KickstarterForum.org

Some recent reviews of BackerClub:

BackerClub Review After 24 Hours http://www.kickstarterforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6120&p=30097

Is BackerClub Worth the $379 Submission Fee http://kickstarterforum-or.crowdcrux.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5970&p=29486

Congrats guys, hope to be able to emulate your success in the future!

5toclose wrote:Some recent reviews of BackerClub:

BackerClub Review After 24 Hours http://www.kickstarterforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6120&p=30097

Is BackerClub Worth the $379 Submission Fee http://kickstarterforum-or.crowdcrux.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5970&p=29486

I like BackerClub! I joined and already received a number of backers and have been
tweeted a few times. Thank you BackerClub!

I might give it a shot..

I've used BackerClub for several of our projects, the latest being our http://kck.st/21ga5uL X STAND. It's totally worth it as these backers are seasoned and will back you if it's something that they like. Highly recommend. Very honest and upfront.

We ended up with about 10 backers I think.
There were a few 1 dollar backers also.

In case you have some time, this is a long one to read.

1. Read, read, read and research! At first sight when everything looks perfect, rethink your options and read as many comments, reviews and thoughts on BackerClub before applying. That also means, after reading my review, do some more research, dig dipper to get the best possible picture for your type of project, because this review is not a fairytale.

2. Official Webpage. It seems like you cannot enter and view the inside of the club, but at the end of the page there is “See the Club” button. That gives you an option to look around and evaluate how the actual listing of projects looks. To spare you the trouble, it is not as effectively put together as the opening page.

3. Terms and conditions. Project creators and BackerClub members share the same terms and conditions. You have no access button directly to them, when not logged in, except if you google it. Why terms and conditions are important, see next points.

4. SPAM MAIL ON CROWDFUNDING PAGES. There are BackerClub members and BackerClub messengers. As a project creator you have probably already noticed how people are sending you recommendations on different pages supporting crowdfunding for a relatively “good price” in return for their services. Mostly from BC, right? These are the messengers, who get I don’t know exactly what in return in case you use their service and their name, when applying to these pages. BackerClub messengers have a great strategy. They “buy” the product, send you an email about BC services and usually trick you into thinking how much more people would love to have your product, if only you submit it to BC page. There are many messengers doing the same thing and the false feeling keeps building up to the point you decide to submit your project. Once you submit it, they CANCEL their orders/pledges.

5. Submit a project: TERMS. Not everyone can submit their project to BackerClub, because their “elite” backers have a specific taste, FALSE. You have to meet certain “criteria” to get your project up there, FALSE. BackerClub Project Selection Criteria is about human intuition, common a sense, life experiences and instinct (from http://backerclub.co/criteria.php last paragraph). Submitting a project is connected to their fee, which brings us to our next point.

6. FEE 379$ - no upfront fee? When you apply, this is their first automatic mail:
»Finally, we want to make sure you understand that we do not charge any upfront fee for our service. If we approve your project we will only invoice you after we have proven our value to your campaign and you have reached your Kickstarter or Fixed-Funding Indiegogo funding goal. Our listing price is $379. If you were get less than $379 in new pledges then we will not invoice you, so you are guaranteed to come out ahead!«

The next mail you receive, you get different information:

»… it did not meet all of our metrics for a standard approval. As you are aware, we only invoice (i.e. we only get paid for our work) if you reach your funding goal successfully. Because we have fixed costs associated with approving projects, we run each submission through some metrics that help guide our approval process. But based on your project's current trend, we also don't feel that we should outright reject your submission. So, rather than rejecting, we would like to offer you the following modified approval arrangement. You would pay $79 upfront for our service (non-refundable). Then, we'd send an email blast to our entire community and post your project in our website (this is the typical full service we offer for all projects that results in a $1,324 average boost). Then, if you meet your funding goal successfully and get at least $379 or more in new pledges from the BackerClub community, we would ask you to pay the rest of the standard listing fee. The $79 you paid upfront would be credited toward your total $379 invoice, so you'd only end up paying the $300 difference if you were successful.«

BackerClub does not accept their criteria as a policy. No matter what you read on forums, their page, anywhere anyone from BC took the time to calm project creators, is false. This is not how you do business, but this is the best way to scam people.
From the second mail you can see they changed their criteria to having “metrics” (look at point 5). All they have is human intuition, no metrics.
From this mail, you can also see their criteria for paying the fee – (1) after being successfully funded and (2) when backers pledge more than 379$.
RED ALARM! It’s a scam?

