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July 10, 2014 I'm Still Here!!!! Yup, still filling orders and shipping out stickers all over the world. A lot has changed over these past eight years, but one thing has remained the same, the consistent acknowledgment from this awesome riding community. Although I'm not shipping out as many orders as I used to, I still receive a steady flow of orders from those riders who wish to show their support. So, keep those orders coming, send me your pics for the gallery. We will continue to move forward with your help! -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 13, 2011  Well, things have slowed down quite a bit since I began charging for all orders. Things have still been pretty tight and donations are now pretty much non existent. The good news is, I see that there is still a lot of interest in the idea as I am still receiving orders for stickers. Gone are the late nights filling hundreds of orders and buying stamps by the thousands but it's nice to know that so many of these things have been sent to so many places all over the world. The gallery is getting stale, so if you have a Biker Friendly sticker on your vehicle, take a few moments to snap a pic and send it to me. :) The season is finally approaching and I hope to get out and do more riding this year. I also did my first track day last year and am looking forward to the next time I can get out on the track. -- William william@bikerfriend.org October 21, 2010 When I started this back in 2006, I had not idea I'd receive so many orders from all over the world, packaging up over 15,000 orders, 50,000 stickers and sending them out for free... Well, I'm sad to say that at this time I can no longer afford to send out stickers for free. Although the response is still going strong, the amount of donations have fallen drastically. Until further notice, I am going to have to charge for any stickers I send out. I'm hoping that things will change and when donations start flowing again, I hope to be able to offer these up fro free once again. Please, if you have made a donation and have not received any stickers, contact me and I will get them out to you ASAP! -- William william@bikerfriend.org July 7, 2010 Another year passes, and not much has changed. It appears that the interest has not drop as I still receive 100 or so orders a week, but I'm afraid to say that donations have dropped to pretty much nothing. Without further donations I cannot continue. During the next few weeks I will decide wether to keep this thing going and begin charging for stickers, or drop the whole thing completely. If you have made a donation and have not received your stickers, please let me know via email and I will make sure I get them out to you. I know that the recent change in the economy has affected us all, but without donations from you I'll have no choice but to shut the free sticker program down. -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 7, 2009 Wow, it's been almost a year since my last news update. Well, incase you haven't noticed I'm way behind in getting orders out. For some reason the system that I built to print out the envelopes is no longer working. I handle all the orders via the web and it is very difficult to set print controls using the browser. I has using a printer control that was working great up until now. I'm not sure what the problem is but until I can get it worked out, printing out the orders will be very slow and time consuming. To those that have been waiting for so long, I apologize. I am trying to find a solution that will help get me back on track. Donations have been slow but I'm still working off of postage, envelopes and stickers that I have previously bought. The only thing that is slowing me down at the moment is the inability to quickly print the orders as I have been doing for the past three years. UPDATE (April 8): I was able to get the system back up last night and was able to complete 250 orders. My goal for the next week is to get all orders out. To do so I will need additional money for postage. For those of you who have been waiting until you receive your stickers to donate, now is the time. :) -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 25, 2008  Well, shortly after my last update, we were blessed with another new member of the Biker Friendly clan. I took off some time from work during her first days, and during this time I had hoped to catch up on the Biker Friendly Orders. Well, those of you that have had their own kids, you can guess how much time I actually had free to pursue other interests. I found that she of course was my main interest so as you can guess nothing much got done at Biker Friendly. Well, things are quieting down a bit, and I'm going to do my best to get at least 1,500 orders out over the weekend. Unfortunately, I won't have the funds needed to send all the orders out. As you can see from the totals, it's pretty expensive to send out so many orders and with the postage rates going up again next month, I'm going to spend every last cent I have on getting out as many orders as possible. Thanks to all those who have been waiting so patiently for the past months. We still need to get the word out, as word brings new donations. I know a lot of people are waiting until they receive their stickers to make a donation. Please remember that I can't do this all alone, I need you all to help with the cost. If you provided a valid email address with your order, you will receive an email from me when you order is sent. Please do not send