building a kickstarter - rocket mass heater jamboree movie

Mike Haasl wrote:

Beau Davidson wrote:Come find my typos!  

Ok, I think I found a few...

I asked, you delivered.

I made 80% of the changes.  Here's some questions:

*-First sentence has "affect" in it properly (I think).  But it keeps poking my brain making me wonder if "effect" is right.  I don't think it is but it might poke lots of people in the brain and distract them right when you don't want to distract them.

Paul usually uses Affect, but I hear you.  How about "bring"?

-The white space between the paragraphs isn't consistent

I think I got most of these.

-might people think they get double the Thanks stuff with this wording "AND includes everything included at the lower levels (THANKS & CANDY)."  Maybe just say it includes Candy (which then by default includes Thanks)

I had the same reaction initially.  But this is the way we've always done it.  I think this is the way to be super clear that it includes everything, even if it is logically redundant.

-I think this is the way young kids indicate sarcasm as they type "aNiMaTeD,"

Wow, Mike Haasl, knowing the vernac!  

-I think this should be "hunger and a myriad of greater problems."  But I could be wrong...

I typically use "myriad" the way you suggest - but uncle goog says it is correct both ways.



You are now the commander of the proof-reading brigade.

186!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/free-heat

Beau Davidson wrote:
Paul usually uses Affect, but I hear you.  How about "bring"?

Maybe but "bring" is used earlier in the sentence.  How about "cause" or "trigger"?

-The white space between the paragraphs isn't consistent

Still looks like there's lots of wasted white space and a big gap between paragraphs 2 and 3

Beau Davidson wrote:You are now the commander of the proof-reading brigade.

I hereby relinquish my post and turn it back over to you

I'm someone living in a house in the city with no tools or help to create any of the wonderful things you guys are developing.  Yet I love what you're doing and find myself wondering if you not only share how to build but also include reviews of the different rms and rmhs and/or if there is info about if someone living in a house in town is allowed to and might be able to hire someone to install one of your amazing devices.  If those things will be in the film or somewhere else in Kickstarter rewards it would be good to know about on the Kickstart page.

Not sure if this is of any help, but I did write something called "If you live in an apartment, what good is a rocket mass heater."

As for having stuff built for you, here is a list of rocket mass heater builders:

https://permies.com/wiki/122347/List-Rocket-Mass-Heater-Builders

paul wheaton wrote:

Nic Nose wrote:your total conversion rate is 2.58% and dude... that is amazing...

??

So what is up with the 97%?  I'm thinking that the offer is so sweet that surely I could do far better.

??

That is the game right?

I'd try what is called splintering...

Take useable chunks of each program and productize em... Give away as bribes to join list or small fee to cover ad cost...

Butt... Always have a way to follow up albeit email, sms, snail mail, phone, or the creepy stalker... (Retargeting)

How is your paid traffic doing?

Are you able to profitablity aquire a customer at break even or at a profit?

If so the game becomes where can I find more of my people...

It all depends on what you want to do... There is over 70 ways to get in front of people...

but trying to force it is like pushing rope... It doesn't work real well...

It's about attraction...

You know your people... find more ways to appeal to them or attract more and show them "the light"

I literally could write for hours on this stuff... :) But coffee is calling...

Nic Nose wrote:How is your paid traffic doing?

We have zero.  

I tried a little for past kickstarters and the results were painful lessons.

It all depends on what you want to do... There is over 70 ways to get in front of people...

I need to say PLEASE sign up for our kickback program!  https://permies.com/kickback

And i want to point out that all of our products have a 50% affiliate fee - so that people that know what they are doing can harvest more coin than me by "doing it right"

but trying to force it is like pushing rope... It doesn't work real well...

It's about attraction...

You know your people... find more ways to appeal to them or attract more and show them "the light"

Am I trying to force it?  

I confess I really have no idea what I am doing.  What I do know is that I am going crazy trying to infect more brains with solutions to global problems.  My approach is a bit like that thing with a thousand monkeys and typewriters eventually produce the works of shakespeare.  I just keep trying and trying and trying.

