Classic Caravan Stickers

[atouchofglass]

Hi Everyone

Just a bit of thinking out loud for the moment

Who thinks it would be a good idea to make up classic caravan stickers to advertise us?

The reason I ask is cause recently I received my Vintage Caravan sticker and thought that Classic Caravans as a website is in fact harder to find

So a bit of advertising wouldn't go astray

Thoughts?

Colours?
What would be written on it?
Motto/Theme?
Photos or drawing of van or not?

Any other ideas?


Atog

[Deleted]

Something like this?



Peter

[murray]

Atog
I don't mean to self promote but if you send me a personal email I can send a few 1960s "girlie' souvenir decals which could be used around the sticker.
You will have a better chance of posting on the website
Cheers

[millard1399]

Atog, I think stickers for the Classic vans is a great idea! Something like the sticker peter has shown above would be quite suitable. The only addition I would make is to show the time period that Classic vans relate to, ie. 1970 -1979, on the sticker as well.

After first reading your post just now atog, I jumped into Google and searched for Classic Caravans. It seems a Jayco dealership up your way at Townsville has cornered the term Classic Caravans. Even the Introduction in the Vintage Caravan website, which came up second in the Google search, refers to the Vintage site as "Australia's classic caravan website" (this Intro was done looooong before the idea of the Classic forum was born).

Whichever way we go with the sticker idea, we have a tough road ahead to steer people towards this particular forum. I don't think anybody searching the internet for information about their old caravan would use the words "Classic caravan" in the search field. And the proboards name for our forum (http://ditzygypsy.proboards.com) is not something that is readily committed to memory. Each sticker might need to come with a little notepad and pencil so that when people read the sticker they can jot down the website name and take the notepaper away with them (only partly kidding! ) Somehow or other it would be good to understand how the Google search system works, so that any search for the word caravan, old caravan, 1974 caravan, etc, would highlight this forum early in the search results. I think it would also be worthwhile talking with Mark T about getting the link to the Classic forum put on the home page of the Vintage Caravans website. I'll follow that one up myself.

Good subject...good discussion...let's do something!! ;D ;D ;D

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Some thing like this millard1399.



Peter

[Deleted]

Hi Guys,
Listen I dont know how this works or anything, but maybe we need to set up a website and have this forum attached to it, because a website will come up on a search but a forum doesn't really jump out at the uninitiated.
Sorry if I'm standing on any toes (purely unintentional) but maybe that might work or a series of links on various sites

kiwicarl

plus a website we can have heaps of members photo's amd guests but again is this very difficult to achieve or hard to manage I'm not sure

Correct me if I'm wrong or misinformed

[millard1399]

Hi Kiwicarl, this forum is already attached to a website...the Vintage Caravans website. The Classic forum is a subset of the Vintage forum. One of the big problems is that even the Vintage website doesn't come up on search results often. I spent a bit of time today mucking around with Google, and most search results for "Classic caravans" are referring to the Vintage era. It seems people in general think of the word Classic in relation to cars, so any old cars from 30, 40, 50 years ago are considered Classics. Therefore any van from 30, 40, 50 years ago are also thought of by most people as "Classics". It'll be a hard job to convert people's thinking that we only consider vans from 1970 - 1979 to be Classic caravans.

Peter, your second version is along the lines of what I was thinking. Here's a couple of attempts I made using my limited skills...



...and this second one drops the "http://" prefix off because that's pretty redundant these days and most (all??) web browsers will insert that automatically. It might make the internet address easier to remember...




Hey, atog!...how about you make something up in rosewood! ;D ;D ;D

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Gidday al,

Ok mate yep sorry bout that mate got it now hmmmmm

Tough one that

[atouchofglass]

Hi Gents

Well my thoughts are these
Photo or drawing of caravan
Should be an aluminium van as they are the dominate species of the 70's
Not sure on the cost difference of a photo vs a drawing

Prefer no car or half a tow car in the photo....
Mostly cause person viewing the photo could imagine his car towing the van


Peter's font for the writing is good
The years of Classic Caravans is subtle but gets the message across

Dropping the Http/ is a good idea
No one seems to use the WWW bit much either

It should be a longish sticker as opposed to a rectangular/squarish
Don't know about you blokes but there can be a heck of a lot of stickers on the back window of your car and caravan after a trip and it gets a bit much eventually

Anyway that's my two cents worth

Next question is does anyone know of a good printer/sticker maker?

