KickstarterForum.org

I know there is a larger pool of failed Kickstarter Campaigns out there than those successfully funded. I know that many of you spend weeks, lots of hard earned cash, and loose some friends along the way to find out your Kickstarter project didn't help your project succeed! I'm one of the examples... BUT... I thought to myself what is Life going to be like after the Kickstarter flunks. I don't want to through away my 3rd project attempt because it didn't succeed - it's a good idea ... So I takes with a Mexican guru friend of mine and well this is what I came up with.

The no. 1 reason your Kickstarter project fails: not enough fans. Assuming you've pulled all the stops, and developed a great idea... You may have trouble getting enough eyeballs to your project. Investing in ads is not enough. You have to have a fan base - or a lot of good friends - that can tweet, share, call, text, and by word-of-mouth: get the word out.

This can be solved by doing the old fashion thing: building an audience.

To build an audience you'll have to work extra hard. Find a few good people who like your content who have lots of fans to help introduce you - than you've got to keep pulling and generating content.

No matter how good, or bad, your project appears to be - if you don't have enough people seeing it - it won't get funded.

Solution: build from the ground floor up. Don't go right-away to a Kickstarter campaign instead generate content. Write blogs. Design shirts. Make YouTube videos. Perform at Coffee Shops... Etc.

If you need a little bit of extra cash - I recommend using a platform like: GoFundMe. That's what I'm doing to rebuild my epic failed film into a series of high caliber YouTube video's at http://gofundme.com/insanity - will it work, well let's go over the math.

According to my recent statistics - I had enough of a concert to fund 5% or so of the $58k budget the film would have cost. I know I can change the idea a little, and revise the use of effects through creative shooting to cut down the cost. I can make an episode in under $2k - which may land around 15-30 min. I know that if I start getting content - I can start getting subscribers and building fans.

$2k may be a little steep for a YouTube video - but I want to prove I can make great entertainment worth while. A high caliber etc... More or less: Vimeo quality than standard YouTube madness. Content that could be found by someone larger, they fall in love with it, and hand me the keys to my dream ... But if that doesn't happen: I have no problem building up my dream one step at a time. Patience and it will come.

If you want to pitch in a few bucks or take a look at my concept: Go to http://planetj1.com or http://gofundme.com/insanity - you can also see the original Kickstarter at http://go.4egtv.net/ksj1 (my own url shortener).

You can also hit me up on Twitter @justinkaz or @j1movie if you'd like to chat in real-time!

God bless!

This post has been moved to the Kickstarter Tips and Advice section.

Thank you, Cristina.

I didn't really understand your English well, but I understand your point.

I think the main reason isn't enough fans, but it's the project itself. If it's a great idea, viable background, potential earnings, unique selling point or something which appeals to people (i.e. Video game or animal related campaigns are popular...because it connects with people's likes and childhood).

A "connection" is all you need. If you can find the right target audience based on your project, then yep "bingo" you'll get the backers and word will spread...Good luck with it.

Very good advice. I'm about half-way through my 30 days, and I have been beginning to wonder what I will do if I don't reach my goal. I started with a huge jolt, but here I am in the middle, floating, hungry for likes, shares, and donations. Thanks for sharing your story.

I'm pretty sure that my campaign is headed for failure. After looking critically at my campaign, I can see that I messed up in 2 ways: my funding goal and my reward tiers are too high. Here I am with only 4 days to go and I'm $3,750 short. I guess I will need to cancel and start all over which is killing me because I am exhausted from campaigning. I really did not anticipate the stress level being SO high!

I hope it wil not happen, but it may. Then, I will have to start all over I think.

That's okay. Keep trying.

Don't give up people ~ failure is not an option

My best tip would be, planning. I know its tempting to go ahead and launch straight away, but you inevitably regret it, as I have done. My advice would be to have backers ready to go the moment the project launches. Kickstarter likes projects with good momentum and are likely to put projects with consistent traffic to the 'Staff Picks' or 'Project of the Day'.