KickstarterForum.org

Here's a piece of advice I ignore...

I see so often many people (including Kickstarter) say you should make sure to offer low-dollar Rewards.

I don't agree.

In fact, I might even lean towards saying it's a bad idea (but I don't have the black and white numbers to prove it).

I don't think I've had a Reward for less than around $40.

The way I see it is...

By having Rewards that are really low (like $1 or $10) ...then it I reckon it tempts people to go for those than as opposed to the higher-priced Rewards.

Yes, I know, people who go for the lower Rewards may not go for the higher-priced Rewards anyway.

BUT (and this is only from my own crowdfunding strategy/model/plan) - I really don't want a Backer who will only pledge a smaller amount.

Oh, and another thing on videos...

Pretty sure I've said this before (and probably a few times now), but the video is a lot less important than most people say.

In fact, most of the places I've read or heard from that say the video is the most important part - have not actually crowdfunded themselves.

Here's what I mean...

As I type this - I'm going to be launching my Titanium Tweezers project on Kickstarter around 12 hours from now.

I don't have a video for it yet - but I plan to just talk in front of my iPad for a couple of minutes.

I mean, I could attempt to try and make a proper video - but it's going to take me a ton of time. And, even then, it's going to look like a bad video trying to be a decent video.

The only other option is to hire someone to do it properly.

I've been in talks with someone to do this - and it's going to cost around $2k for a simple 3-minute video.

And, for that, I'll get a video that looks like all the decent-looking 3-minute videos on Kickstarter. Which would be pretty cool.

I might do this for the next project - to see how it works.

But, for now, I'm just going to keep it super-budget ...because, from what I can tell, I doesn't make much difference.

The silent heroes...

I'm gonna get all philosophical here for a moment.

The Backers you remember most from your crowdfunding campaign are typically the ones that message you the most and comment on you project the most.

These Backers are usually a mix of people who have pledged both lower and higher dollar amounts.

However, a massive amount of the success of your project will come from people you don't hear from at all.

In fact...

I've noticed, more often than not, the people who pledge two, three or more times the typical amount are Backers I never hear from or who make no comments at all. Just their name is all I know.

I'd hazard a guess to say a form of the 80/20 principle holds true here. More specifically that 80% of funding is coming from people I never hear from.

Bit of a random post - but something to think about.

Kickstarter campaign duration...

When you're typically running a project then the duration you want to choose is the one that will increase the probability of your project getting funded.

However, later on, I've found the criteria changes.

Because I'm just about to launch my fourth Kickstarter project - then it's no loner about getting funded (that's going to happen anyway).

It's now more of a "bigger picture" thing.

Right now, I'm at the stage where I want to get the project over fairly fast and get onto the next one.

So, for this next project I'm going for around 3 weeks duration.

I will almost certainly get more Backers and funding if I was to do the typical 30-days ...but, because it's so close to the end of the year, I want to see if I can get another project launched before the year is out.

The Raving Fans and Die Hards...

The last project I launched was very interesting.

I had something like 5 Backers before I was even able to refresh the page and load it again once I clicked the "Launch" button.

There was no way these Backers could even have read a single word on the project page before they backed the project.

I have seen this with other project Creators.

In fact, there is one guy I know who's launched a whole bunch of projects - and it's now a game to see who the first Backer(s) are.

He makes cool stuff and so I usually back his projects.

And so, for his last project, I tried to see if I could be the first Backer...

I sat their refreshing the project page (I was able to view the preview)...

It went live...

I backed it...

I felt like I might have managed to get first...

...turns out I was 23rd!

This guy has a dedicated core following.

Do what you can to catch them...

I touched on this earlier. And what I'm talking about is doing everything you can to get people who visit your project page to back you right then and there.

The last thing you want them to do is add the project to their watchlist - because it's unlikely they're going to come back and pledge.

This is why I make sure I:

Grab their attention with great writing (or, well, the best I can do).

Have great pictures and a great pitch in general.

Offer limited Rewards at a lower price (so they risk missing out on the lower price if they delay pledging).

And a few other things.

Simply put - I do everything I can possible do to get them to back the project the first time they are on the page (...because it's unlikely they're going to be on the page a second time!)

Some crazy advice I once heard...

Now, I can't quite remember where I I read this - but someone was giving advice to another regarding their crowdfunding project.

This person said they need to "do some advertising" for their project. And by this they meant pay for adverts on other websites to promote their campaign.

If you've ever [tried] advertising on another website then you know the craziness of this "advice".

But, if you've never done it, let me tell you a quick story...

I created a titanium clip that allows you to hang your keys on the edge of your pocket (to stop the dreaded "pocket bulge" and cell-phone screen-scratching).

This clip sold well from the beginning and continues to sell well.

I decided to use this produce as a test to see if I could get advertising to work for me.

So I picked a website that had a demographic that matched really closely to my type of products.

I also split-tested various ways to offer this product (including changing the price and so on).

And, after about half a dozen split-tests of various adverts, I finally managed to just about get the advertising the break-even (which I was VERY happy with!!).

It cost me a good few hundred dollars and a lot of effort to get to this stage - and this was with a product that was a reasonably "hot seller".

In summary...

You can perhaps now understand the crazy advice of "do some advertising" for a Kickstarter campaign.

Getting advertising to work is an ongoing testing-and-tweaking, and continually evolving process.

Trying to throw cash on advertising your crowdfunding project is madness - crowdfunding is about receiving money ...not spending it.

Funny number...

Thought I'd do a quick update with a couple of thoughts on my latest Kickstarter Campaign: Titanium Tweezers.

It's around 8 hours in and sitting at $14k.

I had predicted in an earlier post that it should reach at least $10k on the first day - but it looks like it should break $20k.

Now here's the interesting thing...

I managed to screw-up the Rewards a little. A lot less people are going for the highest Reward than I thought would.

If I had known there was going to be the most interest in just getting one of each size of the tweezers (and not two of each size) then I would have structured the Rewards differently.

No big deal.

Just keep launching...

Even though I've sent out multiple email to my list before launch - I will continue to email and mention this new project to them to kind of "scoop up" those who missed it ...or simply haven't pledged (yet).

It's kind of like a "perpetual launch".

I also plan to provide an campaign update every day (or as close to every day as I can). This will be random stuff from showing my latest prototypes ...to probably doing the "Ask Magnus Anything!" video that I tend to do at some point during each Kickstarter project.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Great tips and suggestions