KickstarterForum.org

UviCube (www.bit.ly/UviCube) has hit its funding goal last night and here are some things that I've learned so far.

- When other creators say 'start building your audience early', it means not a week or two ahead, but months ahead. We made an internal decision not to share that we were going to be on Kickstarter way in advance, so we only started aggressively building an audience right before the launch on FB, and I think the outcome could've been much better had we had a huge base to start with. It is also not enough to just have an audience... you need a highly involved audience as these are the people who will be the first ones to advocate and share your project. So don't just gather 'likes' but rather, have a conversation and communicate with them to build rapport and loyalty.

- When we sent out a mass email to our subscribers, only about 27% actually opened the email, which apparently is on the high side, according to Mail Chimp stats. Think of all the junk mail you just delete every morning without opening. Don't count on your emails being read by everyone, especially if it's a mass email.

- It seems as though the 'new & noteworthy' category has a totally random algorithm as there seems to be a lot of campaigns that have gotten zero funding and are still way ahead of our project in terms of visibility. There was only a very very small percentage of backers that came from using the 'discovery' feature, I'm assuming because of our project's invisibility in relevant categories, e.g. Design, Most Popular, New and Noteworthy. Point is, don't bank on your project being visible even when you reach your goal or close to reaching your goal. (Obviously, this may change in a few days, and I'll update on whether or not there has been a change in our status)

- Promote your media coverage. We were featured on Digital Trends (http://www.digitaltrends.com/home/uv...r-kickstarter/), which was awesome, but having it featured doesn't mean automatic traffic. You have to really share the news for it to be worth it, unless you're smack at the top of the site where you can't be ignored. So, tweet it, share it, email it, post an update on your campaign page, etc.

We still have 39 days to go, and we still have a lot of ammunition, but I have to say that it has definitely been a grind. Emails, updates, posts, tweets, outreach to blogs, media & fellow Kickstarter creators, answering questions and comments, etc.... Whether you have a campaign that is kicking butt, or getting its butt kicked, you have a lot of work laid out for you.

Please please check out our campaign and share it www.bit.ly/UviCube !!!

When other creators say 'start building your audience early', it means not a week or two ahead, but months ahead.

100% agree. We started building an audience about two months out, and while we were happy with the results of that early effort, starting even earlier than that would have been very beneficial.

Don't count on your emails being read by everyone, especially if it's a mass email.

Or read at all really.

don't bank on your project being visible even when you reach your goal or close to reaching your goal.

Totally agree with that. In planning a project you should make the assumption that you won’t receive ANY of the special selection or highlighting perks that some campaigns get. If you assume you won’t get anything like that, it will be all the sweeter if you do! (There is however, a lot of good advice on how to increase your chances of getting special attention, but again, don’t write that into the plan!

Promote your media coverage.

Absolutely. The comfort level of doing this all depends on the different aspects of your project. At first during my campaign, I felt like I was too modest to post things like that on my social networks and campaign, but in truth, people gobble this up. Your network will love to see you succeed and media coverage only validates your legitimacy!

Good luck with all of the remaining 39 days of correspondence! You guys are doing spectacularly. I checked out the campaign and it’s evident you really did your homework and preparation. Great work!

- Tom

Thanks Tom. I have to agree with you on feeling modest about posting our campaign's accomplishments, but it seems like, people are more excited about it now that we're funded!

Yea, you guys are hitting it out of the park right now

This was an incredible insight into what works for a campaign...i tried a kickstarter for my Teen Self Esteem Program back in January which was unsuccessful, but will be relaunching in a month or two to try again... your advice really helped. If you have any more advice - my kickstarter that was unsuccessful is at this link https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wh ... owerful-yo

Wow! That is really impressive. I wish I could have enough resources to make all planing.
I can foresee my project is in trouble now. I set my goal too high and I have no resources left to promote my project.
Here is my project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1170566778/solardy

I am so desperate to launch it without planning it well.
One question in my mind is, what if I ever need to relaunch my project, Will those who pledged on a failed campaign still count if the campaign relaunched?

Alec

Alec... your kickstarter for the solardy is AMAZING! i love the concept... im really impressed. i was unsuccessful in my kickstarter and will relaunch later too - but i am going to promote your project on my social media because your project is amazing... i love it.
brandi
www,brandispeaks.com

Hi Brandi,

Thank you very much.
I have been trying to use solar powered device as much as possible. But some solar powered device are pretty ugly. Or sometimes it just plain useless. I have a fancy melody in motion wall clock, I have thought of many ways to get it powrerd by solar cell. But without a factory involved, many solar cell in radioshack with hand soldering process will ruin my lovely looking clock. That's why I decide to initiate this project. Hopefully I can build a nice looking solar cell solution to help people with same need.

Alec

Y

Congrats on the success!

I have been promoting my upcoming launch for a couple months but I feel my methods were ineffective. I was posting the announcements to different game forums and crowdfunding sites. The only people I have attracted seem to be crowdfunding services. We are a small team and don't have the money to be using these sites (there are alot and most of them are ineffective anyways unless you already have followers).

I have read a couple articles about using twitter to promote the project -- which I am doing now (should have been doing it sooner). However I am having a hard time finding people who would look further into this project. I've had a lot of retweets by different crowdfunding services (kicktraq, ayudos, indiegamemag, crowdspeaking, headtalker, etc.) but I have not seen many fans of the game find my page.

A friend and I have been developing a RPG that is inspired by the SNES and Gameboy classics. We've been working on it for about a year now but we have run out of funds to continue making it (we have had a lot of support from family and friends thus far). We are hoping to reach out to as many RPG fans as possible and ask them to share the project or donate if possible.

We have definitely jumped the gun on the kickstarter project. 'Azmara' just launched a couple days ago. Most of the backers we have received have been from friends on facebook. It would be great to have a blogger speak of our project but we don't know where to look. Our twitter page @rpglimited has few followers so tweeting only has so much of an effect. I have tried using facebook ads but they don't seem to be working --- they only attract 'fake likes' to my actual FB page.

Running out of options, any tips/advice is greatly appreciated,

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/21 ... android-or
MochShot
Drew Mochrie

Thanks for sharing