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7 Things to Consider BEFORE you Launch your Kickstarter Project
I get A LOT of requests to help with kickstarter campaigns. Through trial and error on over a dozen kickstarter projects, hours of lectures at Emerson College, and countless meet ups, phone calls and emails with artists and innovators, I’ve refined a “best practices” list that I share when I decide to get involved with a project. I’ve been fortunate to run my own successful campaigns, but also have helped out on over a dozen innovative artistic endeavors all of which have been successful in some way. What you’ll read here, and hopefully in the future, is what I’ve found to work (to the tune of almost $350k and counting). But at the end of the day, two things are really all that’s required: a good idea and A LOT OF HARD WORK. Ok, maybe three – a decent network that supports what you do.
Disclaimer:
This list is not definitive. In fact, it barely scratches the surface, but it’s a start. I don’t claim to be an expert. The word guru makes me throw up in my mouth a little and every project is different and strategy and tweaking are critical depending on audience, budget, content, fanbase, etc. These sections are just a snippet to get you rolling – I could talk for an hour on each – but who’d listen 
1. Story: What’s your story? Craft and tell the story of your story.
Story is everything. Let me back up. Your story is everything. People aren’t so much getting behind the idea as they are getting behind your passion to produce it – be it a book, film, album, live event, business, it makes no difference. I’ve been lucky enough (or dumb enough?) to have smart people with means give me money for various projects over the years. I used to think it was all based on the merits of my “great” ideas – but what these folks quickly chastened was that they were investing in me, my spirit and passion, and my drive to make something happen. Of course they were investing in the project, but they’re won over by YOU! In my experience, and my opinion, this is the very heart and soul of an effective kickstarter campaign (or any crowdfunding campaign). It HAS to have heart. Kickstarter isn’t a place people come to make an investment expecting a financial return. They come to engage with other interesting people and to help along artistic projects they believe add value to the world in which we live. I’ll stop there for now (I have an hour long lecture about the role story plays in our lives), but for the record: Story is everything.
So, what does that mean? Well, you must first write a treatment for your project and develop a strong pitch. The treatment is an overview of what you’re trying to do. Feature Film treatments that get shopped around Hollywood might be 60 pages long and include scenes, storyboards, budget figures, and a distribution strategy. Does your pitch need to be this complex? That depends on your personality and what you’re trying to accomplish, but you cannot proceed with your project successfully until you’ve gone through the process of developing your pitch through a treatment. The treatment essentially becomes the “written” portion of your project from which you can cannibalize to write everything down the road.
This also leads into one of the most important visual components of your story, in that you ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE A PITCH VIDEO (and a trailer of your film doesn’t count). The pitch video is your chance to “sell” yourself and your ability to produce what you’re pitching. Does it have to be slick? No, but it shouldn’t be painful to watch either. I really believe that a direct to camera approach is the most effective. Put a bit of your previous work in there, or a clip of your trailer, and sit down and talk to the camera. It works, and it’s your chance to get people to catch the vision and spread the word.
a. The pitch video should be compelling, honest, humble, and decently produced. It can also be funny, clever, and tongue in cheek, just don’t be arrogant. Be you, but remember a little humility goes a long way, and, you NEED as much support as possible so try your best to make it “shareable.” As an aside, I’ve seen some projects that I was willing to back but not willing to share the video as it was so poorly put together (it’s almost a reflection of your ability to deliver). Imagine sauntering in to a hard-to-get investor pitch meeting 20 minutes late, without apology, totally disheveled (not as a style choice), and with an air of expecting them to give you money. That’s what a shoddy pitch video reminds me of. Harsh, but it sends a message that you don’t really care.
b. Ideally the pitch should be direct to camera combined with some trailer/footage/images
c. Keep it brief – attention spans are waning these days! I’d try and keep them under 5 minutes. Here’s one of mine, and some others that I like (embedding them wasn’t working consistently – these are direct links to the videos on kickstarter.com):
The Elders
2. Fans: We all have them.
We really do. You might not think you do, but you have teachers, colleagues, relatives, co-workers and other associates that actually do care about what you’re up to. This step takes some time and thought (and some research!), so plan for it, but start to assemble a list of these people in excel or google docs. I should clarify: I’m not talking about facebook friends here, I’m talking people that are actually looking forward to your holiday greeting card, or news from you that you were promoted at work etc. We’ll talk about facebook later.
