Crowdfunding & Kickstarter tips

Precursor

 For those not familiar, a Kickstarter campaign is a project that a founder sets up, to try and raise money for something they think is a good idea, but don't have funds for.  If the idea is good, and others pledge past a certain threshold to contribute to the idea, the founder is delivered the funds and gets to chase down their dream.  If there's not enough interest, no funds are transferred, and the founder has hopefully saved some time in realizing there might be a lack of demand for their project.

(Mild) Justification for Tip-giving

Over the past year and a half, I've contributed to a number of KickStarter campaigns, from environmental in nature, to just plain silly, to high tech in nature.  Sometimes I'm late to the show and am happy to push founders over the edge, and other times I can't pledge fast enough when the project goes live.  (In those cases, I really wish the project was listed on CrowdFunder.com, and I could gain equity in the company!  More on that in later posts!)  One such project which I'm funding is the uber-successful Pebble: E-Paper Watch, which I pledged to a full month before it's close.  In short, I review crowdfunding sites frequently, and pledge to what I believe are excellent ideas which need to see the light of day.

Separate from my own funding of ideas, I've had a few friends run KickStarter campaigns.  While some have done well, others have learned there isn't quite the market of which they'd dreamed.  I've gathered some of their feedback here, in the hopes that it might help other, great-idea-people find the success they're after.

Finally, I've been doing some reading.  Here are two of the recent articles which reference lessons learned in KickStarting:

• The Untold Story behind Kickstarter's Stats - in which we learn more about what projects fail, what that means, and how to be funded
• Tableau Dataviz: Kickstarter - in which our minds are BLOWN by the interactive graphic allowing you to delve deeper into the KickStarter data.

Tips

• Launch with Momentum - before you 'go live' and deploy your project, take the time to build a buzz with eager buyers.  Prime your family and friends that this project is coming, and that you'd love their support, and get their feedback.  As Seth Godin (here's his KickStarter campaign) and Jeanne said:  “Kickstarter is the last step, not the first one.” Kickstarter is not a way for you to attract attention to your project. It is a way to “organize and activate [your] tribe”. But you have to build your tribe first.   Many seem to hope and rely on the deeper web for support: blogs and random visitors who might stumble on your site after a websearch.  In all likelyhood, you will get some of these, but these folks will probably only count for a small portion of your support - realize this!    

Launch with Momentum!

(We'll say the yellow line is 'pent-up-buzz/people waiting to pledge' and green is dollars invested (yours being the first few).)  I realize this is a horrible graphic.

• Make second-degree sales easy - Your friends and family may happily support you financially,  but this may not fully enable you to reach your goals.  Put some serious time and tools into really leveraging the second-degree of your social network.  Make it as easy for your first-degrees to pitch your project to their first-degree network - use this in conjunction of the primer as well!  You may find someone who wants to help you make an amazing video, before you've even made your mediocre video!  After these second-degree tools are proven on a small scale, and the project is deployed, then ASK for them to promote.  After all, it's your friends' and families' product now, too, and they want it to tip!    Give them tools, and ask them to use them!

Make second-degree sales easy!  Give friends and family the tools to promote you!
Image from: http://blog.brosix.com/

• If possible, have a separate web presence from your actual fundraising page.  While fundraising pages present a comfortable environment for prospective supporters to learn about your project, many will want to gauge whether you'll be effective with their money.  By linking your full Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn profiles, you'll show that you've been down this path before, that the project is within your grasp, and that their money is going to a worthwhile cause.  Related: Why not register the domain and host a landing page - to show you're serious and in it for the long haul.  This shouldn't cost you more than $20, often much less (I've got a bunch for ~$10 each).

Get an easy domain / website.

(Yeah, it's an affiliate link.  A kid can dream.)

• Of course, if you don't have a long history in the field, and this is really a fresh start, then your website won't have any content.  In that case, why not use the snarky domain you've picked out to help attract new supporters?  Have the domain forward to the fundraiser site - and spend $50 (or get some free) business cards with QR codes to hand out at related venues (kiosks in malls? clubs?  It's all product-dependent, but these are cheap and are somewhat sticky.  (Moo.com will give you free ones if you have an about.me acct!)

Have one, central presence on the web, to which you can refer friends, fundraisers, and acquaintances.  I like about.me

• As Jeanne said, "Make sure you have a video. All else being equal, a project without a video only has a 15% chance of success while a project with video has a 37% chance of success."  Related to this, make it easy for people to see what they're getting into.  If it's a simple product, the product photo is only half the equation - the price is the other half!  Don't make them dig, make it easy to pull out they Paypal password: On the title frame that shows before/after the movie, put the price in the corner, if it's low.  Make it easy for them to think about supporting!

• Now, this is getting nitpicky, but point out that there's a movie.  Some fundraisers just use an image, so some viewers don't even notice the movie.  And we know that movies work!  Keep people on your site, glued to the screen.  It opens wallets.

• Finally, two things:

Feel free to share your project with me, before or after it's launched!  I'm always up for giving feedback, and may want to pledge to your project as well!

Lastly, know that there's a plethora of different websites out there for crowdsourcing your project.  Here's an excellent resource to find some!  Now go start your project!

