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If you find it hard to even consider actually approaching a crowdfunding campaign to make your dreams come true, here's a memoir of my journey from WANTING to record and manufacture a professional studio CD of music...to actually DOING it!
And it truly is a miracle!
ACTUAL POST to all my KICKSTARTER BACKERS!
Hello to all of you who pledged $40 for coaching plus music! Definitely let me know you got this, read it, does everything it says to do and whether you found it helpful or not. I want to make good on your reward! Thanks~
I've sent this to all backers...just so they can be in on the sharing!
SO, YOU’RE THINKING OF DOING A KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN….
This is aa guidebook describing my experience creating and succeeding with a Kickstarter campaign to make my first studio CD. I called it THE ULTIMATE STUDIO CD.
I’ll cover:
inspiration and approach
preliminary research
creating the actual web campaign
getting your ducks in a row
timing - time of day, week, year
running the the campaign online
Though there are other platforms out there worth exploring, this article will be about a Kickstarter experience.
If you are one of my pledgers who pledged for the campaign/website coaching session, this is most of the information I would have spent the 2 plus hours of my time sharing with you. If you read the entire article, follow the suggestions and have more questions, please give me a call. This way, you have all of this in written form in lieu of a conversation.
If you are wondering about a website of your own, I use www.weebly.com and I watched all their instructional videos and even looked up some by googling in youtube. Let me know if you have more questions about this too. If you can handle WORD you can handle Weebly!
THE INNER GAME!
Maybe you have an idea, and you are pretty confident that there’s an appeal out there, and that you have enough tried and true friends and family who will support your campaign towards success.
Maybe you are a self-starter and know how much time and effort it takes to bring your dreams into the material world. Maybe you realize that though running a crowdfunding campaign is a huge amount of work, you’ll be self-employed towards your dreams and can forego getting a loan from the bank.
Maybe you are comfortable with the risk with this kind of project, both emotionally and financially, and are feeling pretty secure that you can handle whatever outcome shows itself. That means, being able to follow through with your project and deliver promises to pledgers, or taking all the things you learned along with the reality that you may not have reached your goal.
Kickstarter basically offers friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances and total strangers to pre-order gifts, products or services you will make to help you gather enough funds to bring your ideas to fruition.
You can just as well create a “store” on a weebly.com or squarespace.com site, for example, and pre-sell your services and product to raise money and by-pass a crowdfunding platform. However, you won't have access to all their tools....a major benefit of using Kickstarter, GoFundMe, IndieGoGo etc.
I listed “pledges” as products in my store so that people can still Pledge (pre-pay) for my CD etc and help me financially finish my product. I put these up onto my website AFTER my campaign ended. A few folks had intended to pledge and just forgot and missed the deadline. So I made it possible for them to still participate by listing 4 pledge levels.
At my level of world-wide industry involvement, I found that very few total strangers, if any, found their way to my campaign and pledged. So your personal network, and their friends, is most likely what you will have to draw upon.
The lead time you need to wrap your brain around, prepare, create and assemble your campaign cannot be overlooked! You may need weeks to months of prep work! The 20-35 days or so of intense campaigning is just that! And it goes by QUICK! The time it takes to complete your project and deliver rewards may take months before and after the campaign. You have to consider all this time and effort. The smaller the project, the less time….or maybe not, if you work it out ahead of time. If it takes you 6 months to a year and you pull in $10k+, you tell me if it’s worth it!
If you have doubts, welcome to the club! Are you worthy?
Will people be upset you are asking for money?
Will you fail and be humiliated?
Why would anyone want to back you for your private dreams?
Why put money down for towards a selfish end when there are many charitable causes to support?
Who do you think you are believing in yourself enough to take a step towards your dreams and goals?
Who said you could?
Who’s telling you that you can’t?
What will happen if you get all that money and can’t pull it off?
What will happen if you fail and have to swallow your enthusiasm after all that hard work?
Most importantly, as you offer "rewards", you can rest assured that you're not begging. You are offering pre-sales for products and services.
Yep. All of that went through my mind, and has been a running a loop for years. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but I didn’t qualify for a $12k bank loan. I had to realize that if I made the goal and did all the work, I’d come out with a CD of professional quality. All I had to lose was my self-doubt (in huge amounts) and my excuses for not doing the best I could. As a PTSD survivor, achieving my goal was a life-changer and has lifted me above the trench I had merely peeped out of all my life.
The inner work for some of you will be the toughest thing you ever do - and the most rewarding. Just having the gumption to create and launch my campaign was accomplishment enough! Getting the funds was the whipped creme on top! And making the CD has been the long swim through turquoise waters of my wildest dreams towards a project beyond my imagination.
Just let me tell you that if succeeding at a Kickstarter campaign was possible for me, it’s definitely possible for you!
RESEARCH! RESEARCH! RESEARCH!
Let’s be practical. It might be wise to have at least a 6 month lead time before you push the button and launch your campaign. Here’s a list of things you might consider to prepare and create your campaign. Get a notebook dedicated to this process. Write everything into it. All your thoughts. Ideas. Fears. Questions. Details you want to remember.
Research all crowdfunding platforms so that you can choose which one fits your style: Indiegogo.com and gofundme.com etc are just two in addition Kickstarter out there. Some require that you have pledge items to offer. Some let you raise money with no rewards for your supporters. Some require that you reach your monetary goal before you receive any funds: all-or-nothing campaigns like Kickstarter. Some let you raise as much as you can without reaching your goal: flex funding.
Do a google search on comparing Kickstarter to Indiegogo as to which one is more successful. Do comparisons on each of the others out there. Which one did you find easy to navigate and inspiring the most?
Doing a campaign where you keep what you raise regardless of your goal is another story. It’s called flex-funding. If you are promising rewards, for example, how will you pay for them if you don’t raise the money? What kind of confidence will your public have in you? If you have an open ended deadline, how will that inspire folks to plop their pledge down in a timely manner, or at all? There are no real answers, only questions.
READ EVERYTHING ON EACH PLATFORM WEBSITE!
THAT INCLUDES CLICKING ON ALL LINKS AND FAQ PAGES!
TAKE THE TIME.
BE THOROUGH.
BE CURIOUS.
BE HAPPY AND EAGER TO LEARN!