This list should include the names and emails of those in your circle that care about you. These are people that would buy your bestselling book, or a ticket to see you perform at symphony hall, or come to your funeral. Make sense? If you are young (right out of highschool/college), this list might be mostly your parents network and that’s ok because guess what? The AVERAGE donor age is a ripe old 42. Zing!
List building is like brainstorming and you can make many associations based off one name that leads to others. Again, plan for this as it will take some time (but it’s worth it!).
a. Compile an exhaustive professional/personal/family/friends email contact list
b. Edit this list and maybe ask for some objective help (mom/dad/partner) to weed out people that might be annoyed or are put off by these things. When I compiled my first list, I had over 500 names and emails. I cut out 20 or so just based on what I know about those people and how they would respond. Relationships are everything, so take care of them.
c. Plan to email this list a total of 4 times during the ENTIRE fundraise (we’ll get to this in a bit).
3. Evangelists: We all know some.
You’ve likely met someone, or are friends with someone, who is especially talented at sharing the latest thing. To evangelize is the act of converting someone to a cause, traditionally through “preaching.” In the case of social media – we’re all evangelists to some degree. We craft pithy status updates and 140-character tweets that annotate our lives for those that “follow” us, and we appreciate the RT’s and “Liking” that goes on in support of our micro cause. For a successful kickstarter (or any crowdfunding campaign) to really catch fire, you need a handful of committed evangelists.
Take that list you compiled in step 2, and identify several people in your professional network who could aggressively promote and evangelize your project. What you’re attempting to do in this step is identify a few evangelist types that have a circle of influence outside your own, ideally to a group that you’d have no hope of reaching otherwise. Your networks should be quite different. They won’t be of much help if you have too much overlap or identical professional/social networks. For example, assume you find a willing evangelist that has a nearly identical network (family, school, and work) as you do. This type of project promotion will have little chance of going viral because of the overlap – and you run the risk of alienating and annoying friends and family besieged by different people about the same project. They can certainly help promote the project, but they wouldn’t make an ideal crowdfunding evangelist.
The key here is to think carefully about those individuals who can help reach out to those beyond your own network. When I was helping Christopher Salmon raise funds for The Price, we knew we wouldn’t raise $150k or anywhere near that on Christopher’s network alone. Before we launched we reached out to Neil Gaiman through his assistant and they graciously agreed to help spread the word. We weren’t sure exactly what that meant, but because Christopher had spent nearly 5 years nurturing that relationship through occasional correspondence, we knew it was genuine and, well, Neil is a consummate gentleman with an enormous aortic pump.
We reached out to others like Jim Lee, Amanda Palmer, Zoe Keating, and writers at Io9, Wired, Aint it Cool, etc, in order to maximize our reach via social media. Without their help by reaching out to their expansive networks, we would have never raised the funds for Christopher’s project.
This is a dramatic, celebrity-packed example, but the template applies for even the smallest fundraise. It’s also a testament to how important it is to 1) never burn a bridge and 2) do everything you can to nurture and feed your diverse network of relationships.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t “pull the weeds in your relationship garden” from time to time, but do what you can to keep your relationships fresh and up to date.
Find those individuals who are wiling to get on board your project but who don’t have the same friends and relatives as you.
4. Write: And write…and write…and write.
If you don’t like writing, you’d better start. Start liking it or walk away while you still can! If you’re uncomfortable reaching out to friends, family and strangers about your project and about asking them for their financial and social media support, then crowdfunding isn’t for you.
Actually, what this becomes is a great litmus test for how committed you are to your project. You may feel reservations about reaching out regarding your needs – but your passion for completing your work will overcome any intimidation to network.
There are several things you need to write. For starters, you need to reach out to a few groups of people, particularly the two groups I mentioned above: Fans and Evangelists.
a. Draft an “I need your help” email for fans that outlines the project
Here you outline the project and what you’re trying to do. You need to educate your fan base on kickstarter and social media and crowdfunding. They’re not dumb, but don’t expect them to have any idea what you’re talking about and be careful with the vernacular. If you use a buzzword – define it. Be gracious, be humble, and remember you’re nothing without an audience and this email IS your only audience for now.
