Your First Kickstarter Campaign

This book is for Kickstarter newbies and first-time creators. It will teach and show you how to collect potential backers early, in advance, and how to plan a Kickstarter campaign from start to finish with the aim of ensuring that you get fully funded.

63% of Kickstarter campaigns fail. Do this one thing, and you'll be among the 37% who succeed. The one thing is pre-launch. Ask any crowdfunding creator, and they will confirm that it is the key to success. You will learn how to prepare for your first crowdfunding campaign and do pre-launch with a minimal budget by using personal efforts and delegating some work to others. This book is for Kickstarter newbies and first-time creators. It will teach and show you how to collect potential backers early, in advance, and how to plan a Kickstarter campaign from start to finish with the aim of ensuring that you get fully funded. You will understand the basics of crowdfunding, the main difference between the two most popular reward-based crowdfunding platforms: Kickstarter and Indiegogo, how to turn your idea, passion or skill into a product and how to evaluate if there's a market demand for it. The core part of this book is about preparation for the crowdfunding campaign: How to set crowdfunding goals and why it is important to set a low goal How to analyze similar campaigns How to define your target audience How to gather your crowd using free methods How to create a landing page that turns visitors into subscribers What are the best tools to build landing pages How to integrate your landing page with your mailing list How to "warm-up" leads with automated email sequence How to engage your audience How to run Facebook Ads to collect leads How to use "smoke testing" method to see if someone buys your product What is a pre-launch funnel and what stages it has Conversion rates that you can expect How to do media and influencer outreach How to submit your video to viral video publishers You will also learn and be exposed to best practices when it comes to selecting attractive project images, how to create a title that sells, how to build engaging project video and how to brainstorm ideas for your rewards. Finally, the book explains how to launch and manage a Kickstarter campaign, when it's live: Why project launch timing is important The steps you need to do during the launch day Prepare to refuse offers Communication with backers (project updates and direct messages) Stretch goals Get traffic from Kickstarter ("Projects we love," trending, popularity rankings) Last days of your project Wrap-up and action plan

If you're looking for a step-by-step launch framework for your upcoming Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign, this is the handbook for you! I'll teach you how to use crowdfunding to raise money online and bring your project to life. You see, we're at the beginning of a movement as transformative as the industrial revolution. Never before in history have authors, musicians, artists, and film producers been able to connect with massive online audiences and get funding for their creative work. The outdated media gatekeepers are quickly disappearing. You can now get funding directly from your fans and distribute your content online. If you're a creative type, this is the BEST time to be alive. But, it doesn't stop there. This major change has also given rise to six and seven-figure online businesses. As a fellow entrepreneur, I know that one of the most common excuses for not quitting your job and launching that startup company is because you don't have the money. Now, in a few short weeks, you can have all of the capital you need to launch and grow a thriving ecommerce business. It's no longer a crazy idea to pursue your passion. In fact, more and more millennials are doing just that. I should know, I'm one of them! When I first started blogging about Kickstarter in 2012, I had no idea that crowdfunding would become a multi-billion-dollar industry. I was just a Junior in college, writing a mini-thesis on how different variables affected fundraising success on Kickstarter (for you nerds out there, it was a logistic regression). Flash forward several years, and I'm now one of the top experts in the crowdfunding industry. I started the blog, CrowdCrux, which did over one million views in 2015. I set up a forum called KickstarterForum, which has attracted over six thousand members. I even launched a popular podcast called Crowdfunding Demystified, which has racked up more than 100 positive reviews in iTunes. Finally, I also put out training videos on YouTube and I am proud to say that the channel is experiencing rapid growth. That all sounds impressive, but actually, when I first stumbled on the website, Kickstarter, I didn't have a clue how it worked. It seemed super confusing and I had SO MANY questions. Since 2012, I've come to master the platform and discover the ins and outs of how crowdfunding really works. I've published many of my findings online and I've been being linked to by sites like CNN, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and even The Wall Street Journal. In this guide, I'm going to share with you the step-by-step launch strategy for absolutely crushing it on Kickstarter. In no time at all, you'll be raising money for your startup or creative project. I'll make it super easy to copy and implement these tactics and strategies. I'll also share some Jedi Mind Tricks that most marketers don't know about. Before you know it, you'll be a crowdfunding expert! Now, I bet you're thinking... "boy this all sounds like a lot of work. Do I really have to learn all of this? I just want to get funding for my project." Truth be told, it is A LOT to master, which is why having the right teacher can make all of the difference. I'll make sure that you master this material as quickly as possible, so that you can stop fundraising and get back to doing what you love! Either way, whether you decide to run your own Kickstarter campaign, or outsource certain aspects, it pays to know what you're doing. I want to help you smash your Kickstarter goal and then I hope you come on my podcast as a crowdfunding success story. It's time to get serious about making that business you've been dreaming about a reality. It's finally time to get paid for your creative work. Let's get started!

