Kickstarter Statistics Insight and Analysis

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Nerdr| Leave a comment

Quick Analysis of the Kickstarter Stats page reveals the Expected Value of a succesful Kickstarter campaign by catagory.

Expected Value of Kickstarter Projects by Catagory
All    £4,218
Art     £2,082
Comics     £4,528
Dance     £2,527
Design     £18,503
Fashion     £2,260
Film & Video     £3,681
Food     £4,301
Games     £16,819
Music     £2,949
Photography     £1,995
Publishing     £1,837
Technology     £11,903
Theater     £2,778

Here we can see the return for a succesful Kickstarter project is heavily skewed toward Design, Games and Technology kickstarter campaigns.  This is specifically because of the dominant male video game nerd/geek catagory (see Reddit.com/slashdot etc.) who are most susceptible to hype marketing online (See Notch and Minecraft, Humble Indie Bundle etc.).

Other interesting analysis results in the following table for Kickstarter project success rates.

Success Rate of Kickstarter Projects by Catagory
All    44.01%
Art     48.42%
Comics     45.15%
Dance     70.04%
Design     35.90%
Fashion     26.95%
Film & Video     39.55%
Food     40.89%
Games     34.03%
Music     54.34%
Photography     37.97%
Publishing     31.41%
Technology     30.24%
Theater     64.53%

It’s a good idea to remember that Kickstarter projects, especially succesful ones, are heavily skewed towards hype marketing.  This makes data analysis less relevant due to the difficulty of accurately measuring the level of hype marketing a particular Kickstarter project engaged in.  The reliance of Kickstarter on hype marketing also makes it difficult to see which projects are funded because they’re great and which are funded because of mob mentality setting in.

Since not every Kickstarter project can fund or engage in hype marketing it means anyone looking into starting a Kickstart project “for profit” with no particular preference has little information of use available.  Even the above analysis of Kickstarter project succeses and expected returns is useless for anyone looking to start. Essentially, any Kickstarter project catagory is equally as good as any other until we can obtain data regarding where funders came from and why they chose to fund a particular Kickstarter.

You can find the kickstarter stats page at the link here (new window).

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What is IP, Instagram, YOLO and Scientology?

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Nerdr| Leave a comment

You have many what is questions.  Here I answer your question!

What is my IP address?

Your IP address is your identification on the Internet (International Network).  It can be a dynamic ip address (always changing) or static IP address (always the same).  You can find what your IP address is by typing “ip” into the Google search box.

You do not need to remember your IP address for most use cases and you cannot hide it easily.  It is useful if you have your own server and need to access files or access a website directly using it’s host server IP address.  You can check your hosts files on your computer to see the IP address of all the websites you like to visit.

What is Scientology?

Scientology is sometimes referred to as a cult like organization.  They have been chased constantly by the internet creed anonymous.  Anonymous is an idea not a group of particular people, so anyone can join.  Anonymous is the idea that we are all free and information and happiness should be free for all people in the world.  It is suggested that Anonymous don’t like the cult like organization scientology because they charge a lot of money for their books and courses.  Scientology also owns a very big cruise ship called seaorg that floats in the sea.

The main belief of scientologists is aliens called Xenu will come to save them and take them to a strange planet called planet Xenu.  Lieutenant Ronaldino Hubbard (not his real name) created Scientology during the sci-fi era of the 80’s and is now no longer alive because he died.  Some Scientologists have died since L.R.Hubbards death.  Some people have claimed Hubbard created scientology to enjoy tax breaks that religions have in western modern democracies.  On the Scientology wikipedia page you can see the quote: “You know, the only way to make any money, you can’t do it with pulp writing, you got to, you start a religion.”  – Lyle Stewert.  You can find out more about scientology and L.Ron Hubbard on the scientology wikipedia page.

What is YOLO?

YOLO means You Only Live Once.  There is also YODO – You only die once.  YOLO is not like YODA, which is the small green turtle in the Star Wars movie series.  Users of YOLO are frequently mocked on Reddit.com for having low intelligence and generally being stupid.  YOLO is used by idiots when they do crazy things and to justify unnatural behaviours.  YOLO also appears on some cheap t-shirts from big box stores, like Walmart.  YOLO.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a website used predominatnly by internet hipsters to take pictures of things.  The thing does not matter, only the filter used and the angle of elevation.  The internet hipsters (Instagram users) then apply a digital filter over their photographs to make them appear unique and special.  Glow, Neon and Fade photoshop style filter effects are common.

Instagram users like to use unique camera angles to capture their unusual ability to feel joy in random places, like the coffee shop where they work as a barista, to pay back their large student loans.  Instagram users tend towards having liberal arts degrees, or own a silicon valley startup that is struggling.  Instagram users would not have time to take photos of a sandwich if their startup was doing well or they had a real job, with real prospects of advancement and a decent salary not dependent purely on tips.