I like the new version, especially all the "spinny" animations.
I did find a few typos, I tried using the feedback link on the Kickstarter page, but it would not allow me to post the following:

On the campaign tab, in the rewards sections:
-- Under 4 hours of content from the 177 hours PDC+ATC, the "O" is capitalized in the word "course" in the statement: Four hours of choice content from the 2017 Permaculture Design COurse and Appropriate Tech Course.
-- $5 Candy level section, missing closing quotes on: the full movie "Fire Science
-- $5 Candy level section, confusing wording in the statement: "Wood Burning Stoves 2.0" which is also the first of the  of eight in "Better Wood Heat: DIY Rocket Mass Heaters".
-- $60 Plans level section, discrepancy in pledge level: the Rewards tab shows a $65 pledge level, but the campaign tab, rewards section lists a $60 level
-- $60 Plans level section, typo: "3d" should be "3D" in the statement 3d plans for all of the finished builds in this video
-- $2000 Executive Producer level section, potential wording error: "happen in really a big way!" may be more readable as happen in a really big way

I hope my 2 cents are helpful, which is how they were meant.

My 2 cents for recommendations for corrections and possible improvements.

Kickstarter page:
- The spiny images are very cool.  Is it possible to get them to all spin in the same direction and at the same speed, so motion sickness doesn't occur for our intended audience?
- I have a lot of grammar and punctuation recommendations for the wordy bits, is there a way to send them in a word document for ease of making recommendation for corrections?  

Video:
- The audio on the video is pretty good, Paul's voice at the end should be a little louder (raise the db) with a little more inflection/emotion.
- Visually to help focus the attention to Paul's question, it might be helpful if the video blurred or faded leaving only the animations at the end of the video.

Very respectfully,
Dan-O

paul wheaton wrote:i think you can see stuff here ....

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/free-heat

This is apparently the "pre-launch page".   You can see how many people are waiting for the project to go live.


To see the details to see how the kickstarter page is shaping up, use this link

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/free-heat?ref=e86d5d&token=16fbdfcb

just making sure the links are on this page ...

This has me very intrigued I'm very interested in learning more and when I try to make a comment for some reason it wouldn't take. I tried several times. This was yesterday on May 6th. I clicked the notify me button and hopefully that worked.

Remind Me button said it wouldn't work until project was launched.  Notify Me button changed to Saved.

For the $60 at the end it mentions $65 so not sure which it is, I love that you have a fun title of super producer

Ack!  I know about something at $65, where is the $60 mention?

paul wheaton wrote:

Nic Nose wrote:How is your paid traffic doing?

We have zero.  

I tried a little for past kickstarters and the results were painful lessons.

It all depends on what you want to do... There is over 70 ways to get in front of people...

I need to say PLEASE sign up for our kickback program!  https://permies.com/kickback

And i want to point out that all of our products have a 50% affiliate fee - so that people that know what they are doing can harvest more coin than me by "doing it right"

but trying to force it is like pushing rope... It doesn't work real well...

It's about attraction...

You know your people... find more ways to appeal to them or attract more and show them "the light"

Am I trying to force it?  

I confess I really have no idea what I am doing.  What I do know is that I am going crazy trying to infect more brains with solutions to global problems.  My approach is a bit like that thing with a thousand monkeys and typewriters eventually produce the works of shakespeare.  I just keep trying and trying and trying.

not to bring up old wounds but what was tried with paid? not just for me to know but for others to gain experience at your expense

I will look at the affiliate rewards program you got for sure...

Curious do you have any monthly subscriptions amonst your array of goodies? that would be very attractive for promotion if you provided recurring revenue for affiliates... im new to this site but ive seen you around for years...

