One of our staff, in the course of publicizing an IndieGogo project he’s involved with, got some feedback from one of the people he’d reached out to, Mike Peredo of Bok Bok Labs, who’s watched many entertainment projects take off — or try to. Mike has noted what the successful teams do that the others don’t, and though he reminds us “these things are tough to make work”, here are some tips from him:
- Make your goals clear. People should know exactly what the money will go toward.
- Post examples of your work. Let them see what you can do, not just what you’d like to do — IOW, not someone else’s work just to give your site flavour.
- Talk about the team so people know what they are supporting. Show why you have the skills and experience to make it work. And this ties in to the next:
- Ask yourself: “If I didn’t know these guys, is there enough information here to give me confidence that they can pull this off? Why should I even care?”
- Check your text for typos. Boring but necessary.
- Be positive. If you’re striking out on your own because you couldn’t do the project you wanted with the last group you were with, don’t write as if you’re mad at them — do mention them as part of your background.
Mike adds that there are things you can, and probably should, do before you start trying to crowdfund: “Start a YouTube channel first, get some short videos out there with whatever gear you have, build up a bit of a following.”
The following can be through whatever media works for you. He gives the example of youngandraw.com: “I saw these guys present at an internet marketing meetup a while back. They built a following on facebook over a year or so just releasing good content for free and getting followers. Then they launched a basic product and made several hundred thousand dollars in something like a week.”
Not everyone will have such success with crowdfunding, but follow these tips and your chances will be a little better.