Posts Tagged "rule 34"
How To Do a Kickstarter: E-Mails
Skullgirls has probably done one of the most successful campaigns ever. Their initial goal was $150,000, but they ended up earning close to a million dollars. If you look back at the How To Do a Kickstarter (Short Version), and compare it with how Skullgirls did their campaign, you can see what they’ve done right.
One really important thing that I forgot to mention in the short list (might go back and add it) is INVOLVE YOUR DONORS IN THE PROJECT! Skullgirls created surveys and everyone who donated any amount of money got some say in who the new downloadable character would be. This is how they got me to donate. I paid $1 so that I could vote for Marie, a character voiced by Rina-Chan. By the way I should note, I DON’T EVEN PLAY SKULLGIRLS!
This brings me to the greatest benefits and faults of their campaign, E-mails.
Do’s
1. Keep your donors updated
Use the e-mail feature of Kickstarter to keep your donors informed about what their money is doing. People work hard for their money. They want to know what they helped to create with it. This will make them more inclined to contribute to future projects or spread word of mouth on this one. Dale Carnegie said, “People support a world they help to create.” And boy, let me tell you, Skullgirls kept the donors updated…maybe too much. More on that in the “don’ts” section.
Dear Jerks,
Today I used your funds to buy a burrito. It was delicious. You guys are such saps.
-Spike (Bad example. Good idea.)
2. Involve your donors
Skullgirls gave all donors a chance to vote on the new downloadable character. They used the e-mails to send out links to surveys which allowed the donors a chance to take a real role in the development of the game. Based upon how much additional funding they’ve received, I believe this alone could easily be responsible for over $100,000 of their contributions.
3. Rally the troops
People have given you money, because you’re their friend and they don’t want to hear you bitch about how you didn’t support them they believe in what you want to do. Sending out mid-campaign e-mails to remind people the clock is ticking and that they can help by sharing your campaign with their friends is a good way to make money. Don’t just crowd source your funds, crowd source your fund gathering. With Rina-Chan’s participation, quite a few bronies championed the funding of Skullgirls. At least I know Spenser from the Brony Clubhouse was shouting from the social media heavens about it.
4. Sell to the lower tiers
So your creative team is paid, your work is done, and the final product is hitting stores. Now what? Well, not everyone bought your work. The lowest tiers probably gave you a dollar for basically nothing in return. They’re clearly a hot lead for someone who likes the project. E-mail them and let them know that your movie/game/hot dogs are now for sale.
“I know you didn’t give me enough money to actually get a ‘free’ bus playset, but it’s now available in stores for you to purchase with additional money.” (Image Source Dawn Somewhere)
Maybes?
1. Numbered only for uniformity but this is the only maybe. It’s a good idea to use this e-mail list serve to promote future projects.
This is a good idea, because these people are already interested in what you do and are hot leads for your next project. IT IS A BAD IDEA TO JUST START E-MAILING PEOPLE! The right way to do this is to e-mail your donors (burying the lead) thanking them, and then asking if they would like to sign up for a mailing list about your future projects.
Trust me, you don’t want to e-mail people directly about your other projects (see the first don’t). Best case scenario people unsubscribe. Worst case scenario, they flag you as spam and your e-mail will get shot down by spam blockers. It’s in your best interest to ask them to subscribe to your personal newsletter (Bonus tip: You’ll get more people if you reassure them that they can unsubscribe! Also make a method for them to unsubscribe.)
If you’re so daring, don’t be a selfish tool when doing this. Keep in mind that your work may have brought publicity for the stars of your project. Your donors may want to follow the artists or actors on Twitter or Facebook. Spread the love, because those stars probably promoted your Kickstarter.
Don’ts
1. Don’t spam!
Do not send people info about other people’s projects or the projects of your friends. Try to keep everything relevant and on topic to what people signed up for (I know this kinda contradicts the advice immediately above this).
2. Don’t overwhelm your donors.
This is the one thing I hated with the Skullgirls campaign. They e-mailed me ALL THE TIME. Limit e-mails to a MAXIMUM of 2 a week.
“Sh*t”
3. Most importantly, don’t make it all about yourself or your project.
Your donors have just made it possible for you to fulfill a dream. They may do it, because they love you. But they can also be motivated by their desire to be a part of something important. It is never a bad idea to make someone feel special. Look through your e-mail and see how many times you say “I” or “We” versus how many times you say “you.” Remember even though this is about you, make it about them. They gave you money, it’s the least you could do…other than the perks they bought.
