We've Passed the 1/4 Mark!
I’m so excited with the progress we’re making!
I want to thank you everyone for your support. I truly appreciate it. We couldn’t do this without you, so I thank you for helping to make my dream come true.
The last week or so has been crazy but one thing that has really made all of the stress and everything worth it to me is hearing from people who tell me that they can feel my passion for the project and that they have confidence in what I can accomplish. That belief in me has meant so much to me.
So I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
We’re still voting on the next reblend in the comment section of the Kickstarter campaign – the voting will be over and a winner announced on Saturday OR until we reach the next $2K milestone, whichever comes first (I hope it’s the $2K milestone!)
<><><>
I hope you’ll help me become 52Teas!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/497705217/the-great-52teas-take-over
And Remember: With every $2000 milestone reached, contributors will get to vote on a new reblend! This reblend will become part of the incentives to choose from for the $10 incentive!
Congrats!!! The Kickstarter Campaign looks great!
I was wondering if you happen to know if all of the teas in the Reblend Sampler Pack are vegan?
Also, if you are looking for a gently used label printer, let me know.
We might be in the market for the label printer … PM me on that!
all the teas from 52Teas will be Vegan unless I happen to reblend the candy corn one, I’m not sure if that was vegan, but the others are.
If we go in for the reblend package, will you be reblending it, or is it already reblended? or will Frank do it?
Typically on kickstarter, if there’s an additional charge for international shipping, it’s stated upfront so that folks know what it is and can add that amount to their pledge. I might have missed it but I don’t see anywhere what the additional charge is, which means that you’ll be collecting it some other method in the future? Do you know what the charge is? While I assume that “international” means everywhere outside of continental us….can you confirm?
Tired, so my sincere apologies if I missed it elsewhere…….
I have a different charge for Canada versus International shipping which is why I didn’t list it directly in the wording of the incentives. I didn’t want to be too wordy in the descriptions of the incentives/rewards because I’ve been told that I can be long-winded. (I agree, I am.)
The way the incentive/reward was set up when I set up the campaign, it let me put the dollar amount for the shipping, but it doesn’t end up showing on the wording of the incentive itself. I’m not sure why that is, and I wish it did appear so that people know what the payment will be, right up front.
I will go through and try to rewrite the incentives slightly so that they reflect the shipping charges. My apologies, in my efforts to try to be as brief as possible with the wording, I had hoped that kickstarter would show those figures for me.
And … I’m sorry that shipping internationally will be a bit expensive. I’m not trying to milk anyone for shipping charges – I went off what I’ll actually be charged. :(
Because I can’t edit the incentives/rewards now, I have added a bit about shipping charges in the FAQ at the bottom of the campaign that will help you see what international shipping rates will be charged.
I hope you get some rest!
Question, so if I pledged like 10 or more, if I did 20, could I request the same blend twice? Or is that not allowed? I’m so excited that you put Maple Cheesecake on the reblend list!! Like so ridiculously happy!
Okay, well I backed it anyway. I forgot to say on the other thread-but congrats on taking over 52Teas! I have a feeling you are going to just add so much more to the company, and I’m really excited for you!! I have never backed a kickstarter or anything, but I really think that you are going to do awesome, and I’d love to help support this project!! I know you are going to run it amazingly!! Can’t wait! :D
Thank you very much! You can definitely get 2 bags of the Maple Cheesecake. Even though I don’t think Kickstarter is supposed to know that. LOL
Just curious – would it be possible to combine packages/shipping across a few orders (to save those of us in Canada who are stuck with terrible shipping and an even worse exchange rate?) I know it would be more work :(
I’m not sure how I would make that adjustment via the kickstarter campaign … that is something I’ll have to address with Kickstarter to ask them if there’s a way to do that.
If no feasible solution can be found with Kickstarter, I can offer you this: if your package costs less to ship than what you paid, I can issue a refund via paypal. Like I said, I’m not here to make a buck off of the shipping charges, I’m just trying to get this off the ground, but I also don’t want to end up eating the shipping costs because that simply wouldn’t make sense since we need those funds to make this work!
Oh, I most certainly believe that the shipping charges you wrote are legit! I was just thinking that if, say, 5 of us in the Greater Toronto Area wanted to order stuff, perhaps we could have all 5 “orders” shipped together, so instead of $6 or $8 per person, we just pay the aggregate actual shipping charge (whatever it may be).
Oh I totally get that and that would be a great idea if you could all combine that – I don’t know if I could feasibly work that out with kickstarter or not, but I will contact them tomorrow during business hours and see what we can work out.
Again, if not, I am very happy to do a refund via paypal. The big thing for me here is that I want my backers to be happy because hopefully they’re my future customers too and happy customers = repeat business. A successful campaign doesn’t mean a whole lot if I don’t have sales afterward.
Hi @Kittenna: I just wanted to let you know that I have posed the question to Kickstarter and I’m still waiting back to get a response from them. If I don’t receive a written reply from them, I’ll call them (assuming that I can find their phone number on the site!) and see if there’s something that can be done about combining shipping.
@Kittenna: I heard back from Kickstarter today. Here is what they had to say: We can’t really alter the amount that you’ll be charged for the shipping through the regular incentives.