in multiple orders because you have not yet received yours. I spent over an hour and a half going through duplicate orders, this takes away a lot of time from actually filling orders and has become quite a big problem. I am one person doing this on my own time and I apologize if I've had a hard time finding the time recently. I will do my best to fill all the past orders ASAP but I will definitely need the help of more donations soon. The season is starting up around here and I'd like to wish everyone a safe and fun riding season. -- William william@bikerfriend.org Feburary 24, 2008  Just a quick update... I've burned through 500 envelopes and hope to have them stuffed and sent out by tomorrow. I'm going to make a real effort to get the US orders up to date by the end of the week. Again, Foreign donations have been minimal, so those still are on hold. PLEASE, if you have sent in a donation and you are a foreign order, let me know via email so I can make sure to get your order to you. I've received a lot of orders for 20, 30 or more stickers. I will only send out a maximum of 10 stickers per free order. If you would like to order more for your shop, event or riding group. I urge you to purchase a set via the shop. I send out all special orders immediately, so you will be assured to receive your stickers in time for an event if needed. Also, I'd like to add that I receive so many emails and orders per day, I can not possibly respond to them all. I do read every comment posted in the order form and try to respond when asked. But if you truly need to speak to me, please feel free to send me an email and I'll try my best to get back to you soon. -- William william@bikerfriend.org Janurary 3, 2008  I'm still here! But I'm sad to say that the donations have not been flowing. I have received a little bit in the last few months and am going to try to send out as many orders as I can until the stickers I have in stock run out. It's nice to see there is still a lot of interest judging from the amount of orders I received in recently but without additional donations I'm afraid I will continued to fall behind. I'm going to do what I can using whatever personal money I can allot to the cause, but if you're seriously behind this idea I urge you to please take a moment and donate what you can. Without more donations I'm afraid I won't be able to continue this much further on my own. On a lighter note, the picture shown above if from last year's Friendship Ride which I host each year. If you're in the area during the first Saturday in August, I'd love to see you at this year's ride. UPDATE: I just purchased 10,000 stickers with my own cash, now it's up to you to help cover the shipping costs. I've received a few donations since posting on the 3rd, I will be using those donations to begin sending out orders. -- William william@bikerfriend.org August 9, 2007  I've been pretty busy the last few months. Took a break and spent the full weekend at this year's MotoGP races in Monterey California. I also held our third annual Michael Haynes Memorial Friendship Ride which is held each year on the first Saturday in August. Since my last update, I've fallen way behind in getting orders out. I will be working hard over the next week in getting all the US orders out that I can. Foreign orders area again on hold, but I will try to get out all those foreign orders to those who have made a donation. I apologize for the delay. Now, the bad news. Money is really tight right now, I'm not sure I'll have enough stickers to send out all the current pending US orders. I've been forced to purchase smaller batches because I haven't had enough donations to purchase the larger bulk orders that have kept me going for so long. In the last month, orders have risen considerably due to the word finding its way to so many new sites and riding groups. Unfortunately, the donations have not matched this recent rise, and there will soon be a time when I just won't be able to continue this on my own. I have received many very generous donations, thank you to those who have given so much and it is your funds that have kept me going these past few months. If you still believe, then please help spread the word and raise donations. If your group has received stickers from us, them please try to gather up some donations to further the cause. We are all in this together, and only together can we keep it going. -- William william@bikerfriend.org May 21, 2007  Well I guess its about time I update this sections as I see that I haven't done so for many months. I've been pretty busy with Biker Friendly since I last spoke to you all. So much so that I ran out of stickers once again. Although I received many donations and a few rather large ones too, I still seem to be struggling along trying to keep this thing going. I'm having new stickers printed today so I should be able to start sending them out later this week. Postage has gone up so filling all the current US orders is really going to cut deeply into what I have left to spend. You may have noticed that I have over 600+ foreign orders still not processed. I just don't have the funds available for these orders. At least two thirds of that number have come from Brazil, and although I try not to exclude anyone or any country from the free stickers, I just have a problem sending out all those stickers to a country that has never made one donation. I will continue to ship out orders to those countries where I have received donations from, but if I don't receive something from the few countries that have a large