rocket ovens kickstarter

click on the thumbs up for this post if you don't support this kickstarter because

   you like to wait until the last minute to fund a kickstarter.

click on the thumbs up for this post if you don't support this kickstarter because

   I am not signed up for paypal or any of the financial options in place.

I could go to the P.O. and send you a M.O. for a dollar, which I have offered before, but I didn't get a response.

The M.O. and stamp would cost more than my support for the kickstarter.

paul wheaton wrote:I would like to better understand why folks don't want to support this kickstarter.   There are over 30,000 people on the dailyish and we have 665 backers.  The open rate of the dailyish is about 12%, so about 3500 people opened it.   About 600 backers came from the empire, so that leaves about 2900 people that decided to not support the kickstarter.  

I feel if I can better understand the reasons why 2900 people opted out, I can make better kickstarters and do a better job on world domination!   So I am going to create a bunch of posts that are possible reasons that are just my lame guesses.   But I hope that the real people with the real reasons will add posts that others can upvote and a picture will form!

By your statistics, I consider your kickstarter a smashing success. Context: (I forget where I learned this, but it has proven true in my experience), I use the rule of 10. For every 100 emails sent to my outreach list, I can reasonably expect (on average) about 10% to open and read anything, and about 10% of the readers to actually take any action. So 100 emails sent, 10 read, 1 person actually responding or doing something. So I don't think there is any reason for question or complaint. You seem to have a very high engagement rate. Of 30,000 people, expect 3,000 opens (you had 3500!), and 350 supporters (you had 600!!). Smashing success in email list/community engagement, if you ask me (and technically you did, cuz i was on the email where you asked the question).

Personally, I love all this stuff, but feel I already understand the principles and do not yet have a context where I can justify (financially) much anything in the way of support. For me personally, my phone was stolen and I am scrambling to prevent identity theft. And we are on a shoestring budget right now, anyway.

All of our stuff is currently in storage. We are currently in Australia learning Holistic Management and helping to roll out the world's first Regenerative Agriculture products brand using Ecological Outcome Verification. And working on book and music projects in spare time. Good stuff, but it means our budget and time is tight and stuff like this is a bit outside of our ability to engage with right now, even if it is relevant to our general scope of interests. So we are more of the 90% who don't engage right now, rather than the 10% (or in your case, 12-17%!!!) who do.

$28,292!

For every 100 emails sent to my outreach list, I can reasonably expect (on average) about 10% to open and read anything, and about 10% of the readers to actually take any action.  

Why and why?  

For a moment I thought "if all the plotskateers tickle kickstarter, we will say "permaculture" to thousands (tens of thousands?) of people that have never heard the word!"  Of course, it would work if half the plotskateers did it.  And this sort of seems like the kind of things that the plotskateers signed up for.  So rather than 7000 we got something closer to 60.  So rather than being on page 1, we moved from page 12 to page 8.  I suspect it made very little difference.  But, it was an experiment - we tried.  

And the end result is an attempt to better understand the plotskateers.

So I ask "why?"

Through understanding comes the possibility of growth.  

Justin Rhodes gives our kickstarter a BIG shoutout.  See the end of his video!

I didn't fund the kickstarter. I will be happy to help you along by sharing something on social media, but i just don't have money for buying anything that is not essential to my household.
Maybe its related to the fact that any plumber in North America makes a lot more money than a programmer in Bulgaria.

This time i got on board. Thanks for the opportunity

You want to better understand your plotskateers. I consider myself one (I did sign up to be one) and here is my guess...

1. I love permaculture
2. I'm very busy and just didn't feel value added by trying to get the kickstarter to page 1. What is the vision?
3. Your other plotskateers are probably also busy. We are not people that sit back and chill out. Permie plotskateers are movers and shakers with lots of irons in the rocket mass fire.
4. DON'T GIVE UP BUDDY! You got my attention and time. The plotskateer emails never seemed very personal but it seems that you finally put your finger on the pulse. Maybe if when you wrote to us you closed your eyes and imagined you were speaking directly to me. You're a good dude and do great stuff. I'd like to be supportive and I see the awesomeness of rocket mass tech but some things are just TOO GOOD for normal (non-permie) people to believe. In my opinion most people probably are thinking, "How can I use rocket mass tech? I do cook stuff in an oven but I live in an urban setting with no space to contain one of these things." That's my thought anyway. I just want to see one of these things firsthand to believe it/evangelize it. Maybe you need to take it on the road and do some demos? More to come later...

reasons why 2900 people opted out, I can make better kickstarters and do a better job on world domination!

first, imo, our money isn't the real measure of dominating.  what folks learn here and the pieces we begin to apply to our daily lives is a better measure.  you're making a big difference and just don't see how far the pebbles you're tossing are rippling.  even those of us who thought we were headed in the right direction get buoyed up and swept further along.  (thank you.)

aside from that - like Josephine, I'm in the 60yr old granny club (and gave her a thumbs up), with life challenges that limit choices.  you don't really need my dollar on a great project that is way over fully funded; i'll put that dollar to needed use elsewhere, sharing and applying what i have learned here.  

