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Running the Numbers

Why is it so hard to get a large project funded? Because of the sheer number of people who need to visit the project page. A project can be funded by a relatively small number of backers, but those backers come from a large group of people who have looked at the project, and most have not contributed.

According to Kickstarter, the average pledge is $70. Lets say your goal is $10,000. To raise this much money you will need between 130 to 150 backers. I found the number of backers is often lower, meaning people often pledge more than $70, but it’s a good place to start.

Based on my research, Kickstarter has about a 10% conversion rate. This means if you send the project to 100 people, 10 will back it. I’ll explain in the section “Launching Your Project” how I calculated this number. In the example above, the project needed 150 people to be funded. Assuming a 10% conversion rate, the project will need to be seen by 1500 people. Some of the views could be repeats, but it still needs to be seen by more than a thousand individuals.

A project that needs $40,000 will have to be viewed 5000+ times. Now you can start to see where this gets difficult. Unless you already have an audience or a large network, it is going to be very hard to reach that many people. If you think of everyone you know and could possibly reach out to, it’s probably a few hundred people. So the only way to get 1500 views is for your contacts to share your project with their contacts.

A Kickstart’s Guide to Kickstarter TOC:

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

A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Introduction

How Kickstarter “Kickstartered” it’s own website

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

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

Make or Break Decisions

Probably the three most difficult questions of any Kickstarter project are how much, how long, and how to price rewards. The next series of posts will focus on addressing these though questions.

While researching this book I came across a post call Kickstartup by Craig Mod. It provides some detailed analyses and great insights on these very tough questions. I highly recommend checking it out, as it was mentioned by most of my interviewees as an important reference.

How Much?

Picking your funding amount is difficult, because if you go for too much, you risk losing it all. With Kickstarter’s all or nothing model, the biggest risk you take is setting your funding goal too high.

I will look at why it is so difficult to get large amounts of money from Kickstarter and why you might be better off going for a smaller amount. I know what you are thinking. What about those people who make tens of thousands of dollars for their projects? A lot of those are outliers. I want to talk about what a typical project can expect.

How Long?

One of the emotionally difficult decisions you will have to make is how long to run your campaign. As soon as you press go, the clock starts ticking, and it doesn’t stop or wait for you to figure things out. This can bring a lot of stress because your entire project is at stake.

However, the clock can also be a powerful ally. It forces people to choose whether they’re going to help you or not, and it gets the word out quickly. If everything goes well, the clock can rally your supporters and make your project a success.

Setting the length of your Kickstarter campaign is about sustaining momentum and meeting production deadlines. The maximum campaign length is 60 days, but as you will see, you may want to run a shorter campaign.

Pricing Rewards

The Creating Rewards page of the Kickstarter school informs you that the most common pledge is $25 and the average pledge is $70. You do not have to have these price points, but it might be a good idea to create tiers at or around these price points. Craig Mod provides further insight with his analysis of the top projects during March, 2010. He found that the highest grossing reward amounts were $25, $50, $100, $250 and $500. Craig concludes that people don’t mind paying $50 or higher for projects they love.

A Kickstart’s Guide to Kickstarter TOC:

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

A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Introduction

How Kickstarter “Kickstartered” it’s own website

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

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

Crossing Chasms

In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore talks about how new businesses must target a niche to get traction. Once they have established themselves with an initial group of customers, they must work quickly to find other niches. This is because there is a “chasm” between early adopters and the mainstream. The only way to cross is to get a small number of customers from different niches. Once the business has a solid base of customers and is viewed as established, it can be embraced by the mainstream.

Your Kickstarter project is very similar. There is chasm to cross, and the only way to do so is to get a small number of people from different niche audiences to back you. Once your project has gained enough support to be viewed as “established” it will be much easier for people to back it. Unsuccessful projects struggle to find an audience and gain enough support to cross the chasm.

A Kickstart’s Guide to Kickstarter TOC:

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

A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Introduction

How Kickstarter “Kickstartered” it’s own website

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

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

A Kickstart’s Guide to Kickstarter TOC:

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How Much?

How Long?

Pricing Rewards

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