Also tell them that you’ll be contacting them with updates during the project and that you would be happy to remove anyone from the list. Also BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) your list. It makes the “ask” more personal and keeps people from jamming inboxes with “reply all” responses.
b. Draft another email for Evangelists
This is a version of the above email, but also outlines how you think they could help (via blogs, twitter, email, etc). Take the email you just wrote. Copy it, and paste it into a new email for Evangelists. Double check that your evangelists aren’t on your fan email list – you don’t want to email them the same email twice – it’ll make you look unorganized.
c. Draft your press release
Yes, you need to have a press release for your project no matter how small. Getting your project out beyond your network is critical to getting it funded and to generating buzz about what you’re doing. Remember, you’re building a fan-base through crowdfunding and the more people you can attract the better.
Media outlets, publications and news sites NEED content. A good press release is a way to provide these places with content that they can then redistribute. You want to make it easy to read (8th grade level) and it should contain quotes from those involved. It’s written like a news story and in the third person. There are a lot of examples of press releases online. I’ll attach two examples here:
Nathaniel Hansen Kickstarter Press Release: The Elders
Nathaniel Hansen Kickstarter Press Release: The Price
In the next section we’ll discuss where to send the press release, but you should have already spent some time crafting your project narrative during the pitch/treatment phase. You’ll come back to it again, and again throughout the project.
d. Blog> tweet >(bleet?)> facebook. Rinse and repeat.
If you don’t have social media accounts in place already, get on it. You also should make sure you have a place to distribute and disseminate information about your project. Set up a facebook page, a twitter account (or do it through your personal account), and a blog/website for the project. This helps show fans you’re serious, and gives you a place to archive everything that happens during your fundraise. Think of it as a transmedia diary, where your project narrative has multiple entry points: link on facebook, a retweet, a published article, etc.
I promise this works, but this becomes the ongoing challenge for most crowdfunders as it takes SO MUCH TIME. One project I consulted on (10,000 Trees by Sarah Ginsburg & Sarah Berkovich) did this expertly. They set up a site on wordpress and started funneling people to kickstarter but also documented what was happening on their site for people to learn more. They took their press release and blasted it out – and it was picked up on blogs nationwide including the prestigious Sundance blog.
As this is a Pre-Launch article, I’ll merely state that at this point your job is to “get the barn up” so to speak, and you’ll start filling it soon enough. Also: DON’T SEND ANYTHING OUT UNTIL YOU’VE LAUNCHED YOUR KICKSTARTER PROJECT!
5. Research: It’s mission critical, and ongoing
Hopefully if you’re thinking of crowdfunding, you’re pretty internet savvy. Why? Well, one of the most critical and never-ending components to crowdfunding is research, as you’re constantly needing people and places to distribute information about your work. You’ll encounter a lot of rejection, and a lot of “no thanks.” But don’t let that get you down. Use research as a time to explore where and to whom your press release can be sent and where your story/blog/tweets can be shared. I have a zillion ideas for this section, but here are a few:
a. Identify active bloggers and twitter-ers, facebookers, who can help spread the word (should be germane to your project topic)
b. Identify where the press release could be sent, and to whom at that magazine, blog, program (Wired, NPR, university radio, etc).
c. Create list of minor celebs using social media who might take an interest in the project
d. Draft email/tweet with link to the project, asking for help
e. Identify all possible forums, blogs, and news site to send press release to and could post in comments – or get people to post blogs about
f. Think local and home grown. Identify places who care about you who might release the news (high school paper, college/university alma mater, town newspapers, you get the idea).
You should be doing this every day before and during the launch with the goal of attracting as many potential readers/fans as possible. It’s exhausting, but so rewarding when a link pays off. I remember how giddy I was when my first press release for The Elders was picked up over on DVinfo.net – a filmmaker’s news site and forum I’ve been frequenting for years. It was blasted out to dozens of sites, picked up by a handful, and eventually noticed by a NGO that came on board to match what I had raised on kickstarter. Can you imagine if I had not sent out a press release?
Similarly, I’ll never forget when the press release I wrote for The Price was picked up by Gawker’s io9, then by Wired magazine and a thousand sites in between. You can imagine how giddy we were when Christopher’s interview and parts of that carefully crafted narrative were ultimately featured on CNN.
As fun as the ride was with The Price, I’m grateful I wasn’t the face of that project. Christopher had the arduous task of implementing many of these more mundane tasks to ensure it was personal. Emails, giving interviews, blogging, writing articles, etc. If you have a large project with potential to go internationally viral, be sure you have a support structure in place to help you with the very hard work you’ll have ahead.