(and even if i could spring extra funds, i have limited internet, streaming videos don't fit my data limits.)

So no dollars here, just 2cents because you asked...  and as always, with grateful thanks.  in actions, not funds.

Why?  I am a single 60+ year old woman living on social security so have an extremely tight budget.  I live up north like you and that means summers are extremely busy getting things done that can't be done when it is freezing.  Plus I have a huge garden.  I live alone and have no funds to hire help so I have to do everything myself and that is slow going sometimes.  And I need to figure out how to get a new roof put up on part of my house cause it is leaking and some of the decking needs to be replaced.  I have more time for learning new stuff and social media, forums etc. in the winter when I am stuck inside more.  Summers I am inside as little as possible.

Would love to have an outdoor oven, but if I get other projects done - like the bathtub moved inside and the roof - if there were any money at all available for anything I would get Erica and Ernies latest RMH stuff 'cause that is what I really, really need.  

I think that most people are more interested in growing food than in rocket mass heaters, and RMH seems like a giant step that they can't probably make in their current situation, but they can grow food.  Most Americans live in the suburbs, and there are restrictions and they either don't own a house or might sell it when they decide to move.  It's even less likely for people living in cities.
John S
PDX OR

John Saltveit wrote:I think that most people are more interested in growing food than in rocket mass heaters, and RMH seems like a giant step that they can't probably make in their current situation, but they can grow food.  Most Americans live in the suburbs, and there are restrictions and they either don't own a house or might sell it when they decide to move.  It's even less likely for people living in cities.
John S
PDX OR

From what I understand about the Rocket Oven, is that it falls under barbecue laws--so if you can have a BBQ, you can have one of these. Which does make them something that people in the suburbs and apartments can have.

But, many people are probably like myself--untrained in building things. And, playing with fire when you don't know how to build stuff, seems like a really good way to burn down your abode.

Personally, if I had a the funds, I'd love to buy an actual rocket oven with a cooker. It would allow me to cook easily outside during the summer using wood heat and not heating my house. When it's winter, I cook on my woodstove, but I sure don't want to cook on it in the summer! Even my electric oven makes my house too hot in the summer.

I think it would be fantastic to have a nice-looking rocket oven/stove that people could buy. But, right now, I don't think there's anyone who wants/is able to mass-produce and sell these. But, perhaps with Paul's videos, someone with that ability will come along and produce these for sale. These could do a world of good in third world countries for people with limited fuel/energy, and wonders everywhere by reducing polution and energy consumption. I supported the kickstarter in hopes that it will help spread the news to the right people with the right connections around the world to spread this invention to porches and patios and backyards everywhere.

And it just hit the 30.000!

Nicole Alderman wrote: hopes that it will help spread the news to the right people with the right connections around the world to spread this invention to porches and patios and backyards everywhere.

And kitchens

My excuse/reason for not posting on Kickstarter during the experiment: I usually do not check my emails on the weekend, so I read yours a few minutes ago. The rule to get me to do something on a certain date would be, to mail me at least one week in advance, and again on the same day. Maybe it is just me, but maybe there are others with similar mail checking habits.

Philipp Mueller wrote:And it just hit the 30.000!

Currently at $29,461 US dollars.  I think kickstarter converts to other currencies for folks not in the us.  Maybe you are in canada?  Or australia?

I appreciate all the feedback about why folks are not supporting this kickstarter.  

There were a lot of comments in my email to tell me that it is doing really well and I should stop bitching.  

I feel very grateful that we got funded at all.  I fell exceptionally grateful that we were funded so fast!  I feel very grateful that funds continue to come in!   And I haven't even finished doing all the things that were on my list to do on the first day!  

What I do all day, everyday ...  well, most of the day on most days ...   is think of ways to infect more brains with permaculture.   And then there is always "stacking functions".  So, what if this kickstarter went to the top of kickstarter?  Are there thousands (or tens of thousands) of people that have never heard about permaculture or rocket anything that would suddenly learn?   And maybe they would support my kickstarter too.   And then comes the idea of the projects we are doing here - the extra coin would help with projects.  

