Just chipping in to echo Ryan's point - while over time a community is forming around Kickstarter and similar sites, that's not really how projects get funded - they succeed because the entrepreneur(s) behind it convene a specific community in support of that initiative. If you're selected as a feature campaign (which gets less and less likely as Kickstarter gets bigger) that certainly gives a boost but that would only ever happen once you had already achieved momentum.
As evidence of this, 80% of all funds pledges on Kickstarter were from people who have only ever pledged to a single projects. This figure will drop over time as more of us come into contact with more and more projects, but the point is, people are mostly draw to a specific project page, and mostly thanks to the efforts of the entrepreneurs mobilizing their community, generating media attention, etc. You can also see this in the 30% of Kickstarter campaigns that receive zero donations, not a single one, and this despite Kickstarter being very selective and only taking about 40% of submissions. The people behind these failed projects clearly thought it was all about Kickstarter, when in fact it's almost all about you and your idea. We see this also on StartSomeGood.com, which is a Kickstarter-like platform for social change projects. People think their idea is so important and so profound that the internet will shower them with money, but it doesn't happen that way, it always takes hustle, just as Ryan said. Our biggest campaign to date<http://startsomegood.com/Venture/do_good_bus/Campaigns/Show/Do%20Good%20Bus%20Tour%20with%20Foster%20The%20People>, which raised over $100,000 (we're much newer than Kickstarter!) had amazing rewards, but they also really worked their music industry and media connections and worked constantly through their social media channels. And as is true for all fundraising, it helps enormously to have a community around you already. Asking for money isn't the best way to make new friends. Double Fine have enormous credibility, huge reach, great rewards at a good price ($15 for a new game) and a professional team behind their video and promotions efforts. It's exciting what's possible when you inspire your community and invite them to be part of creating something. Cheers! Tom Co-founder StartSomeGood.com PS: Shit Social Entrepreneurs Say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVydeSlexqI On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 3:49 AM, Ryan Wardell <r...@projectpowerup.com>wrote: > Jason, > > Kickstarter et al provide bugger-all in terms of marketing support. A lot > of people think that if you put a project on Kickstarter then it will > generate some traffic. So an extent it's true - but according to most of > the entrepreneurs I spoke to who successfully raised funding on there, the > amount of traffic Kickstarter provides is less than 10% of total pledges. > Don't forget, Kickstarter is adding about 100 new projects a day at the > moment, so your project gets buried pretty quickly. > > So it's up to the individual project creator to do most of the legwork. > > Anyway, to answer your question about Double-Fine: > > 1 - The creators have a solid track record producing classic adventure > games in the 90s with a massive cult following > > 2 - They got a lot of retweets from other game developers on Twitter > considering crowdfunding as an option - and these guys have hundreds of > thousands of followers, all of whom are enthusiastic game fans. > > If you want to be successful on a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter or > Pozible or Project PowerUp for that matter, it's a matter of having cool > rewards, a good video that shows off the product, and hustling the hell out > of it. > > -- > > Cheers, > > Ryan Wardell > > CEO & Founder - Project PowerUp > > (W) projectpowerup.com <http://www.projectpowerup.com/> > > (E) r...@projectpowerup.com > > (M) 0424 591 796 > > > > [image: Facebook] <http://www.facebook.com/ProjectPowerUp> [image: > Twitter] <http://twitter.com/#%21/ProjectPowerUp> [image: > LinkedIn]<http://www.linkedin.com/company/2282351> > Get a signature like this. > <http://r1.wisestamp.com/r/landing?promo=20&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wisestamp.com%2Femail-install%3Futm_source%3Dextension%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3Dpromo_20> > CLICK > HERE.<http://r1.wisestamp.com/r/landing?promo=20&dest=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wisestamp.com%2Femail-install%3Futm_source%3Dextension%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3Dpromo_20> > > > > On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 10:24 PM, Jason Held <jheld6...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I'm curious how much marketing support Kickstarter and similar sites >> (i.e., RocketHub, Pozible etc) give for their projects. >> >> I can understand how you can get some benefit from going with a host >> with high hit rates, but to get these kind of numbers you need either >> a superbly viral production and/or mature marketing machine. >> Double-Fine's video is really cool and professionally made. The >> concept sounds fun and creative, but it's (and I'm not bagging Double- >> Fine here, congrats to em) just an adventure point & click game. >> >> Or am I missing something? Lets say you already have the latter (a >> kick-ass idea that can go viral, and a solid marketing machine). How >> much of an advantage would you have by going with Kickstarter instead >> of Pozible? >> >> Jason >> >> >> >> On Feb 13, 3:31 pm, Shane Greenup <s...