bikesponsors.com

I saw the ad on the tele, saying they can hook you up with a sponsor for up to $5000. So I figure nothing ventured nothing gained. I filled out the form, then played the waiting game.
I was just notified I've recieved sponsorship for $2000, The hook is you have to pay a percentage. In my case it is $140, then you can pick out from what they're offering or work it out so you get some cash. Next payday, I'll pay the fee and see what's up.

Ah, I hope the 'deal' they are offering works for you, but I'm a Doubting Thomas. I may go see what the site offers, but I am not too-optimistic.

OK, I just went to the site and have a better idea of the 'deal.'
1] you pay a fee on an descending scale, the more you get sponsored for, the less the fee.
in KJ's example, they are informing him he is eligible for up to $2000 in sponsorship. the fee is $140, or 7% of his sponsorship $. If he got the $5000 they refer to as the usual limit, the amount of the fee drops to 5%, or $250.
2] once you are approved for your amount, then you choose what you want and the cost of the item is deducted from your sponsorship amount. You want a TI Akrapovic exhaust costing $2000 and that is your sponsorship amount. you have used your $ all-up. It doesn't cost you anything for the exhaust, except for the membership fee.
3] you make a video and post it on social-networking websites, so I assume they are referring to facebook, google, and others. the video is a 'before' & 'after' of your bike and your parts on it, probably with ads for the product as part of the posting. The more viewers, the more chances to get more $.
4] the fee to make your account is a non-refundable $39. If you are not happy with your product sponsorship, they say they will refund your $ except for $39. So that's it. They can't help but make $ if they get $39 from everyone who responds.
5] I bet they offer additional services for more $ once you sign-up, but someone has to do it to find that out.

KJ, good luck. I know you will keep us informed.

Welcome to AMWAY for bikers. Pay to get in on a limited selection of items.

Sounds fishy to me. I would not throw my cash at it! Why would you have to pay a large fee to get sponsor?

Best of luck there.

Just my two cents.

After talking with them on the phone for about 40 min, they guy explaining shit said they've been around about 7 years and are basically the inbetween people, and the "sponsorship" sounds more like advertising promotion type of deal like buying billboard space. Kind of like GoPro giving away a free camera every month and then adding the clause "to claim the camera you have to pay the shipping, processing fee and put our sticker on your ride." So I'm thinking they are not much more than an advertising agency with different ways of putting thier client's face out there.

They way the guy was talking it sounds alot like hookit.com which has similar options (some free items, others at a greatly redused cost). There are a few people up here who went with hookit for thier sleds, gear, etc. and had pretty good results.

I told the guy on the phone that I would pay next month, and that my cop intuition is always kicking in and I'm looking into the lagitimacy of the company. It didn't bother him in the least. I expected the "if you can't pay now, we'll just stop and you can re-apply later" sort of thing.

All and all, I'll keep a log on how this thing goes. It's got my curiosity up, and with the end of the semester, I'll have about a month to play around until the next semester starts.

What I'm thinking, that would shed a little more light on them, would be someone with a business call and see about being a "sponsor."

While it does ride dangerously close on the "scam" bullshit-alert line, there are legitimate companies out there that do this sort of thing. Know all those "free ipod" or "free HDTV" things you see? Surprisingly, most are legit, and I know people personally that did get a free ipod from signing up for a few trial offers, getting a friend to do the same, and then making sure to cancel them all before they "automatically renew". A couple of the offers didn't "validate" for one reason or another, but they got their 7 "offer credits" or whatever, and surprisingly quickly a brand new real ipod showed up in the mail. Some of them weren't that bad....a free audiobook from audible, free movie rentals at a blockbuster, ect.

Companies that put their products in these sort of things are willing to pay big $$$ for these "direct leads" to customers, especially those who are active about sharing/publicizing their ride and mods. Them giving away a $900 exhaust isn't so bad if it results in a whole forum full of enthusiasts all see it, and a few of them buy one at retail.

