Category: Observations

7 Things I Learned from a Failed Kickstarter Campaign

For those of you wondering where I have been, I have been coming off a month after a failed Kickstarter Campaign for 99Blast – The Card Counting Game. The bad news is the campaign failed. The good news is that we still found a reseller who is able to sell them on demand. So if interested go to 99Blast.com. In the “Purchase 99Blast” section is a 20% discount code.

The main purpose of this post is to share with you the seven things I learned from running a Kickstarter Campaign. For those of you planning your own campaign, this may come in handy so you don’t feel like you are off on an island waving a flag to garner support like we did.

1 – Gain interest BEFORE you start your campaign.

I pushed out teasers that the Kickstarter was coming and had people sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter Campaign would begin. HOWEVER, I didn’t push it hard enough and should have waited to begin the campaign when I had a big enough list that if everyone committed to the campaign, it would have accounted for 30-40% of my goal.

2 – Get Reviews of your product prior to launch.

I mistakenly thought that getting reviews during the campaign would be better since people could commit as soon as the review was posted. You end up chasing after reviewers that work on their own schedule and not on yours. Rather, let them do the review and if willing link to your mailing list form to be notified when the campaign will start.

3 – Don’t underestimate the power of the first day of launch.

We launched on a Friday. Knowing that most of our social media engagement happens on Monday, we waited figuring we could get consistent interest over the first week. Instead we got a lot of interest on Friday and then some more on Monday. The better option would have been to do both on the same day to increase the chance of being listed higher in popularity on the site. The higher your popularity, the more likely casual Kickstarter browsers will see the campaign.

4 – You will know your chances of success after the first week.

Our campaign ran 35 days. After the first four days we were already 25% to the goal. However after seven days we were only 26% to the goal. Interests had dropped in the last three days of the week despite advertising and social media pushes. I knew then that we weren’t going to make the goal.

5 -Don’t assume Friends/Followers are likely purchasers

I have a good selection of readers of this site. I have over 1000 twitter and facebook followers and almost 100,000 on Google Plus. By the math if less than .1% of them committed to the campaign we should have blown out the goal. But…

6 -Don’t assume Friends/Followers will help you promote your campaign.

Just because you can convince 50 people to reshare your meme or cartoon to their followers, doesn’t mean they will reshare your Kickstarter Campaign. Resharing a Kickstarter campaign is almost like an endorsement from the resharer. They are less apt to do it.

7 – Success or not, the process will drain you.

From setting up your site, to setting up your campaign, to running it and promoting via ads/social media, the process can take its toll. If not physically, then definitely mentally. I haven’t posted here in a month just because I was just worn out from the process after our Kickstarter campaign and didn’t feel like drawing outside my caricature commission work. Prepare for it.

Best of luck.

January 12, 2016
Is there a Social Media Posting Frequency Sweet Spot?

For those of you who use Social Media (be it Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook) is there a sweet spot for the number of posts a person should make in a day/week? How much is so little you think they abandoned or at least aren’t interested? How much is too much that you tend to ignore their posts and probably miss good things from them but can’t weed through all the noise? How does resharing/retweeting posts factor?

I have my own thoughts but want to hear from you.

August 30, 2013
Share This Post Or Else
There is an interesting trend that I have been seeing lately on social media. People trying to draw attention to good causes like Cancer/Bullying but while doing so, actually bullying others to share the post.

Typically the post will finish with words like “Share this if you don’t support Bullying” or “99% of you won’t share this to fight Cancer”. In both cases it causes those who don’t share to feel bad about their decision. So if I don’t share it, then I a support Bullying or I don’t want to fight Cancer?? So the other day I decided to create a quick graphic that poked fun at these type of posts. As you can see from above, there really is no content to share, but I included a reason why you should share nothing.

99.9% of you will not reshare this. I wonder how you look yourself in the mirror you soulless Jerk?

Originally, when I posted it I was going to include an explanation. But then I didn’t just to see the response. Well if you want to gain attention on social media, create controversy.

Initially the people in my circles got the joke and reshared it and commented. While not doing much on Facebook, it started getting traction on Google Plus. It seems the further out the information goes either the less people got the joke or more mad they were at me for posting it.