number of orders, I will have to remove them from the system as some of the orders are a few months old. I've also receive many bulk orders in the past few weeks that I haven't been able to send out due to lack of stickers. Those orders will have top priority when I get the new batch of stickers in a few days. Thank you all for your patience and I apologize for this short delay. I know I sometimes sound like a broken record, but we need more funds to keep this thing going. If you haven't yet donated and are still thinking about it, I urge you to please donate now. It doesn't have to be a lot of money, any amount helps. We just passed our one year mark and I've send out well over 13,000 orders and purchased over 40,000 stickers. we just need a little more help to keep this thing going. :) Thanks for all the great comments and emails, but I'm afraid I just can't respond to them all. I would like you all to know that I read every comment and email I receive and although I may not respond, I truly appreciate all the nice comments I have received. It makes it all really worth the effort. -- William william@bikerfriend.org Janurary 5, 2007  Sorry it has been so long since my last report. The past few months have been pretty busy but I've been able to keep up with the flow of orders. I'm sorry to say, that since I started shipping out international orders, our funds have severely dropped. I am currently holding all foreign orders again until I receive more donations. I will need to re-stock my supply of stickers very soon, and the foreign orders have kept me from saving what I need to make a new sticker order. I'm still able to send out the much cheaper US orders, and I hope that I'll continue to receive new donations to help cover a new batch of stickers, and allow me to continue shipping international orders. Since my last report, I've been able to get some good riding time out on the new bike. I recently acquired my dream machine, a 2005 CBR1000RR Repsol edition. Don't worry, none of my Biker Friendly donations went to the purchase of the bike. :) The weather here is colder than normal and my riding time now consists of just a few quick rides after the roads have thawed out a bit. Lots of rain and lots of freezing temperatures and frosting mornings. Well, as the new year begins, I wish you all warm and safe riding season. -- William william@bikerfriend.org October 4, 2006  ALL ORDERS HAVE BEEN PROCESSED!!! That's right, as of last night I printed up the last of the pending orders. That includes all US and Foreign shipments. YEAH!!!! I could not have done this all without the help of my friends and family. Special thanks to my daughter Starr for all her hard work these past few months. She's been the driving force behind all the folding, stuffing and stamping of the envelopes. Without her help I would probably still be far behind. So, the plan is to keep up on all orders as they come in. I've been receiving enough donations to cover all shipments both foreign and domestic. Sticker stock is still holding but I will be needing to purchase another batch pretty soon. Thanks to all those you have donated, some more than once. The idea is still spreading as more and more people hear about them, read about them, and see them on automobiles. I receive a lot of orders from people who have seen the sticker on someone else's vehicle. I have yet to see one myself but hold strong to the belief that one day, I will. -- William william@bikerfriend.org September 5, 2006  Wow, this past month has gone by so fast and it's over a month since my last update! Well things are still moving along pretty strong and thanks to all the donations I received at the Friendship Ride last month as well as the recent donations from this site, I was able to ship out all US orders to date. Thank you all so much for your kind donations that have so far kept this idea going. Things are going so well, I'm about ready to start shipping out all the international orders. I had to cancel all the foreign orders made prior to the new international order form, but I sent out emails explaining what I did and that anyone who ordered prior to the new form would need to reorder now using the new form. I really hated to do that, but with the additional cost for me to ship out the foreign orders, I had to make sure that all the addresses were formatted correct. If you make an international order, PLEASE make sure that you check your address twice as I would hate to find a bunch of returned envelopes in my mailbox. I'll be running low on stickers here very shortly, and with the money needed to send out the non-US orders I won't have enough money needed to replenish the stock. So, if you haven't donated yet and plan to do so, now would be a good time. :) I've been getting a lot of orders stating that they found the site by reading the sticker on the back of a car. That is so cool! My dream is to see one of my stickers on the back of a car while out riding/driving. I have yet to see one but it's nice to know that others are living my dream. :) -- William william@bikerfriend.org August 1, 2006  Things are still moving forward and with the recent donations I have received I may be able to fulfill all the US orders. I'm trying to get all orders printed and stuffed before the weekend so I can begin sending out orders again on Monday. This weekend we'll be our second annual Friendship Ride. The weather seems like it's going to cooperate with some cooler temperatures. I know this is late notice, but if anyone is in the area and thinks they can make the ride, please