Learn to use Kickstarter to make your great ideas a reality As a crowd-funding website for creative projects, Kickstarter has the power to make creative ideas come to life. This helpful guide walks you through the potential of this amazing tool, which has helped project creators successfully launch their projects since 2009. You'll learn how to create a Kickstarter account, set up your first project, and effectively use social media to bring awareness to your project and build up the community around it to hopefully reach the goal of 100 percent funding. Explains how to determine if you meet the requirements to create a project Gets you started with creating your first project, choosing a great project image, and write a compelling project title and description Helps you establish rewards for project backers Zeroes in on deciding a funding duration and funding goal Whether you have an idea for a movie, video game, gadget or anything in between, Kickstarter For Dummies is the fun and friendly guide to help you get the funds to make your idea happen!

More Than Money Jamey Stegmaier knows crowdfunding. He's a veteran of seven successful Kickstarter campaigns (and counting) that have raised over $3.2 million, and he's the proprietor of the widely read Kickstarter Lessons blog. In this book he offers a comprehensive guide to crowdfunding, demonstrating that it can be a powerful way for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses by building community and putting their customers first. This book includes over forty stories of inspiring successes and sobering disasters. Stegmaier uses these examples to demonstrate how to (and how not to) prepare for a campaign, grow a fan base, structure a pitch, find new backers, and execute many other crucially important “nuts and bolts” elements of a successful crowdfunding project. But Stegmaier emphasizes that the benefits of crowdfunding are much more about the “crowd” than the “funding.” He shows that if you treat your backers as people, not pocketbooks—communicate regularly and transparently with them, ask their opinions, attend to their needs—they'll become advocates as well as funders, exponentially increasing your project's chances of succeeding.

Want to know how to crowdfund projects that make hundreds of thousands of dollars? This is how. HOW THE HELL DO YOU CROWDFUND $100,000? HERE’S THE ULTIMATE HANDBOOK In this bold, irreverent, hilarious how-to guide, bestselling Kickstarter campaign manager Derek Miller takes his millions of dollars of Super Crowdfunding experience and delivers everything you need to know about being a modern entrepreneur in today’s global marketplace. In other words, this is not a cheesecake cookbook. Embrace community and learn how to maximize your MESSAGE, MECHANICS, and MARKETING so you can successfully: Get people to give a damn about you and your crazy idea so you can stand out from the noise. Avoid the mistakes the rest of us made. Discover your creative freedom and make that sweet, sweet cash. Accompanied by laugh-out-loud illustrations by cartoonist Joy Ho, enjoy an exhaustive look into what it takes to manage and execute a successful six-figure crowdfunding campaign with over $30 million worth of collective advice and pro-tips from the world class asskickers who brought you: Dude Bro Party Massacre 3 ($241,071) Augie and the Green Knight ($384,410) OrganATTACK! ($526,274) The Cyanide & Happiness Show ($770,309) Bunch of Balloons ($929,160) Superbook ($2,952,508) Joking Hazard ($3,246,588) G-RO ($3,307,773) Pillars of Eternity ($3,986,929) Bones I-IV ($12,380,214) DEREK MILLER is a crowdfunding consultant who helps craft rewards-based strategies for early-stage startup companies focused on raising capital without sacrificing equity. Since 2013, Derek has raised over $4.7 million through three Cyanide & Happiness Kickstarter campaigns, each of which launched a new, self-sustaining company. He’s been featured in Variety, PBS Rewire, USA Today’s Moonlighting, and has appeared on Crowdfunding Demystified, Crowdfunding Uncut, and Side Hustle School. Currently, Derek serves as the Business Manager at Explosm while mentoring students at the University of Texas at Dallas

More Than Money Jamey Stegmaier knows crowdfunding. He's a veteran of seven successful Kickstarter campaigns (and counting) that have raised over $3.2 million, and he's the proprietor of the widely read Kickstarter Lessons blog. In this book he offers a comprehensive guide to crowdfunding, demonstrating that it can be a powerful way for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses by building community and putting their customers first. This book includes over forty stories of inspiring successes and sobering disasters. Stegmaier uses these examples to demonstrate how to (and how not to) prepare for a campaign, grow a fan base, structure a pitch, find new backers, and execute many other crucially important “nuts and bolts” elements of a successful crowdfunding project. But Stegmaier emphasizes that the benefits of crowdfunding are much more about the “crowd” than the “funding.” He shows that if you treat your backers as people, not pocketbooks—communicate regularly and transparently with them, ask their opinions, attend to their needs—they'll become advocates as well as funders, exponentially increasing your project's chances of succeeding.