Take all the time you need to do this. You may want to read for 10 minutes and stop. Read some more hours later, or the next day. That’s ok. Be sure to return and read more until you read it ALL! This is why I suggest a long lead time before you launch….you’ll need it!
While doing this research, go through a couple of platforms and search for projects closest to yours. Read everything about each campaign you pick. Watch the videos all the way through. Check out all the perks and rewards for ideas. Make notes about things you liked. What exactly did you like? Wording? Arrangement of information? What would you have changed. Were they successful?
Check out those campaigns that were not successful as well as those who succeeded. Maybe go to the maker’s website or Facebook page. How many “friends” did they have? How popular are they already in their field? You can even look into the list of their pledgers…see who pledged, how much they pledged and how many campaigns they have supported. It’s all very fascinating. Are the pledgers all from the maker’s hometown or state?
PLEDGE!
Find 3 campaigns you like enough to actually push the pledge button and put your money down in support of them. Go through the process. Join the game. You can afford $5 to $10 bucks. If you think you can’t, write down your reasons for your own counsel. Consider it a movie or latte you sacrifice in the name of a new life by helping someone else live theirs!!
Note why you decided to pledge. It may be just because you liked their video and they made you smile, or gave you some good juice at that moment. When you launch your campaign, viewers will be able to see how many campaigns you have supported.This process allows you to experience, yourself, participating and pledging, just like those you will be asking to do for you. Feel it. Open yourself to this process.
LINING UP FRIENDS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS
Build up your social network contacts! Start expanding your Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Google+ friend base. Emails work some, but I found that personal messages through these networks are more effective because the daily PM (persona message) loads are far smaller than daily email loads, and therefore, more noticed.
Note your own experiences and ask around to see what some others say. Do they ignore “impersonal emails”? Do they always look to see who’s reaching out to them personally through Facebook?
Look into MailChimp, Constant Contact and other bulk emailing services long before your campaign. Months? You have to build up a mailing list and they are somewhat careful that you are not just spamming people.
Contact maybe 10 people you know and trust and ask them if they will help you spread the word and help you during the campaign run. You want to have folks whose circle of friends both intersect your circles, and those who live far away.
You can create a message for them to copy, paste and send to their circles that express the unique relationship they have with you, and how supporting you would please them! Friends will want to help friends who have good friends who are doing something exciting. It's a perennial approach. Be short and appeal to emotions of inspiration, loyalty and connection.
A sample of a note I prepared for friends to paste and copy into their messages.
SHORT AND SWEET. APPEALING TO EMOTIONAL CENTERS:
“I’ve known Laurianne for years and have watched her music develop and grow. She has been an inspiration for me to get my own projects off the ground. I really think she deserves to succeed in lifting her work up to the next level! Won’t you help me help her by pledging a couple of bucks to her project? It would cost the same as taking me out for a lunch and a cup of coffee…and the next one will be on me!”
Tell your friends when you anticipate launching and ask if you can stay in touch with them as the time nears. When you launch, TIME is of the essence!
You will want to find 3 friends or family members who are willing to loan you a chunk of credit-card debt for a couple of weeks, IF YOU NEED IT. Here’s a tip, Kickstarter requires that you meet your goal before any funds are delivered. When pledges are made, no money is charged to their credit-card account until the goal is met. No goal met equals no money charged.
You can not pledge to your own project with your own credit card!
So, say you are trying to raise $10k, and you are hovering around $7k or $8k during your campaign, pledges are slowing down and you have a few days or less to go before your deadline. You can now ask those friends in your back pocket to lend you the remainder (by pledging to make up the $2k to $3k) with the guarantee that you pay them back as soon as the cash comes into your bank by reaching your goal. Money was in my account in 10 days. Kickstarter says it may take up to 3 weeks. You will have then raised $7k or $8k instead of $10k….hopefully enough to get you going!
You may want to create a file on your desktop and throw old photos of you as a kid, or other personal and entertaining photos to use when you are posting in social media or sending out emails. It presents a personal touch that may engage folks emotionally.
Facts are good. Emotions MOVE people!
GREENINBOX.COM!!!!
Tell them I sent you!
Check out websites and organizations who claim to be able to help you raise money for your campaign. Do a “scam search” on google.
I hired GreenInbox.com. In fact, I believe 95% of my pledgers responded to the service they offer. They are affiliated with Facebook and can send out FACEBOOK PERSONAL MESSAGES (FB PM) to your entire friend list with one button. This is not a post. It’s a notification/message that appears at the top of your FB page that indicates someone has contacted you personally. Emails are often overlooked as spam. FB PM’s are still “rare” enough to get attention. I think. For now, anyway.
FB "posts" are fleeting comments that stream down your feed and get left behind during the day. FB PM's stay in your account notifications until they are read! And they appear to be to you, and only you, if worded properly.
I had noticed a GreenInbox ad alongside my FB stream and clicked on it during the second week of my campaign. It went to GeenInBox’s FB page and someone had commented below, said they were successful with the service and left their phone number. I called him. He was a nice guy, a musician, from Nashville. He told me his story.
He asked a couple of good buddies from different parts of the country to hire the service and do the FB PM option, which he paid for ($30-$60 guaranteed to bring in money or you get yours back). I did this. It worked! Too bad I learned about it 10 days into my campaign! I’m telling you NOW!
Go to www.greeninbox.com and check out all the options. I cannot guarantee anything. Policies may have changed since I used their services in March 2015. They were very good about responding to questions or issues I had.
When you choose the Facebook Personal Message option, it will ask for access to your Facebook friend list. Then ALL your friends will pop up with a checkmark next to their names. Go through and un-check all those you feel would not appreciate your message, or even be offended by it. For me, I un-checked 180 out of 1200 names.This takes time. It will take time for friends who agree to do the same for you. It was worth it for me. I had 3 friends agree to help me with this. Some donated the fee. For others, they used my credit card.
I spent $200 to raise $10k. Good investment, if you ask me.
CREATING YOUR CAMPAIGN!
VIDEO!
After all the research you’ve done above, you may be ready to start pulling together your campaign pitch. I recommend a video that’s somehow personal, interesting or funny. Again, you will have made specific notes on the campaigns you liked during your research. I actually copied exact scripts into my notes, made notes as to the video approaches I like. I even asked one successful musician if I could just plagiarize his successful campaign in which he raised over $25k. He was thrilled and gave me the go-ahead! He was local and a peer, so that’s why I asked for permission.