Your "monkey writing shakespeare" approach has been a successful start IMHO and never giving up has made it successful I believe.

so my next question in the barrage of questioning...

who do you use for email?
Can you track:
        opens?
        CTR? (click thru rates)

What is your conversion rate on your affiliate offers based on traffic sources:
email
Permies
Richsoil
youtube traffic
etc

why do I ask all these questions?
cause if someone is looking to promote you they want to know what is already working for you... then try to mirror that closely via demographics/interest

so for example say Rocket mass heaters
goto answerthepermies.com and find out what people want to know about them

rocket mass heater for greenhouse

rocket mass heater for home

rocket mass heater for small greenhouse

rocket mass heater for sale uk

rocket mass heater for garage

rocket mass heater for shop

rocket mass heater for sauna

rocket mass heater without barrel

rocket mass heater without cob

are rocket mass heaters legal

rocket mass heater problems

these are real people looking to buy or research rocket stoves...

then you would start using tools to make sure there is interest in these topics like ubersuggest by neil patel has free level webpage

below is a screen shot of rocket related topics that have active search volume...

stove rocket has 33,000 avg monthly volume... so there is interest

so someone could create a little pdf or video of Stove rocket plans... and grab email and follow up like a stalker cause 85% of people are NEVER ready to buy right now...

hence the follow-up like a stalker... via email or retargeting ads which are super cheap once you have them in your audience(pixeled)

is this helpful?

anyways... the key point is meet people where they are and offer to guide them to "the Light" with LOTS of follow-up...












   

       
       

we tried adwords - i suspect i just suck at adwords.  I have probably spent a couple thousand spread across a couple dozen attempts.

for a kickstarter - i tried the youtube ads .... bust.

monthly subscriptions:  pie - no affiliate thing for that, and nobody has ever subscribed

who do you use for email?

custom built in to permies

opens?

Used to be about 12 to 15%.  Now we do a little better than 20%.

CTR? (click thru rates)

We don't measure that for email because all of our email is currently plain text.

so for example say Rocket mass heaters
goto answerthepermies.com and find out what people want to know about them

THAT is where I think it would be awesome for somebody to harvest our affiliate stuff.

Not sure if this is useful, but knowing which States people live in who are already express the most interest for rocket mass heaters came to mind as I was reading Nic and Paul's conversation above.

In this pic below, I went to Google Trends. I played with some word combos initially, like "free heat".  Google Trends suggested something that has had a spike in interest (still minor, though) "How to heat a greenhouse in winter for free".  

I realized I was better off focusing more.  I ran a comparison with "rocket mass heater", and the latter had far more interest than "free heat" variations, it turned out.

I suspect "rocket mass heater" searches contain people who
1. Already know what one is,
2. Are likely interested in how to do it.  
3. Probably haven't made one themselves.  

I fall in that category.  I think those are quite likely to be people who would pitch in to the Kickstarter, and also have the enthusiasm and confidence to share with friends that they did.

The map at the bottom shows in red the states where the most interest was generated.  I'm not sure where to go with this! Found it interesting, though. Florida, really?

I was able to get the notify to work but the remind me appears to be for after it has launched. It said I could save it after the launch.

Kim Goodwin wrote:

The map at the bottom shows in red the states where the most interest was generated.  I'm not sure where to go with this! Found it interesting, though. Florida, really?

there are a lot of floridians that winter there but have homes up north... i'd bet that has some spill over... or maybe people looking to move north without losing access to citrus :) idk but it is a curious observation...

now, what exactly do you mean you're not sure where to go?

paul wheaton wrote:
for a kickstarter - i tried the youtube ads .... bust.

what was your targeting?

did you call out who it was for and what it was about in the first 30 secs? AKA if they click off within 30 secs you don't pay...

curious on amount spent... and how did you track results?

did you retarget?

did you send them to a bridge page / optin page before sending to kickstarter?

follow-up sequences?

do you segment or tag people as they come into your sales process?

The video at the KickStarter page now has the option to activate captions in English :)

265 have hit the notifications button.  

When this number goes up, Kickstarter does a magic trick and shows our project to many, many more people.

It's currently the best way to help the campaign (and Rocket Mass Heaters) reach the masses - click it!

In all the searching and ads mentioned above, the wording "rocket mass heater" might get hung up with many people because of the singular word "rocket".  As in, too many people who dont even know what it is might only be thinking of weaponry or space use.

A small college in my state partnered up with my local industrial technology center and designed a rocket stove specifically for cooking maple sap into syrup.  Then they planned to duplicate it and give out to a dozen members in a maple syrup grant program.

