This list not only inspires us to be proactive, it gives us real tips so that we can start doing something about it. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the author of this list, but it's probably safe to assume that he or she is busy creating something....somewhere.
Some of us are on a mission to see how many friends we can acquire on Facebook or followers we can grab on Twitter. You can't help but wonder: Are we so busy making new friends and spending time with them online that we are failing to nurture real-world friendships the old fashioned way? Is how we socialize online eroding our real-life relationships? Or maybe just changing them?
First, thank you to my amazing readers. To say that I had an overwhelming day is a bit of an understatement. The Kickstarter reached its goal in record time, less than three hours after I first posted it. We met and then blew away the stated goal. It means a lot to me that you're so connected and generous.
As promised, I'm going to do a few updates to share data and insights that might help the next person.
Half the people who visited the page watched the video all the way through to the end. I'm guessing that's 5x what happens on YouTube. There's something about the medium of a Kickstarter page that makes the video even more important than you'd think. I'm glad I reshot mine (and made it shorter).
A fancy video isn't important unless the product you're selling involves video. Direct and clear beat clever editing and dissolves every time.
Scarcity cuts both ways. I stated from the beginning that my goal wasn't to maximize the revenue generated from the page, and it was clear within minutes that many readers were excited to be part of something that was limited. Of course, some people got upset by the very same thing--it's hard to balance scarcity (a signed edition, say) with abundance (spreading ideas far and wide).
People are smart. This Kickstarter had ten levels, which felt like a lot when I built it, but I bet the audience could have figured out their favorite choice if there had been twenty.
I'm not sure your goal should be to make the topline number as big as possible. The whole idea of measuring the revenue of Kickstarter makes no sense (how much does it cost to make a Pebble watch or record a CD?) No one really knows what your costs are, but it's the costs that matter, not the revenue. That's obvious, yet we're busy talking about what people 'make' on Kickstarter, and many Kickstart builders are trying to structure the offer to push that number up. No need. It doesn't matter. Maximize what's important to you, not the pundits.
Folks who put up links to your Kickstarter are generous beyond measure. Even more important is permission to talk to a tribe that cares about you and what you make. Build that first.
If you're thinking about skipping the permission step when you build your campaign, please reconsider. This is the one and best secret of Kickstarter.
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to talk about it, watch the video and participate. If you're interested, there are some rewards that aren't sold out. For me, it's back to writing, working on making you the best book I can.
Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog:
On the Clock: Explaining Refinance in 60 Seconds (Or Less) In case you still have questions about how the President’s proposal works, we asked Jim Parrott, Senior Advisor for Housing at the National Economic Council, to go “on the clock” and explain the proposal in sixty seconds (or less)
Weekly Address: Ending the Stalemate in Washington President Obama tells the American people that the stalemate in Washington is holding our economy back during this make-or-break moment for the middle class.
When I suggest that businesses should think about creating some content I’m frequently met with objections like -
“But my niche is boring – no one cares!”
Actually I don’t think that there’s such a thing as a ‘boring’ niche, but I do understand where they’re coming from. It’s definitely the case that coming up with ideas for great content is tougher in some than others – but there are companies out there doing it already. As such I wanted to put together this post highlighting some companies who are already doing great things in tough markets. Undoubtedly some of them you’ll have seen or heard of before, but I’ve deliberately tried to come up with some other examples that hopefully you won’t already have heard of.
I hope this will serve as inspiration or food for thought if you will.
Got your tea / coffee / gin and tonic at the ready? Let’s do this.
Garden sheds – that’s a tough niche at first glance. Except of course that people are really passionate about their humble sheds and some people’s sheds are pretty damn amazing. With this is mind, to appeal to all the sheddies out there Reader Sheds run an annual competition to find the shed of the year – they have over 1800 entries this year.
Fiskars started out way back in 1649 and originally produced iron. In 1967 they were the first company to produce plastic handled scissors. Today they’ve diversified somewhat but their mainstays are still scissors and other paper cutting tools and they also do gardening equipment.
In terms of content Fiskars have elected to tap into the community of people who use their products – namely those interested in arts and crafts. The Fiskarettes blog contains loads of art and craft ideas and readers are also encourage to submit their own projects – in Fiskar’s own words: “We want to offer you an environment where you will be able to exchange your love of crafting with others, to share your passion, showcase your creativity and share your expertise.”
What can we learn from these companies?
I think the key message here is - go big or go home. If you want to get the attention of an existing community of people you’ll need to spend significant time and resource creating awesome content or in Reader Shed’s case – running their annual competition. You’ll also need to work hard in terms of outreaching to that existing community to get them involved. Plus of course in order for this to work there needs to already be an active community out there. Whilst it’s certainly not for the faint-hearted, or those who are light on resources the potential benefits are huge.
Simply Business are an insurance broker in the UK. Rather than creating content exclusively around insurance, instead they’ve taken the approach of creating content and resources which small business owners will find useful. In addition to creating short-form blog post content they’ve also created guides for social media, PPC and productivity –
Tessa Shepperson is a landlord and property solicitor in the UK. She started blogging back in 2006 and uses her blog to comment on legal developments, new regulations, answer reader’s problems, and discuss relevant reports and consultation papers issued by government and relevant organisations. She also runs a school for landlords and creates resource content like this questionnaire that explains which sort of tenancy agreement you ought to use
Salesforce have created some fantastic content around how businesses can harness the power of social media including expert interviews, how to guides and case studies. Kieran has already published a post explaining their strategy and how it worked for them.