let me know as soon as possible. I'd love to meet more "Biker Friendly" people... after all, that's what this whole thing is about! I know there are thousands more vehicles out there sporting these stickers so if you haven't already done so, please take a few minutes to snap a picture of your ride and send it in so I can include them in our gallery. I'd love to see more of these stickers in action. -- William william@bikerfriend.org July 27, 2006  I made it out to our annual pilgrimage to the races at Laguna Seca in Monterey California. It was the hottest race weekend ever, at least temperature wise. If you haven't had the chance to get out to the track and experience the races yet, I urge you to do so as it will be a day you will not soon forget. Orders are still pouring in, but unfortunately donations have slowed down to a crawl. I'm still behind on the US orders (about a month or so) as money is pretty thin right now. I'm busy printing up about 1,000 US orders that I am behind. I will have them all packaged up and will mail them out as soon as the funds are available. I'll be able to send out maybe 500 or so next week, but after that I'll be out of postage. All foreign orders are still behind. I have around 1,500 or so, most of which have been around from the start. This is how I'm currently handling foreign orders... when I receive a donation from a specific country, I sent out as many orders to that country as the donation will allow. Including the person who made the donation. Unfortunately, not all paypal names, email or address are complete or match orders I have in the database. If you completed a foreign order and have made a donation but have still not received your stickers, please let me know and I'll make sure you get the stickers out to you a soon as possible. I have every intention of getting these international orders out, I apologize for not being able to do more at the moment. We are still working on becoming a non-profit organization, but the wheels are turning slow and completely out of our hands. I think when we finally go "legit", larger donations may follow. Let's face it, there are not many people out there willing to give up a lot of their hard earned cash to just a guy with an idea and a webpage. Thanks again for all the support I have received since this whole thing started back in March. Although money is short at the moment, I haven't given up. Rest assured that all you prior donations and hard work getting the word out will not be in vain. I'm not out of this yet, and I feel the interest is still there and it will again rejuvenate the idea once it ventures even farther out into cyberspace and as more and more of these stickers find themselves planted on "Biker Friendly" vehicles around the world. -- William william@bikerfriend.org July 6, 2006  Last month was a difficult one for me and my family due to the loss of a loved one. I was unable to keep up with the recent increase in daily orders. Currently I am about three weeks behind but I'll be doing my best to get caught up over the next week, so please hang tight. Unfortunately, this swell in new orders has not brought with it the donations needed to send them out. I may only have enough in the fund to ship out the next 1,000 orders, so if you're thinking about making a donation but haven't yet, now is the time to do so. :) I did get out for a few rides, including a charity run for our local children's hospital. It never ceases to amaze me how truly caring and generous people can be. Just another great benefit of being a member of the biking community, big hearts and the desire to spread good will to others. Don't forget, Wednesday July 19 2006 is "Ride To Work Day" http://www.ridetowork.org Ride To Work advocates and supports the use of motorcycles for transportation, and provides information about transportation riding to the public. -- William william@bikerfriend.org June 2, 2006  The new bumper stickers are here! All pre orders have been processed so there will be no more delays in shipping out these new bumper stickers. A few bulk orders have gone out this past week. Here's some info on where you can find Biker Friendly stickers. If you're in the Fresno area, you can pick up your free "Biker Friendly" window stickers at Fresno Motorsports. They have been backing us from the start and even have a nice picture and link back to this site! Also, if your are around Auburn this weekend, there is a huge "Women's Motorcycle Expo" going on at the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn, CA. There will be vendors, music, bike games, food, etc. There will also be mini workshops on such things as wrenching and how to correctly pick up your bike. Make sure you check out the Real Women Ride website for more information. Also, make sure you stop by the local ABATE booth at the event as Lady Kay will be there handling out stickers. -- William william@bikerfriend.org May 21, 2006  I can't believe it, but as of 7:00pm tonight, I have caught up on all US orders. I will start going through the international orders this next week. Since the weather has been pretty good lately, I thought you might like to see how I've been transporting the envelopes to the post office. I can get between 250-300 orders per box and frequently have to make two trips during the day, dropping off one shipment on the way home for lunch, and then returning with another batch on my way back into work. Donations have slowed down quite a bit and with the more expensive international orders still pending, I'm not sure how many more international