6. Reward: It’s better to give than to receive.
A lot has been said about rewards, and I’ll echo some of those things here. Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites are set up to provide a small reward in return for someone’s financial pledge. Figuring out what rewards you should give for your project will take some time so plan for it. Browse the site and see what other successful projects have done, especially projects that are like yours.
Generally speaking:
a. Rewards should be easy and affordable to deliver. On average, rewards will cost you 5-7% to deliver (production, time, postage, etc) – try not to have any rewards that will require intense “production” under the $25 range, and I try not to put anything in the mail for rewards under $50. Not a hard and fast rule, but a good guide.
b. Get Creative! T-shirts and stickers are cheap, digital downloads are appreciated and EASY, postcards from location or a phone call to bigger donors is fun, etc.
c. Have a strategy to get out of “the trough” (the inevitable slump/flatline in your project’s fundraising timeline). But be careful about postage and production costs. You could launch a new reward, or have a giveaway or an auction. It doesn’t matter and the only limit is your imagination, but be sure to have something to jumpstart the project when it flatlines.
d. $25, $50 and $100 are statistically the biggest sellers but under $10 will help it go viral and provides a way for anyone (read ‘starving student’) to get involved. I generally think less is more on the rewards, but there are differing opinions. Get creative, and try and offer something valuable at each price point.
7. Schedule: The first marathon runner died once he had delivered his message
Everyone, without exception, underestimates how much work goes in to running a successful campaign. On average, during my campaign for The Elders (in which I raised $12,519 and then got a match from a non profit that was following the project online), I spent on average 4 hours a day curating the campaign. On The Price, with Christopher Salmon, I was spending 3-4 hours a day easily, as was Christopher, strategizing and tweaking the campaign as things panned out day to day. Every day feels like a month, especially when the stakes are high or you are impassioned about your work.
I really believe that projects should be less than 35 days. Longer might kill you – figuratively speaking of course. But you’ll feel completely worked over at the end of a campaign no matter how much you try and raise. Having just stated that 35 days or less should be the rule, there is a caveat, which is to say that this time-table is contingent on what kind of project you have. Do you have an artistic project and you just need to get cash in hand to get going? 30-35 days. Conversely, if you have product that you hope to sell (Tik/Tok, etc) or want to use kickstarter as a short term store front, then opt for a longer time frame (90 days) to maximize (pre) sales.
In conclusion
To reiterate, this is just a jumping off point. There is MUCH more that could be said about each of these points, and there’s no one size fits all answer to crowdfunding. I can tell you confidently that this list will ensure your project is built on a solid foundation, set up for success. I have a list of 10 tips for Post Launch that I’m not sure what I’ll do with just yet – but they’re equally important to ensuring your project accomplishes your goals and helps you maintain sanity.
Two parting tips:
a. Launch and THEN send out press releases and emails – NOT BEFORE!
b. Be ready to curate, tweet, facebook, and lose sleep. This better be a project you’re passionate about.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for a follow up article.
Nathaniel
Filmmaker/Producer
http://www.nathanielhansen.com
43 Comments
Thanks for this article it was very helpful.
Nathaniel,
this article is perfect bordering on the sublime. We already had a team working 10 hour days each to prepare our campaign, and some of the tips you’ve outlined here are the final pieces to a very daunting puzzle. Thanks!
Thanks for writing this great post. Well thought-out and valuable. Maybe one of the best I’ve read this year!
thanks for posting this! i’m going to be starting a kickstarter campaign soon and this is one of the best posts i’ve found in my research.
Thank you for this article. I’m definitely overwhelmed now at the thought of starting a campaign, but so glad to have read all of your tips.
These tips are fantastic. I just launched my first kickstarter for post-production on my first feature, pretty. Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theprettymovie/pretty-a-feature-film?ref=live
The production team and I spent the last few months putting the video and kickstarter content together, building our network through facebook, and setting up our website. Our next venture is reaching out to people beyond our circle of friends, family, FSU alum, and co-workers. The big question is how to reach those who want to know about your project? I’m reaching out to this blog for that reason! and others, as well as local LA and hometown news. Making fliers for the town we shot the movie in (Tallahassee) and spreading the word both old school with paper trail and virally through the web. Generating conversation about it is the biggest thing. I feel our project has genuine unique “backyard” feel. Let me know what you think!
