Oops! Sorry for those test notifications e-mails, folks.
We are in the process of completing some upgrades, and our system accidentally went haywire.
For the record, we do not have a new “product 0030″ in development. Feel free to influence our current projects in development at http://quirky.com/projects.
These things happen. Thanks for understanding!
Many of you have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon to promote Quirky using your social sales links. Kudos! We encourage all of you to leverage your social networks to attract new Quirks. This, in turn, can earn you cold, hard cash if your referrals purchase products in pre-sales or submit product ideas. Everyone wins!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Twitter machine, I’ve compiled some helpful links to help you get started:
A Newbie’s Guide to Twitter – a helpful beginner’s guide, from C-Net News.
How To Twitter – one reporter’s foray into the Twitter world, from the Wall Street Journal.
How to Get More Twitter Followers – useful advice for gaining followers, from DoshDosh.
Using Twitter to Promote Products – a video describing how Dell used Twitter to promote products, WhoPopsYourPopcorn.com.
Once you’re on board, don’t forget to follow us @QuirkyInc.
Sometimes things get a little, well, quirky around Quirky HQ… ESPECIALLY when massive amounts of caffeine are involved. Nikki, our Director of Operations, just reenacted the following classic scene from Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls.
The office responded with uproarious laughter.
Yep… it’s been a long day.
We receive our fair share of feedback on ways to improve our voting and rating system. We’re looking at ways to improve this process, but as you can probably tell, we have a million projects on the pipeline! We ask you to be patient, and in the meantime, read this helpful community forum post by Quirkster Clinton Fleener on his method of filtering, rating, and voting on ideas:
I’ve seen a couple of ways Quirksters keep track of the ideas they like (especially when there are hundreds of submissions for name or tagline, etc.).
I will always leave a comment on the ideas I like. Then I later review just the ideas I liked (well, plus other ideas I commented suggestions to though I didn’t especially like the idea) by selecting “my commented on”. The downside is that this is kinda a misuse of the comment function – I think that comments are best used for sharing ideas.
Another way people keep track is to only rate the ideas they like. Then they later review just the ideas they liked by selecting “my rated”. The downside is that this is kinda a misuse of the rating function – Quirky uses the ratings along with the votes to help them decide which idea to use (so I always rate all the ideas).
These methods are certainly not as good as something like a “like” function. But they might help you keep track of ideas until a “like” function is available.
I’ve been working here at Quirky for a month, and they finally roped me into getting on the Quirky blog. The job has been exciting and extremely fast paced. When I tell friends that I actually enjoy having multiple projects constantly counting down to their deadlines, they think I’m nuts, but I guess that’s part of what makes me a true quirk.
As a designer, it’s extremely important to constantly stay inspired. Below are my top five websites for daily doses on inspiration. I’ll be honest, there are tons bookmarked in my Safari browser, but these are my five favorites that I must pass on to the Quirky community.
Not to be confused with notcot.com. Notcot.org posts tons of user submissions and finds from the “NotEmpire” everyday. They have the best balance of quantity and quality of posts for anything design-related. Best of all, anyone can submit a link for them to post.
This site mostly focuses on the world of international architecture. I find it extremely important to step outside of the world of product design to get inspiration. While they only post a few times a day, the quality of the content is great.
Hypebeast is great for finding the latest in streetwear/fashion. As a self-described former sneakerhead, it’s a must for keeping in touch with what’s hot.
Gizmodo publishes tons of stories everyday. They focus mostly on the tech world, and as a designer it’s important to know what new great technologies are out there. I also enjoy that they have a healthy amount of Star Wars jokes.
This blog is all about hustling. They interview entrepreneurs in the design world who tell their inspirational stories of making their dreams a reality. Every interview is a good read, and it’s also where I first found out about Quirky.
Logophiles will love this fascinating New York Times article about “portmanteau” words, a fancy name for the word combinations frequently seen in Quirky’s product naming phases:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28FOB-onlanguage-t.html
Thanks to member Stacy Prince for giving us the heads up on the Community Forum!
Quirky needs your help. Today I posted two new threads in the Community Forum:
1. What Do Y’All Think Of Notifications? — Asking your opinion on our notifications system.
2. Quick & Quirky Theme Ideas — Brainstorming a cool theme for our upcoming Quick & Quirky event on March 23 (read about the first one here).
Head on over to the forum and throw in your two cents — it will be appreciated mucho.
Great news, guys. Over the weekend, the Space Bar became Quirky’s eighth product to hit its pre-sales threshold. We’re moving this thing into production, baby! We’ve received a ton of retail interest in this product, particularly from abroad, and we’re excited to get it onto shelves soon.
A big congratulations to ideator Michael Cavada, who worked tirelessly to influence and promote his product. Read a bit about the Space Bar’s production history, then click on over to our store to order your own today.
The Space Bar is a simple, elegantly-designed desk accessory that functions to minimize clutter while providing additional USB ports for your computer. After a long day of work, simply slide your keyboard into the designated space below the shelf and store your office miscellany — keys, digital camera, Split Stick, etc. — up top. Coming back to work the next morning will be easier if you know you’re returning to a clean desk!
Features:
- Constructed of aluminum with durable plastic accents.
- Can stow a keyboard up to 18″ long by 1.5″ high.
- Six USB ports conveniently located in the front of the shelf. No need to conserve your ports anymore — now you can have your camera, iPod, Split Stick, and other gadgets hooked in all at once!
Newsletter number two should be in your inboxes. If not, check it out here.
Congrats again to Judi, our User of the Week!
To regroup after the craziness of the move, we held our first Community Pulse meeting in our new model shop (pictured above) to discuss all things related to YOU, our wacky, quirky, infinitely loyal community. This weekly meeting is just one of many ways we’re working to improve the Quirky experience.
Here are just a few of the many, many things we discussed:
- Creating a central dashboard so that when you log onto our system, you can immediately view new activity on the site, receive notifications, track the projects you’re influencing, be alerted to follow-up comments on forum threads you’ve posted, etc.
- Demystifying our influence engine by creating a number of graphics that clearly illustrate various influence earning scenarios.
- Improving our idea submission process in such a way that makes it easier to peruse and compare submissions. This will be important as the number of submissions per week continues to grow.
- Recognizing active Quirks with a badge/reward system, and rewarding those who have been particularly successful with social sales. We now have a “User of the Week,” who receives a free product idea submission and recognition in the weekly newsletter, but we want to do more!
- SWAG! By popular demand, we are working with our branding folks to come up with a super slick line of Quirky products, which will hopefully go up for sale in the Quirky store soon.
These changes, and the others we discussed, will take some time to implement, but we’re working hard to get the ball rolling now. Please continue to let us know what you think about these and other ideas and improvements. If you couldn’t tell by now, we value your opinions!