The KickStarter Process

Launching My KickStarter

     I have successfully funded my first KickStarter project! Maybe you want to too? Or you're just interested in how the process works? If either of these questions are burning a hole in your mind then look no further because here are the answers and simple truths about KickStarter.

I began my KickStarter campaign June 19th 2017 with one simple goal in mind: To raise money so that I could publish my first book. Now I'm no expert in marketing, I had a non-existent budget in mind, and I had never even backed a KickStarter before. So why was I successful? 

Because I was very hard working, had a reasonable goal in mind, and most importantly I had a good supportive group of friends/family.

I don't want to discourage you from following your dreams, but if you don't already have a fairly substantial group of individuals who WILL put their money where their mouth is, then you may not succeed. 

I started the planning process of my KickStarter for about a week before launch. Yes I said a week! Another words don't just jump into it and launch right away or it may look unprofessional which means less people will donate. I began my process by doing some online research. First I compared KickStarter, GoFundMe, indiegogo, and even Pubslush. The reason why I researched all 4 is because they all have different rules and commissions they take out. The problem is: Even if one applies more towards your goals, does it apply to your audience/future donors?

If you have the next great idea about computer technologies that can help every day people, do you go straight into a meeting with computer technology exec's or do you do your own research first by polling common every day people? The answer is: You do the research and go with the crowd.

This is called Crowdfunding for a reason, and if your idea is good enough (and the people like it) then the businessmen will find YOU. My point being, after a couple hours of deciding which to go with, I polled my Facebook friends to see what they thought.

Not surprisingly, nearly none of them had heard of indiegogo or Pubslush. So that narrowed it down a bit, the next step was to decide exactly which one was right for my project. KickStarter was one of the first crowdfunding websites and by far still the most popular, so I looked at a few projects that would be in the same category as me. 

I was blown away by how much each project varied both in descriptions and info, and in funds. Some books were 200%+ funded in less than 2 weeks into launch, whereas others had only a few days left and only raised maybe 20% total. One thing you have to understand about KickStarter is that it is an ALL or NOTHING experience, so sadly most likely some of those books weren't going to get written/made.

After looking at KickStarter, I turned my attention to GoFundMe. It has a really easy-to-use and easy-to-launch setup. In fact, after less than an hour of tinkering with it, I had already accidentally launched my project on GoFundMe. Two big differences between the two was that GoFundMe seems to be geared more towards charities/help me scenarios whereas KickStarter is more business oriented. Though my project fell into both categories, the hopeful side of me wanted to make this into a business rather than just give me money so I can make an unsuccessful book. The way you can tell the difference it because GoFundMe is NOT an ALL or NOTHING campaign, as soon as someone donates, you get the money (after they take out their cut of course). The 2nd thing about GoFundMe that falls back into the help me category is the inability to create Rewards/Tiers. This was a huge turn off for me because all you do is just describe a bare bones scenario of why you need this money and then hope people donate. In KickStarter you can actually offer people things if they donate x amount (such as a book for instance). 

So, I deactivated my GoFundMe campaign within a few minutes and went back on KickStarter to launch a new one. The difference in process was almost overwhelming at first. KickStarter had SO many things you had to fill out and write about your project that it took me a few hours to do it. Finally, I reached the ultimate spot... Do you click the finalize button and launch your KickStarter now?? If you do, a countdown that you cannot change will start and if you like many before you don't reach your goal then you are screwed! A little bit more intimidating then GoFundMe's approach. And don't get me wrong, GoFundMe is absolutely great for some things, it just wasn't right for me!

But instead of clicking that button, I mustered up the self control to wait (...and I'm so glad that I did!). I'm no marketing genius, but I know that building suspense can be a good thing. I've already polled my Facebook in regards to which to choose from, so why not use it again? This time to establish the idea that I have set forth. "Hey I'm thinking of launching a KickStarter soon to help raise money for a book that I wrote, would anybody be interested in it?" ....Now that's not my exact post but you get the idea. Over the next day or two I got a number of messages/texts from friends who saw the post (may not have liked it/commented, but saw it) and were genuinely interested in why I wrote a book and what it was about. This was perfect! Now I knew I had at least a few people who would want to donate, so... I posted a few more times about it that week so that I knew I reached as many people as I could, and then on Monday June 19th I launched my KickStarter at exactly noon after several edits.