While I realize it kind of sounds like devil's advocate, the "membership fee" and percentage of the sponsorship you have to pay back are kind of filters to keep people from just spamming the hell out of their program. Otherwise everyone and their brother would just think it's free money and go nuts. It lists Dennis Kirk, Revzilla and MC Superstore as "preferred retailers".....which are pretty much the 3 biggest bike outlets on the planet, so I image the product selection is pretty good, assuming you really can buy "anything".

Honestly it doesn't seem like a horrible deal. Pay $179 to "get" $2000 in product, then toss a movie about it up on youtube or post a few pictures on your facebook, stuff you'd probably do anyway. Though I wonder what makes you have to make the videos or "promotions" for the sponsors? You've got the stuff, even if they deny you any additional....you could have already "made off" with a few grand worth of stuff.

Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

I went to the website and started getting security warnings when I clicked on the application link.

Id be interested in seeing who I could actually buy from. Not too many mainstream suppliers out there for vmax stuff. Im thinking its gonna be only items from companies with a big name.

Good luck kj hope it works!

Oh by the way just checked out your you tube vids your 07 is the shit.
Also the dodge not bad either!

My wife went through one of these with her 350Z.

Basiscally all it amounted to was a discount price on aftermarket merchandise, and the discount wasn't any better than if you just did some serious shopping instead..i wouldn't let her sign up for it

I gotta call bullshit...ask yourself what's their motive???

Its starting to get a little more clear now. Once approved for the dollar amount, you will begin to make some videos. The first being an introductory vid. with others to follow showing the parts that you recieve.

The money you are told you have been sponsored for is broken down in to parts. starting at $25 and going to $500 (in my case). I have 3 $500s, a $250, $100, $75, $50 and $25. You pick the parts you want in the money's range. You will not get all your parts at once. But they do allow you to change your desicion on what part you want.

It seems to be based on the amount of views your videos get. With the first video if you recieve 250 views, you will recieve the first item on your list. I'm guessing this will be from your $25 selection. Then its time to make another promotional video and once you get enough views, you will keep working through your list. So it is all a game of self promotion. It reminds me of back in the 80's when they had those "make your own commercial" and "Make your own music video" booths at the mall.

For the introductory vid, they ask you to say a little about yourself, and give a shout out to a sponsor (they tell you which one) then once that vid reaches 250 views you get the first thing on your list. Ironically the sponsor they tell you to give the shout out to is in the $25 range. (decalkits.com, they do have some pretty cool stuff there).

So its like an advertising agency with a twist. Looking at the rules, it reads that way too. Once they recieve the video, it's thiers to use for thier own promotion as well. like I said before, it makes sense. enough people register (I've seen a butt load of vids from others so far) and the numbers add up quick at virtually no cost to the agency. With the first number being 250 views, I'm thinking they just ad a "0" to the price and thats your number of views required. so, I'm assuming, to get stuff from my $500 choices I'll be needing 5000 views. I'm also thinking that about 90% of the people either wont get the views, run out of time, or flat out give up before the list is complete.

So here is the first video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asVK44M695Y

Will keep you posted, good, bad, indifferent as I progress.

KJ, I watched it, I like the parting static shot! One down, 249 to go...

Dang KJ, excellent video!

I was completely wrong about my take on the thing.

With help from your forum buddies I think you might do well.unk:

KJShover said:

....So here is the first video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asVK44M695Y

Will keep you posted, good, bad, indifferent as I progress.

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unk:unk:Looking forward to your progress KJ, I hope it works out well for you!unk:unk:

Rusty McNeil said:

Dang KJ, excellent video!

I was completely wrong about my take on the thing.

With help from your forum buddies I think you might do well.unk:

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I agree Rusty, KJ will have a lot of help! As the Beatle tune goes: "...with a little help from your friends..." unk:

Cool video. I'll be sure to watch it again on my work computer

Thanks guys, I appretiate the help. :worthy:

Another nice thing is, that I was talking with them (Bob) and played the broke college student card. He said, no problem. I'll activate your account, and put you an a $14/mo payment plan. I didn't give the CC number in the email, I called and explained things to a gal on the phone. She put me on hold for about 10 min. then came back and said everything is a go, and said Bob must have liked me or my ride cause they don't do the payment plan.

Guess it's a legit opportunity, but it seems like there's an awful lot of hoops to jump through.