Thank you! Hands down, the best article I’ve read on preparing a Kickstarter campaign. Plenty to ponder and prepare now. Though a campaign to press an album http://theflorasmusic.tumblr.com/ and pay for the musicians/mixing/mastering/pressing/advertising isn’t as involved as a movie, ALL of your advice will apply.
Thanks Mark! Good luck with the album and the fundraise.
Thank you Nathaniel. I do have a passion film project I will be doing and your seven steps has spoken to me. To build ourselves good foundation before we begin our Kick Starter campaign is a very good idea. Never know where you may end up with campaign but everyone should give themselves a good head start.
Thanks so much. I’m getting ready to launch a campaign on IndieGoGo for a start-up Good News Reuse. I appreciate your tips!!!
I have a Question about Evangelists. Will it be necessary to hire a Social Evangelists to ensure your project?
Dear Nathaniel!
I’m doing some research on crowdfunding audiences for my crowdfunding-blog artistandaudience.net and I stumbled upon your very insightful article, thanks! I red the number, that the average backer is 42 years old, where did you get that number from? Is it reliable?
Thanks for any help, Simon
Thanks so much for the help. Learning everyday, hoping for a successful campaign.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deep/awakening-in-the-deep-end
Thank you so much for this Nathaniel. As a Producer about to launch a Kickstarter campaign this post has been (and will continue to be) UNDENIABLY helpful! Congrats on your successful campaigns, now I just hope we can be at least half as successful as you’ve been!
Thanks for the excellent advice. This post was quite helpful as I launched my crowd funding campaign:
http://rockethub.com/projects/3939-house-music-movie-a-documentary/
Hi Nathaniel,
Really terrific article and great guidance. You sprinkled a lot of passion with the information…it makes a difference. This will aid me considerably in launching a project.
Good luck!!!
Well put together Nathaniel. I shall be implementing this as part of our first Indie Go Go Campaign. This just makes sense.
Merry Christmas
John
I’m already running a StartSomeGood Campaign, but this was SOO helpful, and gave me even more ideas than I already have. Too, it affirmed that I’ve been doing some good, right things.
THANK YOU for the time it took to write, and for the good vibes.
Check out the campaign if you want: http://bit.ly/trsOVC
I’m from Malaysia, I’m planning to go to art school end of this year by crowdfunding myself and I need your advice on providing rewards.
Considering my amateurish level in my art, what kind of reward should I offer?
I can only think of giving away caricatures of my pledgers etc.
Or rather, how soon should I give the rewards to the pledgers?
The least I can think of, I can only offer the rewards after one semester at art school.
Are pledgers fickle about how soon they can get their rewards?
How do I pitch to the pledgers that they can receive their rewards after a semester at art school?
Thank you so much Nathaniel for this selfless and thoughtful article. I am getting ready for my Kicktarter campaign for my next film and I have learn so much from you article. Thank you and god bless you!!
Thank you so much Nathaniel for this well written and thoughtful article. I am getting ready to launch my first Kickstarter campaign for my next film and I have learned so much from you article. Thank you again and god bless!!!
Excellent article!! We’re gearing up for a campaign of our own, and have milled over the strategy for about 6 months. We have a lot covered, but just for some extra “oomph”, I decided to do a Google search to find some last minute pointers and came across your site. You’re article not only highlighted some thing that I didn’t think of, it also validated some of the things we had in mind. Much appreciated, and if this works out for us, I’ll give a shout out about your website!
I don’t know what I’d do without you! You’ve given me the Kickstarter Master Class I was looking for. Thanks.
Glad it was helpful!!
Great article! Will keep in mind on indiegogo.com/textflick
When you have a well thought out, well planned Kickstarter or crowdfunding campaign, it’s the fuel that turns your social capital into money capital. That’s what Eric Migicovsky did with Pebble. He raised $10M+.
An awesome product helps, too. Figure out who are your fans and who are your evangelists. They all have their own networks that you’ll want them to tap. It’s a network of networks game.
I found this great video about a Kickstarter crowdfunding checklist, road map, plan, plus lots of additional advice. It helps you get funded on Kickstarter. Over 200 things to consider for a successful Kickstarter or crowd funding campaign. [video] http://bit.ly/L3JRPL
Great blog! Very informative. Perfect read to help us fine tune our project! Can’t wait for Pora Ora to go live! Very exciting, Thanks
Really and I mean really great post. We already had our rewards all mapped out but we had to do a little bit of tweaking after I read your post. Thank you for the tips. They help a lot with the preparation for the launch.
