The Lure of Kickstarter (Lessons Learned)
Kickstarter (and other crowd funding sites) are a popular trend, and with good reason. They give the creative an opportunity to produce their ideas without the controlling hand of others or having to fight to become noticed by the powerhouses in their particular area.
Does it mean everything produced is AAA quality? No.
Does it give the person a chance to have their ideas reviewed, get feedback from people actually interested in their area of work, and help the person grow? Absolutely!
Succeeding in reaching my kickstarter goal, it really made me think about what worked, what didn’t work, and what I’ve noticed in other projects I’ve seen/backed/run a way from. Here are my thoughts about the whole process. Feel free to comment on ones you agree or disagree with.
1) GET YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS INVOLVED
This is so important that I had to make it all caps, underline it, and increase the size, regardless of how obnoxious it is. My first mistake after I hit that launch button was that I didn’t tell those close to me I was even trying to raise funds. I was trying to “go it on my own”, and didn’t want to burden my friends and family with feeling like they had to donate something. Hell, most didn’t even know I had been writing for a few years. When I was about half way through my campaign time and only had 15%, I realized that maybe I needed to step out of my comfort zone and ask for help.
And I got it.
Not just in money, although some large, unexpected donations certainly helped, but also in word of mouth. I wasted a little bit of money on advertising that had little effect on my site views. I told some high school friends about the project and suddenly I was having 10 to 20 more views a day. Did they all turn into backers? Of course not. But some did, and those that didn’t spread the word to people who would be interested. Your friends and family can be your best PR firm, so don’t be afraid to let them help.
2) Start spreading the word early.
Another mistake which I mentioned above was not really promoting the crowd funding attempt before I got it started. On a lot of these sites, your project’s visibility starts to diminish after that initial release if it’s not getting a steady number of views or donations. In the beginning, I got a few early, low tier backers because my project was at the top of the list of recent releases. Then, as the days went by, my project slowly sunk on the charts as more and more projects were released. Toss in a very detailed and interesting project by a person with thousands of fans already clamoring to support it, and my project got lost in the shuffle. I think the lowest it go was 6 or 7 pages down. Now exactly the best chance for new backers to find it.
Then I wizened up, had friends and family both support and spread the word, and I had a new resurgence. My project reached the 6th place in the most popular projects in the fiction publishing section. That was when I got the majority of my backers that had no relation to me, my family, or my friends. So start spreading the word early. Remember, a crowd funding campaign is a marathon, not a sprint. (Yes that’s a corny analogy that is overused but it fits perfectly).
3) Make your page fun and full of interesting information
This was one mistake I don’t think I made. I can’t tell you how many times I saw a project that had an interesting cover picture and blurb. I’d get excited for the project, click the link to learn more, money already in hand to back it, and then saw the full-page and clicked right back out.
A video asking for money and one paragraph about your project is not going to get you funded. Don’t believe me? Go check out a few unsuccessful projects that didn’t even reach 5% of their goal. If you want the support of a complete stranger, you need to sell yourself and your project. If it looks like you only put five minutes into making a page meant to sell your idea, then people are going to think you put just as little effort into your actual project.
Tell the people how much time you’ve put into it. In my case, I linked sites that had samples of my writing, had ideas of where stories were going to go, and actually put where the money was going to go. I ordered a neat and inexpensive banner made, and then messed around in Photoshop until I was comfortable putting titles on them. Take advantage of whatever resources and skills you have to make sure your project page draws people in and keeps them reading until the very end.
“But I have no money for graphics and illustrations and exciting videos” you say. Neither did I! (And it probably shows in my video). Believe it or not there are artists out there that can be very helpful AND offer you discounts if you link to their sites. You just need to do the research, put yourself out there, and like I’ve said before, start this process WAY before you actually intend to launch your project.
I promise, a little money and window dressing for your page will get people interested.
4) Rewards for Everyone!
My last bit of advice is about how to get that money that you need. Just like your project page, the rewards you offer have to be interesting and varied, and more most importantly, the backer should feel like they are getting something special for basically pre-ordering your idea. Here is an example of the rewards for a kickstarter I just recently checked out.
Goal: $10,000
15$ Tier – An ebook copy. 50$ Tier – Paperback copy of book on completion.
100$ Tier – Hardback Edition on completion. 250$ Paperback edition, hardback edition, bookmark
Does that seem very enticing for you? Have you ever paid 50$ for a paperback book from an author you’ve never heard of? Does 10,000$ seem a little high to get a book self published?
Even if you had no idea about the publishing world, if you’ve bought an e-book, paperback, or hardback before you know those rewards are insane. Why back the person for 50 bucks if you can just wait until the book is released and buy it for 10? 15$ for an e-book that costs nothing for the author to produce? I hope you see how these goals and rewards are insane. But you do need to raise funds to produce your project AND have money left over to send out rewards. So is there a middle ground?
Yes, and the best way to find it is to look at other SUCCESSFUL projects in your field. The more successful the better. If a project reached 358% of its goal, that might be the one to base yours off of. Look where they charged a little more for their product and what they added on to that reward to make it more enticing. Check out what rewards got the most number of backers. See what additions to reward tiers made that huge donation worth it. Most importantly, see what they offered that not only got people to offer more support, but also cost the creator little to nothing to provide. If you’ll notice, providing pictures of the rewards are a big plus.
This is just some of my own insight. If you look on the internet there are dozens of people who have offered their own advice on how their projects succeeded or why they failed. The best thing I can say is to take it all in, see what works for you, and above all else believe in what you are doing.
