Ask a Lemur – Supporting the Blog, Finding Builds to Highlight and Animals

Tonga soa e, Dearest Readers!

Ask a Lemur

I’m so glad to be able to talk with you again. It is really the highlight of my week. Don’t get me wrong! Interacting with the people here in The Brothers Brick compound is a great honor and privilege. It is just that they are so far above me that it is nice to talk to some normal folks. Plus, every time I try to start a conversation with one of them, I usually end up with more work. Not sure how it happens, but I’m noticing a trend. My schedule is pretty full as it is.

So what has happened in your world this week? Mine has been rather chaotic. The timer broke on Carter’s tanning bed and he ended up looking rather par-boiled. I couldn’t help laughing. That was a mistake. I’m not sure how the malfunction was my fault but he says it was. I’m sure I’ll figure that out soon. Anyway, right after I replaced the timer, Caylin came looking for me. Her “kitties”, Loki and Athena, needed fed. That’s what she calls the two Saber-Toothed Tigers she had cloned. She said it was for “research” but I don’t think anyone believes her.

Oh, there was some good news! Josh came home from his vacation at “Happy Acres”. The first thing he noticed was that the bowl of roasted peanuts on his desk was empty. That really was my fault. I feel bad. Now every time I see him, he bursts into tears, starts sobbing and crying “Why?” over and over again. I think he needs another vacation, poor guy.

Enough about me! On to your questions.

How can I support The Brothers Brick?

There are many ways you can support TBB. To begin with, running the website is not free. The majority of our funding comes from revenue generated by our Amazon, LEGO and Google links on the sidebar. For example, if you click our Amazon link and then buy something (anything, not just LEGO-related), TBB gets a commission on that purchase. It adds nothing to your purchase and you get to help keep TBB going. Many of our wonderful readers keep TBB on their ‘favorites’ as their Amazon link. It only adds one click and everything they buy gets credited to TBB.

Another way to support the blog is to share the posts that you enjoy via whatever social media you prefer. Spreading the TBB love helps increase our traffic and increases the exposure of the LEGO fan community that much more! I share every post on LemurBook so all the other online lemurs can see the cool stuff here.

Many people ask what happens to the extra money. After the bills are paid, the rest of the money goes back into the fan community in some fashion. We have sponsored contests and online events, as well as fan conventions and other “real life” events. All of the contributors are volunteers, meaning no one makes any money from being involved with The Brothers Brick. I’m the only one on the payroll and they pay me with all the scrap paper I can eat. That and the peanuts from Josh’s desk. We try to change up our sponsorship so that no one comes to rely on it or expect it. We also try to keep it on the “down low”, meaning that sometimes we get credited publicly for our sponsorship but sometimes we just help out and keep it quiet.

How do most of the bloggers come across the models they decide to show on the blog?
Basically you want to make your creations as easy to find as possible. For instance, Flickr is the main place they look, followed by MOCpages and Brickshelf. On Flickr, make sure you add your build to the LEGO group, tag it “LEGO” and such things. It is amazing how many people wonder why no one sees their stuff and they haven’t added tags or placed their builds in a group with high traffic. Also, if you find a group that has The Brothers Brick in the title, please make sure someone from TBB is actually an Admin of the group. There are several groups out there that were not created by us. They just want you to think that they have some kind of ‘in’. Don’t be fooled.

Are there any other animals in the Brothers Brick team?

Well…um…technically I’m not allowed to answer that. But I have noticed that the “Training” budget has been growing rather rapidly and included some strange items. Are “Purina Sasquatch Chow” and crates of surplus XXXL military fatigues normal training items?

Thank you again for your questions. Keep them coming and I will keep sending out Lemur Loot!

Affectionately,
A. Lemur

9 comments on “Ask a Lemur – Supporting the Blog, Finding Builds to Highlight and Animals

  1. Sirglub

    Hey Lemur,
    Will you be attending any future LEGO conventions? I’ve always wanted to meet a real lemur…….
    Thanks,
    Sir Glub

  2. Matthew Oh

    Great questions, and great answers to them Mr. Lemur. :) I have a question:

    Do you TBB bloggers ever get together for either hanging out, or for being lego geeks? If you meet at a convention, for instance this past BrickCon, do you ever do a TBB lunch, or hangout?

  3. SEdmison

    Manao ahoana e.
    Is it true that the Brothers Brick compound used to be located on a far-off private island, but was relocated as a result of one of Iain’s disastrous experiments that caused the island to be overrun with giant twerking squidbots?

    Champagne wishes and calamari dreams,
    Sean

  4. Zayden

    Question: will the Brothers Brick ever feature artwork that is on Google or FB if it’s pointed out to them? (even if the pictures are not the best? I know a good art project that is finishing up 15 years and has gotten little attention from the Lego Community as a whole. :P

  5. AK_brickster

    Do the TBB bloggers have a “focus” that they prefer to highlight? For example, does Josh tend toward reviewing castle MOCs / Ian prefers pop-culture stuff / Andrew lean toward historical figures astride Jurrasic reptilian mounts? If so, will Josh Ping Ian with a referral to a particularly-striking Grumpy Cat MOC, or is it a free-for-all to see who can get to the best stuff first?

  6. Deus

    How many contributers are blogging for TBB at the moment? Are there any people who WERE bloggers but stopped being ones? How many, if any? Is there a rising thrend in the number of TBB contributors, a dropping one, or is it stagnating?

    P.S.: I love these lemur posts, they really add The Brothers Brick a larger-than-life aspect that geek culture is so deeply connected with. It makes me feel so importaint for reading all of the TBB posts…

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