You can download the Instagram app, or use Instagram online to see photos and signup to instagram.  It’s kinda like Flickr with filters built in.  Most users will forget about Instagram by next year and worry about how to download their own photos back to their computer from the Instagram servers.

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Starting a Cafe or Opening a Coffee Shop

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Nerdr| 1 Comment

Thinking of starting a coffeeshop business or cafe? Be careful! Selling low value consumer products is one of the toughest business environments to enter. Here’s what you must remember before opening a coffee shop biz.

Reasons to not open your own cafe or coffee shop business

A coffee shop is HARD work.  Every day you need to be ordering new stock, managing staff, greeting customers.  Day and night all you’ll think about is your coffee shop.  Accounts, partners, legal paperwork will be on your mind constantly.  You won’t sleep from stress most nights until you’re making a solid profit from the coffee shop.  These Amazon coffee shop books might help.

Coffee shop competition is fierce.  A Starbucks can open across the street at any moment.  How would you compete?  Do you have a better store ambiance? Better tasting coffee? Delicious muffins your customers love?  Think of every advantage you have before starting and write it all down.

Low profits for coffee shops – No one becomes a millionaire with a coffee shop (except Jerry Baldwin, the original owner of Starbucks USA).  Truer words have never been spoken. The profits of a cafe are low.  High workload and low profits mean high stress.  Is it worth it to own your dream cafe?

Coffee shops are high risk businesses.  A coffee shop costs the same as a regular retail outlet, yet comes with a much higher risk profile, and stock that decays within 2 weeks max.  Are you willing to accept that 9/10 coffee shops go bust within the first year?  Never personally guarantee any debt on a coffee shop business because of this statistic.

That’s the negatives of opening a cafe.  How about some positives?  Well there are some positves to having a cafe that are unique, others which are relevant to all business owners.

Reasons to own a Cafe

You are in control.  You get to make the coffee YOUR way and no one can tell you not to.  You can’t be fired from your own shop.  No one tells you what to do.   You take a break whenever you want. You’re the boss.

If you make the coffee shop profitable it is a good self sustaining, long term business.  Although difficult to turn a profit, if you can make it, a cafe is a great long term business (even with the low profits and hard work mentioned earlier).

Coffee shops have high margins and loyal customers.  If you are great at customer service and choose a great location you can bemaking serious money from the very first day of opening the cafe.  Coffee has a 70% mark up MINUMUM.  The markup on coffee is even higher if you aim for the luxery market or choose a premium location with higher rental.

The final reason to open your own cafe business is to make people happy.  To provide others will something valuable to their day and to their lives.  Even if it is just that morning mocha pick-me-up and a lick of your hot sweet muffins.

Should I open a coffee shop?

Personally, I would not open a coffee shop as a business due to the risk profile, stress, and hard work, but then you are you.  If you have that dream location, if you have the money to take a roll, and you lack alternative options, then go right ahead!  Great luck on your coffee shop business!

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Which iPad to Buy?

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Nerdr| Leave a comment

Which iPad should I buy? Black or white iPad, 16GB, 32GB or 64GB. In total you have 6 possible combinations to choose from and it is a difficult decision. I have used them all and here is my perspective.

Black or White iPad?

The black iPad is better for viewing movies and makes colors appear more saturated. This means colors look more colorful on the black iPad.

The white iPad looks cleaner and prettier. The white ipad also looks new and fresh in design because the ipad 1 and 2 were black so people instantly know you have the new ipad when they see

Many people say the black iPad is for men and the white iPad is for girls. I don’t agree with this because it is just colors. How can a color prefer a gender?

I personally have the black Ipad 3. Sometimes I regret buying the black ipad and wish I’d chosen the white iPad because it looks nicer but then I stop caring. It’s just a color and whichever you choose you will sometimes feel regret.

I recommend buying the iPad that matches your desk setup or go to the Apple store and see them yourself and choose.

Which iPad 16gb or 32gb?

Buy the iPad with the most memory you can afford.

If you are on a very strict budget then buy the 16GB ipad. But only if you cannot afford the 32GB IPAD. Even though the 32gb ipad has double the hard drive space it feels like three times as much.

I recommend buying the 32Gb if this is your first iPad. Only buy the 16Gb if you never play games or use Garageband for iPad, which is 2 GB to install! IMovie for iPad is 700mb.

16gb is not enough if you play games on your iPad.

So finally, if I was buying an iPad 3 again I would buy the 32Gb black ipad. Remember that whichever option you choose, if you buy from an official Apple store you get the 14 day no-questions return policy if you change your mind and want a different color or size iPad. The Apple return policy will give you a refurbished replacement though so still choose your ipad carefully.

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