JDW wrote:Would like to update this thread on my experience using Hyperstarter.
Giles got in touch with me to see if he could be of any assistance before my campaign actually got underway, I have lurked this forum for a while now so had seen he had made quite a lot of contributions, and thought why not. Giles seems to live and breath crowdfunding, and definitely has a passion for it!
I took the leap and got Giles help on my project, along with being project of the week. I would say that the knowledge that Giles has is probably the greatest attribute of using his services. I was sent about 5 long emails on how to improve my product page, tips for social media, and even a list of contacts and journalists to reach out to. What was great about this was it wasn't just a general 'how to guide', it was actually geared towards my product, so the journalists were relevant and had covered similar projects. The social media tips were the same, and I could tell that Giles had put a lot of thought in to how I could improve. He also had a lot of constructive feedback for my project page, a lot of which made sense but it was good to have his expertise to help.
So far I haven't seen any direct backers from being 'Project Of The Week' on Hyperstarter (correct me if I'm wrong Giles?), and my campaign is not yet over so I don't want to comment too much whether that side of the deal has had any benefits until the campaign has finished (can update later).
I would say the benefit of working with Hyperstarter definitely is with the advice and experience that is provided, a lot of which has probably been more valuable than the cost of listing with Hyperstarter. I didn't actually use their services until after my campaign had started, but wish I had used them before as my campaign on launch day would have been much more successful!
JDW wrote:Hi RFIDsecur,
For sure, more than happy to make a few comments!
In regards to Hyperstarter, there were not any direct sales from the website, however I am still really happy with the value for money as Giles helped a lot with fine tuning of the campaign which I am sure lead to more backers.
That is/was my campaign, and it really was such a shame to be that close. But I am not one to give up, and will be relaunching once I have come up with a new game plan!
To answer your other questions......
It is hard to say where the campaign struggled really, as I was able to reach the 30% mark fairly quickly which gave me a lot of hope. In fact within the first few hours I was already at 10%, before my family and friends had a chance to back. This gave me a lot of hope at the start, but from around 40% it really started to go slow. It could be that at this time of the year, its not the type of product people are looking to buy, or that not enough people are interested in the actual product (can be quite tough to be objective on this as of course I think the product is great!)
I did consider pulling the campaign, but really only for a minute or two. Im not one to quit, and would have rather taken the campaign the whole way knowing I tried, then get scared and quit. I would also like my backers to feel the same way about me, that although the campaign didn't fund successfully, I will work hard to bring the product back and not just quit when the going gets tough.
I used these services after the campaign started. I applied for both at around the same time, and BackerClub was set up a bit before Gadget Flow so that had a longer presence for me. I went for the Featured Position package on BackerClub, and the PRO package on Gadget Flow. As I am relaunching, and plan to use these services again, I don't want to comment too much as I think they deserve another try. Keep in mind that I started to use these services partway through the campaign, realistically in an attempt to try keep the ball rolling and keep backers flowing in. What I should have done is used them before the campaign launched, as I am sure it would have helped with getting prioritised higher on Kickstarter due to the high amount of clicks (and hopefully backers) sent to the campaign.
I will start off with BackerClub. I didn't get a whole lot of backers from BackerClub after listing (although some of their members had purchased before I listed), and did not have a positive ROI. On a positive note, I did actually get a good discount on the package, and Mark at BackerClub has been really helpful after the campaign ended and I requested that instead of a refund that they just set the promotion up for me again next time I launch. This works well for me as every little bit helps, and I am willing to give them another go.
Next up is Gadget Flow, I went for the PRO plan which seemed to have quite a lot of coverage. Again, not a positive ROI from the investment here, although quite a lot of clicks through to the campaign. This definitely would have help if I had used them earlier on. Another positive here is that their customer service is absolutely brilliant, and they even went above and beyond the last few days of the campaign to try and help attract more backers. Evan also contacted be towards the end to discuss what else could be done, and as per their guarantee they would re run the whole promotion when I relaunch. I also have a phone meeting with Evan tomorrow to discuss the plan forward.
So from both of those experiences, there were positives and negatives. I would like to think that both deserve a second chance, and hopefully will work better if used at a more appropriate time of the campaign.
Thanks for the offer, we do already have everything set up with our supplier, but if we do have any new projects on the horizon it would be great to keep in touch to see which solutions you have!
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