KickstarterForum.org

Hi there Salvador. I came across your article ‘21 places to promote your Kickstarter campaign’ on Crowdcrux and wondered if you could give me some advice?

My project has been live for a week now and in spite of informing my Facebook friends from my private account of my project – all 97 of them have been aware of my project for some time and have so far been really enthusiastic and supportive about my book – I’ve had only one pledge, and that was from someone who’s a family member anyway! I probably wrongly assumed that they’d at least pledge the lowest amount which is just £1 but I seem to have either hit a brick wall of inertia, or something else outside my control is going on. You certainly find out who your friends are when you do something like this don’t you Winking smile. Anyway, thing is, I am publishing my book anyway – I’ve used Kickstarter to try and help me finance it to ease the pain. When I started my book I just had intentions of releasing it quietly, but things seem to have snowballed a bit and I’m now using a PR company n the UK to help me gain media coverage for launch in October. Whilst I plan to find the funds regardless, I thought I’d use Kickstarter to try and help as I’ve already sunk quite a lot of money in due to it being self-published – i.e. I’m using a professional company to do the copy-editing, book design, typesetting, fulfilment etc.

I didn’t think I’d find it as hard to promote my campaign and am worried about ‘pissing people off’ as I’ve had a few negative reactions along the lines of ‘why would anyone want to give money to someone else’s project?’ I don’t know if it’s because I’m in the UK and we do have a tendency to be a bit behind the times over here, but it seems that all my friends’ enthusiasm for what I’m doing and their support has suddenly stopped. However, I am really passionate about the subject and wrote my book as a means to inspire and help others, so yes, whilst it would fund my project, it is actually a means to helping a certain part of the community affected by the subject (IVF).

I wondered if you could take a look at my project and let me know your thoughts and maybe some advice on approaches? I’ve checked out some of the links you mention in your article, but as an introvert the thought of approaching strangers directly fills me with horror! Am now considering paying for campaign consulting but am hesitant as I don’t want to waste what little funds I have remaining. Do you think using someone like Crowd Campaigners is actually worth it?

My project link is http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tru ... s?ref=live

My website is also now live and can be found here: http://www.truspencer.com

Many thanks. Any help/advice is extremely appreciated.

Tru Spencer

truspencer wrote:Hi there Salvador. I came across your article ‘21 places to promote your Kickstarter campaign’ on Crowdcrux and wondered if you could give me some advice?

My project has been live for a week now and in spite of informing my Facebook friends from my private account of my project – all 97 of them have been aware of my project for some time and have so far been really enthusiastic and supportive about my book – I’ve had only one pledge, and that was from someone who’s a family member anyway! I probably wrongly assumed that they’d at least pledge the lowest amount which is just £1 but I seem to have either hit a brick wall of inertia, or something else outside my control is going on. You certainly find out who your friends are when you do something like this don’t you Winking smile. Anyway, thing is, I am publishing my book anyway – I’ve used Kickstarter to try and help me finance it to ease the pain. When I started my book I just had intentions of releasing it quietly, but things seem to have snowballed a bit and I’m now using a PR company n the UK to help me gain media coverage for launch in October. Whilst I plan to find the funds regardless, I thought I’d use Kickstarter to try and help as I’ve already sunk quite a lot of money in due to it being self-published – i.e. I’m using a professional company to do the copy-editing, book design, typesetting, fulfilment etc.

I didn’t think I’d find it as hard to promote my campaign and am worried about ‘pissing people off’ as I’ve had a few negative reactions along the lines of ‘why would anyone want to give money to someone else’s project?’ I don’t know if it’s because I’m in the UK and we do have a tendency to be a bit behind the times over here, but it seems that all my friends’ enthusiasm for what I’m doing and their support has suddenly stopped. However, I am really passionate about the subject and wrote my book as a means to inspire and help others, so yes, whilst it would fund my project, it is actually a means to helping a certain part of the community affected by the subject (IVF).

I wondered if you could take a look at my project and let me know your thoughts and maybe some advice on approaches? I’ve checked out some of the links you mention in your article, but as an introvert the thought of approaching strangers directly fills me with horror! Am now considering paying for campaign consulting but am hesitant as I don’t want to waste what little funds I have remaining. Do you think using someone like Crowd Campaigners is actually worth it?

My project link is http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tru ... s?ref=live

My website is also now live and can be found here: http://www.truspencer.com

Many thanks. Any help/advice is extremely appreciated.

Tru Spencer

Hi Tru

I am also from the UK and have experienced EXACTLY the same as you. I have business pages on FB as well as my personal account and I told people about Kickstarter, what we were doing, and how I hoped they would help weeks in advance. Many said they would support me. In the UK people seem to think support means clicking "like" when you post a new status!! You are right about finding out who your friends are!! Not ONE of my closest friends has pledged - and to be honest (I am sure you feel the same) that is pretty gut wrenching. I know that if any one of them launched a project on KS, I would pledge just to show my support.