7. ROI AND AVERAGE BOOST. BackerClub promises 300% ROI per project. ROI is return on investment in %. There is a mistake with their ROI. BC calculated it like this: ROI = (gain from investment – cost of investment)/cost of investment. We are not trading stocks here, so the equation used in this case is absolutely wrong. I assume BC creators are quite well introduced with economics, because using this equation gives you the highest ROI there could possibly be calculated.
ROI for PRODUCTS must be used: ROI = (gross profit – marketing investment)/marketing investment. Gross profit = gross revenue – COST of goods sold. You have some nice examples of calculating this on investopedia and how ROI (for stocks) can be 200 %, but when calculating ROI for product it can be 0%.
RED ALARM!

8. Additional discount for BackerClub members. Only when submitting your project, you realize you need to give BackerClub member additional discount or some more attractive offer. Can you afford a lower price for early birds? It is up to you to decide what you want to offer them, but it costs you more, that means your investment will never come up to 300% ROI.

EXAMPLE:
You are selling your product for 100 $, costs for it are 65 $ (35 % profit is great, right). You give BC members 20 % discount, which lowers the price to 80 $ and leaves you with 15 $ profit per product.
- That means you need to sell at least 25.3 products to cover the costs of investment from BC.
- If you sell 25.3 product at the stated price, you collect 2,024 $ in pledges. Average boost in pledges is 1,324 $. The numbers don’t add up.
Let’s go again, turn the tables and do a nicer calculation.

EXAMPLE 2:
Let’s say you give only 10% discount for BC members (total pledge without discount is 1,471 $), and with that discount you get the average boost at BC in pledges 1,324 $. Costs for BC submission 379 $.
That leaves you with 945 $, which is 64 % of total pledge without discount. Does that cover all the costs of your campaign? Ask yourself, how much room do you have for BackerClub to get 36 % and still be at zero profit or even minus.

EXAMPLE 3:
Average boost in pledges is 1,324 $. Costs for BC submission are 379 $ (when 2 criteria are met).
Calculating ROI like they did (wrongly), ROI = 250 %. Where are those 50 %?

9. Are their services worth 379 $? You get one newsletter and you are listed on their webpage. This amount of money would be more efficiently spent for advertising.

There are no shortcuts in crowdfunding. You have to work for it and work some more to get your backers. As much as it is tempting, please read, ask, search and calculate before applying. BackerClub might have worked for some, but not for majority of projects. This is not the solution for slow moving projects, because backers that have backed more than 50, 100, 200 projects, they saw your projects and moved on. They check every project in a specific topic. But if your project is blooming, think, calculate and re-think, because it is already blooming and doesn’t need an additional boost. My intentions reviewing this are not bad, I just wanted to warn you all and teach you a lesson, so you don’t need to experience it on your project. If you think it will 100 % work, nothing is keeping you from doing so and go for it.

Please, think thoroughly before applying to any platform promising you miracles.

Good responses on whether backerclub is worth it or not

Really really good writeup on Backerclub. I couldn't put my finger on them, but you summed it up nicely.

For me, they're huge enough not to have to resort to bothering campaign owners with messages and hard sells. The fee structure is weird, plus when you able people joining and cancelling - that's exactly what happens.

They've got a really good platform and are well known, so no idea why they resort to these business practices.

I_am_Ivy wrote:In case you have some time, this is a long one to read.

1. Read, read, read and research! At first sight when everything looks perfect, rethink your options and read as many comments, reviews and thoughts on BackerClub before applying. That also means, after reading my review, do some more research, dig dipper to get the best possible picture for your type of project, because this review is not a fairytale.

2. Official Webpage. It seems like you cannot enter and view the inside of the club, but at the end of the page there is “See the Club” button. That gives you an option to look around and evaluate how the actual listing of projects looks. To spare you the trouble, it is not as effectively put together as the opening page.

3. Terms and conditions. Project creators and BackerClub members share the same terms and conditions. You have no access button directly to them, when not logged in, except if you google it. Why terms and conditions are important, see next points.

4. SPAM MAIL ON CROWDFUNDING PAGES. There are BackerClub members and BackerClub messengers. As a project creator you have probably already noticed how people are sending you recommendations on different pages supporting crowdfunding for a relatively “good price” in return for their services. Mostly from BC, right? These are the messengers, who get I don’t know exactly what in return in case you use their service and their name, when applying to these pages. BackerClub messengers have a great strategy. They “buy” the product, send you an email about BC services and usually trick you into thinking how much more people would love to have your product, if only you submit it to BC page. There are many messengers doing the same thing and the false feeling keeps building up to the point you decide to submit your project. Once you submit it, they CANCEL their orders/pledges.

5. Submit a project: TERMS. Not everyone can submit their project to BackerClub, because their “elite” backers have a specific taste, FALSE. You have to meet certain “criteria” to get your project up there, FALSE. BackerClub Project Selection Criteria is about human intuition, common a sense, life experiences and instinct (from http://backerclub.co/criteria.php last paragraph). Submitting a project is connected to their fee, which brings us to our next point.

