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Kickstarter Lessons

Earlier this spring, I decided to do my own kickstarter.  I had created some shiny game tokens called ‘Lore Bits’, and I wanted to share them with the world.  Along the way, I learned a few things.

  • Even Kickstarter experts can be wrong. No one can truly predict if your project will succeed or fail.  Mathmatically, the Lore Bit’s kickstarter was going to fail from all the projections.  However, towards the end; kickstarter sends out a 48 hour email.  My email was pinging like crazy the last two days!
  • Marketers like to contact you.  A lot.  Read any proposals, do they even mention your company?  What about your kickstarter?  I bet 90% are vague like ‘we like your project.’  Choose whether you think someone who can’t be bothered to mail merge your product name in to the email; will do a good job marketing it.
  • Keep up with the updates.  Honestly, I think my once a week updates contributed to the success at the end.  I hadn’t abandoned the failing project.  Kept them upbeat, told them about my other website where they could purchase them, and kept plugging along.
  • Not once, did my project get put on the front page of Kickstarter.  That is usually the kiss of death for most kickstarter projects.  What?  You can’t see the nearly 50% that are failing?  Did you think that was a coincidence?  Consider that possibility.  How will you drag people to your project page? 🙂
  • I should mention this:  it’s not kickstarter’s job to make sure you are funded.  Harsh truth, but a good number fail.
  • Great pictures are helpful.

Lore Bits Magnets 002

 

  • Listen to people who send you emails and make comments.  Most of them have funded a lot of projects or have their own projects.  Set aside your ego and make necessary changes.  Explain those changes in full in the FAQ or Comments section.

I might add more later.  There is always something to be learned. 🙂

Have a Shiny Day!

Laura

Ten Tips for attending Cons

Going to a new Con or event can sometimes be intimidating for people.  It seems like everyone already knows someone else.  And why didn’t anyone tell me that there were so many room parties?  How do I attend them?  Arrgggghhh!!!

Comic Cons and Literary Scifi events can be annual tradition that have been around for more than 60 years.  That’s a lot of history.  Some people meet up with their con friends every year for over 10 years.

Which can be intimidating to a shy geek who has just discovered that their favorite actor is signing autographs at the con.  Everyone seems to know the ropes!

Here are 10 tips to break the ice with other people:

1.  Be aware of your reaction to large crowds.  The larger ones like the New York Comic Con and San Diego Comic Con have over 100,000 people attend.

The NASA open House in San Franscisco that we went to had over 180,000 people attend.  Shuttles were overflowing, we had wait in line for over an hour for a shuttle.  Once the shuttle battled it’s way to the base, we had to wait another 45 minutes to get into the base.  For us pampered Seattle flowers, the California Sun drained us.  Did we meet anyone?  No.  Did we see plenty of our tribe?  Yes.  Geeks aplenty.  Would I want to go back every weekend?  Heck no, too many people.  The water ran out, the gift store was over run by mobs, and we couldn’t see the displays for the most part.  Most of the displays had lines of over an hour.

Last Month we went the VLA in New Mexico.  It’s the Very Large Array radio telescope facility.  Just as large, maybe larger than the NASA base.  We were in a small tour group.  We got lost, we ran into lectures by astronomers, we got to see some really cool equipment up close.  They let us into the telescope control room the operator told us about his job.  Wonderful experience.

Know your crowd tolerance.

2.  If you cosplay, read the con rules.  Some cons require you to preregister for any contests.  Others have rules about how much skin you can show.  Others have stringent rules about hall cosplay.  Knowing the expectations can make it a better experience.

3.  Read up on the Guests of Honor for the Con.  It’s a small world and you might find yourself in the elevator with them.  Small talk is less awkward if you at least know they are the guest of honor.

I once had an awkward moment with JA Jance, a prolific author.  She was signing books in an extremely loud electoronics store which has since gone out of business.  She was sitting there at the table.  I was the only one there.  I approached.  I asked her where the toilets were.  After I read her books ten years later, I slapped myself.  I could have done better than that. 🙂

4.  Double check the food situation.  At the NASA event, it was so large, we couldn’t even find the food trucks.  An extreme situation, but check to see if they will have food trucks, the nearby restaurants are overrun, etc.  Most cons make some money if you purchase from their vendors.

5.  Gaming Cons.  Look and relook at their websites.  Many game cons require you to preregister to play any games.  It’s all the name of organization.  But you will be sad to find out that you can only watch games.

6.  Ask questions at Panels.  The panel discussion folks have been focusing on these topics for months.  They know all sorts of stuff.  Ask a few questions to draw out more details.    The Q & A portion is just as important as the talking head part.

7.  Act respectively towards others.  Maybe you think Maid Cosplays are a bit silly; that doesn’t mean that you need to loudly deride someone who has spent months on their costume.  The same thing goes for other fandoms.  Sportsmanship during Game Cons.  Even in the parking lot, cutting someone off can create a bad vibe.

8.  Remember that the other people are also shy and geeky.  They might be thinking you are the unfriendly one.

9.  Vollenter.  Most Cons are run by vollenters.  This can be the best way to meet new people, meet the guests of honor and make a difference.

10.  Make a flexible plan to figure out what you want to see and do.  Some Cons are a one day experience.  Others have multiple days.  If the con prepares some quality panel discussions, I think it calls for multiple days.  If they have mostly vendor space set up and not so many events, it might be a one day event.

So set some reasonable expectations, make a plan, and be open to meeting other people in your tribe.

(Insert Strongbad Joke here.)

Lore Bits – KickStarter

This is the part where I get to plug my own product!

Paper Butterfly Forge, in addition to running Zuffy Robot, also makes shiny game counters.  We are pretty excited about them.  And why would we be?

10 colors, fun to use, and available through:

Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, TheCraftStar & the www.paperbutterflyforge.com website.

Kickstarter is reviewing the campaign now.  Fingers crossed that it goes live.

Kickstarter Product Pics

Creepy Spam from Well Meaning People

I’d like to start a new series of creepy spam from well meaning people.  As a business owner, I get tons of spam from marketers, business specialists, SEO experts or anyone else who thinks that I will spend money on their services.  Not that all those people are incredibly horrible people.  It’s just that they like to send out marketing emails.  Often with questionable titles.

First up:

Actual email:  “a personal invite to my VideoShoot in Seattle.”

Weird capitalization on the VideoShoot.  It doesn’t sound very personal to me.  Bonus points from being sent from Linked In.  I wonder who/how I’m connected to him.  Some groups allow group members to email each other.  It goes on to say that it’s especially for “Authors,  Speakers & Coaches.”  Oh.  dear.  He’s trolling for business.

What would be a better approach?  Perhaps not capitalizing random words?  Perhaps not sending it at all?  Any email that I get through Linkedin is 99% spam.  People want stuff, they want you to attend, or random people want to connect.  Do I want to connect with a marketing specialist whose CV is full of one year jobs and was an expert at every place they hung their hat?

If you are sending out marketing letters via an email service/networking website, take 10 minutes and ask someone if the email looks like spam.  If they can’t look you in eye, congratulations, you are about to clog someone’s email box.