MakerKickstarter has been good to us, and to many creative people working to realize their vision. It's a rapidly advancing project in the beta stage, and we've had to figure a lot out for ourselves. The Kickstarter team has been really helpful in answering our questions, and has a great FAQ that introduces the idea and gives some of the most important details.
We read the Twitter feeds and many blog posts a day relating to Kickstarter, because we're almost as geeked about Kickstarter as we are about our own project. We're seeing a lot of questions repeat themselves, and we have answers to some of them. We've decided to collect those answers here.
Some of this is just plain opinion, and some of it is basic technical advice. Some is in between. Hopefully the Kickstarter crew will get some of this information into the central site, but they're keeping plenty busy getting the word out and improving the site. In the meantime we'll try to keep this as current as we can.
I want to start a project so bad! How do I get an invite?
This would be the big question. Project creation is by invite only, and a lot of people have great projects but no invite. How to get one?
You have a few options. The front door, as it were, is to contact Kickstarter and wait, possibly for awhile, until they get back to you. They will want to know what you're doing and how you plan to make it succeed; focus on this in your presentation. One paragraph on your project and two paragraphs on your rewards and how you intend to spread the word is just about right.
You could go on Twitter. This is recommended for some reason, but isn't your best choice. If you go this route, be as specific as 140 characters allows. Bad tweet:
OMG Kickstarter is so cool! Who has an invite?
Good tweet:
Need to raise 5 grand to cure cancer. Anyone have a kickstarter invite? Tequila lollipops for backers.
Either way, don't expect this to work. You get basically one chance before you're annoying everyone, and most people will be giving their invites away in a different fashion.
Which leads to your best option, which is to ask people who just launched projects. Each person who gets an invite to Kickstarter gets 5 invites at present, and if they just launched a project they probably still have a few. Write them! Do like you'd do for writing Kickstarter: one paragraph on your project and two on your rewards and how you'll spread the message. This will work better if you choose projects that are somewhat similar to yours, but not too much; you want them to like your project but not fear that it will draw attention from theirs.
I'm starting a project, but I don't have everything ready yet. What can I change after launch?
The main things you can't change after a launch are your funding goal, and your time limit. These are set in stone; you can raise more money in less time than you thought, but you can't raise less, or get more time, nor cash out a fully-funded project early.
You can change any reward until it's selected by one of your backers. At that point you can only remove the reward, not modify it further. You can add another identical reward if you like, so if you sell out a reward and want to offer more of it, you can do this.
Removing a reward deletes the backers who selected it, and their pledges, from your total.
In particular, you can change the name of the project, the pictures associated with it, the video, and the accompanying text, as often as you want. So if you're all ready except the video, go ahead and launch; use the pressure of your clock ticking to get the rest of the media ready.
If you change the name of the project after launch, the old name will remain in the link to your project. The widget showing your project, the title bar, and all other places will reflect the new name.
I'm not in the US and I'm trying to pledge to a project. It says I can't! What's wrong?
Most people will have no problem with this; Amazon will let anyone with a credit card pledge to a project.
One bug seems to arise for people who live outside the US and have a Mechanical Turk account. For whatever reason, Amazon demands a US address and zip code. Giving them a fake one works fine and is harmless; project creators never see this address and collect information from backers after the pledge period ends.
The city and zip code have to match. I've always used Beverly Hills, 90210, personally (that's in California; this question is aimed at those outside the US after all).
If this doesn't work, contact Amazon; you should be able to pledge and they should be able to help you.
I'm not in the US. Why can't I start a project?
You can, but you'll need a US confederate whom you can trust.
Amazon requires a US bank account to pay into; that's just how it is for now. If you can find such a bank account, you can launch a Kickstarter project.
Backers can pledge from anywhere in the world, so keep this in mind when you write your pledges! Most people will be understanding of extra costs associated with international shipping, but you may want to make a note of this if you think it could be a problem.
How do I shoot an awesome video?
The video can be the centerpiece of the project; Kickstarter says projects with video raise 90% more funds, and I believe them. Robin gives the best advice on Kickstarter videos out there; read it twice. This blog post has plenty of inspiration for aspiring project launchers. Our video is somewhat unusual, being mostly 3-d animation; James did a great job with that and we think 3-d is a good choice for showing objects that don't exist yet. James did the work in Maya and you can contact him with compliments and questions.
