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My successful & unsuccessful crowd funding campaign.

Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2014 1:23 pm
by jeanetmarie
I had launched my Indiegogo campaign in May to raise funds to get my greeting cards into the big retailers (Wal mart, Duane Reade, etc), While I didn't reach my $5,000 goal, I was successful in many other ways. Please check out my story on my blog. I plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign in October with the lessons I learned on crowd funding. Tell me what ya think. Cheers.

http://goodhaircards.blogspot.com/2014/ ... e-who.html

Re: My successful & unsuccessful crowd funding campaign.

Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2014 9:27 pm
by bizzlenizzle
Hey, I think it's great you hit the streets and sold so many. Online seems to be a whole different game, but I think crowdfunding sites work well as a means to market your idea.

Good luck with starting up again in October!

I've got a kickstarter that's halfway through right now and we're hitting the customary snag. It's not really related to yours but if you have any tips or anything you've learned you'd like to pass along just message us.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/10 ... a-web-site

Re: My successful & unsuccessful crowd funding campaign.

Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 12:16 am
by jeanetmarie
Call everyone and don't be shy about reminding folks who promised to give, but haven't yet. Life happens and sometimes people need a push. I should have done a pre-launched party and collected the 30% before I launched because I got plenty of donations after my campaign ended. Also, find out where your crowd really is. My crowd was mostly off-line and had I paid attention to my sales, I would have approached my campaign differently. Facebook and Twitter were time wasters for me although I had more than 5,000 "so-called" fans. Find out what's not working early and stop doing it. There's more than more way to crowd fund and on-line is just one way. All the best. Cheers.

Re: My successful & unsuccessful crowd funding campaign.

Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 5:13 pm
by jpmckeown
A while after my project launched I visited my dad and showed him the Kickstarter page and he asked if he could use Paypal. Only then did I realise there wan't a Paypal option. I prefer using a card but I realised some people don't like that. Also I realised that even the first step of registering with Kickstarter would be a bit of a put-off for some people who aren't already members. At that point I was thinking that my efforts to get people to sign in was benefiting Kickstarter more than the project. But the campaign has improved since then and reached 67%. Maybe I ought to do updates but I doubt my backers would want to be bothered by emails?

Re: My successful & unsuccessful crowd funding campaign.

Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 12:14 am
by jeanetmarie
Email your backers with updates. After all, they are supporting your campaign. Make it short and sweet. Cheers.

Re: My successful & unsuccessful crowd funding campaign.

Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 12:37 am
by SoftTempest
I concur! We run a successful "Go Pharaoh" Kickstarter campaign from mid-June to mid-July of this year. When we launched another Kickstarter campaign (already) in mid-September, we reached out to our backers. Now, we are sending them email updates almost every other day. The only thing, Jeanetmarie, that we haven't been doing is asking those updates "short and sweet." We will be trying that with tonight's update to the Kickstarter fundraising project, which we are shamelessly promoting on our website at http://www.halloweenchronicles.com. Thanks for the suggestion.

Re: My successful & unsuccessful crowd funding campaign.

Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 6:42 pm
by ErictheRiko
I'm having similar issues. I don't have a huge goal to reach, but I'm finding that my friends and family are absolutely sick of hearing about another person's kickstarter, and I'm having trouble getting the word out to a larger audience.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1515752249/lifes-lemonade

Ours is a little web series about a bunch of adults who run a children's lemonade stand. If anyone has any tips on where to post to get more exposure, I'm all ears!

Re: My successful & unsuccessful crowd funding campaign.

Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:32 pm
by SoftTempest
Have you tried in-State and regional children's blogs and your local news channel websites which often allow citizen journalists to upload news tidbits?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/67 ... fairy-tale

Re: My successful & unsuccessful crowd funding campaign.

Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 6:24 pm
by onthewaterlifestyle
I like how you hit both the streets and online. They are different animals and approaches but it can work.

Cheryl
http://igg.me/at/GulfCoastWaves

Re: My successful & unsuccessful crowd funding campaign.

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 8:13 am
by jdbelsterling
One of the downfalls of Indiegogo (if you choose flexible funding) is that there isn't the same urgency; maybe you woulda met your goal if there was that urgency and your existing supporters knew they wouldn't get rewards if you didn't surpass your goal?