6. FEE 379$ - no upfront fee? When you apply, this is their first automatic mail:
»Finally, we want to make sure you understand that we do not charge any upfront fee for our service. If we approve your project we will only invoice you after we have proven our value to your campaign and you have reached your Kickstarter or Fixed-Funding Indiegogo funding goal. Our listing price is $379. If you were get less than $379 in new pledges then we will not invoice you, so you are guaranteed to come out ahead!«

The next mail you receive, you get different information:

»… it did not meet all of our metrics for a standard approval. As you are aware, we only invoice (i.e. we only get paid for our work) if you reach your funding goal successfully. Because we have fixed costs associated with approving projects, we run each submission through some metrics that help guide our approval process. But based on your project's current trend, we also don't feel that we should outright reject your submission. So, rather than rejecting, we would like to offer you the following modified approval arrangement. You would pay $79 upfront for our service (non-refundable). Then, we'd send an email blast to our entire community and post your project in our website (this is the typical full service we offer for all projects that results in a $1,324 average boost). Then, if you meet your funding goal successfully and get at least $379 or more in new pledges from the BackerClub community, we would ask you to pay the rest of the standard listing fee. The $79 you paid upfront would be credited toward your total $379 invoice, so you'd only end up paying the $300 difference if you were successful.«

BackerClub does not accept their criteria as a policy. No matter what you read on forums, their page, anywhere anyone from BC took the time to calm project creators, is false. This is not how you do business, but this is the best way to scam people.
From the second mail you can see they changed their criteria to having “metrics” (look at point 5). All they have is human intuition, no metrics.
From this mail, you can also see their criteria for paying the fee – (1) after being successfully funded and (2) when backers pledge more than 379$.
RED ALARM! It’s a scam?

7. ROI AND AVERAGE BOOST. BackerClub promises 300% ROI per project. ROI is return on investment in %. There is a mistake with their ROI. BC calculated it like this: ROI = (gain from investment – cost of investment)/cost of investment. We are not trading stocks here, so the equation used in this case is absolutely wrong. I assume BC creators are quite well introduced with economics, because using this equation gives you the highest ROI there could possibly be calculated.
ROI for PRODUCTS must be used: ROI = (gross profit – marketing investment)/marketing investment. Gross profit = gross revenue – COST of goods sold. You have some nice examples of calculating this on investopedia and how ROI (for stocks) can be 200 %, but when calculating ROI for product it can be 0%.
RED ALARM!

8. Additional discount for BackerClub members. Only when submitting your project, you realize you need to give BackerClub member additional discount or some more attractive offer. Can you afford a lower price for early birds? It is up to you to decide what you want to offer them, but it costs you more, that means your investment will never come up to 300% ROI.

EXAMPLE:
You are selling your product for 100 $, costs for it are 65 $ (35 % profit is great, right). You give BC members 20 % discount, which lowers the price to 80 $ and leaves you with 15 $ profit per product.
- That means you need to sell at least 25.3 products to cover the costs of investment from BC.
- If you sell 25.3 product at the stated price, you collect 2,024 $ in pledges. Average boost in pledges is 1,324 $. The numbers don’t add up.
Let’s go again, turn the tables and do a nicer calculation.

EXAMPLE 2:
Let’s say you give only 10% discount for BC members (total pledge without discount is 1,471 $), and with that discount you get the average boost at BC in pledges 1,324 $. Costs for BC submission 379 $.
That leaves you with 945 $, which is 64 % of total pledge without discount. Does that cover all the costs of your campaign? Ask yourself, how much room do you have for BackerClub to get 36 % and still be at zero profit or even minus.

EXAMPLE 3:
Average boost in pledges is 1,324 $. Costs for BC submission are 379 $ (when 2 criteria are met).
Calculating ROI like they did (wrongly), ROI = 250 %. Where are those 50 %?

9. Are their services worth 379 $? You get one newsletter and you are listed on their webpage. This amount of money would be more efficiently spent for advertising.

There are no shortcuts in crowdfunding. You have to work for it and work some more to get your backers. As much as it is tempting, please read, ask, search and calculate before applying. BackerClub might have worked for some, but not for majority of projects. This is not the solution for slow moving projects, because backers that have backed more than 50, 100, 200 projects, they saw your projects and moved on. They check every project in a specific topic. But if your project is blooming, think, calculate and re-think, because it is already blooming and doesn’t need an additional boost. My intentions reviewing this are not bad, I just wanted to warn you all and teach you a lesson, so you don’t need to experience it on your project. If you think it will 100 % work, nothing is keeping you from doing so and go for it.

Please, think thoroughly before applying to any platform promising you miracles.

Hello,

I have to say that from all the services we've invested in since the beginning of our campaign, backerclub is by far the one that brought the biggest results.
They brought in 14 backers (for a total of around 1300 USD).
Highly recommended