Sunday, November 25, 2012

The Kickstarter Handbook: Real-Life Crowdfunding Success Stories

I highly recommend this new guide to Kickstarter to anyone who is contemplating or planning a Kickstarter fundraiser.... Read this book before you launch. It is a small volume filled with good practical advice and real-life examples of both successful and less-than-successful Kickstarter projects.

Author Don Steinberg begins with the basics of a Kickstarter campaign, such as what kinds of projects do and do not qualify, then segues into strategies for setting funding levels and reward structures, ideas for publicizing a campaign, and tips on how to plan ahead for the fulfillment stage. And as the title says, he provides real-life stories of successful Kickstarter campaigns and the people and ideas behind them.

Chapter 11 is one that the would-be, first-time Kickstarter will definitely want to study carefully: "Learning from Failure: Kickstarter misfires, redemptions, and second acts." Steinberg interviews several Kickstarters who initially failed, then retooled their ideas and eventually succeeded. In the chapter opening, he points out that the 2011 success rate on Kickstarter was 46%... that's truly phenomenal, but on the flip side, the majority of campaigns failed that year. Steinberg would be remiss if he didn't present the downside of the story... Experience is the best teacher, as Benjamin Franklin famously pointed out, so Steinberg has included Chapter 11 because it's best to learn from the experience of others.

Kickstarter is an amazing phenomena of the Internet age, a powerful tool with global reach, but it is not a magic money machine. Again, read this book before you launch a campaign, learn from it, and your odds of success will improve I believe.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Royal Enfield Musket V-Twin Update

Musket V-Twin Engine
We did a post some months back about Aniket Vardhan and his Musket V-Twin custom. Aniket has created a Royal Enfield V-twin engine by mating the top ends of two Bullet engines to a custom crankcase and flywheel assembly. He's made 700cc and 1000cc versions.

We just popped in at his website to see the latest news and found this pic of a fully-assembled engine, a beautiful piece of work.

Note that the link that we give to his website in our January blog post is no longer working... You can get to his website here.




Saturday, November 3, 2012

Coker Tire Company for Bobbers & Old Skool Bikes

Coker's Beck Diamond Tread
If you're building an old skool bike, like a bobber, a vintage reproduction, or a boardtracker, be sure to check out the vintage reproduction tires from Coker Tire Company. My favorites are the Beck Diamond Tread pictured here, and the classic Firestone Deluxe Champion.


'40 Ford Coupe Reproduction Body, Licensed by Ford

Ford has licensed Dennis Carpenter Ford Restoration Parts to build a steel body shell reproduction of the iconic, classic 1940 Ford coupe. Body packages are available in several degrees of completeness, with prices ranging from $11,900 to $15,000. Two firewall options are available for order, one configured for the original flathead V-8, the other for a modern V-8.

The Forty Ford, what a gorgeous classic. Click the link to Dennis Carpenter above to get the details.

Tip of the Hat to the MotorAuthority blog for this story.

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