Merely describing your project will not engage emotionally. Tell your fans why this projects so exciting for you, personally. Take advantage of the video medium to MOVE people emotionally, make them smile, laugh, be curious.
There are some videos that use sub-titles or a variation thereof and thereby sidestepping the awkward notion of speaking into a camera asking for help. Some of them are fabulous and very engaging and effective! Find one, yourself!!
I made one video, inside a dark room, sitting down, where I read from a prompter and had some visual effects added later. I had the generosity of a professional videographer to help me. I was lucky! It looked and sounded real nice. Upon sending it out to a couple of choice, honest, experienced professional friends for feedback, I ended up making a new one. Asking for feedback is a great idea. Sometimes you can be to close to get an objective analyses of your own project.
One good friend in LA told me that the video did not express any emotion or personal appeal and even though she knows me, she would not be inspired to push the pledge button. (She sent me links to campaign videos she loved. I was surprised that I wasn’t moved by her choices. She chose campaigns that mirrored the kind of project she is hoping to pull together. Very interesting!
I had suspected as much about my own first try. There was something “staged” about it that i didn’t feel comfortable with. Though another friend, steeped in the music industry loved the first video! She said I looked beautiful and that it was very well done.
I opted to shoot again. This time, I stomped around in the Santa Fe river in the forest and told my story with a few notes to make sure I got everything in. I was much happier with that video….and ultimately, that’s all that mattered!
I don’t know how many people pledged that didn’t know me. It wasn’t many. But one unknown single mom pledged $300 just because she liked the video, and wanted the concert that came with the pledge for her birthday! Three pledgers won private concerts and I have performed two of them. At the first one, a stranger ended up writing me a check for my next project! Amazing!
In the video, if you are whining that you don’t have money, or if you look bored or afraid or too uncomfortable, you won’t be very welcoming for people to jump into a great project that you feel stoked about.
If you don’t feel stoked, you might want to consider how being stoked would look to you, and then feel it, and tape it! Maybe tell folks how you feel about your project, why it means so much to you, why you are asking for support other than just getting money. I talked about learning to grow relationships with people instead of doing everything myself.
Another option is to stay home in your room and ruminate about what life would be like if you only had the money to make things happen for yourself. Not.
If your campaign doesn’t pull in the dough, for whatever reason, you will have the option to refine your pitch and run the campaign again with what you learned. Who cares? Only you do!
I have seen a few campaigns where the “maker” talked a lot about the product/project, but I didn’t get a sense of who they were. For me, getting to know the person mattered more than the product…I gave money to a person because I liked them in the video. Or I liked they way they expressed themselves in their video…they inspired me.
Actually, I didn't just give money. I bought their CD!
THE STORY!
What makes this project so special from everything else you’ve done?
I had to find an angle to share as to why this project was so important to me. I used my personal story of growth and challenges. I was coming from being a recluse and releasing live concert recordings to tour with. And now I am in a relationship which I may have called in with the mantra of my new songs. And I was ready to engage fully with a team of professionals to record a professional Ultimate Studio CD.
My Angle: I’m finally growing up and need support to lift my work into the light of the world market where I wanted to pay professionals a living wage to help me instead of going the route of a hermit/recluse and trying to do everything myself!
If you will be hiring other people with your winnings, add that information into your story. It shows that the money will be spread out into your community as jobs. A good thing!
Upon researching the copy for the campaign page that goes under the video, I noticed that many campaigns merely typed out the entire video script with vey little additional information. I used the “story” section to embellish and articulate the budget and to promote who I’d be working with, including links to their their websites, and some additional personal insights to let people into my world. I added photos and anything else that would back me up. I explained that I have experience putting CDs out. I wanted to appear to be responsible and trustworthy of the promises I was making.
If you want, include a budget on where the money will go. Don’t forget to include the 8% cost of running the campaign (Kickstarter’s fee) and manufacturing and delivering rewards, and postage!
Just so you can see how things change and shift, here’s what happened after the money was in my bank account. The entire professional crew that I hyped with photos and website links became unavailable to me as a team. The producer had taken a full-time job in January and failed to tell me about it before I ran the campaign in March. He had not seen the copy and all the hype in my campaign promoting him and his crew. He told me he only had time to watch the 2.5 minute video. I’m not sure, but I think he doubted I would ever complete the campaign and raise the money because it was taking me over a year to do it.
I was crushed. After a period of panic and emotional turmoil, I began shopping around for a professional producer and found someone with a studio who I felt was a better match for me. It was easier to shop with cash in hand rather than a promise of a possible crowdfunding success. It’s not easy for someone to commit to you when you don’t have the funds to pay them at the moment. A catch 22, of sorts. It’s been awesome!
THE REWARDS!
There is lots of info on what to offer and how to create your pledges. I used the research I did through all the campaigns I explored. I wanted pledges that were desirable, easy to make, easy to deliver - with minimal costs. I emulated many CD campaign projects…taking ideas I could use and refining them.
You can offer a product, or even services like home-cooking a meal for four, or baby-sitting, or housecleaning, or car detailing, or pet-sitting. You have more to offer than you think.
TIMING!
What time of year to launch your campaign can be an interesting question. I was ready to Launch October 1st. I got a call from a friend who urgently chastised me (all in good faith) because he got the impression I had not done all the work I’m suggesting you do. He was right! I wept. I was so overwhelmed with all the months worth of work I’d just done and just wanted to launch, already! I just hadn’t done all that was needed, and didn’t or couldn’t let that fact in. Because it meant I had A LOT MORE WORK TO DO!!! So I took another 5 months to do it at a pace I felt I could handle, and to wait after the holidays.
I did more preparations and research and launched in March. It was a very emotional decision to delay…and ended up being the right one. I did not do ALL that friend suggested, and though he was certain I would fail if I did not, I succeeded. (He had uber amounts of web experience and he had over a million Google + friends!!!) So you never know what’s going to happen. Advice, even mine, is only as good as the trust you have in yourself to be willing to take responsibility for your actions.
DUCKS IN A ROW!
Ok! You’ve got your script written.
You’ve got an iPhone or a videographer to help you with your video.