I post many projects on my FB pages now - do they get looked at - I am not really sure, but apart from pledging £1 (I really cannot afford anything more) it is the only way I can try to support others - and I will do the same for you.

Like you, I will continue with my project. My leather is being made as we speak so the credit card will take a bashing!! and I sell pretty well on...can I say it... the dreaded Ebay so KS was just a way to launch something new and ease the debt pain.

You are not doing anything wrong - there are many people now who are finding it tough to get any support from friends, family etc., and as sad as it is, we just have to move on.

Many of us on this forum get involved with cross promoting - for what it is worth. I will post your campaign around - who knows it may bring one or 2 backers. Get in touch with other creators and try and do the same. Try PR.com with a press release - it is free so also worth doing.

Apart from that just keep plugging away

Good Luck
Sarah
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/429 ... xury-leath

ACLeathercraft wrote:I post many projects on my FB pages now - do they get looked at - I am not really sure

It's very interesting to hear this... I have a theory that people are suffering from social-media-information-overload and it's desensitizing them. I actually don't use FB, as I'm appalled about the direction they've gone as a social media site. I still have an account, but I never use it.. I should just delete it.

Anyway, I think it's possible that your friends and family simply aren't seeing your campaigns. Or maybe they just aren't understanding what KS is all about.


Tru - I looked over your campaign, and I might suggest making it a little more accessible. For example, I had to look up what IVF was.. while someone involved with that would know, I'd assume you're interested in finding people who know nothing about this experience but still would like to back your project.

truspencer wrote:My project has been live for a week now and in spite of informing my Facebook friends from my private account of my project – all 97 of them have been aware of my project for some time and have so far been really enthusiastic and supportive about my book – I’ve had only one pledge, and that was from someone who’s a family member anyway! I probably wrongly assumed that they’d at least pledge the lowest amount which is just £1 but I seem to have either hit a brick wall of inertia, or something else outside my control is going on.

If I were you, and yes I realize this is scary/uncomfortable, but I would approach each friend personally via chat or in person and specifically ask them to pledge. You could also email each individually. The worst they can say is no and you might annoy them a little, but at the end of the day - if the friendship is genuine - they won't stop being friends with you.

When you begin to do this, you get to the root of their objection. Some might not feel safe putting their credit card on Kickstarter. Others might not understand the platform and how it works. A few might not like a certain aspect of your campaign. Either way, it gives you a chance to address these concerns.

I would try to focus less on the monetary aspect of the project (giving £5) and more on the emotional aspect and how their pledge, no matter how small, represents a vote of confidence in you.

truspencer wrote:I didn’t think I’d find it as hard to promote my campaign and am worried about ‘pissing people off’ as I’ve had a few negative reactions along the lines of ‘why would anyone want to give money to someone else’s project?’

All things worth doing are difficult/challenging . There is the chance you may not succeed, but that's why success has any kind of value to begin with. Easy for me to say, as I'm not actively under the pressures of running a campaign, but I do find this to be true.

It's your job to address these objections and highlight the benefits of giving their hard earned cash for your project. Everyone is going to have objections to any kind of proposition or product. What's worse than no objections is people remaining silent. At least with objections, you have the chance to address them, and if you do - they might pledge!

A general rule of thumb in the sales field is that a good way to address objections is by systematically asking questions to arrive at a point. Here is a super corny video on dealing with objections, but actually gives some good advice. Brian Tracy (the speaker) is a bestselling author in the field. I realize that overcoming objections for your campaign is a little different than overcoming product in a traditional selling environment, but it lends some good perspective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaY-YpePuio

truspencer wrote:Am now considering paying for campaign consulting but am hesitant as I don’t want to waste what little funds I have remaining. Do you think using someone like Crowd Campaigners is actually worth it?

At the end of the day, be crystal clear about the types of services the consultant will render and the results you can expect. Everything, from paying for banner advertisement to hiring a contractor/consultant should be seen as an investment. If you are paying them $1,000 and they can guarantee $1,500 worth of pledges - that is a good investment. It's hard to forecast this kind of stuff, but this is the mentality you should have going in. If the consultant can't provide a list of activities they will take and the expected results, then wouldn't hire them.

I am also in the UK and yes, I think it does seem to be a bit harder to promote the projects. I am not sure how to address these issues. I have written e-mails to people I know after I have spoken to them in person and demonstrated my passion for my project that way. I think that side may be drying up slightly so I need to work on some other areas.