Thank you for the most fantastic information! You did a great service. Keep up the good work.
Wish I had read this before I launched two days ago. I did a couple of things listed about, “not to do.” But this article gets me excited to push push push my publishing project forward!
When Spices Fly: A Culinary Journey Through Latin America
http://kck.st/KDDxlV
Just wanted to say thank you, this was amazingly helpful. I am about to launch my campaign and have taken everything you have said into consideration. I will be back to let everyone know if it all works.
Great post! Thank you for that. I was wondering if there is more of a success using a 501c3 fiscal sponsor so the donation is a tax write off. Or-if the average donation is low enough that people don’t mind and it saves from giving away an additional 7% of funds raised.
thank you!
I think 99.9% of donations via crowdfunding will not help people in their attempts to rack up tax deductions. Most donations are $25. Is it attractive to the person you might want to reach out to for $10k? Sure, but that’s the rare exception, not the rule. Most individuals already get an automatic $5000 deduction for charitable giving without having to document it, so during the year (in order to claim), they’d have to give more than $5k AND it would need to be documented. If I had to guess, most people just don’t bother. In my experience, the volume of small donations is what you’re looking for. I’m not a huge fan of fiscal sponsors, because most take a very hefty chunk of your donation (7%-9%) as a processing fee to take on the limited paperwork required to “manage” your donations. I’m on the board of two non-profits, so I’m not bad-mouthing out of turn, but if you go the fiscal sponsor route you have to factor a total loss of nearly 20% in fees off the top of whatever you raise (Kickstarter fee + Amazon fee + Fiscal Sponsor fee). Might as well use a bad credit card offer at that point.
Thanks! This was quite helpful and enlightening. I’m not using Kickstarter but instead Indiegogo because I wanted the flexible funding that they offer. That way I can keep whatever money I receive and not worry about working my butt off to raise funds and then never receive them if I don’t reach my goal.
You can check out my campaign at http://igg.me/p/200341?a=995178 (igg = IndieGoGo. It’s not a shortened spam link)
It’s for my small business. I make affordable yet fashionable jewelry that anyone can wear as well as ornaments which 20% of profits are donated to a charity for children with disabilities.
Thank you, Nathaniel. All my gratitude to someone I never met but is saving me time and troubles. I’m planning a crowdfunding campaign for my project (yes, I’m absolutely passionate about it!) and wonder if you could tell me why you opted for Kickstart instead of other platforms (e.g. indiegogo). I’ll appreciate this extra piece of advice. Many thanks. Laura
Glad it was helpful and thanks for reading! I like the all or nothing feature of Kickstarter – it really energizes followers and provides true stakes. My philosophy is that crowdfunding is about storytelling as much as anything else, so without conflict or stakes, you can’t have as compelling a story to share with your fans/friends/family. That’s why “I” chose kickstarter, others might have reasons they chose another platform. The same principles apply though, and I believe you could take this article and port over all the experiences to any funding platform. Good luck!
No need to post this answer to you, it’s just I want to thank you for yours, above. I admire your “tips” because they are true, not impossible to follow, and each word you say has a weight (even your last comment “you can’t have a story without conflict and stake”), it makes me re-think and re-define my pitch. A few weeks ago I became involved in a KS campaign for I wanted to know “how it works” (of course I also wanted my friend to succeed). I was amazed by the amount of work it takes, the energy, the strategies… everything you so rightly mention in your column. The campaign was well underway when he asked me to write “a letter”, which I did in a blink, I don’t even remember what I said as it burst from my heart. He immediately posted it along with one of his frequent updates. I couldn’t believe what he was doing. The wave picked up again… He had reached his goal of $900 the very first day, and by the end of the campaign he had raised more than $16,000. So it gives me the courage to think that it is possible. Kind regards.
