FINALLY We Have A "GO" For Launch On Tuesday, June 30th

After several false starts - and a lot of unexpected twists and turns - the pieces are finally in place and the launch of NightDrive Eyewear will take place tomorrow.

Formal launch will be Tuesday, June 30th at 7 AM - EDT.

We have an "Early Bird Special" that is a special price below the regular Campaign price - and further below MSRP.  We have allotted more units than we did for our o4s Campaign - but they won't last forever.  When they're gone - they're gone.  If you snooze - you will lose.

I've worked hard on this product and project - and I am proud of them.  Differentiating something already in existence is not always easy.  But I have come up with an innovative approach to the serious problem of night driving vision.  Simply put, NightDrive works - and deserves your support.

You can connect directly to our Project Page on IndieGoGo (IGG) by going to http://igg.me/at/nightdrive.

Check this out.   Seeing Is Believing - and NightDrive OWNS The Night.

Watch My Kickstarter Just Became Watch My IndieGoGo

Sometimes life throws unexpected curveballs.  And I seem to have had more than my share of them lately.

Late last week when I submitted my new Project for NightDrive Eyewear to Kickstarter for their necessary approval, I was informed my Project had been "declined" - and was given no reason.  When I respectfully inquired "why" this had happened, I was promptly told I was now being banned from being able to create any future Kickstarter projects.

There is no doubt my lawsuit against my EX "best friend and partner" is behind all of this.  Whether he had a direct hand in this or not, time will tell.

Meanwhile, I have no choice but to switch the NightDrive Eyewear Crowdfunding Campaign to the other major crowdfunding platform - IndieGoGo (IGG).   They have been extraordinarily kind and helpful in assisting me in making the switch on such short notice.

And so, NightDrive will launch on IndieGoGo - www.indiegogo.com - on Monday, June 29th at 7 AM - EDT.   Simply go to the website and in the search box, type-in "NightDrive" - and you will be taken to my Product Page.

As I did with my Orion4Sight Campaign, there will be an "Early Bird Special" where you can get a reduced price from the regular price of the Campaign.  But this is first come - first served.  And when they're gone - they're gone.

If you are in any way considering a purchase for yourself - or family or friends - there are two reasons to do it on Monday,  The first, of course, is the Early Bird Special.  But the second is because your purchase on the first day will help me more than on any other day.  If you are reading this, you are probably here to learn.  And Crowdfunding platforms reward early orders with better positioning on their website as determined by their algorithms.  They make money when you do.  So if you are inclined to support me, please do it on Monday, June 29th.

And there is one other thing you can do to help me that many of my supporters in the Amazon selling community are doing - and that is to post my Facebook product page URL on your Facebook Timeline.  There it will be seen - and may be seen by some friend of yours who is exactly who this product is intended to help.  And you could feel good about that.  That link is - www.facebook.com/nightdriveeyewear.

Thank you for your understanding and indulgence - and I hope to see you as one of my NightDrive Eyewear supporters.

Unfortunately, We Have To Delay Our Launch of NightDrive Again

Those of you who are in the business of selling products on Amazon and the Internet KNOW how frustrating it can sometimes be when certain pieces of your puzzle don't fall into place as you expected.

Sadly, we have hit yet another road block as we draw close to our launch for NightDrive. 
We are on the 5 yard line - but not quite ready to score just yet.

So, there will be no launch tomorrow, Monday, June 22nd.   We apologize.

But there is no doubt we will get there - and soon.

In the meantime, if you haven't gone to www,headtalker.com to support us in that effort - and are willing to do so - please read my most immediate previous post - and follow those instructions on how to interact with Headtalker.   That would be greatly appreciated.

Stay tuned.

This Is HOW You Crowdspeak (HeadTalker) For NightDrive!

HERE ARE THE STEPS FOR SUPPORTING NIGHTDRIVE ON HEADTALKER

Supporting NightDrive on Headtalker is easy to do.

