Glif an iPhone Tripod Mount: The design project that started a revolution.

Glif an iPhone Tripod Mount: The design project that started a revolution.
In October of 2011 Dan Provost & Tom Gerhardt launched a design project that would spark a revolution. Almost anyone who has done a project design project on Kickstarter has heard of the Glif. So, I had to sit down with Dan Provost to talk about what lead to their success.

Besides having what they thought was a solid product idea, Dan & Tom got a plug from a high profile blogger. Of course it wasn’t that simple. In this interview Dan talks about how his existing relationship with this blogger was the key to getting his project picked up.


Historically Brewed Compilation Book: The prefect project for first time Kickstarters

Computer History Compilation Book: The prefect project for first time Kickstarters
In July of 2011 David Greelish set out to revive an old computer history “zine” called Historically Brewed. I sat down with David to talk about his thoughts on Kickstarter, and why I thought he had the perfect project for first timers.

David had small but interested following, and hosted a podcast about historical computing. He pick a reasonable goal and project. All of these factors allowed him to easily hit his goal and almost triple it.


24 Hours At The South Street Diner with Melissa Dowler

24 Hours At The South Street Diner with Melissa Dowler
In May of 2011 Tom and Melissa Dowler set out to make a documentary film about Boston’s only 24 hour restaurant The South Street Dinner. I recently sat down with Melissa to talk about her Kickstarter experience.

They were able to get the project covered by local media, but it wasn’t quite as effective as they thought. We also talked about how they made their project more interesting by shooting on location for 24 hours, and the importance of showing credibility.


A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Conclusion

You’ve read this guide, you’ve researched other projects, you’ve found an audience, and you’ve created a compelling pitch, but your project didn’t make it. You did everything you could to drum up support, but it still wasn’t enough. That’s okay. Maybe your idea wasn’t ready. Maybe you didn’t explain yourself clearly enough. You aren’t necessarily going to get it right the first time. Before I came to Kickstarter I launched many other projects, most of which failed. It was learning from those failures that ultimately helped me be successful.

One of the best aspects about Kickstarter is that you risk very little when launching a project. So even if it fails, it’s not really that bad. You will probably be disappointed, but at least you didn’t spend a lot of time and money creating something, only to find it’s not what people want. You will have learned about yourself and have a better idea how to launch a project. All of that experience will be valuable the next time around.

What’s Left?

Courage.

Courage to do something meaningful. Courage to silence that voice in your head that makes you doubt yourself. Courage to launch your project into the world.

Overcoming our fears is never easy, but its part of the process. In a world filled with so much uncertainty, we need people who will stand up and make a difference. You may think your project isn’t that important, but you never know who you will inspire. Many of the people I talked with, said how the success of other projects got them to launch their own. So go out there and make something happen.

We are waiting for you.


A Kickstart’s Guide to Kickstarter TOC:

pssst…you can read all of this offline by downloading the e-book.

    • How to engage an audience with a Kickstarter project: Idea & Story

    Introduction
    Understanding Kickstarter
    The Basics of Kickstarter
    Kickstarter is an updated version of the Parton Model
    Kickstarter is like girl scout cookies…without the calories!
    Make sure your project has an ending

    Some additional benefits to running a Kickstarter project
    Perry Chan’s Six Principles on why Kickstarter projects are successful
    Yancey’s thoughts on getting funded
    Brainstorming Your Project
    What is this damn thing about?
    Simplify your project for success
    Is your project a Purple Cow?
    Making Lemonade And Telling A Good Story
    Reward The Patrons
    Naming Your Kickstarter Project
    Doing Your Homework
    Before you launch, do your homework
    No one cares about you
    Some People Care About You
    Who is Your Audience?
    Where is Your Audience?
    Resonating With Your Audience
    Crossing Chasms
    What Will it Cost?
    Understanding Profit Margin and Costs
    Setting Your Goals
    Make or Break Decisions
    Running the Numbers
    Focus on what you need
    Reasonable funding goals
    Why be Reasonable?
    How long your campaign runs depends on one thing, momentum
    30 days or less
    Managing Deadlines
    Going for the BIG bucks
    The Allure of a Large Backer
    Pricing theory, thoughts about pricing your Kickstarter rewards
    The Paradox of Choice
    Crafting Your Pitch
    Creating a compelling pitch for your Kickstarter project
    Four questions people want answered when visiting your Kickstarter page.
    Show some credibility to get more backers
    Clarity is your friend
    How to ask for Support
    Kickstarter is a video-driven site
    Examples of great pitch videos
    Launching Your Project
    Launching your project
    How to track the progress of your Kickstarter campaign
    The 30% Kickstarter project “Tipping Point”
    Conclusion
    How to engage an audience with a Kickstarter project: Idea & Story

    Creatively marketing your Kickstarter campaign with Susan Tinkham of Figments of a Father

    You launch your Kickstarter project, email family, post it to Facebook, share it on Twitter, and then what? When running a campaign you quickly release that there aren’t as many ways to market your project as you thought. That’s exactly what happened to Susan Tinkham and Kyle Turgeon when they launched a campaign for their short film Figments of a Father.

    Instead of sending out more email blasts they decided to get creative and reach out to there local community to help promote this project. Susan shared with me how they created signs, fylers, when door to door, and generally “made a fool of themselves” all in the name of promoting their project.


    How to track the progress of your Kickstarter campaign

    Now that your campaign is underway, how do you know if it’s going well or not? Here are some of the things I do.

