Announcing The Haymaker Club – And Our First Promotional Event

We broached the subject of this last week to our readers, and the feedback was pretty good, so we’re moving ahead with the creation of The Haymaker Club.

And we’ve got an event and a special offer to folks who’d like to join that we’d like to announce as well.

As we’ve discussed, there are a number of web outfits out there which are attempting to monetize their operations by selling subscriptions. A good example here in Louisiana is the five Gannett newspapers in the state, which allow readers a certain number of articles to read before demanding that they purchase a subscription before being allowed to read any more.

We don’t like that model. We think it’s cumbersome, we think pay walls are too easily breached by people who’ll copy and paste our material onto a message board or an e-mail to their friends, we think it damages goodwill and we think subscriptions limit the growth of traffic on a site we think is destined to grow substantially beyond what it currently is. So we’re not interested in going in that direction.

But we do believe we need to branch out beyond just selling advertising if we want to generate the revenue that will fuel the growth we want to undergo. And while a subscription model is not one we like, having some sort of transactional relationship with our readers is an idea we don’t have a problem with.

And the manifestation of that idea is The Haymaker Club we’re announcing tonight.

It’s going to cost $25 a year to join the club. And while we’ve got all kinds of neat plans on how to develop it, we’re going to start very simply. Members of the Haymaker Club are going to have access to great events, deals on things like books, CD’s and DVD’s, travel and so on. We can just about guarantee that the value of a Haymaker Club membership will amount to more than $25 in terms of the stuff the Haymakers will be able to get deals on from us if they choose, so it’s going to be more than just some way for us to get into your wallet.

As an example, we’ve got an event coming up dealing with a subject matter of significant concern to us and, we believe, to many of you as well. On August 23, we’re participating in a showing of Losing Our Sons, a documentary about the damage militant Islam is doing to real people not an ocean away but right here in the United States.

A searing true story from America’s heartland, Losing Our Sons tells of two American families whose lives intersected through a shattering act of violence. Melvin Bledsoe, a small business owner in Memphis, watched with pride as his son Carlos went to Tennessee State University in Nashville to better his life through education. Daris Long, an ex-Marine, felt honored that his son, Andy, chose to follow in his footsteps by joining the military. But when Carlos Bledsoe murdered Andy Long in Little Rock, Arkansas, both fathers are forced to confront a new kind of American nightmare. As Melvin traced the trail that led Carlos from Nashville to Yemen and then to Little Rock, Daris confronted an American government that seems to be in denial about what happened to his son. This powerful documentary provides a moment of clarity for Americans who care about their families and their country’s future.

Our readers might well remember the episode Losing Our Sons describes. It happened on June 1, 2009 at a Marine recruiting station in Little Rock; Bledsoe, who calls himself Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, drove up to the station in a car, got out and opened fire on the two Marines there. He killed Long and wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, an 18-year old new recruit fresh out of basic training. Bledsoe had been converted to Islam as a teenager, recruited into jihad at Tennessee State and then enticed to Yemen as a terrorist-to-be. By the time he returned to the United States he was a time bomb.

As it happens, jihadist Islam – which is tied closely to a belief in Islamic Shariah law – is a special focus of our friends at the Center for Security Policy; Chris Holton, who’s a regular contributor here at the Hayride, is a vice president at the Center and Chris has done terrific work in getting anti-Shariah laws passed by state legislatures around the country (particularly here in Louisiana, which has emerged as a leader in stopping Shariah from intruding into our legal system). The Center has put together a rather hair-raising report on Shariah, what it is, what it means for us and who’s attempting to inject it into American society and how. It’s called Shariah: The Threat to America and it’s available in a book form purchasable at Amazon for $14.00.

For members of The Haymaker Club, Shariah: The Threat to America is available for free – as is VIP seating at the showing of Losing Our Sons at the Fleur de Lis Center in Mandeville on Aug. 23.

It’s the first of several events and promotions we’re working on for members of The Haymaker Club which we believe will inform, enlighten and even at times entertain our readers. And we’ll continue to provide updates on this event and others as time goes by.

So if you’re interested in joining The Haymaker Club, there are two easy ways to do it.

The old-fashioned way is to register by mail. Simply send us a check for $25 to…

The Hayride
9007 Highland Rd., #15
Baton Rouge, LA 70810

Make sure to include your address so that we can send you a copy of Shariah: The Threat to America.

To join via PayPal is even easier. Just click here or on the image…

Advertisement

Advertisement

Interested in more national news? We've got you covered! See More National News
Previous Article
Next Article

Trending on The Hayride