1)   Go to:  www.headtalker.com

2)   At the top their Home Page, click on "Explore Headtalkers"

3)   Pick a Category and click.  You can find NightDrive in both the "Crowdfunding" and "Technology" categories.

4)   Review the Projects until you see NightDrive - and click on it's avatar/image.

5)   Click on the buttons for those Social Media communities to which you belong - Facebook and Twitter being perhaps the most useful.

6)   Click on the button that says "add support" - and you have done it.   Totally Simple.

7)   NOW if you would, PLEASE ask at least one (more would be better) of your friends - who has a lot of contacts - to do the same.  That would be greatly appreciated.


Also, please remember to post our FB page - www.facebook.com/nightdriveeyewear - to your personal FB Timeline - and invite your friends to learn more about NightDrive.   This too can be very effective in spreading the word.

Thanking you in advance for your NightDrive support.   Let's watch the process of Crowdspeaking at work.

NightDrive Launch On Kickstarter Has Been Delayed

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry - or so thought John Steinbeck as he named his novel.

A matter of timing and procedure has made it necessary to set back the NightDrive launch by one week.  Launch will now take place on Monday, June 22nd at 7 AM - EDT.

There is now just less than two weeks to go - and lots will begin to happen with our HeadTalker initiative.  I hope you will be among those who will participate.  It will be interesting to see what kind of leverage we can achieve together.

Watch this space.

Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks

The focus of this exercise has been to find and use new tools and tactics to LEVERAGE the idea of Crowdspeaking as a means to bring attention (and hopefully customers too) to your product.

When the time comes to do my HeadTalker "blast" to the friends of those of you who agree to participate, the recipients of the "blast" will receive a short email.  As I've said before, that is a "numbers game",  But I have also discussed more personal approaches.  I am also asking that you will be reaching out personally to 5-10 "influencers" you know - and ask them to participate and replicate.

But my friend, Jeannie Clark, showed me a new one.  It is so simple and basic (yet dramatically effective), I am ashamed I didn't think to ask it of those of you following this Blog.  However, now I will.

You can simply post the link for my FB product page on your personal timeline. 

It will make it easy and dramatic for your FB friends to see it - and perhaps stir their interest.  Certainly some of your Amazon selling community friends will see it and may already know about it - but other friends will see it too.   In short order, a number of Jeannie's friends saw it - and expressed interest because like many, they too experience night driving vision issues.  These were not people who know me - so these were new "exposures" to NightDrive.   AND they were coming with the tacit endorsement of a valued friend.  That sounds like a "twofer" to me.

So I am asking you to post the link to my FB product page on your timeline.   www.facebook.com/nightdriveeyewear.  See what happens.   Think of how your friends could help your product by doing this for you.

Stay tuned,

The Sum Of The Parts

If you have not yet read the previous posts - perhaps because you are just joining this Blog - I would ask that you do it now.  It will make what follows even clearer.

So far, there have been Four posts about what I am attempting to do with putting Crowdspeaking on steroids.  This is here for you to watch - but I also hope - to actively participate.  I won't know - and YOU won't know - if this is something that can work and make a difference for me unless you agree to help..  But if it can work for me, then it can for you too - and it is NOT limited to promoting a Kickstarter Campaign like I am doing.  I'm guessing your wheels are already turning as you think of how this Crowdspeaking tool can be combined with your own tactical approach to gain new ground for YOUR product.

So here is the "Sum of the Parts" I have outlined so far.