Here's just some search words:
BEZL: the iPhone anti-case, Cryoscope: A touch-based weather communicating Device, Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android, A Moveable Feast, Meet the Hugalopes - the future of fluffy, fluffy fun..., Twine: Listen to your world, talk to the internet, BirdProject: Biodiesel Glycerin Soaps for BP Oil Spill Cleanup, Facebook

You can probably make yourself happier.

To my many and important blog followers, I thought I would share a great thing. Grateful160 is a free website that sends you a text or email one to four times a day. All you do is respond quickly with something you are grateful for and it records it. It keeps a record online for you. It will send you a record every week too.

It’s great to have a record. But the best part is definitely the reminder to be thankful each afternoon.   (Thanks to TannerTimes for reminding me to share this sentiment!)

But why should we all start recording our thankfulness?

Research continues to show that a major portion of individual's happiness is derived from their attitude, and that being grateful for the good things in your life is one way to have a better attitude.  Check out the various sources here.

Try it!  Sign up here and see how things go!

While we're on the subject of happiness, I should really point out that there's an entertaining documentary that I watched on WORLD HAPPY DAY back in February; here's the trailer for Happy!:

(HAPPY (and here) is now available on DVD and iTunes in US and Canada!)

Finally, there's a few TED talks that you can watch on the subject, here.  You'll see some common themes throughout all the research - one of which is to be grateful.

So take the first step, and sign up for this awesome daily text message service!

 Sign up here!  (Free)

About(.)Me!

While I had ten minutes free yesterday, I created an about.me page -- it's something I've been meaning to do for a long time.  It's basically a personal landing site (as reviewed here) where I can direct acquaintances:

Come See!

I highly recommend it to those lazy folks looking to make a feeble attempt at managing your online profile.  It's super easy to set up, I just used a picture that I took on a beach, added a quick bio, and some links to this blog and LinkedIn - and it was done, under 10 minutes.  It also has fun showing you analytics (who visited your site, how long they stayed, and where they came from, etc.).

No, I did *not* send you spam email.

I just found out that for the past three months my emails have not been delivered due to my email signature containing my blog URL. Turns out that lots of spam email have links in them to websites that end in "blogspot.com" as my blog has, and as a result, spam filters have been throwing me in with all the good herbal male enhancement ads. Wonderful.

The following antispam rules were triggered by this message:
BLOGSPOT_URL 0.500 Blogspot URL found
X-GT-Spam-Rating: ###### (61%)

So if you like, pull up your spam folder, and do a search for hbonwit, and see if there's any emails in there from me. Cause now I'm generally curious if I really am that un-email-reply-worthy.

Of course you don't have to change anything to view this blog in the future, I've just created another way for you to view it. You can visit the redirection website: http://beam.to/holden


(At least I didn't suffer a broken marriage because of this problem, like these folks! More onthe issue here, if you're interested.)

And here's some cow dung for you, don't spend it all in one place:
That will be all.

First post: Details

Why Blog?

I guess the idea is that there are varying levels of interest my life, and sometimes its hard to decide whether you'll be bugging someone if you send them emails, or on the contrary, you'll be hurting someone's feelings by not including them. This removes all that uncomfort and places the power back in the people's hands.

If you love me, go ahead and subscribe to the blog (left of this paragraph), get emailed when it's updated, and leave all kinds of Karma-riffic feedback for me. I'll probably reply either in email, or as a comment on my own blog.


The real first post:
Well, not sure how to start this whole blog thing, but I think starting is the hardest part, and so here goes. I guess this is a good site to aggregate information that people might want to know about me in the coming months. First off, how about an itinerary?

December 2007 - January 14, 2008: Simi Valley, CA
January 14: Fly to Auckland, New Zealand
February 28: Fly to Sydney, Australia
March 4: Fly to Los Angeles, CA

March 8: Fly to Nome, AK
March 17: Fly to Los Angeles, CA (arrive March 18)

March 25: Fly to Delhi, India (arrive March 26)
July 23: Fly to Singapore
July 29: Fly to Los Angeles, CA

Now, let it be noted that posting this itinerary certainly flies in the face of some of my more recent realizations that this trip shouldn't necessarily be viewed as a strict "round the world and back" experience in itself. Rather, this is my life for the next few months. More simply, THIS IS MY LIFE. More on this topic later.

Some sites for my records:
active: http://www.couchsurfing.com/hbonwit
active: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5605629
unsure: http://triptracker.net/profile/hbonwit
inactive: http://www.travbuddy.com/hbonwit
inactive: http://myspace.com/hbonwit

Honestly, something like TripTraker.net might be closer to what I'm looking for; check back here for updates to see if I've switched. Maybe I can embed that content in here.

I'm hoping to be able to do some CouchSurfing while on my travels, not only as a penny-saver, but also as a way to meet locals and share culture. Might be able to cook some meals for hosts, as well. If you're not aware, check it out: http://www.couchsurfing.com/

More to come before the trip commences - outlook, goals, expectations, attitude

Random link for ya: Dancing around the world. (And the worthwhile outtakes.)

End of first post! Gimme some feedback!