KickstarterForum.org

It is the close of my launch day, so it seems like a fine time to get this started. Some recap is needed...

After finding a cool lamp stand next to my apartment dumpster I decided that I would make a cool shade (also I couldn't afford a complete lamp at the time). Many prototypes later 2 separate styles emerged. All the while i had to work with some small local manufactures, and to say the least I have found it challenging. It may be the type of product that is the issue, maybe it's the battle every start up goes through, but whatever it is, it wasn't easy.

Just getting manufactures to talk to me was a challenge. I was able to receive quotes from about 20% of the ones I emailed. I should say that one of my partners is a CAD designer and the files submitted were always top notch. After struggling with that throughout the process I finally found a few good shops to work with. Finally! Largely tho, they remain hand made by myself and a few friends.

The website went up after about 2 months. Its not the standard launch splash page, it is loaded with information. The hope is that it will supply more photos and info to potential backers. I would love to get your feedback on it http://www.noenddesigns.com/

I put together a big list of companies to email for marketing purposes. I had been told during a few kickstarter panels i went to at a local conference that emailing about a week before the launch date would be best. So far I only heard back from 1 of about 30 closely relates sites that I emailed. After a followup, that seems to be dead as well. I am continuing to email websites and I will keep you updated on that.

Launch day has seen 2 backers join the campaign. I know that sounds like not a lot, but the product is expensive and I have set my goal fairly low ($5000). One of my backers I know personally, and the other came from some unknown location. Since I do not know many people that can afford the lamps I am making, I found it a real challenge to drum up a good following and get them to the page the first day, like everyone says to do.

I am really going to rely on new visitors to the page to keep sales up. I have some ideas gleaned from many websites (especially this one) that I will pursue, but I just dont know what to expect as this is my first kickstarter.

I really appreciate any feedback you all can give and thanks for taking a look!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... collection

I hope to keep this post running, so you all can get a play by play.

Update! Currently 3 weeks in. It has been crazy. I had hoped to be able to relax a bit after launch buy instead it has been a constant marketing push. I have tried everything. I Emailed tons of website with little traction. My network helped keep things rolling for a while but i knew they would dry up after about a week, and they did.

I tried the pay for promotion approach and found it to be less than fruitful. Maybe 2 sales come from it and that really doesn't justify the expense.

2 weeks in a friend and I started experimenting with reddit. We posted the lamps in r/interiordesign and then a few days later hit r/pics. The first post was successful and lead to 1 sale. The second was huge! 300,000 views 5,000 hits on my webpage and $2500 in sales on the kickstarter. It by far has been the best marketing tool. And it was free.

Here is the post. It was done through a 3rd party and we worked links to the website into the comments. The admin removed all kickstarter links. Be cautious about this or they might pull the post.
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2 ... th_making/
Here is the album
http://imgur.com/a/a94eV

The idea is to make it not obvious that you are plugging your project. It is tough but it might just work. And hey, its free, so why not give it a shot.

I am now trying another
http://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/2p ... ruck_with/

It was a camera truck i made for the kickstarter video shoot. Its doing ok so far. I may try to repost it in r/pics at some point it it doesn't see much traffic. So far potentially 1 sale from this, tho it is hard to tell.

I will be back with more updates!