I just did a video in iMovie; Kickstarter won't let me upload it! What now?
The format is right, it's just named wrong. Change .m4v to .mp4 and all will be well.
This problem may fix itself in the near future; if this happens and you notice, let us know so we can update this question.
I want my project to succeed. What do I do?
This is going to depend strongly on what you're trying to do. The best resource is the Kickstarter blog, which is chock full of interviews, tips, and profiles of successful projects.
Your most important decisions are your minimum goal, and your time limit. If you have urgent need of the money, and a network you can mobilize fast, then go fast. Otherwise give your project time to percolate, and yourself time to improve it. A 30 to 60 day funding period is pretty usual; unless you're on the high end of the funding spectrum, 90 days is just going to delay your payout or make your failure a month more ignominious.
An important part of this, and a good reality check, is to figure out how many backers you'll need to meet your goal. You can't really know this, but you can project it pretty well, because most people will pick one or the other of your pledge levels. You can definitely raise many thousands of dollars at ten bucks a backer, but make sure you know this is what you'll be doing. It will call for a radically different approach than trying to find six people to pay 300 dollars apiece for a bronze statue.
Many projects have a 'plum' pledge, something much higher than the other pledges that has unique experiences and one-of-a-kind offers written all over it. If you have a good idea for this, go for it, but don't include your plum in your calculations. Many projects that offer this kind of premium succeed without having anyone choose it. If someone does pick it, you have some extra abundance to work with, and hopefully something fun to do. It's a win all around.
Kickstarter has noticed something remarkable: 95% of projects that hit 30% funding achieve or exceed their goals. Have a robust plan for getting that first 30% of backers, within the first half of your launch period. These early backers are your angels and true believers: take time to get to know them and they will help you when the time comes.
When you get around 30% or half, celebrate! The fun is just beginning and momentum is on your side. Post an update, a sneak peak at whatever you're offering or a heartfelt ramble on why you're doing what you're doing. Make it something your backers will enjoy, and it'll be fine. Remember: they're giving you money, they're probably happy to spend five minutes reading or watching you every week or so. Don't be shy!
This is a good time to offer a new reward or post a video. When we launched MakerBeam we wanted to launch with 3-d video, but we just plain weren't ready. Everything else was go, and we were weeks from good video, as it turned out. This, I'm convinced, worked out well for us in the end. This is when your early backers can help you take it to the next level. Ask them to get the word out and recommend you wherever they like to read about stuff. They'll be happy to do it; they want you to succeed and until you do they can't get their awesome stuff.
When you hit your funding goal, celebrate again! If you have time left, set a new goal in an update and give a good, concrete reason to reach it. Offer additional rewards, or promise an additional perk for everyone if the new goal is reached. Shoot for the sky!
Any other tips? I really want this to work.
There's a few more things we've had work for us. We have no way of knowing if they'd work for you, as projects and communities differ greatly.
For MakerBeam, as a hardware project, it was an obvious choice to offer a real tangible kit as our main reward. We chose a spectrum of rewards and we've been having pledges across it, so we feel we did pretty well.
People pledge to projects, rather than just buying art, books etc from a store, because they want a direct hand in helping the project happen. They will respond to something tangible, something personal, and something unusual. Incorporate these principles into your reward choices and you will be glad.
Make a twitter feed for your project. Do a search for keywords relating to your project, and follow people who look like they'd like it. Get the word out, but don't be obnoxious about it; one or two a day should be your limit, and that only with new content. Feel free to tweet in conversation with people you follow; this is how Twitter works after all.
Find blogs in your world and let them know what's up. Keep it simple and you've got a good chance of getting a link. Remember that your detailed explanation is at the site; write one paragraph, two max, on why they should link you and leave it at that. If they link, say thanks!
Put some skin in the game. Kickstarter is teeming with excellent projects; even if you're broke as a joke, drop a couple bucks on your favorite few. This way you're being the kind of person you hope to attract; that's good for you and good for the community as a whole. This is a great opportunity for collaboration and cross pollination, so get on board!
Final Thoughts
Be a part of the communities you're reaching out to. Provide content as you go. Thank your backers and get to know them. Participate! Let your passion for your project show. You're not asking people for money, you're inviting them to help you do something amazing, so don't feel awkward and don't be shy.
Have a question you'd like to see here? Feel free to contact us. Have fun, and work hard, and Kickstarter can help you achieve your dreams.