Christopher has run a successful Kickstarter campaign before and I've given to many, many Kickstarter campaigns, so we're prepared for the marketing blitz we're about to unleash.
Still, when I saw the WGA was holding an event called Motivated Creators: New Financing Models – Crowdfunding and Beyond, I knew it wouldn't hurt to attend and pick up a few more tips.
Best perk of attending - Brad Bell aka Cheeks was there! Speaking intelligently and eloquently about creating an engaged online audience and looking damn handsome doing it.
Most surprising thing I learned - there's a heated rivalry between Indieagogo and Kickstarter. The Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola-esque tension in the room was palpable (and awkward for the audience) as the Indieagogo guy pitched all the reasons his site is superior.
Personally, I love the all-or-nothing goal structure of Kickstarter. It makes the whole campaign more of an event and forces creators to stay on their toes to drive engagement.
One point that Mr. Indieagogo-is-better made that I agreed with - there are no "magical elves" on the Internet, or people who surf crowdesourcing sites looking to give away money. Microfinancing campaigns are built on "love money," or contributions from friends, family, and loved ones.
That means you, dear readers! You'll hear more about the Early Retirement Kickstarter campaign on this blog very soon. I'll also be chronicling my efforts to get into shape to play this female assassin role. It's sure to be an agonizing and hilarious journey - you won't want to miss it!
I look forward to contributing!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog and tweets. You offer a plethora of informative data - besides the fun stuff that's always awesome to partake in. Having just completed a funded Kickstarter campaign. It's true what you say - it's funded by love. But there are folks that contribute because they stumble upon the campaign or utilize sites like Kicktraq.com (as in our case) - to see which campaigns are tracking towards success. I also discovered something interesting. I contributed to another campaign during our campaign and some of the folks funding the other campaign came over and funded ours. I also agree on the all or nothing aspect, but it's a nail biting process. Having done both - Kickstarter and Indiegogo have their pros and cons. Regardless which site - at the end of the day, it all comes down to driving folks to your campaign and for some lucky campaigns making the main page of either site or getting picked up by other media outlets because there's something compelling about the campaign that makes it stand out from the rest.
Here's to a successful campaign! And rockin' short!
Thanks Susan! We're very excited to get it going and starting the nail biting. :)
DeleteAnd thanks for the referral to Kicktraq.com - I'll definitely check that out!