This newsletter was released on March 1st, 2010.

Hi! This is the eleventh edition of the NerdKits Newsletter which we publish ~monthly to keep you and the world up to date with everything going on at NerdKits.

In this issue:

1. We need your vote!
2. NerdKits launches "Buckits" self-serve group discounts
3. NerdKits Forum Statistics
4. How to Add Photos to the Forum

WE NEED YOUR VOTE!

A few months ago, your votes propelled us to win the IEEE "Engineering Your World" video contest.

Now, we need your help again. We've developed a new way of buying products online, and we've entered it into the PayPal X Developer Challenge. There are more details about our creation later in this newsletter, but for now we urgently need your help to get to the final round in the contest.

Please take a minute to vote for us -- it would be a huge help. Please go to:

http://www.nerdkits.com/buckits/voting/

and follow the simple directions. Thanks!

There's a lot at stake here, and we really need every NerdKits customer to cast their vote for us in order to have a chance of moving on to the final round.

Please lend us a hand and vote now -- voting ends this Friday 3/05, but we don't want to wait until the last minute. Thanks!

E-mail us if you have any issues with the voting process.

NERDKITS LAUNCHES "BUCKITS" SELF-SERVE GROUP DISCOUNTS

We've found that people learn best when they learn together. The USB NerdKit and LED Array Kit already have an active and thriving online community of students, hobbyists, and tinkerers -- all of you -- who together learn about electronics and programming via the video tutorials and forums. The combination of group encouragement plus complementary technical knowledge can produce tremendous results, allowing each customer to learn more, learn faster, and have more fun with the experience.

What if we could encourage new customers to try out NerdKits as groups of already-connected friends? We're trying out a concept that we're calling "Buckits: Self-Serve Group Discounts", where groups of connected customers can self-organize to each get a USB NerdKit at a slight discount as they include more friends in the experience.

For more information, please see:

http://www.nerdkits.com/buckits/

and watch the quick 90-second demo video on that page.

You can also view an active Buckit that some not-yet-customers have made:

http://www.nerdkits.com/buckits/view/VBMMRMXXG4/

We're hoping to see how this works for NerdKits, but are also thinking about how this group-discount concept can apply to other products and services with a social / network utility -- basically, products that are inherently better when experienced with friends. Please vote for us in the PayPal X Developer Contest:

http://www.nerdkits.com/buckits/voting/

Maybe we've just developed a real business model for the social web! If you have any feedback about the concept, please let us know.

NERDKITS FORUM STATISTICS

We launched the forums less than a year ago, but they've really caught on and become an active place for NerdKits and electronics / programming discussion. Here are some statistics about our forums now:

In February 2010, there were 599 new posts on the forums in 119 different threads. They had a great mix of project demos, electronics questions, and programming tips.

Those 599 posts came from 71 different people. It's great to have so many people involved, but we also want to point out that this is only a tiny fraction of the number or people reading the forums or receiving this newsletter! For each of these posters, there are literally dozens who are simply reading, not writing. That's fine, but we'd like to encourage each and every one of you to get active and participate in this learning community. If you have ideas on how we can better encourage that, let us know.

Also, if you're new to the NerdKits community, you can introduce yourself on the "About the Members" thread:

http://www.nerdkits.com/forum/thread/48/

HOW TO ADD PHOTOS TO THE FORUM

We've witnessed some confusion on the forums when people try to include images or photos in their posts. User pbfy0 has been hard at work fixing image links -- for example, see:

http://www.nerdkits.com/forum/thread/560/

and we thank him for that effort, but perhaps it's time for us to offer some tips about how to include photos on the forum!

Check out this post for instructions about how to add photos to your own forum posts:

http://www.nerdkits.com/forum/thread/572/

Hopefully this well help make it easier for you to include photos of your projects, schematics, etc. in your posts.

THANKS!

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for being such great customers. Make sure you tell your friends and neighbors about NerdKits so we can keep the world's DIY spirit alive!

And one last reminder -- please vote for us:

http://www.nerdkits.com/buckits/voting/

Best wishes,

Humberto & Mike
NerdKits, L.L.C.
http://www.nerdkits.com/

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