You’ve figured out your budget.
You’ve filled out all the necessary info and rewards section and completed the Kickstarter campaign set-up pages.
You’ve set up your Paypal account.
You’ve finished articulating and typing in your rewards.
You’ve built the campaign webpage.
You’ve got your money-bag friends lined up and committed in case of a needed credit-card boost to the goal-line.
You’ve decided whether or not to risk using something like greeninbox.com and who is going to help you do it in their friend circles.
You’ve got your social media accounts fattened up.
You’ve assembled an email list of willing participants.
You’re ready to launch!
I picked 33 days to run the campaign because I like the number.
LAUNCH STRATEGY!
You need to pick a time of year to launch. During summer vacation? On or near a holiday? After a holiday? Which day of the week will it begin and end? How close to tax time? When are people in a good mood? What news stories are out? Any elections happening?
You can ask “The Oracle”, the pet name I have given Google-search. “What time of year is best to ask for money?” or something to that effect.
I booked a coffee house on a Sunday afternoon and promoted a public in-person Campaign Launch which included a concert, some snacks, and previews of the campaign on my laptop. It was very successful and gave a good boost to the project! Maybe a party? Bar B Q? Potluck? Meeting friends at a local pub for a beer?
Coincidentally, months before my campaign, a concert slot at a local theater became available on the date my campaign was to end! I got wind of it and was allowed to book the space. It would be a congratulatory evening for a successful campaign, or a “Thank you for supporting me! I hope to run another campaign soon” celebration. It was a win-win opportunity for me and ended up being a huge party! I was humbled and grateful. Still kind of a blur!
You’ll need to pick a day and TIME OF DAY to launch and end your campaign. You may want to begin posting or telling friends about your upcoming launch a week or more BEFORE you launch so they can be prepared to watch for it, etc. It’s up to you, of course. If you choose to launch at 11 am, the campaign will close at 11 am the day you choose to end.
The time of day is critical to consider for posting and sending emails! Facebook posts stream down the page pretty quickly. Are your circle of contacts morning-computer-people, or late-night-computer-people?
You may want to post once a day or at different times of day each day. You may want to post every couple of days so you don’t overload your friends. Too much or too little? You’ll have to figure that out. Be creative. Be funny. Be honest. Be positive.
Do not ask for “money”. Ask for help, support, oomph! or whatever. Make little notes on your calendar as to the time of day you pitched, when you used photos etc. I put marks on my calendar every 3rd day for the entire campaign run so I would be prepared for the next post.
I even added pledges to the campaign website during the campaign which included pieces of jewelry donated by a friend who has a store, and pieces that I had lying around my house. I even put up an acoustic guitar - to be had for pledging $75 dollars. These were all scooped up in no time and helped me raise money! It also made the campaign fun and entertaining for those involved and for those watching on FB etc…who then might be moved to pledge!
Will some people be offended that you are running a campaign and asking them to consider supporting you? That’s ok. Will people tell you they don’t have any money while sporting fancy clothes or going out for beer etc? Will some people cheer you on? Will some admire you for your courage and commitment? Will some ignore you? Oh yeppers!
You will have the opportunity to observe your own responses, inside your own mind and body, to all the feedback and support (or lack of) that you encounter. Being accepting of whatever happens, knowing that you are attempting to break out of your own limiting beliefs is a worthwhile challenge. Chin up. Breathe. It’s all good! There are NO BAD OUTCOMES to this process, if you choose to see it that way.
I got 2 Facebook friend responses that were downright nasty and accusatory. I thanked them for their feedback and offered to help them with their own campaign. One person ended up pledging and the other “un-friended” me. Great!
A lot of people never responded. A lot said they had no money. It’s all good.
One person, after my campaign was done, FB messaged me and asked if I would help him with a campaign. He was not a personal friend. I don’t know if I ever met him. I asked if he had pledged, because one of the rewards was campaign coaching (the reason why I’m writing this essay) . He said “no, I couldn’t afford it”. I then knew then that he never even looked at the campaign because my pledge levels started at $1. So I gave him some research to do and never heard from him again.
I had hired someone to handle the social media aspect, not knowing what it entailed. I found out that it was easy and more effective if I wrote the posts myself. After all , I was more emotionally invested in my project and could respond more personally to the ongoing responses from the public myself. There are no guarantees in the social media game.
Prepare a photo with a post before you go to bed, then paste it into your various social media venues when you wake up, again at lunch, and maybe again before you go to bed. I am just relaying my own experiences so that you can get some perspective. Or just twice a day. Make sure to respond to anyone who comments, shares or likes. Keep the communication going. It’s only for a month or so. You can do this!
Kickstarter wrote that if you get 1/3 of your goal in the first 3 days, you will most likely succeed.
I did not reach that 3 day goal.
And it looked dim that the campaign was not getting momentum. I was beginning to panic. So I asked a friend to boost the campaign by “loaning” me a pledge. After that, folks were very impressed that I was getting support, and they wanted to jump in and support, too! It was about this time I discovered GreenInBox.com mentioned above. I believe that using this service completely raked in the rest of the pledge money I needed! Had I known!!!
SUMMARY
If you have read this far, you might more be serious about this venue and are really considering running a Kickstarter campaign with a definite all-or-nothing goal. Great!
I hope I have been able to inspire you to have faith and confidence that you can pull it off. I couldn’t possibly have covered every aspect of this endeavor. I did my best to share my experiences, setbacks, triumphs and tears. It’s been quite a life-changing ride!
And I am ever full of gratitude for the 294 pledgers who believed in me enough to pledge $1 to $500 towards my Ultimate Studio CD! Over 100 people did not want any reward at all! bless their bubbling hearts!
My goal was $18k and I raised $12k. I had to pad the campaign with a couple of loans from friends to reach my goal. It’s a little snug right now, trying to fit everything into the much-smaller budget. But It’s working and I am thrilled!
Good luck to you! I believe in you! You can do this!
GO!
With love
Lauria
Post Script:
My Ultimate Studio CD project was completed successfully. The release was March 2017. All rewards were delivered, some by hand, by the end of June. The title track, When m An Angel, won Song Of The Year 2017 from The Southwest Independent Music Awards. Another Song, Simple As The Sun, won a Silver Medal from the 2017 Global Music Awards. The song, WhenI'm An Angel has been in regular radio rotation in Santa Fe NM as well as in South Africa.
