KickstarterForum.org

Very helpful!

It has generally been positive. I don't have much money for ads so I rely mostly on people that browse the website to fund the campaign. Due to this I launched it twice unsuccessfully, where 100% of the people came from Kickstarter itself. Tried Indiegogo but found that Kickstarter had better browsing as I didn't get any funding through Indiegogo. I'm on my 3rd launch and decided I should put it at 60 days rather than the 30 because I assumed that the longer it is there, the more likely it would be for people to fund it since there more time for people to find it through Kickstarter. It has been somewhat successful so far, as I've reached the most I have of the 3 launches. I have also run a giveaway on Gleam and I think that really helped because 20% of the backers this time came from outside links. One of the things that was frustrating was when people backed my previous project but didn't back the current once, since it's the same product. I guess they changed their minds of thought it would fail again.

WildFlower wrote:It has generally been positive. I don't have much money for ads so I rely mostly on people that browse the website to fund the campaign. Due to this I launched it twice unsuccessfully, where 100% of the people came from Kickstarter itself. Tried Indiegogo but found that Kickstarter had better browsing as I didn't get any funding through Indiegogo. I'm on my 3rd launch and decided I should put it at 60 days rather than the 30 because I assumed that the longer it is there, the more likely it would be for people to fund it since there more time for people to find it through Kickstarter. It has been somewhat successful so far, as I've reached the most I have of the 3 launches. I have also run a giveaway on Gleam and I think that really helped because 20% of the backers this time came from outside links. One of the things that was frustrating was when people backed my previous project but didn't back the current once, since it's the same product. I guess they changed their minds of thought it would fail again.

I think you're right with previous backers, as they've already been with you and experienced it fail they may be hesitant to back again. It's unfortunate, and I doubt there's no real negative impression of your project or your company, simply a mindset thing.

Good luck with the funding, I hope it works out and if it does those previous backers realise and jump back on

Thank you Stef! It sucks because if a few of the people that backed before back for this current campaign, then I would have secured enough funds to hit the goal. But oh well, sent them a message but only a small percentage of the previous backers backed again. Guess I'll need to find another way to find backers.

Haven't you missed the elephant in the room here? What have you learnt from your mistakes and done something about? You are short on backers, 3 attempts and it would appear you have not built a list of support in emails, social media to help your campaign. Frankly that you have any existing backers on the 3rd attempt is commendable to the backers, that you're disappointed that only a small percentage have backed you again, sorry to be blunt that's just plain lazy selfishness..

That's kind of a crude take isn't it? There's a lot of assumptions you seem to be making about me, and I'm not really sure why it matters to you. Creating a support base has been one of the first tips and things people have said when creating a Kickstarter and most if not all of the steps involve advertising of some sort with an assumed budget in the thousands. My advertising budget was $20. Not to mention I could only buy the domain to the website name I wanted and not host it because of the lack of funds.

You seem to stand on a pedestal while taking into consideration your experiences and ignoring others. My first attempt I did not advertise because for one, I didn't have the funds for it, and because I didn't do much research. At the end, it came out to 6 people that backed me by finding my project through Kickstarter. My second attempt, I did try the Facebook/GoogleAds route, but it really is limited when you don't have the money to fully utilize those platforms. For that attempt, I got 10 backers, with the new backers finding my campaign through Kickstarter and few people from my last campaign. Now I realized that most of the backers come from Kickstarter itself, so I broke the tip of campaigns working best when they are 30 days and extended the period to 60 days. And with the $20 dollars that I had for advertising, I created a giveaway through gleam and had people retweet my Kickstarter. Now, I have 20 backers with 71% of the backers coming from Kickstarter itself, compared to the 100% in the two previous attempts. It isn't much backers, but its much better compared to the last two attempts.

I completely understand why the people that have backed my previous attempt chose not to for this one and I am in no way complaining about it. I am just mentioning it as part of a conversation and an observation.

I did say it was blunt.

“and most if not all of the steps involve advertising of some sort with an assumed budget in the thousands. “

Utter tosh. It costs nothing but time to engage in the forums, chat on SM like and follow people influencers, build credibility in these areas, so that people know and recognise your contribution, such that when you need advice and help they want to support you.

Given your described situation, it will be difficult but that’s where you learn you can’t take certain routes others could. if you can’t afford then, you have to think outside of the box and creatively to get the support you need, Relying on the KS platform to fund your entire campaign, as you and others who read this will see is not generally going to work.

Sorry it wasn’t sugar coated but only you can make the difference to your campaign.

Engaging in forums doesn't really build that large of a backer base as many times it comes across as peddling rather than actually engaging in the forum itself. I've read many tips and tricks, and they all lead to advertising on either Facebook or Instagram and for good reason, because that works. Going through the route you mentioned seems a bit idealistic and while it may work for some, it's the very small percentage that it does work for.

I do agree that it would be better going through this method than mine, as I do not at all recommend my approach. But joining different groups and building credibility seems a bit disingenuous as the purpose is only really to obtain more backers. I'm part of a few online groups on Discord, and I'm fairly close to them, but I wouldn't want to sell something to them by using my friendship as one of the reasons. It's for that reason too that I haven't really told any friends of family about my campaign because I would know that they're not backing it for the product itself, but because of me. I'm a bit stubborn in that respect and I understand that everybody has different takes on that, this is just my take.

My issue wasn't that you didn't sugar coated your message, it was that the message had no real value besides criticizing someone based on assumptions made from one post. Was there really any purpose to that message besides calling someone plain, lazy, and selfish? There's criticism and then there's constructive criticism. There's being blunt and then there's being a rude.

Being blunt is being straight forward with no intent to offend
I think I was blunt not rude, and yes I simply answered the post not the history or context, it’s not a debate and I’m not trying to be personal, so let’s park it.

Engaging...
Perhaps, but if you have nothing you have to start somewhere so better to try to be that small % surely?

Disengenuous, I don’t think so. I’m posting on here ? What, to get backers to my campaign when I launch it? No I’m here to learn share and engage. Where that leads is opportunity, By doing none of those things what opportunity do you make?

Why do you assume you have to sell to your friends on discord? Where is the harm in asking for advice or help in raising awareness of you campaign or about the campaign, asking them what could be done better. You’re not twisting their arms into buying, if they back and support you it’s up to them.But they may simply share it somewhere that brings traffic because of who they are and how they are received.

You’ve assumed I am not in the same boat as you, who’s to say I’m not? I’m just going about it perhaps in a different way.

I think the lazy selfishness part of the message says otherwise, but I do agree that we should park that part of the conversation.

That's true. Honestly I started posting on this forum because of that thread where the admin said that they would advertise your campaign if you reach 50 posts and the thread where they said they would post it on their twitter, but it seems like I was 4 years late.

I understand it when it's on Kickstarter-based forums, I was referring to the forums that cater to a specific niche that has to do with your product. But you're right, nothing happens when you do nothing.

It's less of trying to sell and more of the implication of it, which might just be overthinking on my end. I just find their friendship valuable and would rather not ask as it might paint me as a shill. Guess I wasn't really cut out for this.

Sorry if I made the wrong assumption, it's based on your message about the emails, backer list, and social media as that greatly implies advertising as both are typically mentioned together. In conjunction with your website, I assumed that was the case. Sorry about that. My frustration with many of the tips online that assume you have advertising money was placed onto you, which was dumb on my part as I made an assumption and criticized you for thinking that you made an assumption.