1 Comment January 15, 2015 Zachariah

Maybe you’re excited about my plans for these beer journals and expansions beyond into recipe books and more. You want to see this succeed? I’m going to need your help. Here are a few ways that you be a hero & get listed on our Wall of Heroes. I have broken this down with a level for everyone starting with the most basic, casual ways of helping out.

First, though, I wanted to show you a quick example of being a hero. This is TUFFNotes, a really cool waterproof notebook concept by Bardin & Marsee on Kickstarter. Go watch their video and back their project. They are so close to reaching their funding goal. Help put them over the top! It is so easy!

And now back to our regularly scheduled program…

Super-Casual: Stay In Touch

First, you should definitely get on our newsletter list. I won’t share your email address and I won’t bombard you with constant emails. I just want you to know when the Kickstarter is launching, how it is progressing and when any new major products or developments are dropping. Super casual. Super easy. Just click here and sign-up.

Casual: Connect Socially

Did you know we’re on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google+? The more likes and follows we get, the easier it will be to promote our page, our Kickstarter, and our products. So please help us out by showing your support on the social webs!

Follow @barrelagedbooks

Semi-Casual: Give Feedback

What do you think so far of our idea(s)? Would you like to get a sneak peak at the tasting pages and infographics to offer ideas/suggestions? Join our Feedback Loop and I will give you exclusive access to upcoming designs and products for you give feedback on as well as our upcoming super-secret fan forum just for product testers. Select the appropriate checkbox when you sign up for our newsletter list by clicking here.

Semi-Active: Tell Your Friends

This is going to be the key to our success. My reach is limited. But your reach is huge. Our estimate is that only 1% of people who look at our Kickstarter page will actually back it for an average of $15 in support. That means I need at least 100,000 people just to LOOK at our Kickstarter page to raise the necessary $15,000 to make the project succeed. I don’t know 100,000 people. But you and your friends and their friends collectively do. Share, share, share. Tell people you know face-to-face, share on social media, just tell people about this project. It doesn’t take a lot of effort, but it will make all the difference between success and failure.

Active: Tell “Influencers”

Not all social mentions are equal. There are three primary groups I can think of who are especially interested in what we are creating: independent brewers, pub owners, home brewer associations, and craft beer enthusiasts / bloggers. It is possible you have a fleeting connection to some of these groups. It really would help if you went out of your way to connect with these kind of key players and influencers to let them know about this awesome Kickstarter and how much they will love it.

Speaking of influencers, did you know that one key celebrity endorsement can literally make a campaign? Here are links to a few celebrity craft beer enthusiasts whom I would love to get an endorsement of my Kickstarter. Maybe you can think of more. And maybe you have what it takes to reach out and convince one of them to mention me to their fans/followers.

Super-Active: Street Team

I’ve designed little 9″ x 3″ poster/flyers for my Kickstarter that I am going to distribute to every bar and craft beer store in Chicago. I could sure use your help. In fact, this would be an awesome promo item to distribute everywhere! If you want to help me get these flyers out in your area, just shoot me an email by clicking here and in the put “Street Team” in your subject line. Or, when you sign-up for the newsletter by clicking here, just check the appropriate box for street team.

Semi-Ambitious: Collaborate

Are a graphic designer or artist who would like to add your take on a cool infographic for the book? Maybe you are a musician and you would like to contribute some sound to an upcoming video. Or maybe you want to make a video or contribute some other talent.

Or perhaps you are just a super smart, savvy entrepreneur / marketing guru and you want to offer some insight into how we can position our products better (I could sure use some help in the social media and social media advertising arena). Whatever it is, if you want to contribute to the cause, then please send me an email by clicking here and let me know what you can help with. Put “Collaboration Idea” in the subject line. Or, as always, when you sign up for our newsletter by clicking here, check the appropriate box!

Ambitious: PR Minions

This is where the rubber meets the road and where I’m going to need the most help. I am building a giant contact list database of every media outlet (including YouTube channels, podcasts, and blogs), brewery, and craft beer enthusiast group in the U.S. And leading up to my Kickstarter launch I want to contact every single one of them to make sure they know about the journals, the Kickstarter, and will hopefully promote it for me to their followers/listeners for free as a news blurb.

This is super time consuming work, though. I need to divide the job up between several people who can coordinate over the internet (I have great software for this, don’t worry) to help me research and build that database and then send emails out on behalf of Barrel Aged Books to the appropriate parties. You don’t even have to have experience in PR to do this, I can help craft all the messages myself. If you do have experience then all the better. If this is something you can help with, please contact me ASAP by using our web contact form.

Super-Ambitions: Apply for a Job

Last but not least, there are some opportunities for paid jobs with Barrel Aged Books, but currently these are strictly commission based. Hopefully more, non-commissioned based jobs will come soon once we can start generating a steady revenue flow. For now, I need to hire PR Coordinators and Sales Reps. Or, as I like to call them Ambassadors and Evangelists. If you are interested in any of these positions, please contact me right away.

Ambassadors will take the lead in coordinating our PR Efforts, but unlike PR Minions, they will be expected to generate a minimum amount of contacts per week and will be paid a % of all Kickstarter revenue earned. Also, I am limiting the number of Ambassadors I hire to three.

Each Ambassador will receive 1.5% commission on Kickstarter revenue. My lead Ambassador is also an expert in social media communications and strategy and will help write and schedule regular social media messages. The lead Ambassador will receive an additional 0.5% commission.

So, if the Kickstarter reaches its minimum funding goal of $15,000 your pay would be $225/$225/$300. If we made Bull & Stash money we’re talking $1050/$1050/$1400. If we can manage to pull off something like the $100,000 in 10 Days Kickstarter hack then we’re talking some very serious commissions: $1500+/$1500+/$2000+ – you can see where this is going.

As for the Evangelist job, that is a little different. An Evangelist is primarily responsible for coordinating which beers will be listed in regional books and selling sponsorship -“Of the Month” – features to breweries and pubs. This will be building off the work done by the Ambassadors just gathering contact information and connecting with breweries, so it isn’t a bad idea to start out as an Ambassador and transition into an Evangelist role.

The commission structure for this is a bit more complicated and the rate of expansion is going to be vary quite a bit depending on how much revenue we can generate initially. Also, I may play around with the sponsorship costs depending on the market and the demand. So I can’t really go into details about potential earnings in this blog post, but, like most commission jobs, if you are super creative and resourceful, there is a lot of opportunity to earn a lot of money here.

Finally, if you live in one of the major markets where you are selling then there is even more opportunity for you to actually run your own mini-operation in that market, like a franchise, and earn even more.

Are You a Hero?

So, what do you think? There’s something for everyone, isn’t there? Unless you just absolutely hate me or hate the idea of what Barrel Aged Books is trying to accomplish, then I am sure there is a level of support and involvement there that is right for you. So please, sign up and get on board today.

Coming Up Next: The Pitch – I’m trying to do something kind of strange here: I’m trying to not only get people to pay for sponsorship in a beer tasting notebook, I’m trying to do it in a non-obtrusive way that buyers of the book will celebrate and embrace. Just what is my value proposition here? Can I pull it of?

I Need a Hero