Oh my gosh! Thank you Joshua! This was a surprise to see 🙂
Instead of me using this as a shameless commercial, let's talk about some observations and ideas about crowdfunding and this campaign:
-Start planning a year in advance and start marketing 3-6 months before the campaign starts. Your die hard fans will lock it into their calendar and the seed will be planted in the folks that like your work but may not follow it super closely.
-Crowdfunding for me is about Value Adds--most folks would likely wait to get a book or a game when its fully finished and ready to ship but if you manage it right, a Kickstarter can/should give things to enhance the experience and make waiting worth it--thinking in my case, exclusive hand drawn art or a chance to art direct a piece of art for the book or even a bookmark that the community has a say in.
-I choose to do my campaigns when I'm atleast 80% with the book, game, etc. I want the SHORTEST window possible to run a campaign, communicate, put things into product and ship. In this case--I've been working with a designer for 6 months, our book is 80% of the way complete, I have 5 production quotes from printers (2 local, 1 canada, 1 uk and 1 china) and I'm ready to put this book to the printer when the campaign funds are released.
-I use Kickstarter revenue as a way to fund/launch a product not to pay my mortgage...YET. When I launched the Kickstarter for the Chaotic Draw Along Prompt Cards, I knew I wasn't going to be profitable for a while BUT I got enough funds to produce a lot of product, hire a marketing agency, build a beautiful website and pay for advertising. A year after the Kickstarter, 6 months after launching to the general public--My Draw Along product is profitable, stable and poised for a ton of growth. It doesn't pay my full monthly mortgage but it takes care of a huge chunk.
-Followers mean almost nothing these days (in the traditional sense)...I've got hundreds of thousands of followers across all these platforms but connecting with them anymore is really hard. Algorithms favor memes and drama, everyone is selling something and anyone can make "content" because of templates and ai embedded into these platforms. I know you all understand this but favor relationships. Real relationships. Going out of your way to be a kind, thoughtful, helpful person will create bonds that persevere platforms and social media. Those are the folks that are desperate to support you (and in turn, you are desperate to support them). If you can give value to humanity, it will give it back to you.
-If you have the means, find support personnel and don't be shy about paying for advertising...sometimes you have to pay to play. For my next Chaotic Draw Along Kickstarter, I'm going to be a lot more aggressive about our paid ad campaign pre and during launch--we've had a lot of success lately with our ads, no sense to not further that approach.
Thanks for letting me think outloud--let's discuss! Would love to hear what you think 🙂
Anthony
