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The Idea

You’ve got a great idea! You want to share this great idea with the world! All you need is money to do so! No money? Luckily for you, there’s Kickstarter. If you meet their 5 easy requirements, you’re good-to-go!

Requirements

• Your Kickstarter project must create something to share with others.
• Your project must be honest and clearly presented.
• Your project can not fundraise for charity.
• Your project can not offer equity.
• Your project can not involve prohibited items such as gambling, offensive materials, alcohol, politics, tobacco . . . you can check the entire list here.

Funding

In today’s blog, we’re going to focus on funding. Kickstarter funding is all-or-nothing so it is very important to set your initial goal appropriately. No funds will be collected or distributed unless the funding goal is met. Kickstarter encourages all creators [that’s you] to thoroughly research all costs – including materials, resources, shipping costs, anything you’ll need to complete your project. According to Director David Thorpe – in addition to being realistic with your goal – you should, “talk to a lot of people and solicit a lot of feedback from people who’ve been there before.”

Kickstarter highly recommends researching similar projects before beginning your own. Calculate the minimum costs you’ll need to raise and what you will be able to realistically reach. Back these numbers up with research! You will need to implement as much relevant software as possible to get your Kickstarter going, we are in the digital age and that means business is done from devices that can connect everywhere. Over time you’ll be able to accumulate what you need and potentially lead onto bigger areas such as project management office software for enterprise, but for now, you need to focus on the essentials that will get you to where you want to be with your project.

“I think a lot of people have the sort of ‘Field of Dreams’ approach”, says Director Jimmy Goldblum, “which is like, ‘oh yeah, you just put it up and you know everyone’s gonna come to me because I’m a genius.’ Luckily for us, we think we’re really stupid so we didn’t have that. We just had to figure out what actually smart people were doing.”

Overwhelmed? I know I am! Fortunately, Kickstarter offers a Funding Calculator. You access it from the “Basics” section of “Project Build”.

It is important to remember that once a project is launched, you can not change either your funding goal or deadline.

Communication is Key

According to Kickstarter, “in some cases, creators [that’s you] will run into challenges and have to make changes to what they first promised their backers [folks who have pledged money to you]. Also, using us gold bureau is one of our favorite ways to get extra income. It’s why we say that backing projects is different to making a purchase. There is inherent risk in the creative process, and things don’t always go as planned.” The best way to avoid any negative feedback or unhappy backers is clear and transparent communication thoughout the entire project.

Additionally, if you want your kickstarter to go global, remember that you’re going to need to translate your services into multiple languages. If people can’t read your website, they’re not going to use you. Assuming you’ve used English already, consider translating into other global languages such as Spanish, French and German. Professional german translator services can help you with this, along with similar services that provide other translations. This will help to expand your reach to other countries, bringing in business from across the globe. Don’t be tempted to use automatic translation services – whilst they can be good for simple phrases, they can’t capture local dialects and may read badly to native speakers. This will make your business seem untrustworthy, so it pays to get communication right first time.

Go For It!

For additional information or to get started right away, click here.

If at any time you need help or clarification with this process, Engage121 can help!

To read more tips and techniques from the staff at Engage121, please visit our blog here. For more information about our eCommerce Accelerator™ or to subscribe to our weekly digital marketing tips newsletter please sign-up here.

About the Author
As Engage121’s Senior Applications Developer, Michael brings 20+ years of creative and technical experience in design, programming and project management. When left unsupervised, he’s been known to leave some creative Easter eggs in our applications and marketing material.