And it truly is a miracle!
ACTUAL POST to all my KICKSTARTER BACKERS!
Hello to all of you who pledged $40 for coaching plus music! Definitely let me know you got this, read it, does everything it says to do and whether you found it helpful or not. I want to make good on your reward! Thanks~
I've sent this to all backers...just so they can be in on the sharing!
SO, YOU’RE THINKING OF DOING A KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN….
This is aa guidebook describing my experience creating and succeeding with a Kickstarter campaign to make my first studio CD. I called it THE ULTIMATE STUDIO CD.
I’ll cover:
inspiration and approach
preliminary research
creating the actual web campaign
getting your ducks in a row
timing - time of day, week, year
running the the campaign online
Though there are other platforms out there worth exploring, this article will be about a Kickstarter experience.
If you are one of my pledgers who pledged for the campaign/website coaching session, this is most of the information I would have spent the 2 plus hours of my time sharing with you. If you read the entire article, follow the suggestions and have more questions, please give me a call. This way, you have all of this in written form in lieu of a conversation.
If you are wondering about a website of your own, I use www.weebly.com and I watched all their instructional videos and even looked up some by googling in youtube. Let me know if you have more questions about this too. If you can handle WORD you can handle Weebly!
THE INNER GAME!
Maybe you have an idea, and you are pretty confident that there’s an appeal out there, and that you have enough tried and true friends and family who will support your campaign towards success.
Maybe you are a self-starter and know how much time and effort it takes to bring your dreams into the material world. Maybe you realize that though running a crowdfunding campaign is a huge amount of work, you’ll be self-employed towards your dreams and can forego getting a loan from the bank.
Maybe you are comfortable with the risk with this kind of project, both emotionally and financially, and are feeling pretty secure that you can handle whatever outcome shows itself. That means, being able to follow through with your project and deliver promises to pledgers, or taking all the things you learned along with the reality that you may not have reached your goal.
Kickstarter basically offers friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances and total strangers to pre-order gifts, products or services you will make to help you gather enough funds to bring your ideas to fruition.
You can just as well create a “store” on a weebly.com or squarespace.com site, for example, and pre-sell your services and product to raise money and by-pass a crowdfunding platform. However, you won't have access to all their tools....a major benefit of using Kickstarter, GoFundMe, IndieGoGo etc.
I listed “pledges” as products in my store so that people can still Pledge (pre-pay) for my CD etc and help me financially finish my product. I put these up onto my website AFTER my campaign ended. A few folks had intended to pledge and just forgot and missed the deadline. So I made it possible for them to still participate by listing 4 pledge levels.
At my level of world-wide industry involvement, I found that very few total strangers, if any, found their way to my campaign and pledged. So your personal network, and their friends, is most likely what you will have to draw upon.
The lead time you need to wrap your brain around, prepare, create and assemble your campaign cannot be overlooked! You may need weeks to months of prep work! The 20-35 days or so of intense campaigning is just that! And it goes by QUICK! The time it takes to complete your project and deliver rewards may take months before and after the campaign. You have to consider all this time and effort. The smaller the project, the less time….or maybe not, if you work it out ahead of time. If it takes you 6 months to a year and you pull in $10k+, you tell me if it’s worth it!
If you have doubts, welcome to the club! Are you worthy?
Will people be upset you are asking for money?
Will you fail and be humiliated?
Why would anyone want to back you for your private dreams?
Why put money down for towards a selfish end when there are many charitable causes to support?
Who do you think you are believing in yourself enough to take a step towards your dreams and goals?
Who said you could?
Who’s telling you that you can’t?
What will happen if you get all that money and can’t pull it off?
What will happen if you fail and have to swallow your enthusiasm after all that hard work?
Most importantly, as you offer "rewards", you can rest assured that you're not begging. You are offering pre-sales for products and services.
Yep. All of that went through my mind, and has been a running a loop for years. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but I didn’t qualify for a $12k bank loan. I had to realize that if I made the goal and did all the work, I’d come out with a CD of professional quality. All I had to lose was my self-doubt (in huge amounts) and my excuses for not doing the best I could. As a PTSD survivor, achieving my goal was a life-changer and has lifted me above the trench I had merely peeped out of all my life.
The inner work for some of you will be the toughest thing you ever do - and the most rewarding. Just having the gumption to create and launch my campaign was accomplishment enough! Getting the funds was the whipped creme on top! And making the CD has been the long swim through turquoise waters of my wildest dreams towards a project beyond my imagination.
Just let me tell you that if succeeding at a Kickstarter campaign was possible for me, it’s definitely possible for you!
RESEARCH! RESEARCH! RESEARCH!
Let’s be practical. It might be wise to have at least a 6 month lead time before you push the button and launch your campaign. Here’s a list of things you might consider to prepare and create your campaign. Get a notebook dedicated to this process. Write everything into it. All your thoughts. Ideas. Fears. Questions. Details you want to remember.
Research all crowdfunding platforms so that you can choose which one fits your style: Indiegogo.com and gofundme.com etc are just two in addition Kickstarter out there. Some require that you have pledge items to offer. Some let you raise money with no rewards for your supporters. Some require that you reach your monetary goal before you receive any funds: all-or-nothing campaigns like Kickstarter. Some let you raise as much as you can without reaching your goal: flex funding.
Do a google search on comparing Kickstarter to Indiegogo as to which one is more successful. Do comparisons on each of the others out there. Which one did you find easy to navigate and inspiring the most?
Doing a campaign where you keep what you raise regardless of your goal is another story. It’s called flex-funding. If you are promising rewards, for example, how will you pay for them if you don’t raise the money? What kind of confidence will your public have in you? If you have an open ended deadline, how will that inspire folks to plop their pledge down in a timely manner, or at all? There are no real answers, only questions.
READ EVERYTHING ON EACH PLATFORM WEBSITE!
THAT INCLUDES CLICKING ON ALL LINKS AND FAQ PAGES!
TAKE THE TIME.
BE THOROUGH.
BE CURIOUS.
BE HAPPY AND EAGER TO LEARN!
Take all the time you need to do this. You may want to read for 10 minutes and stop. Read some more hours later, or the next day. That’s ok. Be sure to return and read more until you read it ALL! This is why I suggest a long lead time before you launch….you’ll need it!