    The Short Link

    Every Kickstarter project page has a short link. This is smaller version of its web address. It can be found on your main project page, below the picture/video for your project. You will see it to the right of the “<> EMBED” button.

    For example the full address for this project is:

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/identifyingnelson/a-kickstarters-guide-to-kickstarter

    The short link is:

    http://kck.st/ocJoTE

    When you are promoting your project, you will want to use the short link as often as possible. Not only is it easier to share, but it can be used to calculate some important metrics about your project.

    The only downside is that it doesn’t include kickstarter.com in the address. Some people might be hesitant to click on the short link, because they don’t know where it is taking them. However, if you are the one sharing it, and they trust you, then you should have no problem.

    Conversion Rate

    The conversion rate can be a powerful tool in determining the reach of your campaign and how much work you still have to do. This works best if you have been using your project short link during the whole campaign. WARNING: This will require a little math, but nothing too complicated.

    First, find the total number of clicks the project is getting, by adding a + sign to the end of the short link.

    Like this: http://kck.st/ocJoTE+

    This will take you to an info page for bitly.com, which creates and hosts all of Kickstarter’s short links. Towards the top of the page, there are two numbers, one in bold, which represent the number of clicks the link is getting. You will want to use the number NOT in bold This can be found next to the words: “All clicks on the aggregate bitly link”

    Next you will need the number of people backing your project from the Kickstarter project page. Divide the number of backers by the total number of clicks your short link has received. This will be the conversation rate. For example, if a project has 14 backers and 180 clicks then the conversion rate is 7%.

    14 Backers / 180 Clicks = 7% Conversion rate

    Average Pledge Amount

    The next important metric is the average amount pledged. This will help you figure out, on average, what each person is giving to the project. Later it will help you figure out how many backers you still need.

    Take the amount pledged towards your project so far, and divide that by the number of backers. If your project has raised $245 from 14 backers, then the average pledge is $17.50

    $245 Pledged / 14 Backers = $17.50 per backer

    Remaining Views and Backers

    Next you want to calculate the remaining views in order to get enough backers to meet your minimum funding goal.

    Divide the remaining pledge amount by the average pledge amount. If your goal is $900, and you have raised $245, then you still need $655. Take this remaining amount, and divide that by the average pledge amount. So, if the average pledge amount is $17.50, then you need 38 more backers to finish the project. (I rounded up, since you don’t want to underestimate the number of backers you need.)

    $900 Goal – $245 Pledged = $655 Remaining
    $655 Remaining / $17.50 Avg. Pledge = 38 Backers

    Once you know how many backers you still need, you can use the conversion rate to figure out how many views you need to get those backers.

    Take the number of people you still need, and multiply it by the conversion rate. In this example, there are 38 backers remaining and a 7% conversion rate. This means the project will need close to 542 clicks to get the project funded.

    38 Backers Remaining * 7% Conversion Rate = 542 Clicks

    Fuzzy Math

    These numbers are not exact, of course. They depend on a number of factors. As your project evolves, the numbers will change, so you can recalculate them as often as you need. These are just indicators of how your campaign is going. Your might post the link somewhere and get 500 more clicks, but if it’s the wrong 500 people, then you will not meet your goal. These metrics will give you valuable feedback, but they are not predictive of the outcome.

    However, I have found these numbers to be very relevant and helpful. The example above uses numbers taken from my campaign for A Kickstarter’s Guide. If you did all the math, then you may have realized 54 backers were needed to get the project funded. The actual number, ended up being 56 backers. Not bad at all.


    A Kickstart’s Guide to Kickstarter TOC:

    pssst…you can read all of this offline by downloading the e-book.

    Introduction
    A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Introduction
    How Kickstarter “Kickstartered” it’s own website
    Understanding Kickstarter
    The Basics of Kickstarter
    Kickstarter is an updated version of the Parton Model
    Kickstarter is like girl scout cookies…without the calories!
    Make sure your project has an ending
    Some additional benefits to running a Kickstarter project
    Perry Chan’s Six Principles on why Kickstarter projects are successful
    Yancey’s thoughts on getting funded
    Brainstorming Your Project
    What is this damn thing about?
    Simplify your project for success
    Is your project a Purple Cow?
    Making Lemonade And Telling A Good Story
    Reward The Patrons
    Naming Your Kickstarter Project
    Doing Your Homework
    Before you launch, do your homework
    No one cares about you
    Some People Care About You
    Who is Your Audience?
    Where is Your Audience?
    Resonating With Your Audience
    Crossing Chasms
    What Will it Cost?
    Understanding Profit Margin and Costs
    Setting Your Goals
    Make or Break Decisions
    Running the Numbers
    Focus on what you need
    Reasonable funding goals
    Why be Reasonable?
    How long your campaign runs depends on one thing, momentum
    30 days or less
    Managing Deadlines
    Going for the BIG bucks
    The Allure of a Large Backer
    Pricing theory, thoughts about pricing your Kickstarter rewards
    The Paradox of Choice
    Crafting Your Pitch
    Creating a compelling pitch for your Kickstarter project
    Four questions people want answered when visiting your Kickstarter page.
    Show some credibility to get more backers
    Clarity is your friend
    How to ask for Support
    Kickstarter is a video-driven site
    Examples of great pitch videos
    Launching Your Project
    Launching your project
    How to track the progress of your Kickstarter campaign
    The 30% Kickstarter project “Tipping Point”
    Conclusion
    How to engage an audience with a Kickstarter project: Idea & Story