However, when their company lawyers found out about the plan, they put a screeching halt to the operation because of the singular word "rocket".  They assumed the design team had built some kind of device that was or could be used for a weapon.  (How can people who are smart enough to become lawyers be so incompetent?)  The project was held up for over 9 months and caused us to miss an entire maple season.  The designers had to work for months to educate the legal team about rocket stove technology as a whole.  They couldnt just refer them to a couple of websites and a couple of videos to explain it.  I kept telling the design team to drop the word "rocket" and simply call it a "maple syrup evaporator", which was exactly what it was.  It just used rocket stove design, but that they didn't need to share that part with the legal team.  Words have meaning, so quit instigating with the word they dont understand.

SO, it is quite possible that like this legal team, too many people who do not already know the technology or what it means, are turned off or away simply by that one word.  I know it sounds cool the way it is, but maybe it really needs a name change to get more people to actually search for it or look further.

Kim Goodwin wrote:In this pic below, I went to Google Trends. I played with some word combos initially, like "free heat".  Google Trends suggested something that has had a spike in interest (still minor, though) "How to heat a greenhouse in winter for free".  

I realized I was better off focusing more.  I ran a comparison with "rocket mass heater", and the latter had far more interest than "free heat" variations, it turned out.

I suspect "rocket mass heater" searches contain people who
1. Already know what one is,
2. Are likely interested in how to do it.  
3. Probably haven't made one themselves.  

I fall in that category.  I think those are quite likely to be people who would pitch in to the Kickstarter, and also have the enthusiasm and confidence to share with friends that they did.?

Each time I do a kickstarter about rocket mass heater stuff, I explore a different angle.  Try searches for "wood stoves" or "wood burning stoves" and note my 4-movie set "wood burning stoves 2.0".  Or "wood heat" and the 4-movie set "Better wood heat".  People who are currently contemplating wood stoves are a great vector for rocket mass heaters.  

This time we are focusing on

         a movie about free, earth-friendly heat

and

         Some call it "carbon neutral," others "carbon negative." Heat your home with yard waste and cardboard while reducing global problems.



I think you are suggesting something about wording, and phrasing.  Google trends is a lovely tool.  Great if you have SEO skills to harvest some amazing search phrase.  It seems that I don't have those skills.  But we do offer an amazing kickback program (and affiliate program) to those that do have those skills can harvest coin.  

I confess that when choosing the words many years ago, I used google trends to help make those choices.  And now it is more about HFE:  what do I think will be the most likely that a human being will share with another human being.  I am shocked at how much people are feeling we are all gonna die, and yet they cannot see the #1 thing that can make a difference.  Further, it isn't even so much about building one as much as it is about understanding the whole concept.  I am trying to gear this kickstarter a bit toward "this is a REAL solution to the thing you are freaking out about.  All you need to do is take two minutes to get your head wrapped around it a bit."

Beau Davidson wrote:

248!!!

We are now past

      250!


Now at 264.   I just sent out a monthly-ish asking people to click on the "notify me on launch".  I confess that I am refreshing this page over and over and aching for bigger numbers!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulwheaton/free-heat

Nic Nose wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:
for a kickstarter - i tried the youtube ads .... bust.

what was your targeting?

I don't remember.

did you call out who it was for and what it was about in the first 30 secs? AKA if they click off within 30 secs you don't pay...

I think we just used the kickstarter video.  I think it was for the greenhouse kickstarter.  I think $400 was gone in less than an hour and the video showed that we had an instant 10,000 views.

curious on amount spent... and how did you track results?

Kickstarter gives you unlimited "ref codes" so we make hundreds.  And each ref code goes in a different place.  So we made about six for the youtube video.  And then we ran the ads and income from the youtube video was zero.

did you retarget?

??  As in pick another way to run the ad, or a different group to run the ad in front of?  Nope.  I learned I suck at this and I have other places where I do much better.  So I left youtube behind and focused on my other stuff.

did you send them to a bridge page / optin page before sending to kickstarter?

Are we still talking about youtube videos?

The youtube video was about the kickstarter and everything sent them to the kickstarter page.

follow-up sequences?

do you segment or tag people as they come into your sales process?

And now I am definitely lost.