I strategically chose a Monday, beginning of the work week, and I chose noon because that's around lunch time. If I REALLY wanted to be clever, I would've posted at the beginning of the month when most people get paid. But, the good thing is is that they have an entire month to donate and KickStarter doesn't take the money out until after the 30 days (or however long you chose) is up and you actually successfully reached your goal.

As soon as I launched, a few of my friends were already waiting to jump on it and within 5 minutes the top reward was already clinched. I was so surprised when I continuously watched that meter grow that day. I would literally run into the living room and say "You're never going to believe who just donated... and how much they did!"

My close inner circle and I raised half of my goal within the first day! That's right, 50% reached. That's way better then some of the KickStarter book campaigns I saw, which gave me hope. I'm not saying this will happen to you if you launch one, or you could even do a lot better than my campaign, I'm just saying that it was an amazing feeling. The next day I went on a KickStarter hunt for other campaigns similar to mine while other donations trickled in. I found one campaign that had launched the same day as mine, and in their 24 hour period.... they raised over $1 million dollars! Now this wasn't for a book, oh no. It was for a Dungeons and Dragons game board. The creator however, already had a major backing and fantastic reputation.

Back to my experience, as expected the first half of the money came easy, but the next half I had to work for. I had already crunched all the numbers and knew that if I reached my goal (even with KickStarter taking nearly 10%) that I would be able to make good on all my rewards and promises, so I wasn't afraid to start spreading the word about my KickStarter a little more. You wouldn't believe how many scam emails you get saying how you can reach tens of thousands of people at the click of a button if you only pay for it. I'm going to be honest, I fell for the first one. Spend $20 and MAYBE make a million like that D&D campaign? Who wouldn't go for that. So be weary ladies and gentleman, their ARE scams out there. I had to fight with those people for nearly a week before I got that money back into my account after I researched what a hoax it was.

So, with my confidence booming, I went back onto social media and begun spreading the good word. Luckily, I wasn't the only one! Of the few that had already donated, some of them were sharing my posts and linking to my KickStarter too. What a great group of friends and family I have, they were incredibly supportive. In fact, of my 31 total donors (I know not that many but this was a small project) only 1 came from someone that I did not know. She saw my KickStarter campaign through exploring on the website and decided it looked good enough to donate to. (which made me feel great by the way)

One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give you is to not be afraid to market and sell yourself. I'm not saying to sell your pride or you soul to the devil, don't go around begging people for money, but create a spiel that has your KickStarter info in it and start messaging your friends. I did, and it helped me to raise the 2nd half of my campaign (and then some). I personalized each message and wrote each one a bit differently but they all stuck to the same principals of "Tom! Hey buddy have you heard that I'm writing a book?" then here's what it's about, and if you interested please donate to my campaign and help spread the word. And for the most part, they did! 

In the end, I raised 118% of my $1,000 goal and have been very satisfied with the process.

I know that some people will shoot for a lot higher goals, and that's okay. But I did the research and looked at how much it realistically was going to cost me, and I got a community behind me that I know will want to read my book and tell their friends. A lot better then just going out there and taking out a thousand dollar loan. I will say that after I reached my goal I didn't push as hard, but I did create something called a Stretch Goal. Which meant that if we reached a certain amount (I chose $1,250) then I could do even MORE and possibly offer more rewards. Unfortunately we didn't quite reach it.... But I was so happy at what we did raise that I've put in the money myself and am doing it anyways. Stretch Goals can be pretty much anything related to your product that will encourage people to still donate even though you've reached your initial goal.

I hope this blog has helped you to better understand the process that you have to go through, and maybe encouraged you to launch your own KickStarter. If you just skipped all the way to the end or read only the fine points that's okay too! I'd just like to take a moment to once again thank all of my backers and those who have supported me thus far. Be sure to tag them in a social media post and thank them if you do launch a successful campaign!

If you'd like to see how I did it, please check out my My KickStarter

and if you have any questions feel free to message me through My Facebook Page

Or E-mail me: authorcjstrong@yahoo.com

~By C. J. Strong