Cheers
Atog



PS ^{Hey Al I'll keep the rosewood idea in the background.....
Hmmm could carve it out of a solid tree stump and use it on the rear bumper like a tyre .....
Food for thought ;D ;D ;D ;D}

[Deleted]

Jul 11, 2009 5:58:47 GMT 10 atouchofglass said:

Next question is does anyone know of a good printer/sticker maker?

Cheers
Atog

You might try Lance on the caravanersforum.com

[Deleted]

What about renaming it for search purposes to something like
CARAVAN CLASSISCS 70-79? or similar?
That way the search engine might pick it up easier

[Deleted]

Hi guys,

Google search ranking is an elusive game.

However, rest assured forums receive a boost over web pages. The concept is that what people are currently thinking and saying is most relevant.

What gives the most boost in the rankings is many sites with links pointing to the desired site.

And of course traffic.

This site does have a horrible name ... unfortunately. It logically should have been named 'classiccaravans'. But that's history and when I last researched it was difficult/impossible to import a free Proboards forum to something else or change it's name.

I'm guessing that a 'classic caravans' domain name could be purchased to point to this forum? However I'm no expert here.

I've had a muck about in the past and reserved 'classic caravans' as a Proboards forum name just in case. It's locked so it cannot be used.

classiccaravans.proboards.com/

I've added Peters nice logo as the banner image to jazz it up a bit.

We should add it to this site to give it a tad more flair.

For the admin it is:

Enter admin area

Customise your forum -> Skins/Forum colours -> Modify Skin -> default -> continue

Then modify the 'logo url' image location:

I loaded Peters at: img268.imageshack.us/img268/9540/classic01.jpg

In keeping with the theme we really need pictures/images/graphics of a classic van and a classic tug.

I do love this logo, useful for the vintage guys



.... but back to the forum topic.

Good idea aToG

[millard1399]

Hi wahroonga...good to hear from you again . I've checked my admin functions, and we moderators don't have access to the "customize your forum" section. I don't know that we really have an active Admin anymore. My understanding is that "God" (Jenny) has dropped out of the scene, and Mark T, who owns the Vintage website, doesn't have much to do with our forum. We can contact him if we need any help, but by and large we are left to fend for ourselves pretty much. I wonder if I should ask him for extra powers for atog and myself to become forum administators??

I also wonder whether we couldn't "piggy back" on the back of the Vintage forum stickers, and get the same printer to do a deal for us. If we kept the Classic sticker to something similar to the Vintage one, then maybe the cost wouldn't be that much?? Atog, are you able to post a photo of what the Vintage sticker looks like?

Maybe in this day and age you can get some special vinyl sticky paper that will go into a computer printer, and we can make our own on a computer?? Does anybody have any knowledge about whether this is a possibility?

cheers,
Al. _{[...who is sounding like a 2-year old asking Daddy, "Why...?"]}

[Deleted]

millard1399
In answer to your question here is a photo of the vintage sticker, and yes photo printer paper with stick on backing can be purchased to print on home printers.
Hopefully I am not stepping on any ones toe's by mentioning any of this.




Peter

[Deleted]

Jul 12, 2009 14:56:46 GMT 10 millard1399 said:

.... I wonder if I should ask him for extra powers for atog and myself to become forum administators??

Hi Al,

I would try to organise Admin powers for yourself and aToG asap.

That's ASAP, or sooner.

A forum with no Admin powers will be doomed to a rocky road indeed as the membership grows.

For a wonderful community forum like this, it is sound to appoint a couple of Admins ..... and there always needs to be a succession plan in place.

The alternatives don't bear thinking about ... try to close the forum (impossible without admin powers), start afresh etc etc.

[kiwijim]

G'day All,

I have been reading all the comments regarding a C.C. Sticker,

I just wonder what is involved in creating a New ( CLASSIC CARAVANER'S) web site,

The website named below, may offer someone (with plenty of time on their hands) some ideas to create a brand new Site with a distinctive name.......

www.4CreatingaWebsite.com

kiwijim

[atouchofglass]

Hi guys
Had thought about another website for Classic Caravans but
Decided I didn't have the time to pursue it properly

Wasn't too sure how it would be taken if a new entity was created ......
Seems some are in favour

Always thought ditzygypsy was a bit ...... well..... not related to caravans except possibly the gypsy bit

If someone wants to create a new site and run it ....
I'll give you a hand where possible
Same as I have on this site
Remember I'm a ring-in at best..... Atogs 68 Olympic !!!!!