More:
How To Do a Kickstarter: Sharif Acts Like Don Draper on an E-Mail (Public Relations)
How To Do a Kickstarter: Perks
How To Do a Kickstarter: E-Mails
How To Do a Kickstarter (Short Version)
How To Do a Kickstarter (Short Version)
I hate most crowdfunding. It’s not really that I have a problem with the concept, but most people irritate me with they way they ask for my money. It’s like you’re asking ME for money so that you can start a business in which you keep making money, and I get an overpriced ______. So you should at least try to seduce me a little and not just be a bunch of annoying, entitled 20 something year olds. Show me that you care. Show me this is real. Show me that I’m not just a sucker and a means to an end. Make me feel like I’m a part of something special, not just something special to you, but to me and the rest of the world.
“Here, I’m giving you 2 bits for your project. Please don’t hate me. I’d give you more, but Wells Fargo lent me that money so I can go to school.” -Me every time I donate to a friend
How do you do that? Here are some Cliff Notes that should help. Later I’ll do a more expanded post focusing on the videos, perks, & e-mails.
Image
1. Look like you’re serious (If your project is fun, show that you’re serious about fun).
2. Look like you’ve actually put some of your own money into this project (at least INVEST IN YOUR VIDEO!)
3. Look like you would actually invest in this project yourself.
4. Look like you aren’t just asking someone to pay the rent and buy you Taco Bell while you make art.
Ethics
1. Don’t look like you’re trying to get other people to cover your investment costs while you reap all of the benefits.
2. BE FAIR TO THE PEOPLE GIVING YOU MONEY!
3. Be appreciative of ANY donation.
Sales
1. Don’t pan handle. A donation should get the donor (no matter how small) something if possible. Ideally use advance sales of the product or discounts towards purchases of the product.
2. Give people something they would want.
3. Explain to people why your project is something they should believe in and support.
4. If you can, your perks can be used to endorse your product (ie. Free trials, posters, stickers, etc.)
So I have to say, my friends Niree Perian, Susannah Luthi, and Kai Chan have done a textbook PERFECT job in all of these criteria with their crowdfunded project of Connu. You don’t have to donate (though you should if you can) but at least look at how well executed their campaign is and use this as a model for your own projects.
More:
How To Do a Kickstarter: Sharif Acts Like Don Draper on an E-Mail (Public Relations)
How To Do a Kickstarter: Perks
How To Do a Kickstarter: E-Mails
How To Do a Kickstarter (Short Version)
Underrated Never Talked about Skill for Writers: A Rambly Sort of Thing
Today in class I started bringing up theory again. Recently I’ve noticed my professor looks at me and smiles when I bring up some obscure topics and essays (I don’t know if she did that all semester or just felt nostalgic because today was the last day of class). This time it was a piece by a Korean feminist talking about masculinity in oppressed cultures. She said to me, “I’m always amazed by what you can bring to the conversation.”
Later tonight I went to visit a friend in the hospital. A week earlier she was just an acquaintance. In the hospital I argued with a nurse about why her pain wasn’t being managed and why the doctors seemed to think post-op pain of a 9 out of 10 was “normal” and didn’t need treatment. My mom was a pain management nurse and now teaches nursing at a university. I learned the lingo. I learned how to ask for drugs without seeming drug seeking. I learned how to advocate for my friend.
“I have a manipulative speech ready that will get you so many pain meds that you’ll need pain inducing drugs just to keep you on the pain scale. Crap, I think your charge nurse heard my soliloquy.”
On the drive home I thought about my teacher’s words. I realized something I decided was probably the biggest gift to myself.
I came up with two rules for myself:
1. Whenever I didn’t know something, I would ask about it.
This includes what words mean, things I claim to be an expert on, and things that people would probably prefer not to talk about.
2. I would let people talk to me about any subject.
I let my cousins and some of my friends teach me about cars. I’ve let my sister (a women’s health nurse) teach me about different speculum, benefits of clear plastic over metal, and that some of them have lights. My mom taught me about pain management in hospitals. I’ve had people talk to me about all kinds of subjects from Apple products to humor theory to rollercoasters to Wutang Clan.
If you don’t want to hear about something, it’s probably, because you don’t know enough to appreciate it.
These rules will help you develop a sense of curiosity and wonder for the human creature. Something that should show up in your writing.
This is from my lecture notes last fall when my Professional Writing Core teachers were explaining that curiosity and wonder are at the center of all art.
Now people will go out and people watch. Wonderful activity, but also very shallow and superficial. You’ll only get the surface without context. If you talk to a person, they will teach you about entirely new ways of seeing the world, maybe these ways aren’t always positive. Of course this is granted they even want to talk to you.
“Aaah! A humanities major working retail! Get your low income potential and broken dreams away from me!”
“That’s interestin’ and so tellin’ about yuh social background, upbringin’, ideologies, and yuh way of life.”
Most people want to talk about things. Some people will even talk to you about the worst tragedy to ever happen to them. More people will tell you these things if they feel you’ll listen and understand.