I suspect the "video views" is where everybody trips up. You might have an edge since I'm sure VMFers will help you out, but getting 5000 views isn't real easy. There's tens of thousands of "my bike" videos out there...aka the "walkaround" clips, noise from some exhaust, ect. While those are interesting to enthusiasts of that particular bike, that's pretty much the extent of the appeal. Especially if they require you to name the videos "bikesponsors video #x", they'll never show up in search results from say some random guy who happens to have a v-max.

Even if every active VMF member views your videos on 3 computers each, that might get you what, 4-500 views? I suppose that'll help with some of the smaller amounts.

RaWarrior said:

Guess it's a legit opportunity, but it seems like there's an awful lot of hoops to jump through.

I suspect the "video views" is where everybody trips up. You might have an edge since I'm sure VMFers will help you out, but getting 5000 views isn't real easy. There's tens of thousands of "my bike" videos out there...aka the "walkaround" clips, noise from some exhaust, ect. While those are interesting to enthusiasts of that particular bike, that's pretty much the extent of the appeal. Especially if they require you to name the videos "bikesponsors video #x", they'll never show up in search results from say some random guy who happens to have a v-max.

Even if every active VMF member views your videos on 3 computers each, that might get you what, 4-500 views? I suppose that'll help with some of the smaller amounts.

Click to expand...

Yup, definately some hoop jumping.
The title has already been changed along with the opening picture, to one thats more appealilng. Its got different tags that will show up on searches. Getting video hits isn't that difficult if you play to the crowd. I've got videos out there with over 1k and another with 38k hits. I'm in a lock now, cause all the ice on the ground. Come summer I'll do some shit on the roadways to generate a little more buzz. But between here, facebook and youtube, and bikesponsos.com having it on thier channel and site it's starting to climb a little. as soon as the changes get finalized (you tube says up to 48 hours) I think it will be fine. But to get it to pop more, I'm going to have to get it on the drag strip. which means a trip to Palmer, which is not really a bad thing

Well best of luck being officially "sponsored" with your bike. Free stuff would no doubt be sweet but I tend to do stuff redneck style....cheap 'n free, re-using old parts, adapting wrong ones to work, ect. I keep stuff as cheap as possible.

Think the biggest expense I've actually paid for was PCW doing my forks/head bearings ($500), then buying a new stator for the bike. Everything else I've modded came off ebay on the cheap, or I recycled from something else.

RaWarrior said:

Well best of luck being officially "sponsored" with your bike. Free stuff would no doubt be sweet but I tend to do stuff redneck style....cheap 'n free, re-using old parts, adapting wrong ones to work, ect. I keep stuff as cheap as possible.

Think the biggest expense I've actually paid for was PCW doing my forks/head bearings ($500), then buying a new stator for the bike. Everything else I've modded came off ebay on the cheap, or I recycled from something else.

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Thank you, I agree with you on that part. I do things very much on the cheap. If I can't pay cash for , or make it , it dosn't get done. So alot of the time I was just saving up then pulling the trigger. My money goes to the house and other bills first, savings second, then the Vmax third.

I live on eBay, I just picked up a streetfighter fairing/headlight unit for $25. Its the same style Ace had on his bike for a while, except I'm looking at a way to modify it to hold the HID lights I have. My cams came from a friend from whats left over a wrecked bike. $50, The nitrous was pieced together from other projects, sold then upgraded. $300
My pipes are used, I got them from Sean for a good price, I want to say around $550ish, I cant remember. The costly stuff were the double scoops and tail section, $800 and the double headlights $260. I bought them with tax money and perminent fund money.

I think if I were to itemize, I don't thaink I would hit the $3000 marker since I bought my bike in '07. If I didn't get hurt and was still working and not going to school. I would put some money into the thing. But making videos and giving the occasional shout out, takes little work and is free. :biglaugh:

I been in the habit of when I could sell something and use as much of that money to put towards the upgrade I'm looking at. Recently, I just sold my midpipe and muffler to put towards a new muffler system. I just got a couple of orders for guitars to work on that will fill in the blank.

Nice video KJ. Good luck with this endeavor and thanks for sharing the info.