u/Inquisitive_regard

So i've launched my first experimental ad campaigns on meta ads and i'm really not sure how to gauge what's "good" or not.

I've had two campaigns so far, in which i collect leads through a basic insta form of "first name" and "email address":

Campaign 1: generated 18 leads for like $109.00 in spend. Yikes--yes, i realize that's crazy expensive. Like $6.00+ / lead.

Campaign 2: Launched a day or so after the first campaign with better creatives and that's generated leads at a rate of about 50 / day; costing about $0.70 each.

Obviously campaign 2 is performing better than campaign 1, but is it considered "good" yet? After all, these are leads requiring absolute minimal personal investment, so it's unclear as to the quality of these leads yet.

The category of my product is in apparel and accessories. AI seems to think this is good, but AI also tends to be a 'yes' man and has a limited scope of insight into reality.

Thoughts?

I'm starting an ecommerce shop that occupies an already saturated market. It's a passion play. It will cost some money and may become an expensive lesson that turns out to be a failure, but I have to try because after all---you only live once.

I also think i'm in a fairly unique position that embiggens my appetite for risk.

Here's me:

• Employed full time; remote employee; $110k/yr salary.
  • govt; so safe from AI and layoffs for a while
• We live rent-free; utilities only in a mid-COL area; southeast USA.
• As of now, we are marked in a will as the inheritor this multi-million dollar property that we live on.
• Family of five--3 small kids.

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Business:

• To minimize manufacturing burden, i customized an existing product to give it premium-level appeal.
• I ordered a first round of 500 units.
• I plan to sell through a Kickstarter first and then try to leverage any momentum from that kickstarter to sell the rest of the products.
• I have been 'trying' to launch for a long time, but i've paralyzed myself trying to build the 'perfect product'...plus other limitations, psychological and physical.
• Now i've decided to just pull the trigger and come what may--at least if i have a product to work with then I can start selling it and see what happens.

I realize that getting inventory is likely less than 10% of the battle; but it's still necessary.

So my plan going forward:

1. Build a kickstarter landing page with confident photography featuring my product.
2. Build a website landing page to funnel people to my own site.
3. Play with some insta and reddit ads to try to garner some basic interest.
4. Develop a content strategy to rejuvenate a stale email list, instagram account (~700 subscribers), and previous kickstarter project.
5. See what happens?

I'm flying largely blind; but the best teacher is experience and i dont plan on quitting my job any time soon. Not sure what I want from this community--but i figured if there's anyone worth sharing with, it's you guys...idk...wish me luck?

Thanks for reading this far!

Typically, when you're applying for a scholarship, there are two factors that matter: timeliness in the stack, and that you're not a complete psychopath.

The only time i ever got a free ride to a prestigious university program was when i acted with these two principles in mind.

1. Timeliness: no one is going to read a thousand (or even a hundred) essays that all sound the same after the first two. In fact they're probably not going to give them much of a read at all. Dollars to donuts is that if there are 30 scholarships available (for example), then the first 30 completed applications will get the award.

2. The sanity check: this one is less important, in my opinion, but it's a fail-safe in case you've actually got a reviewer who's over-enthusiastic. Tell them what they want to hear. You want to go work for an oil & gas company and make buttloads of money? Tell them your plan is to build sustainable housing in some developing country. Or maybe something that's tangentially true: "I want to increase sustainability for societies by providing greater access to natural resources." Whatever.

I had already finished university by the time I understood these principles, but i did apply it to a summer master's program at a prestigious university.

The first time I applied I got rejected and almost took out a $15k loan to pay for the program. I wrote the most beautiful, heart-warming, and totally truthful essays that I could, and applied 'by the deadline'. The second year I implemented my strategy: my entire packet was ready to go by end of the first day of application open and it was in the mail the morning of the second day. It was a matter-of-fact, straight-forward expression of my not-desire to pursue "conflict dispute resolution." I got the full ride.

I think number 1 is way more important than number 2--but it's probably safest to do both.

It's really simple. If you're not sure whether you want to get an MBA or some other certification, or whether it's "worth it" to quit your job and go get some other degree--just A/B test it on your resume.

Add the line to your CV and start applying for jobs...before you ever even make a move. If you notice a significant uptick in interviewers or responses, then you've got your answer without ever having to spend a dime.

If it seems to demonstrate a decent ROI, then go and get the degree...or just go for the interview and see what happens.

So my wife and I went to her oath ceremony a few weeks ago, but only there realized that they would confiscate the green card and leave her without any documentation that could be used for international travel.

Since we were traveling abroad the following day, we opted out of the ceremony. When we returned from our trip we received another letter for the new oath ceremony. We looked up the address and it's in the middle of the Great Smokey Mountains national park--not far from us, and according to google maps, it looks like there's a ranger station there.

Mind you we really love the idea (we know this part of the park quite well), and it's all been official communication from USCIS, mind you--but i've never heard of an oath ceremony being given at a ranger station and kind of makes me suspect we'll show up and no one will be there, lol.

Has anyone experienced this or something similar before--an oath ceremony in a very unexpected location?

Thanks!

The saddest part is that I think if more Americans realized how screwed they got in this they would actually demand better--and corporations would respond.

I'm in Poland at the moment, but i've been all over eastern europe for many-a-year and it's always the same. You spend $100/$150 a night (in the capital city downtown--elsewhere it's often much less), and you get a very comfortable hotel room with breakfast included.

Euro breakfast:

Buffet features a wide array of

• sliced meats, cheeses, and vegetables.
• Multiple styles of eggs, sausages, and hot-self-server buffet items
• Multiple varieties of coffee to choose from.
• Fresh juices,
• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Actual butter (not margerine)
• Breads in numerous varieties, croissants, rolls etc.
• Bonus features (i.e. not always standard but often present):
  • Many places will have specialty and made-to-order items like omlets in addition to the other hot items.
  • The hotel i'm in at the moment (in Warsaw) even has a bottomless mimosa bar!
• This is all included in the free breakfast. No "extra costs" no "pay to play" options where you feel like a second class citizen because you didn't want to pay an extras $50 for $5 of amenities.

American Breakfast:

Compare to that typical American hotel. $300-$400 a night depending on the season. Accommodation is typically comparable, but cleaning is usually worse.

The free breakfast:

• powdered eggs,
• potato cubes from a frozen bag.
• Meat of some kind (sausage patties or bacon),
• maybe a waffle iron with mix also from a bag.
• Maybe apples and bananas. Mini cereal boxes.
• Coffee that is little better than hot water

Point is: it's vastly inferior. And don't ever you dream about a mimosa bar unless you're willing to pay an extra $20.00+.

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American corporations nickel and dime their customers in so many ways: by upcharging on tiny costs and by downgrading the quality and enshittifying everything they possibly can. Cutting corners upon corners so some MBA who would never use their own product can justify their bonus to the board by finnegling some numbers somewhere.

Yes, i understand cost of living is generally higher than in places like Eastern Europe--so okay, you could argue that the $300/$400 a night is justifiable (it's not). But the significantly worse quality of everything is absolutely not justifiably.

I just wish Americans understood how bad they have it. Maybe things would get better for us if we demanded a better standard.