I won’t tell someone to stop talking. I’ll interrupt, because I’m so excited about the conversation, but I won’t tell them to stop talking.
It’s beautiful. The human being. I was with a girl and angry at the world. I said, “I have never felt so misanthropic.”
She laughed (and not just at how angsty I was being), “You’re not a misanthrope. You’re an anthropologist. I’ve never seen someone so in love with people.” This was a surprise to me. I didn’t realize this was true. I also didn’t realize she could ever show this level of understanding about me. At least I used to think that. It must be untrue since I fell in love with her.
Talking to people, reading their blogs will expand your mind more than anything (Even if it’s starting to get unfocused, rhapsodize-y, and digressive). You’ll never know what you’ll learn and from where. Did you think you would find a passionate, sincere, intellectual blog about the human condition with a bunch of ponies on it?
I’ve talked to a drunk punk rock bassist in the Inland Empire about his view on the world, it was disparate from the views of a privileged girl I talked to in Orange County, but there is always confluence. We want the same things: love, respect, to feel special, safety, etc.
We all have the fear of time and being mortal adding pressure on our desires. From this is conflict. From this we do our worsts to each other and even our bests. When written with justice to the characters, this conflict will allow you to see yourself in the worst of people as well as the best. We are all the same, it’s the priorities and the situations that make us different, whether by nature or nurture.
There’s a price to this, the more you learn what people want and their motivations, the harder it is to judge them. Although, this seems positive, keep in mind that these people will make you mad. They will hurt you. You will feel mad and stay awake at night. You’ll wish you were just wondering why they would do something to hurt you, but you’ll know why. You’ll know their motivations, what they want in life. You’ll know that if you were them, desperate for the same petty things, then you would hurt other people for them as well. It would be hard and wrong for you to hate them for being who they are. So you don’t take any action, even though you’re hurt.
With this understanding there’s nowhere for your hate and frustrations to go. You’re stuck with them.
“I understand that her belief system doesn’t allow for the idea of platonic friendships between people of opposite genders, but that doesn’t mean she is entitled to treat me like a second class citizen even if she is trying to keep me from ‘falling for her.’ God that’s so egotistical, it’s sick, but then that belief has probably just been reenforced by a lifetime of being a pretty girl and having every guy friend fall in love with her, requiring her to explain why things wouldn’t work out. The poor girl probably lost a lot of friends growing up. Man this sucks that her past is determining why I don’t get to have my friend! After all the times I’ve looked out for her! Well, this might be her form of looking out for me and my feelings… Why am I always the expendable one?! I hate this.”
Sorry, where was I? Oh, yeah, people will reveal more to you than they realize. They will tell you their ideologies, their secrets, their experiences even if they don’t intend to. And isn’t understanding how other people think and act what character work is all about?
That’s not necessarily a rhetorical question. Let me know how you think about anything I’ve brought up. Clearly, I’m interested.
PS. For more on this subject read Virginia Woolf’s short story “An Unwritten Novel” to get the value of people watching and some of its drawbacks. For the benefits of talking to people and how you can learn things about their character that they themselves don’t even realize they are saying read Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”
Read MoreA Thought on Interpersonal Communication
I was on my colleague’s blog last week. She wrote her stance on cursing. I made a comment which inspired her next blog post about the bi-directionality of human communication.
“What do you mean, ‘[I] look like a fast mare?!'”
Crazy Week
Hey everyone,
This post will be a little different. I just wanted to talk about my week, which was pretty crazy. Mostly my weeks just involve things on Netflix in between homework and independent projects.
Monday: My short story “Lagomorph” was work shopped by a guest instructor David Francis because our normal instructor Judith Freeman couldn’t make it. Although, it was very well received and the world was loved, there were a lot of great comments from my classmates and Mr. Francis.
I went home to try to write something like 8 more pages to my already written 2.
Tuesday: I woke up early and I finished my first 10 pages of my first real attempt at a feature length screenplay. They were shitty, but entertaining. I now have a copy of my screenplay with Syd Field’s notes on it. He mostly wrote that I’m really good at dialogue and my pages failed to have the most important things you need to have in the first 10 pages, dramatic need of your character. Which I knew I needed. I’m that guy who is always talking about the dramatic need. But I panicked to be honest. Screenwriting isn’t my strongest genre. So my deadline made me lose my shit.
I work well with deadlines in fiction. The first draft of “Lagomorph” was finished hours right at the deadline. Most of which written within 12 hours of it. But with screenwriting, it is a different beast. With fiction you write a story logically, and it will flow. When you write a screenplay it’s like you’re writing a story to a flow. One is like Eminem on a bus writing words and performing to a beat later. The other is like George Watsky writing a song to a beat.
