The times of doubtful Kickstarter projects are fortunately far behind us. Today you will need to have a solid funding plan to make it work. However, project crowdfunding is not the only category of this topic, and besides that, you also have creator funding, also called Patrons platforms. These pop-up mostly in the last three years and make a big difference in the creative field because thanks to them, a lot of smaller artists with smaller audiences can focus only on their work.
Funding something is always a struggle. You have to know how to attract people and how to develop reasonable prices. It is also an intense pressure to manage everything to work well. This article should help you increase your chances of successful funding and show you hard points in this category.
Table of Contents:
- Types of Crowdfunding
- Platform
- Product
- Plan
- Prizes & Rewards
Types of Crowdfunding
In this article, we are aiming at two main crowdfunding branches: project funding and creator funding. As you can guess, in the project branch, you are selling your product and idea. However, in creator funding, so-called patron platforms, you provide your premium content and time to the audience.
| Project Crowdfunding | Creator Crowdfunding | |
| Payments: | One Time | Recurring / One Time |
| Rewards to contributors: | Yes | Yes |
| Need a strong idea to start: | Yes | No |
| Need fanbase to work: | No | Yes |
| Income type: | One Time | Every Month |
I hope you get the basic differences between these two.
Platform
Choosing the right place for your funding can be hard without previous knowledge of what each of them offers. In this section, you should get to know the most prominent crowdfunding platforms on the market. However, get research by yourself if you are looking for something more special because we dive only into the basics.
Kickstarter
Notorious platform Kickstarter made today’s form of crowdfunding. Kickstarter started its journey in 2009. However, the breaking point was around the year 2014 when there was crowdfunding fever, and many people began their campaigns on Kickstarter build on almost anything. Many of these “projects” were also scams. Then Kickstarter tightened their rules, and nowadays, the platform is much more trustworthy and stable.
Starting on Kickstarter is overall easy. You just need to name your project, describe it, select a category, confirm all the rules, and sign in. Kickstarter is available in 25 countries, including the UK, Germany, or France.
If you are creating a Kickstarter campaign focused mainly on the content, it should be well written with many pictures or sketches of your product. The best selling elements are a video of your product and tempting donation rewards for your contributors.
*Do not forget that on Kickstarter, you have to set up a money goal and if you do not meet it by the deadline, all donors’ money is refunded.
IndieGogo
Older, however, less famous brother of Kickstarter. Indiegogo was founded in 2007, and since then, it has successfully launched over 800,000 projects.
In the core, Indiegogo provides almost similar service to Kickstarter. You have to create your project, name it, describe it, and at the best upload video and set well-designed rewards. The difference is in the details.
IndieGoGo is available in 230 countries and provides more categories up to 28. Indiegogo has non-refundable pledges, so you can get funding without reaching your goals. Many customers are also pleased with helpful support, which is an element that Kickstarter lacks.
| Kickstarter | Indiegogo | |
| Successful campaigns: | 36% | 18% |
| Funding depends only on campaign success: | Yes | No |
| Available in: | 25 (countries) | 230 (countries) |
| Total money Funded: | 5.5 Billion | 1.6 Billion |
Patreon
The first creators funding platform on our list is nothing else than Patreon. This site was created in 2013, and since then, it has generated enormous success for artist funding platforms. Nowadays, almost all creators use patron platforms to fund their being and crafts.
Patreon has a similar interface and features as famous social media. You, as a creator, can create free or premium posts for your audience, set rewards, make competitions, and donors can directly message you.
Patreon is free to use, and you only pay a fee from your monthly earnings (the fee depends on the used package). As a creator, your profits come from monthly recurring subscriptions. These subscriptions can be divided by price and benefits.
Besides Patreon, there are two platforms called Buymeacoffee, and Ko-fi, which provide a similar core and modern interface as Patreon with different benefits, fee systems, and premiums.