What can we learn from these companies?
I’m a huge fan of content strategies focused around a particular business’s customers – creating content your customers need or want; or will just plain love – it’s a no-brainer, right? What’s interesting to me is that you don’t need to see your own product or service offering as a limitation in terms of what you can create. Just because you sell insurance doesn’t mean that all your content needs to be about insurance.
Landlord Law is an interesting example as the content seems to have led the business in different directions – what started out as a single solicitor’s blog is now a business in it’s own right – 3 different sites, some subscription content, training, tools etc.
These guys offer an alternative to skip hire – skip-sized bags... How strong are they? They tested them out with a SMART car... Nice use of video to demonstrate the product.
Air conditioning might not be sexy, but this company definitely has a great sense of humour. Way back in 2009 they published a post about a woman who saw the Virgin Mary on her air conditioning unit - pictured above. Ashton Kutcher tweeted their post and it went hot on a whole bunch of social networks.
These guys definitely are owed an honourable mention for shaking up the shaving market with *that* video :) I’ve elected to put them in the ‘using content as a tactic’ bracket as to date they’ve only done the one video – albeit a very successful one.
What can we learn from these companies?
I think that the examples above highlight that even in tough niches you can create great one-off pieces of content without breaking the bank.
I’ve struggled to categorise BlendTec. Some might disagree, but I think BlendTec create those videos for the YouTube community rather than their key customer base. Are the people who watch those videos in the market for a blender right now? Probably not. But one day they might be, and when they are they’ll probably remember BlendTec.
What can you learn from them? Think outside the box and have fun.
Bonus! Great content; but arguably not a tough niche...
I’m not sure if ukuleles really count as a ‘tough’ niche or not; but either way Al Wood has created an amazing resource. Rand’s dubbed it the SEOmoz of ukulele playing.
Hopefully you’ve found this useful, I’ve certainly had fun pulling it together. Got some more examples? Do let me know via the comments.
Need some content ideas? Leave a comment explaining your product / service & your target market - myself and the awesome Moz community will try and come up with some ideas for you.
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Books take a long time to invent, produce, ship and go on sale. Almost all of that work happens on faith, and it's then followed by a frenzy of promotion and anxiety, as the publisher and author try to find out if there's actually desire for the book. Activating the tribe at the end of the process is nerve-wracking and inefficient. For the reader, it's annoying to hear about a book 32 times from a panicked author who has her back against the wall, and then in every media outlet you turn to.
As part of my 25-year quest to find a better way to make and promote books, I'm launching a hybrid experiment today. The idea is to do it in public, and to use widely available tools that can be emulated by other authors and other publishers if it works.
The problem with traditional publishing is that you do all the work and take all the risk before you find out if the audience is ready and willing to buy the book. And you have only a few days to go from "it's new" to "it's over."
I think there's a new way to think about this, a hybrid of old and new, one that activates true fans and makes it easy to spread the idea through the tribe and beyond.
It starts with a Kickstarter* page. A lot of the details of what I'm describing are on that page, so feel free to check it out when we're done here.
A successful Kickstart is great (Amanda Palmer is our hero), but what happens after that? How do you take the buzz and connection and scale it?
My idea: Kickstart + bookstore + ebooks.
The publisher (my key to the bookstore) is only willing to go ahead with the rest of the plan if my Kickstarter works. No Kickstarter, no distribution, the stakes are high. (As you saw at the Domino Project, the ebook part is easy now, but the bookstore is still critical to reach the many readers who find and buy books in stores).
If the Kickstarter works, then all the funders will get to read the book before anyone else, plus there are bonuses and previews and special editions. A few weeks after the early funders (that would be you) get to read it, the book will be available to book buyers for purchase the traditional way (wherever fine books are sold in the US, including digital readers). Of course, the Kickstarter funders get a better price, get it first and get unique bonuses, plus the pleasure of being in early--and knowing that they made it happen. The only way this book becomes real is if my readers get behind it now.
By using Kickstarter early in the process, we eliminate book publisher/bookseller skepticism and create the excitement they need to actually stock and promote the book. Those books you see stacked up by the front window at the bookstore? That's not an accident. That's a promotion planned months in advance, based almost entirely on how optimistic the publisher is about a book's prospects.
So that's the idea--a way that any author with a following can divide the publishing process into three pieces--get the true fans on board early, give them something to talk about just before the book is in stores, and then use online and offline bookstores to do what they do best and distribute far and wide. It moves the power in the process to where it belongs--to motivated readers and their authors.
It's not easy to build a following, and it takes time, but I hope you'll help me show authors and publishers that it's worth it. Here's a short link you can share: http://kck.st/KvkY4h
I'll update you four times in the next four weeks about how we're doing. Thank you for helping me make this work, and for publishing your own great idea as soon as you are ready.
* [Three Kickstarter details:
Kickstarter is a free website that allows artists to give their fans a chance to show their interest in a new project.
Kickstarter doesn't charge you (or me) a thing unless the project meets its minimum. After that, you're charged for what you pledged and you are guaranteed to get the reward you signed up for.
This is the rare Kickstarter where there's not an unlimited inventory of rewards--every item is limited. When a reward is gone, it's gone.]
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