shipments I'll be able to make. If you have made an international order and have made a donation, please send me an email so I can expedite your order. I still plan on filling all the orders possible, but I think it's only fair to assure shipments to those that have donated to the cause. I think by now, most people have realized that this idea is legit, so I'm hoping more will send in a donation. Last week I even received a letter containing 5 books of stamps. What a wonderful idea! So if you don't feel comfortable sending in money, feel free to send in stamps as shipping is the most expensive part of this process. So now I'm looking forward to our 10,000 order. Should be some time next week. Thank you for all the letters of encouragement, this has been a lot more work than I ever have imagined. What a great community we have and I only wish more people knew what great feeling it is to be a biker. -- William william@bikerfriend.org May 16, 2006  The rain has stopped, and I've been able to get out for a few short rides which mostly consist of me taking the long way home. I didn't receive the second batch of 10,000 stickers until Monday the 14th, so I was a little behind getting the much anticipated late orders out. Well, for you all that have been waiting for over a month, I have sent out all orders up to May 3rd so if you sent in a US order before then, you should be receiving your stickers soon. I have about 1,000 US orders still in the hopper. I hope to have them all caught up this week as I'm hoping to make my way to the AMA races at Infineon Raceway this weekend. After that I will start on the International orders. I've also ordered a batch of larger bumper sticker versions of the stickers. You can pre-order yours now for $2.50 per sticker (US shipping included), and I should have them late next week. I also added a bulk order option for those who asked for more stickers for your group. >> Shop Donations are still flowing in and so far I have received enough money to send out all orders to date. Thanks again for everyone's support! -- William william@bikerfriend.org May 9, 2006  I'm back after a much needed mini vacation in the dunes at Pismo Beach California! It was great to get away for a few days after spending most of the last month stressing about stickers and filling orders. Ah, but the next shipment of stickers (another 10,000) will be here on the May 11th. I've been busy printing everything up so all I'll need to do is put the stickers in the envelopes and send them on their way. I started with all the special orders this time as many of them have been waiting around a month. Rest assured that they are all printed and will be the first to get stickers. I will also be able to get out all the new orders that have arrived since the last batch expired. I should be all caught up with all the US orders over the weekend. Now, about the international orders... I've began running through them trying to clean up the addresses to better suit the USPS standards. I'm still not sure if I'll be able to fill all of the international orders, but I'm going to start sending a few to see what happens. If you completed an international order, and receive your stickers, please take a few minutes to let me know you have received them. Donations have picked up a little, and thanks to a few very generous individuals I'm back on track for maintaining the current load of orders. Thanks again to all those who have so thoughtfully donated what they could in order to keep this going!!! My goal is to gather up enough money to purchase a small batch of larger stickers. They will be about four times the size of the current stickers. Unfortunately due to their increased price I will need to sell them in order to make sure I at least break even. The original smaller stickers will remain free but if you're looking for a larger sticker for you vehicle I should have them available very soon. -- William william@bikerfriend.org May 4, 2006  I finally gathered up some pictures from the massive print, stuff, stamp and send (PSSS) we had on April 29, 2006! You can see how the day went by viewing the event's gallery. >> PSSS 2006 So, I'm on hold a bit because I have already send out the 10,000 stickers I received last week. I have about 300 special orders from last month that I need to fill. I went through and printed all the non special orders first as they were the easiest to process. Not to worry, I'll have another 10,000 stickers in my hands late next week. I'll get all the special orders and the remainder of the new orders done over the following weekend. I'm sorry for the delay, and I DO understand that some of you have been waiting for close to month. If you've kept close tabs on this page, you know quite well what I have been up to these past few weeks. I urge everyone still waiting on stickers to check back here from time to time for recent updates. Due to an error in my address checking, I inadvertently sent about 100 envelopes to duplicate addresses costing me $390 that could have been used for other orders. They slipped through the system because the orders were placed with two different names. Now I am forced to remove the duplicate orders at my discretion leaving only one address. PLEASE, if you would like additional stickers simply complete a single order and in the comments area request additional stickers. The most expensive part of this process is the postage so I would prefer to send only one envelope per address. Donations are still a little low, but I have enough money to send out all the current