Results: 830 plussed it, 684 shared it, and 415 commented on it. By far the most attention any of my posts have ever received. On average here is the breakdown of the comments.
- 30% – Got the Implication of the Post or thought it was Funny
- 30% – Didn’t get it or were not sure why I posted it
- 25% – Were pissed at me
- 10% – Added comments like “hi” or other stupid stuff that didn’t have anything to do with the post.
- 5% – My Comments
Two of my favorite comments were: “If you went away for any reason, like passing away, I’ll not cry for you” and “This is Google Plus not Facebook. Go Fuck Yourself”

Several people made the Facebook comment and yet when I went to their profile, many of them posted the same crap that you find on Facebook. Which made it more humorous.

So please, in the future, encourage, ask, plead, etc people to share your posts but don’t make them feel bad if they don’t.
March 25, 2013
Bearman Ponders: Get Rich Quick Schemes

February 16, 2013
Cartoon You Stink

When I first started this blog, I was all about the number of hits I got. I would check my stats several times a day hoping to see a spike. As I have matured as a blogger, I am more interested in the amount of engagement on my posts rather than pure numbers.

However it doesn’t mean I don’t periodically check out my stats especially when I notice a larger than normal spike.

For whatever reason today I noticed that yesterday I got over 1000 hit spike from Yahoo search engines. I mean no one uses Yahoo search engines anymore so that is huge (haha j/k Yahoo). Seriously though I get little traffic from that source. A little investigation in what the image search term people were using to find my site came up with….

Cartoon You Stink

Now it would be interesting to know if that result was based on something I wrote or whether it was a mistaken snark remark that should have been “Cartoonist, you stink”. My feeling is that 1000 people didn’t actually look for that search term but it was bots instead. Though I don’t know a thing about all that.

What about you. Oddest search term someone has used to find your blog?

September 23, 2012
Hands Down the Pants

I am not really sure what it is but I have noticed over the last several years that when sitting on the couch watching TV, I have been prone to putting a hand down the front of my pants. Not all the way mind you (or touching the package) but just enough that the palm is on the lower stomach and the fingers are in the waist band. I find it a very comfortable position. And this is completely separate than stratching. No scratching involved. My wife rags on me for it and thinks it is hilarious.

So is this some right of passage that all men go through as they age? Will I have the tendency to some day have an entire arm down my pants? Fess up gentlemen. Do you too find comfort in this position? Ladies…thoughts? I would ask if I am “nuts” but that might not be appropriate.

February 16, 2011
I am a “Shameless” Thief

I have a google alert on “Bearman Cartoons” and “beartoons” just in case anyone gives me a shout out that I was unaware of.   On Monday, I had an alert and clicked on the link to see this Entry:

Bearman Cartoons Shamelessly Copies Me.

The Herbert TSA cartoon over at Bearman cartoon is dated November 21, 2010. I published mine November 12. A major political cartoon flagrantly copied me!! By Dr B

The same day a similar comment was posted on the pic (I initially missed it because I don’t tend to look for comments on the pic page but rather the blog page).

So for comparison here are Dr. B’s and my cartoons:

Now at first glance you might think “Bearman, you ARE Shameless. However there are several things that must be corrected in his post.

Shameless – In order to be shameless, there has to be something you should be shameful for and choose to do it anyway. Because I never saw his cartoon until this week, that would be impossible.   I use google images for reference pictures when I draw celebrities or characters.   Nowhere in the top 100 images of “Herbert, Family Guy” did this image pop up. In fact, in the past, I have abandoned ideas when similar cartoons showed up in a reference search.

I did a long post on the topic (last year) of how and why several cartoonists coming up with the same idea. In short  talks about how certain events in the news can drum up similar gags. September 11 caused many cartoonists to draw the Statue of Libery crying. Similarly when you think about the TSA potentially hiring creepy guys to perform pat downs, Herbert is on a short list of creepy guys (also to possibly include Ron Jeremy, David Hasselhoff, and the Burger King guy).

Now “shameless” are the people who have been copying my wrestling signs and holding them up at WWE events without plastering my URL all over them to drive some traffic over here.

Major Cartoon(ist) – I love this adjective but once again doesn’t apply to me. One might assume that in order to be a “major cartoon(ist)”, I would have to be making some money off this venture.

Artwork – Obviously if you look at his artwork and then mine, There is a BIG difference. He can draw perspective and I suck at it.

Now to his credit after I responded to his comment here, he did back down and even took the word “shameless” off his post…yet “flagrant” still remains..haha. Keep up the good work Dr B. and now that I know you are out there, I’ll be stealing crap from you from now own.

