Kick Starter

kick starter school

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/school/defining_your_project

Defining the Project

• Projects must be finite
• Building the Photobooth

Creating Rewards

• Copies of the thing: the album, the DVD, a print from the show. These items should be priced what they would cost in a retail environment.
• Creative collaborations: a backer appears as a hero in the comic, everyone gets painted into the mural, two backers do the handclaps for track 3.
• Creative experiences: a visit to the set, a phone call from the author, dinner with the cast, a concert in your backyard.
• Creative mementos: Polaroids sent from location, thanks in the credits, meaningful tokens that tell a story.

The importance of creative, tangible, and fairly priced rewards cannot be overstated. Projects whose rewards are overpriced or uninspired struggle to find support.

To date the most popular pledge amount is $25 and the average pledge is around $70. Small amounts are where it’s at: projects without a reward less than $20 succeed 35% of the time, while projects with a reward less than $20 succeed 54% of the time.

Setting Your Goal

• Researching your budget

How much money do you need? Are you raising the full budget or a portion of it? Have you factored in the cost of producing rewards and delivering them to backers? Avoid later headaches by doing your research, and be as transparent as you can. Backers will appreciate it.

• Considering your networks

Kickstarter is not a magical source of money. Funding comes from a variety of sources — your audience, your friends and family, your broader social networks, and, if your project does well, strangers from around the web. It’s up to you to build that momentum for your project.

• Choosing your goal

Once you’ve researched your budget and considered your reach, you’re ready to set your funding goal. Because funding is all-or-nothing, you can always raise more than your goal but never less. Figure out how much money you need to complete the project as promised (while considering how much funding you think you can generate), and select an amount close to that.

• Setting your project deadline

Projects can last anywhere from one to 60 days, however a longer project duration is not necessarily better. Statistically, projects lasting 30 days or less have our highest success rates. A Kickstarter project takes a lot of work to run, and shorter projects set a tone of confidence and help motivate your backers to join the party. Longer durations incite less urgency, encourage procrastination, and tend to fizzle out.

Making Your Video

If you’re like us, the first thing you do when visiting a project page is click play. A video is by far the best way to get a feel for the emotions, motivations, and character of a project. It’s a demonstration of effort and a good predictor of success. Projects with videos succeed at a much higher rate than those without (50% vs. 30%).

Building Your Project

As you build your project, take your time! The average successfully funded creator spends nearly two weeks tweaking their project before launching. A thoughtful and methodical approach can pay off. Titling your project

Your Kickstarter project title should be simple, specific, and memorable, and it should include the title of the creative project you're raising funds for. Imagine your title as a distinct identity that will set it apart ("Make my new album” isn’t as helpful or searchable as “The K-Stars record their debut EP, All Or Nothing "). Avoid words like "help," "support," or "fund." They imply that you're asking someone to do you a favor rather than offering an experience they’re going to love. Picking your project image

Your project image is how you will be represented on Kickstarter and the rest of the web. Pick something that accurately reflects your project and that looks nice, too! Writing your short description

Your short description appears in your project’s widget, and it’s the best place to quickly communicate to your audience what your project is about. Stay focused and be clear on what your project hopes to accomplish. If you had to describe your project in one tweet, how would you do it? Writing your bio

Your bio is a great opportunity to share more about you. Why are you the one to take on this project? What prior work can you share via links? This is key to earning your backers’ trust.