Background: This week, I took an idea and took action. I created artwork and messaging remind people of communities, that we are more than fear. I ordered some product on my own but I wanted to produce more stickers variants. I also want to do more than just the Broad Ripple area. Im looking at Carmel, Indy, Fountain Square.

Currently: For the first week, the results are good – Im at $161 or $500, which is great for 2-3 days. I’m hitting bit of dry spot. My goal was to sell at least 1 pledge per day. The UX/Social scientist is wondering whats going on? We creators and kickstarters can’t slop out a Kickstarter project and expect it to work. There is a ton of thinking, marketing, writing and explaining, reasoning and budgets and FAQ’s. There is also pledge content to create – this is where you basically pre-sell objects in the project to drive pledge dollars. I know you’re thinking its easy just offer stuff right?, we’ve all been to Kickstarter. However, on the content creation side, its not simple, you have to build a tiered approach with limits using proper incentives to move people up the ‘amount level.’ Typically you start at something small and slowly increase what you give/promise based on bigger pledges. Obviously, I’ve done a good job at the bandwidth of pledge products to amount. This is where it gets interesting. The one pledge that is not currently working at all is the smallest pledge of $1 for 1 sticker. There has been $11 pledged for no products at all. What’s going on?

Do I Really Need the Money? No. I am making the designs available to anyone who wants to use it. If they want to use them for products they can. They can only use the graphics for non-profit ventures.

$1 for 1 sticker:  How could I go wrong here? This was where I thought I could leverage the macro part of my pledge system. Make the lowest amount pledge for the smallest increment of product which is a single sticker. Just a dollar right? You can barely buy anything for a dollar.

Small but Problematic: What I didn’t realize that the average price for stickers is based on sticker bundles online and in stores. Nobody buys one sticker. In the bundles you get a good amount of stickers for $5-$20. This means the average price on stickers is less than $0.25. This makes my sticker pledge a bad investment. Is it really a bad investment or perhaps I didn’t explain it correctly.

The $1 Sticker: Perhaps I didn’t explain where does the money go? $1 for 1 sticker is a horrible deal based on the sticker market? Let’s assume (after I decide the quantity I can cover) the cost of the 1 sticker be somewhere between 0.15 – 0.25. Instead of me using the excess as profit (which I am not profiting), I apply the remainder to make the whole order possible. If I can do this, I can offer anyone a sticker for free. When a $1 backer comes to pickup their single sticker, there might be more to give. How much more? I’ll know when I get the full amount and can drive the cost per unit/sticker as low as I can get it.

Quality: Maybe I didn’t discuss quality of the stickers. I’m not printing crappy stickers on a printer at home where the ink will wash off on the first rain. I am ordering stickers from a premium online vendor, Sticker Mule.  On their site they say, “Made from premium material with a protective laminate, they are durable, waterproof and dishwasher safe. Our labels feature a soft, non-glare finish that is ideal for a variety of uses.” I have had one of their stickers on my car for 2 years and the blacks are still black.

The Ask: Is it the best time to ask for money? Probably not.  Many people may not know where their next meal is coming from and need to save every dollar. That’s ok. At the very least, if you’re reading this and working, please pledge something. If you can’t pledge share my kickstarter link with others who might just have a dollar they don’t need.

Ideas: I’m looking for other artist-designers with other ideas for the other metro areas I mentioned.