December 8, 2010
Is this Toooooo Offensive??
Everyone knows I have no problems walking the edge of good taste. Of course the wife loved it as we both laughed uncomfortably at this given the TSA issue in the news. One one hand, I think it is a great play on words. On the other I would never want to minimize the effects of someone who has actually been raped or make too much light of it.

So I am leaving it up to you. Offensive or not.
Is this too offensive to put on a t-shirt

Yes

No

View Results
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November 24, 2010
My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean…

So checking out the Mental Floss blog they had a recent post about second verses to famous songs you sung as a child.

Everyone remembers:

My Bonnie lies over the ocean,
my Bonnie lies over the sea,
My Bonnie lies over the ocean,
O bring back my Bonnie to me.

Chorus:
Bring back, bring back, O bring back my Bonnie to me, to me:
Bring back, bring back, O bring back my Bonnie to me.

Well that ain’t all. According to the post the second verse (actually it is the third) goes:

Last night as I lay on my pillow,
Last night as I lay on my bed,
Last night as I lay on my pillow,
I dreamed that my Bonnie was dead.

OK…does he wish her dead or just assumed she was dead? So further investigation I come across a site called ScoutSongs.com and lucky for you and me they had the whole song. The further you go the creepier it gets. I will now have nightmares.

My Bonnie lies over the ocean,
my Bonnie lies over the sea,
My Bonnie lies over the ocean,
O bring back my Bonnie to me.

Chorus:
Bring back, bring back, O bring back my Bonnie to me, to me:
Bring back, bring back, O bring back my Bonnie to me.

O blow ye winds over the ocean,
O blow ye winds over the sea.
O blow ye winds over the ocean,
And bring back my Bonnie to me.

Repeat chorus

Last night as I lay on my pillow,
Last night as I lay on my bed,
Last night as I lay on my pillow,
I dreamed that my Bonnie was dead.

Repeat chorus

The winds have blown over the ocean,
The winds have blown over the sea,
The winds have blown over the ocean,
And brought back my Bonnie to me.

Repeat chorus

My Bonnie leaned over the gas tank,
The height of its contents to see,
I lit a small match to assist her,
O Bring back my Bonnie to me.

Repeat chorus

Last night as I lay on my pillow,
Last night as I lay on my bed,
I stuck my feet out of the window,
In the morning the neighbors were dead.

Repeat chorus

My mother makes beer in the bathtub,
My father makes synthetic gin,
My sister makes fudge for a quarter,
Wouldja believe how the money rolls in?

Repeat chorus

My mother, she drowned in the bathtub,
My father, he died from his gin,
My sister choked on her chocolate,
My stars, what a fix I am in.

Repeat chorus

I tried making beer in the bathtub,
I tried making synthetic gin,
I tried making fudge for a living,
Now look at the shape that I’m in.

February 25, 2010
Maximizing Twitter and StumbleUpon

Last month I wrote an article for Webcomic Planet, so to ease back in from my much deserved and needed break, I thought I would repost it here.

Raise your hand if you use Twitter to announce when you have posted a new comic/cartoon. Raise you hand if you also like to submit your new post to sites such as Reddit, Digg, or StumbleUpon.

If you are a user of Twitter and a registered user of StumbleUpon there is a great but little known tool at your disposal that you can submit a link to both sites at the same time. When posting your comic’s URL to twitter you either have to use a URL shortener like bit.ly or allow Twitter to shorten it for you. Instead, I recommend using http://su.pr to shorten your URLs.

Make sure you are signed into both Twitter and StumbleUpon. Once you have posted your latest cartoon, go to su.pr and type in your tweet along with the full URL of the post. Then hit submit. Your post will be submitted to both sites.

Here is what really makes it impactful. Now when someone clicks on your link in twitter they will go to your post on StumbleUpon where they can not only view your cartoon but also give it a “Thumbs Up”. The more “Thumbs Up” you get, drives potentially more visitors.

Even better is that Su.pr has analytics of who retweeted your post. If you are like me it can be difficult to determine if someone retweeted your post especially if they don’t use your twitter name. With Su.pr, anytime they use the shortened URL in a tweet, it will show up on su.pr analytics who sent out the message.

Hopefully this is a tool that is useful to you and please if you see the SU header in a post and you like it, take the second and give it a thumbs up. Your fellow cartoonists will appreciate it. And as always you can find me on twitter at @bearmancartoons.

February 21, 2010