KickstarterForum.org

I have noticed a lot of posts on here about whether or not its safe and a good idea to use crowdfunding PR firms, the top two seem to be krowdster and crowdco. I had some ideas about how to judge if its a good idea.

Imagine that you are hiring a new employee - after all they will be working for you - When hiring someone to work for you the first thing you do is check their references:

Check references
This is easy to do as most of these sites list their clients: So go to the 'Projects page' and randomly pick three or four - the names and contact details of the campaign owner is listed on the site and they can also be contacted through KS. So give them an email and ask:

How much did the PR site contribute to the campaign? Would you recommend using them? ....

If the product owner had a good experience they will tell you and if not they will tell you that too.


We have a database of 500,00 willing backers!!! (Really?? ask them)
If they claim to have a massive database of crowdfunding clients that are just desperate to crowdfund - then ask for a sample, maybe 5 random names --- If they actually have 500,000 then a small handful will not be a problem or negatively effect their business plan. Once you have some names - send those people an email and ask if they really want to support KS campaigns --- remember if they have signed up to be on a database they will be very willing to answer these emails - if not then your just spamming random people.


Are you a real business?
As with any company you are going to use: Check that they actually exist: There are several ways to do this:

1: Ask them for their company address, name of their parent company?

2: Search for their company name - all US and EU companies have to be registered on an open register which means things like contact name and address are openly available - I'm not sure about the rest of the world but it seems to be constant.

3: Check to see who owns the domain name or the company trademark


I have followed this procedure for the 'PR' companies that have contacted me (not crowdco) and have not had a very positive experience.

Remember you are hiring these companies to work for you - you are giving them your money - if the are legitimate businesses (which they may well be) then they should be happy to give you their details.

Hope this is helpful.

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