Nic,

This is clearly your world.  It is possible that some day you will need some software and I can ask you if you selected a good hashing algorithm.  At some point I figured out that I will always be an amateur marketing guy - so rather than try to be a real marketing guy, I need to offer fat kickbacks and fat affiliate stuff so the pros can harvest the real coin and do things extremely well.

Years ago I came to the conclusion that i suck at marketing, and that's okay.  I will keep making content over and over, and I will keep making permaculture innovations over and over ...  some day, one of my things will go viral (or a real marketing person will connect with my stuff and it goes a different flavor of "viral") and then all the other things get attention too.   So my path is to keep trying with what am able to try.  And to let go of the things I suck at.  And embrace that I will disappoint a hundred people a year who will say "all you gotta do is stop sucking at the things you suck at."

paul wheaton wrote:Now at 264.   I just sent out a monthly-ish ...

22 minutes later and we are at 268!

It's working!!   BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

hannah wrote:... $60 ...

... yeti ....

fixed and fixed!

Looks great, I don’t k Ek about your particular audience but my experience with fundraising in generous that people/funders want to see exactly what makes up the cost with as many details as possibly (editor at $x per hour) plus want to know what amaaaazing things could happen with any extra raised..

In past kickstarters I offered this



It didn't seem to get much feedback.  And after years of putting it up i had to wonder if it earned the space it occupied.  Dunno.

I do know that i spent about three hours making each one.  Mostly making sure that the amount of pie you see is the correct proportion.  

This time, we cut a lot of corners.  Most of my past kickstarters had a solid two months of prep.  This time, we are trying to pack two months of work into ten days.  For reasons.  So a few things will be cut.

Extra raised:  anything left over goes into the operation of the community and projects at wheaton labs.  And sometimes we manage to film more stuff at wheaton labs which leads to more kickstarters.  The kickstarters have subsidized nearly every event we have had here.

"I am shocked at how much people are feeling we are all gonna die, and yet they cannot see the #1 thing that can make a difference."


In my experience interacting with these people who think "we're all gonna die", the gross majority of them are not doers.  They mostly just complain using talking points from someone else.  These same folks want to some kind of taxes and such because they think that will only apply to evil rich dudes and not apply to them.  SO,,,,, I dont think those people are your actual customer, even though they need it the most.  I dont say that to be negative, but rather to eliminate those who are not going to support your projects.

In my opinion, your customer is the person who is a doer.  Someone who doesnt neccesarily believe the sky is falling but does believe we can still make a positive impact on our planet, locally and globally.  People who want to save enormous amounts of money on expenses while still maintaining a quality standard of life.  You can also target those people who buy or cut 4 cords of wood per year to use in a conventional wood stove by showing how they can cut that down to 1 cord, or whatever the math is in that.

In my opinion, I'd love to see this go mainstream for the average home across the country and not just for a fringe group who live in tiny and cob homes.  I'm afraid the perception is that this is for folks who live outside of society and for folks who work really hard to eak out survival and end up sacrificing modern quality of life.  Break that mindset and you will really have a wider level of adoption.

Roy Ramey wrote:They mostly just complain using talking points from someone else.

**I** am someone else.  And **I** am providing talking points.  :)



In my opinion, your customer is the person who is a doer.

I agree.

And, at the same time, I wish to get some brain space from people that are not gonna give me a penny.

Although I would like to get some of these people to put up a dollar and get my stuff at a dollar.  :)  

paul wheaton wrote:

Roy Ramey wrote:They mostly just complain using talking points from someone else.

**I** am someone else.  And **I** am providing talking points.  

Roger, I got it that you do provide worthy talking points.  I should have clarified, that the "talking points" I was referring to was what the mass of people often hear coming from main stream media.  The masses dont even usually understand the information in the talking point.  They only agree with and parrot it if it came from their team.

And I totally agree about bringing in thinking folks.  The more the better.

       290!

       300!

paul wheaton wrote:

       300!

Woohoo!!!  Assuming the average backer is $20, that hits $6,000 already.  And I for one am planning for $65.

Roy Ramey wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:

       300!

Woohoo!!!  Assuming the average backer is $20, that hits $6,000 already.  And I for one am planning for $65.

It would be sweet to get this project off the ground!

Hey!    We are at 343 now!