1. Crowdspeaking lets you leverage your social network by "blasting" a specific message to the friends of your friends.simultaneously.  It directs their friends to a URL where they can learn about the subject of the exercise.  (In this case, a new product available on Kickstarter.)  You ask your circle of friends to help you by participating.  That is what I am asking of you.
2. Most Crowdspeaking efforts stop there.  I want to put it on steroids.  All of you know 5-10 people who are "influencers".  In addition to making your "circle of friends" available as in #1 above, I am asking you to personally reach out to your 5-10 key "influencers" and ask them to #1 - PARTICIPATE by doing exactly what you did with your social media friends - and then to #2 - REPLICATE what you did by personally contacting 5-10 of their most influential friends - and then so on.  Done seriously and well, this could have a HUGE reach.
3. This "outreach" also needs a parallel track to be most effective.  Spreading the word by classic Crowdspeaking is a "numbers game".  It is not focused on personal knowledge of interest or need.  That too is needed to reach people for whom the product in question may be most relevant and useful.   To do that, I need you to also reach out to 5-10 people for whom you know my product - NightDrive Eyewear - would be something they need and would use.  If their need is genuine, then you will be doing them an important favor.  We will be telling you how to send these friends most directly to our Kickstarter Campaign when the "link" and exact detals are known.
4. My product - NightDrive Eyewear - is described in more detail in the most immediate previous post, but here are highlights.  It takes two leading schools of thought about improving night driving vision - and combines them into a single product that makes it possible to evaluate and customize an individual's night driving vision acuity.  In the process, we also discovered a third option that works very well.  No longer is there any need to lug around multiple pairs of eyewear - and buy more than one pair to find the solution that works best for YOU.  Everyone's eyes are different - and what works for one may not for another,  The GOAL here is improved night driving vision leading to improved night driving safety.

A coming step will be to tell you "how" to go on Headtalker.com - and submit your list of FB and Twitter friends.  And, in turn, you will be able to give that information to your 5-10 influencers.

Meanwhile, it would be appreciated if you would go to our FB page and give it a "like".  This will make it easier for us to fully communicate with you and others as we now enter the Homecoming Stretch of being exactly two weeks out from Kickstarter launch.  www.facebook.com/nightdriveeyewear.

Stay Tuned.

NightDrive Eyewear OWNS The Night

Think about the last time you had a real good scare while driving at night.  It probably shook you up, didn't it?   Well, you are not alone.  Sooner or later, it happens to everyone.   Nasty!

The most common cause of accidental death in the United States is traffic fatalities.  Almost 50% of them happen at night - even though there are far fewer cars on the road at night.  The primary reason for this is reduced light which makes it harder to see.

Night driving is a REAL PROBLEM.  At night, the better your eyes can process the available light, the better you are able to see. And better night driving vision means increased safety.

NightDrive Eyewear takes two competing schools of thought about night driving vision and combines them into a single pair of eyewear that has interchangeable lenses to offer you a customized choice that is right for you.  At the end of the day (the pun IS intended), it doesn't matter what we think is best - or what experts think is best.  What matters is what YOU think is best - and what works for you.  Now you don't have to buy two pair of eyewear to figure it out.

Our interchangeable lenses make it possible for you to conduct your own side-by-side evaluation.  You place one of each of the lens types in the frames - and then safely (hands on the wheel) alternate looking through each type of lens with one eye.  You will soon see which works best for you.  And you might find, as we did, that "one of each" works best.  (Contact lens users will recognize this as the common choice of having one lens for up close - and one lens for distance.  The brain processes both together.  It just works.)

The lenses have these features:

• High-quality poly-carbonate material
• Superior anti-scratch coating - both sides
• Anti-glare coating - both sides.
• Yellow-tinted and crystal clear lenses to choose from.  (Each has STRONG believers - but you get to decide which works best for you.)

The frames have these features:

• Made from TR90 - a material usually found only in $200-$300 eyewear.
• Flexible rear temples to provide a better fit.
• Half frames open at the bottom to provide unobstructed vision.
• Wrap-around frame shape to keep out unfiltered light.
• Attractive gun metal grey color.

As a FREE BONUS, we are also providing a pair of sunglass lenses.  These are UV400 lenses - which means they have 100% UV protection.  These lenses in these frames alone would cost what we will charge on Kickstarter for the entire set.  You get the frames, THREE sets of interchangeable lenses, a micro-fiber bag and eyewear case to hold everything - a great value -  all for one modest price.