orders. If you haven't donated and would like to help keep the momentum moving forward, please consider making a donation. Even a little bit helps a lot. :) -- William william@bikerfriend.org May 1, 2006  Over 6,000 orders processed! Thanks to all the hard work of my friends and family, we were able to package up over 4,200 orders. We started about noon, and finished the last few near midnight. I still have about 500 special order requests that I'll be finishing up during the next week. I won't have enough stickers to fill all the orders but I have another 10,000 coming in next week. I haven't had time to put together to pictures we took on Saturday, but check back in the next few days and you'll be able to see for yourself how it all worked out. I'll be heading over to the local post office at lunch to send over 4,200 orders on their way. Special thanks to all those who showed up to help me out. I would have never been able to do this without the help, love and support of my incredible friends and family. Also, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has declared each May; "Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month." >> NHTSA Website Their site is a little behind, but the NHTSA is trying to bring more motorcycle awareness to those drivers who aren't riding motorcycles. NHTSA says, "Over two-thirds of fatal motorcycle crashes involve a motorcycle and another vehicle." For those of us who travel the city streets daily, we know quite well that most of our attention is spent on anticipating what the other driver will do. You can help bring awareness to the increasing number of motorcyclist on the road by joining me in bringing more knowledge to our non two wheeled friends. Take the month of May to talk to your friends and family who may or may not realize you ride a bike. Maybe if we can bring a more personal connection to motorcycling, people will eventually realize that we aren't just a bunch of leather wearing troublemakers. -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 27, 2006  Stickers are here! I did receive the first 10,000 sticker order as planned. The stage is now set for a massive print, stuff, stamp and send party this Saturday! I'm going to have a web cam setup so you can watch us all in action so make sure you check out the site on Saturday. I'm off to purchase 4,000 more stamps today. It's going to take a huge chunk out of what is left from the fund. More donations are coming in and I expect more once these stickers go out as many of you have stated that you will be making a donation once the stickers arrive. That day is very near... :) -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 26, 2006 Great news! Today, I will have 10,000 stickers at my door. I have already lured my friends over for a full day of envelope stuffing. I'm busy printing and organizing everything for the weekend. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!! :) Now, believe it or not, 10,000 stickers is probably not enough to fill all the current orders. It will be close, but I'll probably have some orders that I still can't complete. I have another order being printed on May 10th, so those who have ordered in the past week or so may have to wait until after the 10th to receive their stickers. And now, the not so good news. Although I have received an incredible amount of donations, the last week or so they have really slowed down. Not to worry, I have locked in enough to send out all the current orders but if the donations don't continue, it may be a while before I'll be able to ship more stickers. International orders are still on hold. I'm not going to be able to get to them until after I catch up this weekend. Which means that they'll at least have to wait until the next batch gets here. Back to the good news, we have submitted all the needed information for becoming a non profit organization. Which means that all your donations will soon be tax deductible. Well, it's going to be a pretty busy week but thanks to the help of my family and friends, I think I'm finally going to be able to relax a bit. -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 20, 2006 Okay, it's been a week since my last update, but I'm still here! Just waiting for the next batch of stickers and I apologize for the delay. I have ordered enough stickers to assure that I won't run out again. I've had a couple of comments regarding the size of the stickers. From the beginning, I listed the sticker size on the order page. They are not even close to the standard bumper stickers size and I have refrained from even hinting the word. I kept them small, for use as window stickers as I thought most people (like myself) don't like to put stickers on the car. I do have actual "bumper sticker" size stickers available via cafepress and I have some of my own larger stickers on order from my current supplier. For me, the size isn't a problem. If you step back a ways, they have a very distinct look. Simple, but viewable from a distance even if you can't read the text until you get closer. Eventually, I feel that as the response grows, and more and more stickers are mounted, they will be easily distinguishable from a greater distance. Again, thank you for all your donations. They have slowed down a bit but I'm still doing good on supplies. I have enough paper, envelopes and stamps to mail all existing orders. International orders are still on hold. I hope to begin on those after catching up with the US orders at the end of the month. The weather here has finally dried up and I've been able to spend some