@1d4.com.au> wrote: >> > Found this on Friday, the last message about elevation dock reminded me >> of >> > it. Anyone hear about this yet? >> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66710809/double-fine-adventure?re... >> > >> > They were after $400,000 to make an adventure point and click game (old >> > school style), and they got all $400,000 in less than 8 hours. They then >> > reached $1,000,000 within 24 hours. They are now at 1.6mil with 29 days >> > left to go on their campaign. >> > >> > Looking at Kickstarters blog, it turns out that while the iPhone dock >> was >> > Kickstarter's first campaign to reach $1,000,000, Double Fine reached >> > $1,000,000 just four hours later, and did it in under 24 hours... >> > >> > What an amazing weekend for Kickstarter.... (and elevation + double >> fine)http://www.kickstarter.com/blog >> > >> > Shane >> > >> > -------------------------http:/ >> /www.ImmortalOutdoors.comhttp://www.rbutr.comhttp:// >> www.SportsArbitrageGuide.com/<http://www.sportsarbitrageguide.com/>http:/ >> /www.TravellersTrade.comhttp://www.ShaneGreenup.com< >> http://www.shanegreenup.com/> >> > <http://www.surebetbookies.com/> >> > >> > On 13 February 2012 15:06, mikeymacgyver <mikeymacgy...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > > Thanks Oliver, I saw this over the weekend one of the first to crack a >> > > million. >> > >> > > On Feb 7, 10:19 am, Oliver Maruda <o.mar...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > > > Hi Mikey, >> > >> > > > Welcome to the entrepreneur life. I'm not exactly sure what you're >> own >> > > idea >> > > > is, but check out these guys, they raised over 800k for their >> iphone dock >> > > > idea. >> > > > What I really like is their video pitch. You relate to the >> frustration of >> > > > the problem of using other docks, his solution (and its >> applications) and >> > > > how he's going to do it. Very simple idea and it seems to be doing >> well >> > > so >> > > > far. - >> > >http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hop/elevation-dock-the-best-dock-. >> .. >> > >> > > > Good luck! >> > >> > > > On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 3:07 PM, mikeymacgyver < >> mikeymacgy...@gmail.com >> > > >wrote: >> > >> > > > > ||||||| THE INTRODUCTION >> > > > > My name is Mikey. Inspired by finishing an Interaction design >> degree >> > > > > I've decided to be a somewhat late in life entrepreneur. >> > > > > I was very tired making other people money with my good skills, >> > > > > nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills so >> quit >> > > > > my job and have started out on my own. >> > >> > > > > So everyone I spoke to around this was saying Silicon Beach was a >> > > > > great community to bounce ideas off and get a little bit of advice >> > > > > from past startup experiences. So here I am looking to be >> involved. >> > >> > > > > ||||||| THE IDEA >> > > > > The idea I am developing is around creating a peripheral for >> mobile >> > > > > phones as part of a dock, it touches on a lot of differing skills >> of >> > > > > hardware development, electronic engineering and small scale >> > > > > manufacturing. A big chunk of work for a first time around. >> > >> > > > > ||||||| THE QUESTION >> > > > > My question is does anyone from the community know of any >> successful >> > > > > electronics product development and launches within Australia >> that I >> > > > > could potentially reach out too? Anyone that has successfully >> worked >> > > > > with manufacturers and distributers overseas? >> > >> > > > > Would appreciate any help you can give. And look forward to >> chatting >> > > > > away. >> > >> > > > > My main email is: mi...@mikeymacgyver.com if you wanted to >> contact me >> > > > > directly. >> > >> > > > > Cheers! >> > >> > > > > -- >> > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the >> Silicon >> > > Beach >> > > > > Australia mailing list. >> Visthttp://siliconbeachaustralia.orgformore >> > >> > > > > Forum rules >> > > > > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. >> > > > > 2) No jobs postings. You can usehttp:// >> siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs >> > >> > > > > To post to this group, send email to >> > > > > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com >> > > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > > > > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >> > > > > For more options, visit this group at >> > > > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en >> > >> > > > -- >> > >> > > > Kind regards, >> > >> > > > Oliver Maruda >> > >> > > -- >> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon >> Beach >> > > Australia mailing list. Visthttp://siliconbeachaustralia.orgfor more >> > >> > > Forum rules >> > > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. >> > > 2) No jobs postings. You can usehttp://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs >> > >> > > To post to this group, send email to >> > > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com >> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >> > > For more options, visit this group at >> > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach >> Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more >> >> Forum rules >> 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. >> 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs >> >> >> To post to this group, send email to >> silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more > > Forum rules > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs > > > To post to this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Tom Dawkins Co-Founder StartSomeGood.com @tomjd <http://www.twitter.com/tomjd> www.about.me/tomjd To organize a meeting: tungle.me/tomjd "You don't need eyes to see, you need vision." - Faithless -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en