These glasses are NOT just for Baby Boomers and older folk.  EVERYONE can benefit from using these to drive at night - and EVERYONE'S eyes are different.   You don't have to be older to want to be safer when driving at night.

In addition to yourself, you certainly know someone who can benefit from using NightDrive Eyewear at night.  Be prepared to get your own when we launch on Kickstarter - and spread the word of better night driving safety to your friends.

                                        NightDrive Eyewear OWNS the Night

Watch this space.

Doing A Deeper Crowdspeaking Dive

We've covered Crowdspeaking basics - and a template for leveraging a Crowdspeaking effort to reach more people than would happen otherwise.  If you have not read the previous two posts covering this, please do so.

But this is about more than just the mechanics we have covered so far.  The GOAL of any Crowdspeaking effort is to reach an audience with your message.   That message could be almost anything (Crowdspeaking platforms are amazingly versatile) , but for those of us in the Internet physical products business, the message is going to be about your product.

The platforms I have mentioned (headtalker.com, thunderclap.it - and now a new one, plugmob.com) all do a great job of broadcasting a brief message to large numbers.  And while this is indisputably important, it should be clear this is a "numbers game".  You really have little way of knowing who among those receiving your "message blast" are truly going to be prospects for your specific product.  However you do know this method can work based on simple mathematics.  The more the merrier.

But if you want to dive deeper, you are going to have to do this dive in a more focused manner.

We have talked about identifying people among your social media friends who are "connected " and are "influencers".  That has been one direction of inquiry and analysis.  But now we must additionally identify those people in our circle of acquaintances who might actually be good prospects for our product.  This parallel track is also important to maximize out chances of success.

Think seriously about who is "a good match".  Is this product something they could want or need?   Reaching out to them personally in some manner is simply increasing the odds that we will make a connection with someone who could be a serious buyer.  Personal touch always matters.

There is nothing improper about bringing a product to someone's attention when you think they would benefit.  This is classic "word of mouth" marketing that is widely regarded as one of THE most effective methods of all.  In a variety of ways, we all do this all the time - often without even consciously thinking about it.  But now we need to be more thoughtful and focused.  Identify those 5-10 people you know who could really use and enjoy the product under discussion.  Reach out to them.  If they are a proper prospect, you will be doing them a favor.

It is no secret I have a new product I will be launching on Kickstarter in a matter of weeks.  It is the subject of this exercise.  You are here because you want to watch and learn - and, I hope, participate.

In my next post, I will talk about this product - NightDrive - in greater detail.  But for now, you can learn a little more by visiting our fledgling Facebook page for the product at:  www.facebook.com/NightDriveEyewear.   You will quickly see this FB page is "not ready for primetime" yet, but it will give you an Introduction to the product for the moment.

Watch this space.

Putting Crowdspeaking On Steroids

In the previous post, I discussed the basics of Crowdspeaking.  You gather a group of friends and followers and ask their support in spreading a specific message.  And they agree to have your message "blasted" to their friends on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to which they belong.  Your message goes out to this enlarged group all at the same time you have chosen - hence the term "Crowdspeaking".  The beauty of it is - it is almost unlimited in terms of scope and subject matter.  It is an example of leverage at it's finest.

The use most people make of this tool and tactic stops there.  But I want to see if it can be taken further - and perhaps add some new variations and nuances - and make it's potential more than it was before.   I want to put Crowdspeaking On Steroids.

In the Crowdspeaking Campaign I will be attempting, I have a larger potential initial audience than many thanks to YOU - my many friends in ASM and other Amazon Seller communities.  What makes you different and special are several things.  You have a vested interest of your own in seeing if this works - and how.  But you also have a reputation and history of commitment and support for others in this community we share.  And honestly, I am counting on that growing tradition of sharing and support to help make this work - and become real world proof of yet one more way we can each be successful on this fascinating path.

