will be officially released sometime this weekend.  The major improvements include a tweak in the printing code which has resulted in making most cards much more readable and the addition of close to 200 extra word lists to the product, derived from the Daily Bingo Cards project.  As they say: if you’ve got it, flaunt it. 

2)  I am also increasing prices at that point, although the Back to School sale will take the edge off of them.

3)  I know I have said this before, but the big announcement with Google should actually happen next week.  (I just tell you what they tell me.)  You can keep an eye peeled here or you can keep an eye peeled at the AdWords blog, as I’ve been informed they’ll be cross-posting the announcement there.

4)  I have one of those meaty blog articles in the works about competitors.  The short version: I recommend having them, but mostly ignoring them.  It will be posted here when it is ready.  I’m also working on a longer elaboration of my remarks about choosing a name for your product/uISV.

5)  I’d post more, except there is a bonnie lass who I haven’t seen in a few weeks as a result of going back to America.  Sorry, gents, but I have my priorities in order.

As you might have noticed, December is generally pretty busy for me and I haven’t had my usual diligence in updating the blog.  I just got back yesterday to Chicago for my annual get together with the family and am severely jet lagged now, but I’m going to have a wonderful two weeks with my loved ones.  Merry Christmas to all, and I wish you a wonderful holiday and upcoming year with your own families.

See you in early January for my announcement with Google, the official launch of Bingo Card Creator 2.0, the year-end wrapup for 2007, and (possibly, depending on the amount of time I have) a redesign of the Bingo Card Creator and Daily Bingo Cards web sites.  Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

 P.S.  Hiya, Google searchers : You’re probably looking for Christmas bingo cards or maybe New Years bingo cards.  Yep, I’ve got them and yep, they’re free — just click the underlined blue text.  Feel free to pass those links around.  Merry Christmas and I hope you have a wonderful holidays with your families, too.

Hideho, folks on the Internet.  I run a small business which sells software that makes bingo cards, and every time a holiday runs around Google sends me a couple thousand people looking for holiday bingo cards.  So you know what?  I decided to make some early for Christmas this year, and give them away.  Merry Christmas.  There are couple varieties which you can find on my holiday bingo card page.  Feel free to use them for any purpose you wish, print them out, play them with your family or class, whatever you want to do.  And please, it’s Christmas — give them to anyone you think would want them.  All of the card sets can be run off at your printer and come with instructions.

Now, having once been a teacher, I know that schools, businesses, and the like handle Christmas holidays That Winter Thing differently.  Personally, I prefer to spend Christmas with my family, have a nice dinner, go out to Mass, and in general have the whole wonderfully American package of loving family and friends, deeply moving religious experience, and a wee bit of tinsel and presents mixed in.  But every year we hear about how some grinch saw a creche which didn’t have the requisite plastic elf next to it and decided to sue everybody in sight.  So I broke the Christmas lists into two: on the one hand, we’ve got the traditional Christmas bingo cards which cover the Christmas story that I’ll be hopefully hearing at midnight Mass, and on the other hand we’ve got the ACLU-approved reindeer & Santa Christmas bingo cards.  And, in the spirit of further giving (and hopefully a little peace over the holidays), there is the mixed Christmas bingo cards.

P.S. I’m a little late for our Jewish friends but I did do some Hannakah bingo cards as well.  Hopefully you’ll find a use for them the next four days.  Let me know if I screwed anything up, as my honorary so-Catholic-he’s-almost-Jewish card that I got in high school is expired and I’m finding it difficult to renew these days (I live in Japan and, well, if you thought you guys were a minority in America…*)

*Funny stories abound on this topic, actually.  Ask me about the Orthodox Jewish Japanese girl some time.

P.P.S.  For the curious, wondering about which type of Christmas is big this year, take a gander at the list of most popular bingo cards, which my website keeps constantly updated.  All of the Christmas lists are probably going to be on there until January, if history is any indication. 

You’ll see the order — the consolidated Christmas list is called “Christmas bingo cards”, the Christmas story version is “Christmas (Traditional) bingo cards”, and the Santa at the Mall version is “Christmas (Seasonal) bingo cards”.

A gentleman by the name of Ezell apparently told his friend that I had made a successful business in a ridiculously short amount of time, so it must be possible.  The friend disagreed.  Ezell said “I’ll prove it!”, and has decided to one-up me in the process, by shaving a few days and dollars off my schedule.  I personally think he will be able to do it, and am rooting for him.

The program is going to be called BabyAid, running in a niche roughly similar to TrixieTracker.  I previously commented on the Business of Software message board that I believe this is a very underserved niche which one could really do a lot of good in with the right offering. 

Incidentally, the friend was disagreeing as a result of his experience as a independent game developer.  I agree, for a game developer to produce a game worth paying money for, 8 days and no budget for art or music assets will probably not cut it.  Personally, I think that developing videogames is an excellent hobby if you like it (I have contributed to OSS ones in the past) but it makes a very poor choice for someone wanting to start a business.  Maybe I’ll go into why on another post.