time on the bike. Check out my personal garage cam when you get a change and if you see me there, feel free to start up a chat. >> http://rider559.com -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 13, 2006 I'm sorry for the delay in getting out the stickers. The response has been truly overwhelming since I launched the site on March 27th, and I initially was caught off guard by the number of orders I received. I'm currently filling orders received from the 6th, with a few special orders from the 5th still lurking around. An now for the bad news... My last order for stickers was 4,000. I knew that with the amount of orders I was receiving I would need more and thanks to the tremendous donations I have received, I ordered an additional 10,000. Unfortunately, I had a miscommunication with the printers, and found that the stickers are not set to be printed till the 24th of this month. Tonight I should be finishing up what is left of the last batch of stickers. It will be over two weeks until I see the batch of 10,000 at my door. So, my plan is to print all the envelopes needed for all the orders ahead of time while I'm waiting for the next batch of stickers. Then, I plan on luring some of my friends over to the house with good food and drink, and maybe they can help me catch up with the envelope stuffing. :) Anyway, I'm very sorry for the delay, but hey what do you want for free. :) Thank you to all the people who have sent me links to the sites that are talking about the stickers. It's good to see how other people are feeling about the idea. Seems to be a lot of worries about the validity of my "free" stickers. As more and more go out I hope that everyone will realize that yes, the stickers are real, and yes they are truly free thanks to all those who have donated. I only ask that if you like the idea, and can spare a little, then please donate in order to keep the stickers flowing. I promise to keep this thing going as long as you can. Afterall, we are all in this together, and together maybe we can make a difference. -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 10, 2006 Whew, the past couple of weeks is now officially a blur... Didn't get as many orders shipped as I wanted to over the weekend, but they are moving along pretty well. I've been printing, stuffing and stamping envelopes while tweaking the system to accommodate the thousands of orders I've received. The system now is pretty set, making it easier for me to get everything out much faster. I had the whole family working on the project and we were able to put a huge dent in the pending orders. Just a few notes: Please check your address thoroughly before submitting the form. With the amount of orders I receive per day, I no longer have the time to adjust orders myself. If I find a bad order, I mark it and send an email out. Please make sure your email address is correct as well. If there is a problem with your order, that is the only way I have to contact you. If you have an international order, please make sure to use the International Order Form. If I receive an international order from the standard form, it is immediate removed and you'll have to come back to the site and do it all over again. Again, thank you for all the donations. -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 7, 2006 Good news, the stickers got here yesterday and after spending a few hours dealing with a computer meltdown, we started filling orders. The overwhelming response and lack of stickers has really put us behind. Rest assured that we will fill all orders. We got a great start last night and hope to make a huge dent in the pending orders over the weekend. International orders are still being held. I'm sorry but we just don't have the time to deal with the special handling they require. Also, if there is a problem with your order, it will be removed for the system. I will send a quick email to let you know that you will need to re submit your order from the site. Donations are still flowing, thank you all so much. I secured another 10,000 sticker order and am waiting for it's scheduled print date. I'm hoping they arrive here before the current batch of 4,000 runs out. I currently have enough to pay shipping for all the orders so the only thing slowing me down is the process. My printer is old and very slow, it takes a while to print everything up but we are working on ways to streamline the process. I've been asked many question since this whole thing started last week. I don't have the time needed to respond to them all, so I thought I'd provide a little feedback here. • No, I am not independently wealthy. :) I live in a small town, work a regular day job and enjoy a moderate lifestyle. I fronted the initial cost of this idea but since its launch, donations so far have covered all expenses. It's all about processing time at this point. • Email and mailing addresses. Although I mention this whimsically on the order page, I am not doing this to gather information about you to give to any type or marketing agency whatsoever. I need your correct mailing address to send you the stickers, plain and simple. Your email address is so that I can let you know that your order has shipped. You will never receive any unsolicited emails from me. • The maximum number of orders I'm sending out is ten(10) stickers total. I don't think I can put anymore in a standard envelope. If you would like more than that for your organization or group, that is awesome. I just don't have a system in place yet to handle this type of order... but it's in the works. For