I'll bet most of you have participated in some kind of "chain letter" at some point in your life. Every time the message was passed on, the dynamics of leverage enlarged the audience.  If it had a money component, you stood the chance of receiving back  multiples of the money you may have contributed initially.  (I once got enough $25 Savings Bonds to cash them in - and take a great Caribbean Cruise.  Woo Hoo!)   Like me, many of you may also have flirted with Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM) at some point as well.  When done successfully, people recruit people - who recruit people - who recruit yet more people - and the "downline" grows inexorably due to basic mathematics.

I intend to try a similar kind of expanded leverage by asking you to engage in a participatory experiment with me.

Within your own list of "friends" and contacts in social media, I know each of you has at least 5-10 friends who are what I call "influencers".  They may be influencers because they have a LARGE number of friends and acquaintances - and/or they may simply be people to whom others look for guidance and ideas.  I will be asking you to personally reach out to those influencers you know - and ask them to help in this "test effort".  Why would they agree?  I hope it would be because you, their friend, are helping with an effort to prove if a specific tactic can work and be useful - and if so, it will be of help to YOU as you move forward with your own business efforts.

Basically, you will be asking these friends/influencers to do two things.

1. PARTICIPATE   You will ask them to do what you have done in signing-up with HeadTalker.
2. REPLICATE   You will ask them to, in turn, reach out to 5-10 "influencers" they know and ask them to participate in the same way in order to help their friend (you),

With your effort - and a little bit of luck thrown in - who knows how LARGE the "reach" may become - and how many "messages" will be blasted out on that single day?  Its exciting to think about what could happen.

I am not ready to initiate this process just yet.  A few more necessary pieces are being prepared and put in place.  But I want you to know what we will be attempting - and to be thinking about how you can play a part.  AND now that you have the basic idea (although I will be telling you about yet another "phase" that will be coming), I want YOU to tell me if you have any ideas that could make this better.  One of my favorite phrases is - "No one owns all the sharp pencils."   If you have some good thought to suggest and share, please email me directly at - jrgalley@msn.com.

Watch this space.

Crowdfunding Can Work Best Using Crowdspeaking

You already know Kickstarter is part of a larger phenomenon known as Crowdfunding - but are you familiar with Crowdspeaking?   To some, this may seem like "old hat" - but to others, this may be your first exposure to the concept.

Simply put, Crowdspeaking is a way to reach out to a leveraged audience with a specific message.  There are several platforms for doing this, but we will concern ourselves with two of them. At some point, you might want to check them out to better understand their details.

• www.headtalker.com
• www.thunderclap.it

Because HeadTalker is associated with a Crowdfunding platform - and has certain features that are better for my needs, this is the platform I will use initially - and perhaps exclusively.  BUT any of the good ones can work for you.

You start with a specific message you want specifically targeted people to see at a specific time.  They all receive this message simultaneously - and it has a brief description of what this is all about (a product, a cause, a reunion, a "whatever") - and a link to where you want them to visit to learn more.

You are able to make this happen by asking a group of friends to participate by having their circle of friends on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. contacted with the message - and obtaining the agreement and help of these friends in doing it.  They may agree to do this out of friendship - some "quid pro quo"- or any reason suitable to them.

So far, there is nothing new to what I have told you.   Crowdspeaking Campaigns using this "model" are conducted all the time.  I want to "test the tactic" of seeing if there is a way to put this process "on steroids" (a term those of you familiar with the Orion4Sight "sunglasses on steroids" Campaign will find familiar).

IF this works - and those of you reading this will make or break it - then it is not just something that can help me with my new Kickstarter Campaign, but can be used and/or modified by ANY of you to accomplish great things for your product - and NOT necessarily in the context of Kickstarter.

In our larger communities of people selling physical products on the Internet (ASM, Amazon FBA
Sellers, etc.) we have built a wonderful tradition of helping each other - and learning from each other.  In my next post, I will be more specific about what I am asking you to help me with - and what I am offering in return.   Stay tuned - and check back here often.