We launched our own Kickstarter project one week ago, and this article was very helpful. I just read it again to remind myself. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this! And if the idea of Tennessee Moonshine Cookies piques your interest, please take a look at our project…
For those thinking about launching a Kickstarter campaign, you might be interested in an Excel tool I just built that allows one to test different rewards scenarios and their relative financial outcomes. It’s pretty handy and free of course. It’s just an excel file.
http://joshborin.tumblr.com/post/33691994441
This was a really great article. Was looking for this information before I launched. It was going great for the past 3 days but I have kind of flatlined at the moment. I am hoping to pick up some more momentum since it has given me the confidence that I need to get a start on my residency. I can’t wait until the next post.
THANK YOU!!!
Excellent article, this is very helpful. One of the main challenges we are seeing out there is people starting campaigns and then crossing their fingers. I will make sure to point them to this post for pointers!
Does your site have a contact page? I’m having problems locating it but, I’d like to shoot you an e-mail. I’ve got some ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great site and I look forward to seeing it expand over time.
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[...] 7 Things To Consider BEFORE You Launch Your Kickstarter Project [...]
[...] “Story is everything. Let me back up. Your story is everything. People aren’t so much getting behind the idea as they are getting behind your passion to produce it – be it a book, film, album, live event, business, it makes no difference… In my experience, and my opinion, this is the very heart and soul of an effective kickstarter campaign (or any crowdfunding campaign). It HAS to have heart. Kickstarter isn’t a place people come to make an investment expecting a financial return. They come to engage with other interesting people and to help along artistic projects they believe add value to the world in which we live.” 7 Things to Consider BEFORE you Launch your Kickstarter Project | Nathaniel Hansen [...]
[...] network. …and some general attributes of backers: On interesting number i found was that the average age of backers is 42 years. I don’t know where that number comes from but it’s most likely true, because older [...]
[...] [8] The Ultimate Crowdfunding To-Do List: Before You Launch by Nathaniel Hansen (@nathanielhansen) at his own site [...]
[...] pour diffuser votre projet, ou encore cette célèbre et incontournable liste de bonnes pratiques, ici. Pour vous convaincre de pouvoir magique du Crowdfunding, lisez cette belle success-story à propos [...]
[...] is what I sent to the local papers. But then I read this (thanks Jane Friedman!), and learned that I did it wrong. So I’ll be drafting a new one, in [...]
[...] 
 &#thirteen &#thirteen 
 &#thirteen Locate A lot more Create A List Content articlesPost by Susan Coils You listen to more than and over that 'the money is in the list'. Is it? I have …/p>The income is not in the checklist. The funds is in the partnership you have with the men and [...]
[...] idea as they are getting behind your passion to produce it… It HAS to have heart,”says Nathaniel Hansen, an indie filmmaker who has raised over $350,000 on Kickstarter to date. People aren’t going [...]
[...] with them about progress. Also let them know how they can help you. Nathaniel Hansen has a great blog that gives a strategy for your email [...]
[...] From Nathaniel Hansen: [...]
[...] You will also want to read this comprehensive article by filmmaker and media artist Nathaniel Hansen on “7 Things to Consider BEFORE you Launch your Kickstarter Project.” [...]
[...] When those statistics are limited to publishing projects, the results are even lower (around 32%), which suggests there’s an art to crafting a successful kickstarter. Fortunately there’s plenty of advice out there for creatives wanting to build their own campaign, and the most important element plays directly to a writer’s strengths – a good crowdsourcing campaign isn’t selling a product, it’s selling a community on a sto… [...]
[...] Here’s some good advice I ran in to while researching for this article. The first from Nathaniel Hansen, who has raised over $350,000 through crowd-sourced funding: http://www.nathanielhansen.com/film-fundraising/the-ultimate-crowdfunding-to-do-list-before-you-lau… [...]
[...] 7 Things To Consider BEFORE You Launch Your Kickstarter Project [...]
[...] with over a dozen Kickstarter campaigns which have raised over $350k. The man knows his stuff. This is probably the single most helpful article I’ve ever read on getting a campaign started. A [...]
[...] than we have. Even though their model is donation-based and comes with unique challenges, this list of tips from a successful creator provides additional info on how to have an effective LendSquare [...]
[...] I first discovered Kickstarter.com I’ve been in a position to help a number of people navigate the stressful waters of crowdfunding, raising more than $500,000 in the process. [...]
[...] 7 things to consider BEFORE you launch your kickstarter project (via Nathaniel Hansen) [...]
[...] http://www.nathanielhansen.com/film-fundraising/the-ultimate-crowdfunding-to-do-list-before-you-laun… [...]