Wednesday: I got e-mailed from David Francis. He was saying how he was still thinking about my short story and was giving me more suggestions about many of my choices in the piece. We e-mailed back and forth. Although, many people would see it as “This guy kept messaging me to tell me how bad my work is,” I look at this as, “This author was intrigued enough by my story to keep investing his time to make sure that it becomes something.” This is both a testament to David Francis’ character and my draft of the story.
Later someone on Facebook who I only kinda knew from chance encounters in the program, posted something about her thesis being trapped on a laptop which had suffered an attack from a cup of coffee. She needed help. Last time something like this happened, a girl I kinda knew needed a ride to the dentist and I volunteered. She is now one of my closest friends. So again I offered to help her. Her hard drive was whirling in the enclosure, but my computer couldn’t access the files. She thanked me anyway with beer and introducing me to her friend. So I made 2 friends in one afternoon.
Also I work got a humor piece looked at by one of my writer friends while she was at work. So she got paid to read my manuscript. If you workshop with someone who works at a writing center or tutoring service that offers free edits, turn their work hours into a workshop and help them get paid and have more free time.
Thursday: I got a call from my community college tennis coach. He was asking how I have been and said it was around the time of the Ojai tournament. He wanted to hear from “The Legend of Ojai” (me). This title was not earned through tennis ability. I’ll tell this story at another time in another form.
Most of this day was studying and homework and preparing for my reading on Saturday. My friend Angie canceled on our plans to play tennis, so I was free to hang out with The Brony Clubhouse who were hanging out at the Buffalo Wild Wings right by my house. We sang karaoke. I did “Prince Ali” from Aladdin and at Cayci’s request did “Material Girl” by Madonna. Some girl thought it was cool to record me. So if you see video of me singing “Material Girl” kidney punch that bitch.
Of course later Spenser sang “You Got a Friend in Me” and stole the show. I also got to meet some bronies like Dan. I got to catch up with other bronies that I’ve met before who are cool and I can never spend enough time with them like Briston, David (Discord), Tyler, Rina-Chan, Nick, and a dude named Jeremy. I’m sure I’m forgetting people. Brony Clubhouse crew is like overwhelming with cool people.
While there, actually, some guy approached me to take pictures of some toys people at our table had. They were custom painted OC’s. I said sure. As he was taking the pictures he said, “I’m going to make fun of you guys on /b/.”
I said, “Don’t worry. Bronies are the internet.”
He said, “You guys are the cancers of the internet.”
I said, “You realize if you post that on 4chan that everyone is just going to ask where they can get their own.”
It was noisy, and I don’t think he heard me. So if you see OC pony toys on a cup of Sprite, then that was us.
Friday: This day started rad. I found great parking and I had my first meeting with my thesis adviser, Trinie Dalton. Getting a thesis adviser is always scary. I’ve heard horror stories (My adviser never meets with me. My adviser made me write a horror novel and I hate horror novels! My adviser was literally on drugs the last time we met). Trinie was really cool! She understands what I want to do with my writing. She knows the type of writer I am and is flexible about my multi-genre thesis. I decided to push my luck “I want to include a comics section to my thesis.” She was down.
One problem, she scheduled a meeting right before EQLA. I told her, “I’m going to a MLP convention and I may or may not have a panel that I may be giving on creative writing.” She was like BAM! RESCHEDULED! YOU TAKE CARE OF THAT MY LITTLE PONY CONVENTION!
Go back to my car to see a parking ticket. I also noticed that someone hit my car and scratched the paint. I was on the 110 going home and picked the 101 to Universal Studios in order to cheer myself up and inspire me to write my next 10 pages of screenplay.
I lost my phone there. I found out when I go to pick my friend Mike (from Westcoaster) up and I couldn’t call him. He called my phone though:
Woman: Hello?
Mike (kinda drunk): You’re not Sharif!
hangs up.
So I called my phone and it is with the Sheriff’s department in City Walk.
Saturday: Late that night Mike and I watched “Red State,” ovened a frozen pizza and rehearsed for my reading the next day.
Instead of going to awesome shit at the LA Times Festival of Books, I went to Hollywood to get my phone. That night I read to a packed auditorium. A small auditorium, but with every seat filled. Most of the people were my friends, whom I had guilted into coming or who came because they loved me (more on this later probably).
The reading went really well. I met a brony named Michael who came to check out my reading of “Best Pony.” Afterwards he came to me and said that we need to get a reading of “Best Pony” on Equestria Daily. I might be biased, but I agree with him.
Sunday: More book fest. More panels. Worked the MPW booth a little bit. My friend Mike got some shit signed by the people who do “Knott’s Preserved.” I dropped Mike at home and did a mad homework blitz.
J. Eric Lynxwiler and Christopher Merritt with Mike.