While doing this research, go through a couple of platforms and search for projects closest to yours. Read everything about each campaign you pick. Watch the videos all the way through. Check out all the perks and rewards for ideas. Make notes about things you liked. What exactly did you like? Wording? Arrangement of information? What would you have changed. Were they successful?
Check out those campaigns that were not successful as well as those who succeeded. Maybe go to the maker’s website or Facebook page. How many “friends” did they have? How popular are they already in their field? You can even look into the list of their pledgers…see who pledged, how much they pledged and how many campaigns they have supported. It’s all very fascinating. Are the pledgers all from the maker’s hometown or state?
PLEDGE!
Find 3 campaigns you like enough to actually push the pledge button and put your money down in support of them. Go through the process. Join the game. You can afford $5 to $10 bucks. If you think you can’t, write down your reasons for your own counsel. Consider it a movie or latte you sacrifice in the name of a new life by helping someone else live theirs!!
Note why you decided to pledge. It may be just because you liked their video and they made you smile, or gave you some good juice at that moment. When you launch your campaign, viewers will be able to see how many campaigns you have supported.This process allows you to experience, yourself, participating and pledging, just like those you will be asking to do for you. Feel it. Open yourself to this process.
LINING UP FRIENDS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS
Build up your social network contacts! Start expanding your Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Google+ friend base. Emails work some, but I found that personal messages through these networks are more effective because the daily PM (persona message) loads are far smaller than daily email loads, and therefore, more noticed.
Note your own experiences and ask around to see what some others say. Do they ignore “impersonal emails”? Do they always look to see who’s reaching out to them personally through Facebook?
Look into MailChimp, Constant Contact and other bulk emailing services long before your campaign. Months? You have to build up a mailing list and they are somewhat careful that you are not just spamming people.
Contact maybe 10 people you know and trust and ask them if they will help you spread the word and help you during the campaign run. You want to have folks whose circle of friends both intersect your circles, and those who live far away.
You can create a message for them to copy, paste and send to their circles that express the unique relationship they have with you, and how supporting you would please them! Friends will want to help friends who have good friends who are doing something exciting. It's a perennial approach. Be short and appeal to emotions of inspiration, loyalty and connection.
A sample of a note I prepared for friends to paste and copy into their messages.
SHORT AND SWEET. APPEALING TO EMOTIONAL CENTERS:
“I’ve known Laurianne for years and have watched her music develop and grow. She has been an inspiration for me to get my own projects off the ground. I really think she deserves to succeed in lifting her work up to the next level! Won’t you help me help her by pledging a couple of bucks to her project? It would cost the same as taking me out for a lunch and a cup of coffee…and the next one will be on me!”
Tell your friends when you anticipate launching and ask if you can stay in touch with them as the time nears. When you launch, TIME is of the essence!
You will want to find 3 friends or family members who are willing to loan you a chunk of credit-card debt for a couple of weeks, IF YOU NEED IT. Here’s a tip, Kickstarter requires that you meet your goal before any funds are delivered. When pledges are made, no money is charged to their credit-card account until the goal is met. No goal met equals no money charged.
You can not pledge to your own project with your own credit card!
So, say you are trying to raise $10k, and you are hovering around $7k or $8k during your campaign, pledges are slowing down and you have a few days or less to go before your deadline. You can now ask those friends in your back pocket to lend you the remainder (by pledging to make up the $2k to $3k) with the guarantee that you pay them back as soon as the cash comes into your bank by reaching your goal. Money was in my account in 10 days. Kickstarter says it may take up to 3 weeks. You will have then raised $7k or $8k instead of $10k….hopefully enough to get you going!
You may want to create a file on your desktop and throw old photos of you as a kid, or other personal and entertaining photos to use when you are posting in social media or sending out emails. It presents a personal touch that may engage folks emotionally.
Facts are good. Emotions MOVE people!
GREENINBOX.COM!!!!
Tell them I sent you!
Check out websites and organizations who claim to be able to help you raise money for your campaign. Do a “scam search” on google.
I hired GreenInbox.com. In fact, I believe 95% of my pledgers responded to the service they offer. They are affiliated with Facebook and can send out FACEBOOK PERSONAL MESSAGES (FB PM) to your entire friend list with one button. This is not a post. It’s a notification/message that appears at the top of your FB page that indicates someone has contacted you personally. Emails are often overlooked as spam. FB PM’s are still “rare” enough to get attention. I think. For now, anyway.
FB "posts" are fleeting comments that stream down your feed and get left behind during the day. FB PM's stay in your account notifications until they are read! And they appear to be to you, and only you, if worded properly.
I had noticed a GreenInbox ad alongside my FB stream and clicked on it during the second week of my campaign. It went to GeenInBox’s FB page and someone had commented below, said they were successful with the service and left their phone number. I called him. He was a nice guy, a musician, from Nashville. He told me his story.
He asked a couple of good buddies from different parts of the country to hire the service and do the FB PM option, which he paid for ($30-$60 guaranteed to bring in money or you get yours back). I did this. It worked! Too bad I learned about it 10 days into my campaign! I’m telling you NOW!
Go to www.greeninbox.com and check out all the options. I cannot guarantee anything. Policies may have changed since I used their services in March 2015. They were very good about responding to questions or issues I had.
When you choose the Facebook Personal Message option, it will ask for access to your Facebook friend list. Then ALL your friends will pop up with a checkmark next to their names. Go through and un-check all those you feel would not appreciate your message, or even be offended by it. For me, I un-checked 180 out of 1200 names.This takes time. It will take time for friends who agree to do the same for you. It was worth it for me. I had 3 friends agree to help me with this. Some donated the fee. For others, they used my credit card.
I spent $200 to raise $10k. Good investment, if you ask me.
CREATING YOUR CAMPAIGN!
VIDEO!
After all the research you’ve done above, you may be ready to start pulling together your campaign pitch. I recommend a video that’s somehow personal, interesting or funny. Again, you will have made specific notes on the campaigns you liked during your research. I actually copied exact scripts into my notes, made notes as to the video approaches I like. I even asked one successful musician if I could just plagiarize his successful campaign in which he raised over $25k. He was thrilled and gave me the go-ahead! He was local and a peer, so that’s why I asked for permission.