Atog

[atouchofglass]

Hi All

Jul 12, 2009 14:56:46 GMT 10 millard1399 said:

I don't know that we really have an active Admin anymore. My understanding is that "God" (Jenny) has dropped out of the scene, and Mark T, who owns the Vintage website, doesn't have much to do with our forum. We can contact him if we need any help, but by and large we are left to fend for ourselves pretty much. I wonder if I should ask him for extra powers for atog and myself to become forum administators??

I also wonder whether we couldn't "piggy back" on the back of the Vintage forum stickers, and get the same printer to do a deal for us. If we kept the Classic sticker to something similar to the Vintage one, then maybe the cost wouldn't be that much?? Atog, are you able to post a photo of what the Vintage sticker looks like?

Maybe in this day and age you can get some special vinyl sticky paper that will go into a computer printer, and we can make our own on a computer?? Does anybody have any knowledge about whether this is a possibility?

cheers,
Al. _{[...who is sounding like a 2-year old asking Daddy, "Why...?"]}

Boy have I opened a can of worms or what

OK here it is in a nutshell
Al and I were asked to moderate this forum as Ditzy had stopped being active
In reality she was asked to make this forum and it wasn't supported
When Al and I came onboard there were about 40 members and few were active

We have a band of brothers
That regularly post and keep the forum interesting
To all those I say a genuine "thank you"

I don't know about Al but I have not done this before
It has been and is a great experience ... not that hard as you lot are easy to get on with ;D ;D ;D
It also gives me an outlet for my big mouth

Having said all that
A dedicated website and forum for classic caravans is a truly needed idea

Whoever does create such a website has my support
I will still moderate here as it is a responsibility I take seriously

Now
As far as stickers go..... cause that is what this thread was all about

We can ask Mark T who he uses and follow suit or
Find a new printer and have them done there .... or
As was suggested
Print our own individual stickers

The only problem with the last one is they would all be different
My thought is there will be a limited run anyway.... so .....
Why not have one of our members print them up and we pay that member for his/her time and materials

Who would want stickers?
I'll take two as a start

Cheers
Atouchofglass

[kiwijim]

G'day Atog & All,

I think before we start placing orders, there should be one and only sticker depicting what the majority of members decide on,

My suggestion is that a competition should be run with enough time to allow every-one to put forward their own design,

then may-be a vote be taken as to the most popular design,
the winning design could then be priced at a Printing Co.

Any ideas anyone.....


P.S. I'll take 4 of the winning sticker.
kiwijim

[atouchofglass]

Hey Jim and Everyone
Perhaps I was a little vague
What I was looking for was an expression of interest
In other words IF the stickers were produced what would we be looking at number wise

For all we know there may be less than 30 stickers needed
That would bring us to a real number and understanding of how viable it would be to take it to a commercial printer or do it on a home printer

Cheers
Atog

[mike]

Hey, hey...

I wonder what the purpose of a sticker is?

I think it would be: to attract new contributors (NOT 'members') to this website.

There is a lot of 'loose mumbling' about changing the name of the website.

So it seems like discussion about 'stickers' is ... 'cart before the horse'... maybe??? ...unless we stick with this website title.
Websites cost.
At the bottom of this page is "This Board Hosted For Free By Proboards". They pay, but they are assisted by some revenue from Google Ads which has been linked to this site, targetting key words we type with ads to match.
Our website is 'ditzygypsy.proboards.com', and it seems like 'caravanclassics.proboards.com' might be a possible alternative name to arrange with proboards.

Once the website name is settled on, being cheap, I'll print the sticker that is placed on screen by one of you inventive/designer types out there, or ... ok I'll take two!!

Cheers
Mike ;D ;D ;D

[atouchofglass]

Lets bring this back on track

While a web name change is possible it is a longer solution

The original question was about stickers

I like peter's idea and font in reply 4
Except with an aluminium van in the picture

Who likes that idea?

Cheers
Atog

[Deleted]

Two more stickers with cladding Vans.





Peter

[millard1399]

I'll vote for Peter's version ;D ;D with a Viscount van on it. Viscount were the No.1 seller all through the 70s so I reckon they deserve the honour.

cheers,
Al.

[atouchofglass]

Hey Everyone

Gotta agree
Peter's version with the 18ft Viscount......
Perhaps with a less modern car ....... perhaps.... maybe..... ;D ;D ;D

Atog