IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE RALLY GROUP B SHRINE OWNER

Season’s Greetings to all! Approaching the New Year, the tradition has been for me to write a retrospective on the year’s events of significance for the Shrine plus taking a look at which articles were popular and which were not, the latter becoming a bit redundant since tendencies soon emerged and remained mostly constant. This time will be different and am making a plea to all Group B fans.

Although many efforts were put in year after year, financing the website as to keep it online has never met parity – and this doesn’t even account the Shrine’s small team of people that have to do ALL of their work on a voluntary basis. This is of course mainly caused by the curveballs life always throws at us… time is always short, family and career taking the lead of our daily concerns.

The Shrine, although it does do other work, is currently mostly just an online encyclopaedia of everything Group B but is in fact a tiny fraction of what it could be! As such, I invite all of you join the Shrine’s team and its mission in whichever capacity that may be suitable notwithstanding of your available free time; article writer, article translation in other languages, event reporter and/or photographer, social media presence, or anything else you may feel like doing! A few people have already done so these past years, join us! Please, keep on reading to learn how you can help.

But first, let’s take care of the usual business. The Rally Group B Shrine encounters the very same challenges, albeit on a smaller scale, as those facing Wikipedia – of which you have surely seen their quite direct pleas for donations every year. 99.9% of people do feel entitled to the vast information they find online, like if it sprouted out of thin air just for them, without regard to the immense amount of work a few dedicated persons put in for them to view it. That being said, I do wish to thank the few faithful Group B fans that have given their support since the website’s inception, some in different ways than others, but every bit DID and continues help! The link to donate can be found by CLICKING HERE!

More importantly, time has come to brainstorm new ideas and take the Shrine’s mission to a new level. This is where YOU, hardcore Group B fans, come in. I say hardcore because 99.7% of people have stopped reading by now, another 0.2% might reach the end of this letter but won’t help, and the last 0.1% might give it a go. Thus, I’m open to any suggestions that you may have!

Let’s review what has already been done and/or can be expanded upon;

• BESPOKE ADVERTISING. The Shrine has focused on helping to promote Group B-related products such as books and DVDs via a commissions system. The income from this has been rather low since Group B is a small niche market within another tiny niche area of interest: the motorsport of Rally. It is thusly not something to get any substantial revenue out of! Do note that the advertisement of Group B-related public events, such as the Eifel Rallye Festival, is a service that the Shrine will always give free of charge.

• COOKIE-BASED ADVERTISING. With the amount of traffic the Shrine has, these ads once helped to cover about half of the yearly fees facing the website. These, added with the few donations and bespoke ads, almost made the site reach parity that particular year. However, I’m not fond of these kinds of ads and in my opinion they give any website a “click-bait” vibe – which can result in distrust of the otherwise valid information it carries.

• ARTICLE WRITING & SALES. These have been far in between but continue to be an important way for the Shrine to spread its mission. I always reinvested my own article sales in the website and hardly ever kept something for myself. However, this can be different for any up-and-coming author that may wish to write articles for the Shrine. A friendly agreement as to give you a substantial piece of that pie can surely be met! There are many car articles yet to be written in the website and in other areas of interest like stories about a particular driver or event… the possibilities are endless!

• ARTICLE TRANSLATIONS. These also have been far in between but have helped the Shrine reach out to a few more fans who like to read articles in their native language without use of automated translation functions that can often include errors. It may also give the translator the opportunity to get aboard the article sales train if such an article is ever sold in that particular language.`

Lastly, SOCIAL MEDIA is an area that I admittedly have quite failed to exploit, this aspect has never being my forte, but it is quite inexcusable in our internet age. If you have some experience in running a social media outlet such as a discussion group, fan club, forum, or Facebook page, etc., then the Shrine can urgently use your assistance. The main goal would be to help spread the word about the Shrine to Group B and rally fans around the world, keep the conversation going, talk about and promote Group B-related events, replica or restoration projects, keep tabs on our Group B driver and codriver heroes and, since they are not getting younger, of their passing by writing memorials, tributes, stories, and whatever strikes your fancy.

Everyone interested in helping out, no matter the means, or in joining the Rally Group B Shrine’s team should reach out directly to me with this CONTACT FORM!

I reckon that you can also contact me via private messaging on Facebook although it may take longer for you to get a response.

Notwithstanding, everyone will get a reply and your help shall be considered on a case-to-case basis… it’s one thing to have ideas but remember that I can’t do everything alone! Like you, work never stops; I’ve got many things to do and am working on a myriad of projects all the while caring for my career and family.

Best regards,

–Jay Auger
Rally Group B Shrine Owner