Merely describing your project will not engage emotionally. Tell your fans why this projects so exciting for you, personally. Take advantage of the video medium to MOVE people emotionally, make them smile, laugh, be curious.
There are some videos that use sub-titles or a variation thereof and thereby sidestepping the awkward notion of speaking into a camera asking for help. Some of them are fabulous and very engaging and effective! Find one, yourself!!
I made one video, inside a dark room, sitting down, where I read from a prompter and had some visual effects added later. I had the generosity of a professional videographer to help me. I was lucky! It looked and sounded real nice. Upon sending it out to a couple of choice, honest, experienced professional friends for feedback, I ended up making a new one. Asking for feedback is a great idea. Sometimes you can be to close to get an objective analyses of your own project.
One good friend in LA told me that the video did not express any emotion or personal appeal and even though she knows me, she would not be inspired to push the pledge button. (She sent me links to campaign videos she loved. I was surprised that I wasn’t moved by her choices. She chose campaigns that mirrored the kind of project she is hoping to pull together. Very interesting!
I had suspected as much about my own first try. There was something “staged” about it that i didn’t feel comfortable with. Though another friend, steeped in the music industry loved the first video! She said I looked beautiful and that it was very well done.
I opted to shoot again. This time, I stomped around in the Santa Fe river in the forest and told my story with a few notes to make sure I got everything in. I was much happier with that video….and ultimately, that’s all that mattered!
I don’t know how many people pledged that didn’t know me. It wasn’t many. But one unknown single mom pledged $300 just because she liked the video, and wanted the concert that came with the pledge for her birthday! Three pledgers won private concerts and I have performed two of them. At the first one, a stranger ended up writing me a check for my next project! Amazing!
In the video, if you are whining that you don’t have money, or if you look bored or afraid or too uncomfortable, you won’t be very welcoming for people to jump into a great project that you feel stoked about.
If you don’t feel stoked, you might want to consider how being stoked would look to you, and then feel it, and tape it! Maybe tell folks how you feel about your project, why it means so much to you, why you are asking for support other than just getting money. I talked about learning to grow relationships with people instead of doing everything myself.
Another option is to stay home in your room and ruminate about what life would be like if you only had the money to make things happen for yourself. Not.
If your campaign doesn’t pull in the dough, for whatever reason, you will have the option to refine your pitch and run the campaign again with what you learned. Who cares? Only you do!
I have seen a few campaigns where the “maker” talked a lot about the product/project, but I didn’t get a sense of who they were. For me, getting to know the person mattered more than the product…I gave money to a person because I liked them in the video. Or I liked they way they expressed themselves in their video…they inspired me.
Actually, I didn't just give money. I bought their CD!
THE STORY!
What makes this project so special from everything else you’ve done?
I had to find an angle to share as to why this project was so important to me. I used my personal story of growth and challenges. I was coming from being a recluse and releasing live concert recordings to tour with. And now I am in a relationship which I may have called in with the mantra of my new songs. And I was ready to engage fully with a team of professionals to record a professional Ultimate Studio CD.
My Angle: I’m finally growing up and need support to lift my work into the light of the world market where I wanted to pay professionals a living wage to help me instead of going the route of a hermit/recluse and trying to do everything myself!
If you will be hiring other people with your winnings, add that information into your story. It shows that the money will be spread out into your community as jobs. A good thing!
Upon researching the copy for the campaign page that goes under the video, I noticed that many campaigns merely typed out the entire video script with vey little additional information. I used the “story” section to embellish and articulate the budget and to promote who I’d be working with, including links to their their websites, and some additional personal insights to let people into my world. I added photos and anything else that would back me up. I explained that I have experience putting CDs out. I wanted to appear to be responsible and trustworthy of the promises I was making.
If you want, include a budget on where the money will go. Don’t forget to include the 8% cost of running the campaign (Kickstarter’s fee) and manufacturing and delivering rewards, and postage!
Just so you can see how things change and shift, here’s what happened after the money was in my bank account. The entire professional crew that I hyped with photos and website links became unavailable to me as a team. The producer had taken a full-time job in January and failed to tell me about it before I ran the campaign in March. He had not seen the copy and all the hype in my campaign promoting him and his crew. He told me he only had time to watch the 2.5 minute video. I’m not sure, but I think he doubted I would ever complete the campaign and raise the money because it was taking me over a year to do it.
I was crushed. After a period of panic and emotional turmoil, I began shopping around for a professional producer and found someone with a studio who I felt was a better match for me. It was easier to shop with cash in hand rather than a promise of a possible crowdfunding success. It’s not easy for someone to commit to you when you don’t have the funds to pay them at the moment. A catch 22, of sorts. It’s been awesome!
THE REWARDS!
There is lots of info on what to offer and how to create your pledges. I used the research I did through all the campaigns I explored. I wanted pledges that were desirable, easy to make, easy to deliver - with minimal costs. I emulated many CD campaign projects…taking ideas I could use and refining them.
You can offer a product, or even services like home-cooking a meal for four, or baby-sitting, or housecleaning, or car detailing, or pet-sitting. You have more to offer than you think.
TIMING!
What time of year to launch your campaign can be an interesting question. I was ready to Launch October 1st. I got a call from a friend who urgently chastised me (all in good faith) because he got the impression I had not done all the work I’m suggesting you do. He was right! I wept. I was so overwhelmed with all the months worth of work I’d just done and just wanted to launch, already! I just hadn’t done all that was needed, and didn’t or couldn’t let that fact in. Because it meant I had A LOT MORE WORK TO DO!!! So I took another 5 months to do it at a pace I felt I could handle, and to wait after the holidays.
I did more preparations and research and launched in March. It was a very emotional decision to delay…and ended up being the right one. I did not do ALL that friend suggested, and though he was certain I would fail if I did not, I succeeded. (He had uber amounts of web experience and he had over a million Google + friends!!!) So you never know what’s going to happen. Advice, even mine, is only as good as the trust you have in yourself to be willing to take responsibility for your actions.
DUCKS IN A ROW!
Ok! You’ve got your script written.
You’ve got an iPhone or a videographer to help you with your video.
You’ve figured out your budget.
You’ve filled out all the necessary info and rewards section and completed the Kickstarter campaign set-up pages.