I think the message I am receiving is that the project has been funded, so i should drop this project and get to work on other things.  I suppose that is a path.  And I see the merits.  And I choose to follow another path:  observe and learn and experiment.  Can the kickstarter be a magnificent ride that infects brains with permaculture?  If I do a better job - can I use this knowledge to help more people?  I look at other kickstarters running now and I think:  these people must know more about doing a good job than I do - clearly there is a lot more to learn.


With the recent experiment, I thought that if a thousand people all put in a dollar in one day then we would make it to the first page of kickstarter.  So I tried.  We tried.  A bunch of us tried.   111 people tried.  A lot was learned, but we didn't have the numbers to get to page 1.

There are lots more things to try that I have on my list.   And there are probably a thousand things that are not on my list.  

And I have day dreams about setting a new personal record with this kickstarter.  

I think it's great how you don't stop experimenting and learning!  Truly inspiring!

The reason it took me a while to support the kickstarter was laziness, lack of time and an inbox full of emails, including multiple requests for support for good projects. When you sent the reminder email and stated very clearly what you needed, that's when I responded. To quote Joel Salatin, many people have to bit "hit in the head with a hammer" and touched several times before they wake up to action. And the more clearly you state your need the better it will be met. I  guess I am one of those people :-)

Keep up the good work!

I think it is great to be learning about how to do things better even if things currently meet all your goals. What if your project needed $300,000 minimum? That of course would be a much harder goal to reach and the lessons learned on this current kickstarter campaign could make those big projects possible. It seems to me that the biggest way to improve future kickstarters is to get more engagement from the permies community and our partners - instead of 10% conversion what about 20% or 30%? That could really push things to new heights but I also know increasing conversion is an ongoing struggle. To me it seems like you have the kickstarter side of things down - video, rewards, campaign text, etc. but the stuff off kickstarter could perhaps be improved. I have thoughts on what could be done to go even farther with that side of things and I'm happy to share if your interested - but at the end of the day I have not run a kickstarter and you have run multiple very successful ones so my thoughts are just that thoughts.

I really do think this project as gone great and I think it is great that you are trying to learn and improve so the next one can be even more successful.

paul wheaton wrote:

Philipp Mueller wrote:And it just hit the 30.000!

Currently at $29,461 US dollars.  I think kickstarter converts to other currencies for folks not in the us.  Maybe you are in canada?  Or australia?

That is strange. I am shure it showed dollars, because i raised my pledge to get it above the 30k Mark and doublechecked if it worked. If it had shown Euros (I am in Europe) the amount should have been lower, not higher. Now it has dropped again. Can you pull back pledges in Kickstarter?

paul wheaton wrote:

With the recent experiment, I thought that if a thousand people all put in a dollar in one day then we would make it to the first page of kickstarter.  So I tried.  We tried.  A bunch of us tried.   111 people tried.  A lot was learned, but we didn't have the numbers to get to page 1.

There are lots more things to try that I have on my list.   And there are probably a thousand things that are not on my list.  

And I have day dreams about setting a new personal record with this kickstarter.  

So, one of the comments above stated something to the effect of "hey, a little advance warning goes a long way... only check my mail weekly."

And while the "111" of us didn't win the #1 spot, it is good experience.

Maybe next time (or again within the time remaining...) give a shout out to the plotskateers in advance of the launch, to maybe ALL hit the campaign hard on ONE DAY (day two and three) for just a dollar... and get right to the top.
Farther down that road... If you wanted 1000, would it be worth $1000 to the cause to just PayPal all those plotskateers a buck for playing along? (seems even the $ was a hurdle for many willing folks)
Assuming that once fully funded the additional rewards (streaming and downloads) represent "gravy" as the cost little to administer, spend $1000 on plotskateers to get $1000 from newbies, seems like a fair trade, no?
Maybe if they already owned the rewards goodies, they could gift them to a friend too. (more minds...bwahhaha!)

You may think everyone can come up with just $1 for a good cause, the problem is, you're not the only worthy cause. Everywhere I go, everything I do, someone ALWAYS has their hand out. Pan handling is legal where I live, so every corner has 1-4 people wanting $, everytime I open my email, there's MANY requests, even my grocery store has tear off tabs at the register to add $1-3 to your order, & their causes are always good.  
I'm unemployed, with just my husband's income, deeply in debt after caring for my mom. I have to think long & hard before I'm willing to go yet $1 more in debt.