Liberapay
To brighten our palette, I picked something contrasting to Patreon. Liberapay is akin only to the idea of funding. Nonetheless, it has a more straightforward user interface without posting features with a more direct and extensive funding system.
Suppose I want to divide Patreon and Liberapay into two categories. I will say that Patreon is based on the artist and video-makers with features supporting these branches, and Liberapay dives more into technical branches with broad payment methods and simple UI.
Liberapay is entire without fees, open-source, and supports more than 12 languages and 30 currencies. It has a minimum donation of 1 cent a week and can be connected to GitHubTwitter, Mastodon, and nine other platforms. Very similar platforms to Liberapay are GitHub sponsors and Flattr.
| | Kickstarter | Indiegogo |
| Fee: | 5%, 8%, 12% | 0% |
| Premium content: | Yes | No |
| Currencies: | 3 | 30 |
| Modern UI: | Yes | No |
Product
One of the most common excuses is: “I don’t know how to start” or “I don’t have enough information to do that.” These sentences are just voices of laziness defending mechanisms that want you to do nothing except momentary bliss. However, as you may know, these lazy actions will only make you more unhappy in the long-term. So, how to overcome them?
Much more important than everything else on our list. With excellent products or ideas, you can make your crowdfunding work even without professional campaigns and publicity. Of course, these two are very important, and I recommend doing them well. However, the product is number one and should be in the first place when you are launching your campaign.
If I say product, I mean everything from solid accessories through software to creatives because if you are on a patron platform, you are still selling yourself, your virtual identity, your time, and your brand to your audience.
What should the product offers to get funders attention:
Originality/Invention: I know this one is a cliché, and you hear it everywhere. Nonetheless, it is true; the reason why crowdfunding platforms even exist is to fund the progressive ideas of those who cannot afford them.
Simplicity: Do not overcomplicate your invention or brand; try to always make it and describe it as simply as you can. Show it to the child. If he understands it, you did a good job.
Design: For some, a foul word. I know that many historically brilliant inventions came with crappy design. However, today’s market is full of “life-changing” products, and the bitter truth is that design sells more than product functionality. The same applies to your brand.
Plan
Please, please, please plan ahead all your steps before you dive into the crowdfunding campaign because it will save you a lot of nerves and money.
The first thing you should do is do market research and find out if you should even start with a crowdfunding campaign. The most time-saving market research tools are straw poll platforms or simple one-page questionnaires with tailor-made questions.
Then study the platform where you want to launch your project because there are many restrictions that can make your realization harder or even impossible.
After you researched those two things, you can dive into real planning of your product and its campaign.
Focus on:
- Money: How much you are going to spend on one piece of your product. How much you want to pay for a crowdfunding campaign. Who needs to be hired after and how much their services cost etc. I hope you understand me here; write every expected expense down and add 5-10% of the final amount as extra expenses. These numbers will also give a perception of your crowdfunding money goal.
- Time: Same as you do with money, do with time. Plan when you expect first prototypes when you are going to send products to your donors etc. Also, create a time reserve and create a detailed timeline for your project.
- Rewards: Often overlooked aspect of your funding. The rewards are very important to your donors, and If you want to keep a good name for your brand, make sure the rewards will be in the right place on time.
Prices & Rewards
Donors love prices & rewards, and inventors hate it because, besides the product, it brings extra problems. Rewards should be something special for those who trust you in your beginnings and should scale according to the amount. However, do not overdo it because rewards should not overshadow the subject of crowdfunding.
What good rewards providing:
- Quality: First of all, focus on the processing of your product. Donors who fund your product in its beginning should get the same or even higher quality product than others.
- Quantity: If you are out of ideas or you just want to make an expensive mega pack, focus on quantity. Most people love to get a lot of gifts for one donation.
- Collector´s quality: People love to own something unique that others don’t have and cannot reach. These items will cost you more time. However, it pays off.
- Integration: Engage your contributors in the process. This is a great reward if you are crowdfunding some show and you can involve the most generous donors, or if you are creating a game, you can make characters for them.