You’ve set up your Paypal account.
You’ve finished articulating and typing in your rewards.
You’ve built the campaign webpage.
You’ve got your money-bag friends lined up and committed in case of a needed credit-card boost to the goal-line.
You’ve decided whether or not to risk using something like greeninbox.com and who is going to help you do it in their friend circles.
You’ve got your social media accounts fattened up.
You’ve assembled an email list of willing participants.
You’re ready to launch!
I picked 33 days to run the campaign because I like the number.
LAUNCH STRATEGY!
You need to pick a time of year to launch. During summer vacation? On or near a holiday? After a holiday? Which day of the week will it begin and end? How close to tax time? When are people in a good mood? What news stories are out? Any elections happening?
You can ask “The Oracle”, the pet name I have given Google-search. “What time of year is best to ask for money?” or something to that effect.
I booked a coffee house on a Sunday afternoon and promoted a public in-person Campaign Launch which included a concert, some snacks, and previews of the campaign on my laptop. It was very successful and gave a good boost to the project! Maybe a party? Bar B Q? Potluck? Meeting friends at a local pub for a beer?
Coincidentally, months before my campaign, a concert slot at a local theater became available on the date my campaign was to end! I got wind of it and was allowed to book the space. It would be a congratulatory evening for a successful campaign, or a “Thank you for supporting me! I hope to run another campaign soon” celebration. It was a win-win opportunity for me and ended up being a huge party! I was humbled and grateful. Still kind of a blur!
You’ll need to pick a day and TIME OF DAY to launch and end your campaign. You may want to begin posting or telling friends about your upcoming launch a week or more BEFORE you launch so they can be prepared to watch for it, etc. It’s up to you, of course. If you choose to launch at 11 am, the campaign will close at 11 am the day you choose to end.
The time of day is critical to consider for posting and sending emails! Facebook posts stream down the page pretty quickly. Are your circle of contacts morning-computer-people, or late-night-computer-people?
You may want to post once a day or at different times of day each day. You may want to post every couple of days so you don’t overload your friends. Too much or too little? You’ll have to figure that out. Be creative. Be funny. Be honest. Be positive.
Do not ask for “money”. Ask for help, support, oomph! or whatever. Make little notes on your calendar as to the time of day you pitched, when you used photos etc. I put marks on my calendar every 3rd day for the entire campaign run so I would be prepared for the next post.
I even added pledges to the campaign website during the campaign which included pieces of jewelry donated by a friend who has a store, and pieces that I had lying around my house. I even put up an acoustic guitar - to be had for pledging $75 dollars. These were all scooped up in no time and helped me raise money! It also made the campaign fun and entertaining for those involved and for those watching on FB etc…who then might be moved to pledge!
Will some people be offended that you are running a campaign and asking them to consider supporting you? That’s ok. Will people tell you they don’t have any money while sporting fancy clothes or going out for beer etc? Will some people cheer you on? Will some admire you for your courage and commitment? Will some ignore you? Oh yeppers!
You will have the opportunity to observe your own responses, inside your own mind and body, to all the feedback and support (or lack of) that you encounter. Being accepting of whatever happens, knowing that you are attempting to break out of your own limiting beliefs is a worthwhile challenge. Chin up. Breathe. It’s all good! There are NO BAD OUTCOMES to this process, if you choose to see it that way.
I got 2 Facebook friend responses that were downright nasty and accusatory. I thanked them for their feedback and offered to help them with their own campaign. One person ended up pledging and the other “un-friended” me. Great!
A lot of people never responded. A lot said they had no money. It’s all good.
One person, after my campaign was done, FB messaged me and asked if I would help him with a campaign. He was not a personal friend. I don’t know if I ever met him. I asked if he had pledged, because one of the rewards was campaign coaching (the reason why I’m writing this essay) . He said “no, I couldn’t afford it”. I then knew then that he never even looked at the campaign because my pledge levels started at $1. So I gave him some research to do and never heard from him again.
I had hired someone to handle the social media aspect, not knowing what it entailed. I found out that it was easy and more effective if I wrote the posts myself. After all , I was more emotionally invested in my project and could respond more personally to the ongoing responses from the public myself. There are no guarantees in the social media game.
Prepare a photo with a post before you go to bed, then paste it into your various social media venues when you wake up, again at lunch, and maybe again before you go to bed. I am just relaying my own experiences so that you can get some perspective. Or just twice a day. Make sure to respond to anyone who comments, shares or likes. Keep the communication going. It’s only for a month or so. You can do this!
Kickstarter wrote that if you get 1/3 of your goal in the first 3 days, you will most likely succeed.
I did not reach that 3 day goal.
And it looked dim that the campaign was not getting momentum. I was beginning to panic. So I asked a friend to boost the campaign by “loaning” me a pledge. After that, folks were very impressed that I was getting support, and they wanted to jump in and support, too! It was about this time I discovered GreenInBox.com mentioned above. I believe that using this service completely raked in the rest of the pledge money I needed! Had I known!!!
SUMMARY
If you have read this far, you might more be serious about this venue and are really considering running a Kickstarter campaign with a definite all-or-nothing goal. Great!
I hope I have been able to inspire you to have faith and confidence that you can pull it off. I couldn’t possibly have covered every aspect of this endeavor. I did my best to share my experiences, setbacks, triumphs and tears. It’s been quite a life-changing ride!
And I am ever full of gratitude for the 294 pledgers who believed in me enough to pledge $1 to $500 towards my Ultimate Studio CD! Over 100 people did not want any reward at all! bless their bubbling hearts!
My goal was $18k and I raised $12k. I had to pad the campaign with a couple of loans from friends to reach my goal. It’s a little snug right now, trying to fit everything into the much-smaller budget. But It’s working and I am thrilled!
Good luck to you! I believe in you! You can do this!
GO!
With love
Lauria
Post Script:
My Ultimate Studio CD project was completed successfully. The release was March 2017. All rewards were delivered, some by hand, by the end of June. The title track, When m An Angel, won Song Of The Year 2017 from The Southwest Independent Music Awards. Another Song, Simple As The Sun, won a Silver Medal from the 2017 Global Music Awards. The song, WhenI'm An Angel has been in regular radio rotation in Santa Fe NM as well as in South Africa.