My comment was more directed at Paul Wheaton, in the same vein as "you gotta spend money to make money" or as Dan Pallotta talks about here:
TED Radio hour

Where the money spent is a force multiplier, ie: spend $10 to get in front of folks who will then pledge $1000 as a result. OR maybe as Paul states above, even getting exposed to the idea Permaculture at all, could be the payoff.

So, in this scenario, someone with good intentions and NO money (plotskateer), is given a dollar for the purpose of pledging that dollar to the Kickstarter campaign.
The effect being the campaign rises in supporters, and popularity, the plotskateer gets the $1 rewards, LOTS of new folks see the campaign because NOW it is on PAGE ONE of Kickstarter's popular stuff! Basically everyone going to Kickstarter would see it.

Kenneth Elwell wrote:Farther down that road... If you wanted 1000, would it be worth $1000 to the cause to just PayPal all those plotskateers a buck for playing along?

I like your creative thinking. My understanding is that this would be very much frowned upon by the folks at Kickstarter. Enough frowning that if they found out they may cancel the project. And then everyone frowns.

Upon some reflection, I quite appreciate their stance. I think it shows integrity, even when they could lose out on some money.

first time I've seen it on the front page!  

ps.  the extra hearts are my addition to the picture in case you were wondering.

Your email got my attention to come over here and collaborate our feedback.  I went on over to contribute to the kickstarter (Glory) because I am new to this 'World Domination" project and wanted to start perticipitating (watering the seed thought - I could never be as funny as PAUL but I can try!

See you at the Permies Convergence in Sept. I will be cooking healthy (vegan & GF) food for you!

Looking fir Like-Minded Locally!


Julie Wolf  

PS thanks Laura Swany for letting me know about "GoodEnough' community - practically my neighbors!

$29,631!



Yesterday had lots of folks coming and going as the PDC wrapped up and the ATC started.  And I was teaching all morning.   So this left a huge mountain in my email and ....   wow!  Almost to $30,000!   So close!



click here for the kickstarter!

R,

Is that what you see at the tippy top of all of kickstarter?

paul wheaton wrote:R,

Is that what you see at the tippy top of all of kickstarter?

It was, but it changed now.  

Here's my 2 cents on the Kickstarter thing...you've haven't lost the love of your plotskateers, you've just possibly lost perspective on the impact Kickstarter visibility has.  It isn't a place where people who really want to DO something spend too much time.  I only go there (or KIVA) when I am contacted by someone about a cause I support already. As a plotskateer I felt honor bound so I donated repeatedly because 1--I find it fun to try to mess with website metrics and 2-- I was chairbound and poulticed due to my foot having an unfortunate encounter with a rusty nail, otherwise I might not have even noticed your email until late that night!
So Paul, don't fret about why it hasn't succeeded the way you wanted; revel in the success you got-- the Rocket Oven documentary will certainly be out there, we'll get/buy it, make them, THEN we'll infect people with permie thoughts by being awesomely sexy with our Rocket ovens baked buns.

paul wheaton wrote:R,

Is that what you see at the tippy top of all of kickstarter?

Don't mean to be a party pooper but looking at the screenshot it looks like R was looking at the film category when the screenshot was taken. Still awesome to reach the top of that category!

Daron Williams wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:R,

Is that what you see at the tippy top of all of kickstarter?

Don't mean to be a party pooper but looking at the screenshot it looks like R was looking at the film category when the screenshot was taken. Still awesome to reach the top of that category!

It seems to show me a different category every day.  Today it was that and when I clicked on popular, you were at the top.

There is enough function and value that I supported this. Wasn't too expensive and I have yet to master a rocket stove so you hooked me. Not sure if it matters but there is a typo on the 40,000 stretch goal. Should be "if" instead of "it". Just fyi, I don't mind typos just thought you might wanna know in case it is an easy fix. I'm very interested in the solar dehydrator stretch goal.

$30,211!


(fixed!)

I think Kickstarter has gone totally nuts. For me it is only at 30,215. Is there a way to look at the pledges as a graph over time? This is about the same time of day that I got the wrong number.

I have to hover my mouse over the little currency button to see what the US amount is.

It took me ages to figure out that it was showing things in my local currency.  

but it seems a bit different than what Paul said above.  hmmm...

I'm in the US, and I see $30,405

$30,405
pledged of $8,700 goal
743
backers
16
days to go