(As a "How To" blog you will want to start with the first post and work your way up to this one)

Project Completes

At long last the project came to an end. The sculptures were made, installed and the last of the rewards shipped out. I thought it would never end but it did and it was quite an adventure. I felt like I had not only fallen down the rabbit hole but through the looking glass too.  All in all I was very glad to use Kickstarter to fund the project. It added a lot of work to the project but I made a lot of great contacts, gained world wide exposure and met a lot of terrific people.  Who could ask for more!

I hope you will consider giving Kickstarter a try. It really is an amazing funding platform and no doubt they will continue to improve it as the months and years go by. Kickstarter is getting a lot of press right now so that should being more people to pledge and more people launching projects too. This means that you really need to make your project stand out.  Offer great rewards, make an honest pitch via video and you will make your goal!

I am happy to answer any questions about my project, my Kickstarter experience or anything else that is on your mind. Feel free to do it either via this blog or direct email KDstudios@pacific.net

 

(As a "How To" blog you will want to start with the first post and work your way up to this one)

Campaign Ends!

Finally your campaign ends and that is when all the hard work beings!  Before the overwhelm of the project hits be sure to send out a quick update thanking everyone and assure them that further updates/emails will be send regarding rewards.

Kickstarter will give you access to a tab called Backer Report where you can see the full names and addresses of each of people who backed your project. It will be listed by reward. For example all the people who pledged for the $1 reward, $5 reward and so on. It will also give a list of the no reward people (if you have any).

I personally took this data and created a spreadsheet in Excell that stated the name, address, reward type, reward made, reward shipped, complete.  I would mark off the columns as I made the reward and another check when I shipped it.  This made it easy to keep track of all the rewards and what stage each one was in.

Rewards

There are lots of ways to handle the rewards. You will tell people on your page that you will ship them by a certain date. You can decide to put the date right after the campaign ends or many months into the future. I put my date in the future to give me flexibility but I ended up jumping straight into reward production to get it over with. That way I could focus on the project and not have the rewards hanging over my head. In some cases the rewards were pictures of the final project. Those rewards had to ship after the project so I ended up doing reward shipment twice.

(As a "How To" blog you will want to start with the first post and work your way up to this one)

Statistics

Kickstarter provides some simple statistics that you can use to track your project. The stats can be found by clicking the Dashboard tab. On this page they offer stats for your Funding Progress, data on where the people are coming from (Facebook, other sites, search etc) and Video Plays. Using the stats you can determine where the people who are pledging are coming from. If they are from outside sites, do your best to encourage more from there. If you are putting a lot of time into another source but people are not using it, stop putting your energy there and work to support where they are coming from!

If people are not watching your video all the way through Kickstarter will tell you. If you are not making your goal you might just have to re-work that video. The video really does make a difference.

(As a "How To" blog you will want to start with the first post and work your way up to this one)

Communication

During the campaign you will want to stay in communication with the people who have already pledged and those who are considering pledging. Kickstarter makes this easy by clicking the Post Update button. This will allow you to post a message, video and or pictures. You can do this as often as you like but remember, if you do it too often you will lose your audience. Nobody is as interested in your project as you are. That is just the plain true so keep people informed but don't send out daily blasts. Send them when you really have some exciting news or have made a major milestone with the project. These updates can be done during as well as after the Kickstarter campaign has closed. The after ones can be about awards, pics of the final project or just a huge thank you for all the support.

People have the ability to send you messages through the Kickstarter website. Be sure to answer them asap. Often they are inquiries about the rewards, the project or simply well wishers. If you respond quickly it will give them confidence in your ability to complete the project!