As you are talking about IVF is it worth going onto some forums like mums.net and seeing if you can connect with anyone on there? Can you get in touch with any support groups and see if anyone might be interested from that perspective? Have you tried twitter?

I hope things improve and good luck!

Hi there

Thank you for all your responses. At least I know it's not just me!

I'll consider targeting people individually and see where that gets me, although with the mindset of the Brits that's probably too direct an approach so I need to be prepared to lose a few friends lol.

I did consider targeting the IVF community and forums etc., but I will be doing this once my book is released and I really want to avoid cannibalising potential readership. It's also difficult because the people on those boards will already be spending huge amounts of money on their treatment, and it does feel cheeky asking for them to fund a book project. I may decide to cancel the project and accept that I have to fund it myself anyway. I'll give it a week or so then decide what to do from there.

As for mumsnet, it is on the target list with my publicist once we get nearer to launch and I think I'd rather concentrate on the book itself when it's released rather than pitching for pledges to help with the costs - I had a very bad experience with bullying and general nastiness on that particular site too so am always a bit wary of it now.

Twitter I'm still unsure about - I do have an account but so far have said nothing - I find smalltalk and gossip very difficult, so am thinking it's probably not the best medium for me. I know people say it works but I do find it exhausting keeping up with everything. I seem to spend all my time on social media when I should be working on other stuff (I do have a 'normal' job too!).

Thanks again for all the suggestions though. Good luck with your projects too

Tru

truspencer wrote:Twitter I'm still unsure about - I do have an account but so far have said nothing - I find smalltalk and gossip very difficult, so am thinking it's probably not the best medium for me. I know people say it works but I do find it exhausting keeping up with everything. I seem to spend all my time on social media when I should be working on other stuff (I do have a 'normal' job too!).

Yes, Twitter can be difficult at first and time consuming, but it's a huge traffic driver in the longterm, especially for people who produce content. You can also automatize some types of activities using software like BufferApp or Hootsuite. Some more info: http://www.crowdcrux.com/marketing-your ... g-twitter/

Ms. Spencer,

I looked at your Kickstarter project, and several things came to mind:

1) It was quite unclear what you are raising funds for.

If you are asking for funds in order to publish, publicize, or in some other way enable the book in question, this should be stated right up front.

2) Did you spend some time pre-kickoff investigating places to market your kickstarter campaign to?

Kickstarter has a lot of visitors, but these visitors don't look at every single project posted. Some of the areas - like for video games - have a large number of people who actively search for new games to fund in order to play them, but I do not think this is true for all areas of Kickstarter.

Thus in many respects, a Kickstarter campaign is no different than a new web site - you have to find ways to get people to visit. Talking about this to your friends is a minimum, but you really should consider reaching out to IVF related web sites just for the exposure.

I'm sure it's because of the nature of my project being different than others here that I'm not really having the problem that many of you are having. Although my project is a series of books and digital art objects used in maps, the content of those books as map-making tutorials and map objects are items I have posted for free on various social networking sites on Facebook and G+. There is no mystery in what I am providing, and I have given away a dozen free samples on these sites. I was already giving away, what I am selling now.

As I stated on another thread, I wasn't even planning on running a Kickstarter, it was the responders to the posts and content I provided that suggested I create these books and to fund it with Kickstarter. Because it wasn't a project I came up with ahead of time, then needed to find an audience (as in most of you), rather I found the audience first and doing a Kickstarter based on their requests. I did it backwards, I guess.

That said, looking on the Kickstarter Dashboard and seeing where the pledgers are coming from, the bulk of them are finding me through Kickstarter Discover/Games/Tabletop, Kickstarter Search and Kickstarter Tag (the tags I associated with the project, including Maps as a major one). There's no way for me to directly promote those channels, only Kickstarter members can find them with an active search.

Interestingly, I found several sites where I posted nothing, rather a member on that site found my Kickstarter project and posted a thread due to their interests. I followed back to those sites and personally responded a thank you and offered more specific information about my project. So this too is something that I hadn't initiated - it was the work of someone else unconnected with me.

Of course I have been pro-active about posting news releases on various game forums, blog sites, G+ communities, as well as obtaining interviews with industry bloggers, and getting a free ad in a national printed magazine.

As mentioned above, most of my traffic is coming from places I have no control in setting up or promoting - it is work done by other people. It's only, perhaps, because of the unique qualities of my particular project and the interest it seems to generate - there is an active audience and the products I offer is something they want.

How do you compel others to want what you are offering? I don't have an answer for that, and I can't imagine how you can do this yourself. It is the nature of my own project as being something people actually want (and the lack of that something currently available) that is driving most of the traffic.

Incidentally, I am on Day 10 of my Kickstarter and over $1000 past goal, about a third of the way towards the first stretch goal.