However, what they did suggest is this: I can put together a special incentive set up just for you. This will enable me to control what the shipping will be. You can let me know what you want and how many – and I can figure out about how much it’s going to cost to ship it, and I can set up an incentive that will cover the cost of the incentive with the estimated shipping charges. So if you can get together with your friends in the area and decide upon what you want and you can PM me with what you want, I’ll set up your incentive for you.
Just an observation/comment. As someone who really isn’t familiar with the 52teas blends listed – I’m suggesting a short blurb “the essence of hot, buttery, maple-syruped pancakes infused through our premium black tea” after the blend name. I have no idea what graveyard mist is – I went and looked it up here, but thinking of other potential backers that might not be from Steepster – they might not know where/how to look it up. I understand not wanting to be wordy – but I think a little “sales pitch” about the tea would be a nice inclusion. IMHO. :)) Good luck with the campaign.
I have no idea what Graveyard Mist is either, but I kind of want to drink it because the name is so awesome.
So if your main goal is to get Steepsterites to contribute to your campaign, I think this will work fine. I’m guessing a lot of the backers so far are a) current happy customers of 52Teas who want to see it continue, b) past customers of yours who are excited that you’re getting back into tea blending, and c) people like me who enjoy your reviews and think you sound like a good person with interesting ideas, have never tried but are curious about 52Teas, like to support fledgling tea vendors, etc. Great, maybe those groups combined will be enough to get you the support you need. But if you want to attract random Kickstarter people… people browsing projects in your area or just scrolling through the “Food” category or the “drinks” tag, then I think you need to do a better job of explaining what your company will actually do. Saying “We’re taking over 52Teas” isn’t actually very informative, when probably 99% of Kickstarter users have never heard of 52Teas. You include a link to your blog, but not a link to the actual site, so someone would have to google it to figure out what you’re even talking about. And then the 52Teas website itself is a bit confusing and off-putting, so you might actually lose potential customers if they do that. The video is nice for putting a face to a name (well, one of the names) but it doesn’t actually provide much additional information. Now, I know that you’re a passionate and well-informed tea fanatic with an interest in creating interesting and delicious blends using the highest quality teas and natural flavourings, which is pretty much why I decided toss some money in the hat. But I know that from following you on Steepster and reading your blog, not from anything actually directly related to the Kickstarter campaign. Long story short, I think you guys need to do a better job of explaining your business model and philosophy, what sets you apart from other tea companies out there, and why someone with just a passing interest in loose leaf tea should consider supporting you. :)
+1 I agree. I think there’s tea lovers out there who are not on Steepster that would back this business. I’d love to see this business succeed. Here’s my two cents, I hope it’s helpful:
I don’t know how you make this work on Kickstarter logistically, but when I click “Food” and then “Vegan”, I should see you as the first entry! Narrow in on your niche investors.
I think putting some more text in your summary that excites and creates curiosity. What about moving “We want to create tea flavors that will excite our customers! Anyone can offer you a lemon flavored tea, but how many tea companies will make a lemon cheesecake bar flavored tea?” to the summary??
The first 3 days of your Kickstarter are crucial. What you do in those days typically determines how you will do overall. Contact as many people directly (and even by phone) that you know will support you and ask them to give in the first 3 days (not day 4, not day 7, not in 2 weeks :)
OK, can I just say that it USED to be much more informative but then I had people telling me that I was being too wordy?
The summary is limited to a certain number of characters, so I don’t think I can add that – although I love the idea.
Thank you very much for your input – I really do appreciate everyone’s thoughts on the campaign. I have been trying to create a balance between being very wordy (which I know that I am) and being brief and to the point (which I seldom am).
Hey, I like the changes you’ve made! One thing you might consider is writing a wordier, maybe more personal, description of the project in a blog post, and then link to it from the Kickstarter page. So you’re not cluttering up the main page with extraneous info, but people who want a more in-depth description can find it. And that way your non-Steepster blog followers can also find out about the campaign. :)
That’s a really good idea. I think I’ll work on that soon!
Thank you so much for your input, everyone’s thoughts are really helpful.
Yes and I don’t mean to give you unsolicited suggestions and bombard. Just building off the thread and thinking indeed tea drinkers outside Steepster would love this. Similar to who we’re going after – david’s tea drinkers who want to upgrade from artificial flavouring, etc.
@Lindsay: I just finished my blog post if you’d like to see it:
http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/01/23/the-great-52teas-take-over/
@LiberTEAS: Nice! I like it. :)
Hey, is it possible to tag your campaign with more than one thing? Like right now it’s in the “Food” category, and subcategory “Drinks”. But is there a way to get it into the Food/Vegan subcategory as well? And maybe Food/Small Batch? (though I’m not sure what their definition of “small batch” is). I don’t know how many people on Kickstarter just browse those subcategories, versus like, searching for keywords or just browsing the “What’s popular” and “New & Noteworthy” areas. But it seems like getting your campaign in all the relevant groups would be worth doing…
OK, based on suggestions – I’ve revised the project a little – I did a little bit of tweaking to it and hopefully not too much. I added a little bit about who I am, and I rearranged parts of it to hopefully make it flow better.
I hope it’s still brief and to the point but a little better at explaining!
If you haven’t already I would post about the Kickstarter on other social media such as Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Tumblr (and Steepster members should consider doing the same) to get the word out to a larger audience. Also look into other tea blogs and websites to see if they’re willing to promote it.
Login or sign up to leave a comment.