now, please email be directly for these requests. • And finally... No, the "Five easy steps to show you're Biker Friendly" are not meant to be rules. They are only guidelines to a more Biker Friendly attitude. Basic functionality of my idea is to let a rider know that there is another biker ahead. Any other benefits that you can add on is all gravy! I can't thank you all enough. This is truly an incredible time for me. Seeing my idea realized with the help of thousands of my new biker friends! -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 4, 2006 Just a quick update. Tonight my wife and I packaged up the last of the stickers. I can't believe they are already gone. I did get great news today from the printer. The batch of 4,000 stickers I ordered will be printed tomorrow. I'll be busy printing the envelopes in anticipation of the new batch. I'm trying to get a little more organized after being bombarded with hundreds of orders this past week. I added a counter which shows the total number of orders to date. It's not totally accurate as I received about a fifty or so orders before I built the system, but you can get an idea of the amount of orders I have received just in the first week. I bet I got a few more orders while you were busy reading this. Refresh the page a few times and you'll probably see the counter rise higher and higher. Donations are still pouring in. My plan is to make another order of 10,000 next week. I may be able to send out larger batches to those few organizations that requested them. Also, I'll be placing some stickers and some local shops and I'll let you know when and where you can pick them up. With an order that big, I should be okay with stickers for a while. But I still need the donations to continue as shipping, paper and envelopes are probably the only major cost. It costs me $.39 per order or $39.00 per one hundred orders to ship the stickers out. I got another 350 orders so far today. The response I have received this past week is staggering. Thanks again for all your support. -- William william@bikerfriend.org April 3, 2006 It's been less than a week since I launched the site and posted the link on one of the forums I frequent. To be perfectly honest, the initial interest has exceeded my expectations and I'm sorry to say my current inventory of stickers has almost been depleted. I made a relatively small order of 500 stickers because I wanted to make sure they looked good before purchasing a larger quantity. I thought this would be plenty as I had no way of knowing how quickly interest would spread. So, as it stands now, I have about 200 orders still pending with around 80 pairs of stickers left. I'm going to send out what I have and will have to wait until the next batch of stickers arrives. With all the recent donations I have received, I was able to make a huge bulk order, but they won't even be printed till the middle of the month. Please don't let this discourage you, if you're interested in the "Biker Friendly" idea, then please place an order. I will begin shipping the stickers out as soon as the next batch gets here. In the meantime, I've had a lot of requests for t-shirts and larger bumper stickers. We don't have anything in place yet for either of them so we set up a shop on cafepress. They are a little pricey but good quality shirts. I have used them many times in the past for personal events. I've added a bunch of shirts to choose from as well as a larger bumper sticker. I have a shirt and sticker on order but haven't seen the final product yet. If you're interested in a shirt or bumper sticker I urge you to check out the shop. >> http://www.cafepress.com/bikerfriend If you purchase anything from cafepress you are already contributing to the cause as I've added one dollar to their asking price for each item. Again, I apologize for the delay and I hope to have more stickers going out in the next few weeks. Also, I wanted to thank you for all your encouraging comments. I may not be able to respond to everyone, but I DO read every single email I receive. Thank you all so much for the continuous support! -- William william@bikerfriend.org March 29, 2006 I have received so many orders in the past 48 hours since launching this site, it is unbelievable. Word is traveling fast and I'm trying hard to keep up with all the orders that are coming in. At first I was able to respond to each request and let you know I had shipped the stickers. Because of the number of request during the past few days I am no longer able to respond to every order personally. I'm trying to get the orders out within 48 hours of when they are received. So, depending where you are located you should receive them within a week of your order. If by this time you don't find any stickers in your mail box, feel free to drop me an email. To all of those that have so graciously donated... I'm sorry I have been unable to thank you individually. So many people have contributed to the cause, I was able to double my recent order for new stickers. I'm hoping to receive them before I run out of my initial 500 that I had ordered. I apologize for not being able to thank you personally, but the sheer amount of orders has kept me pretty busy. I would like you to know that your generosity has not been ignored and even if you don't receive an email from me thanking you personally, please know that your help is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you everyone for your amazing support! -- William william@bikerfriend.org << News |
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