Often time, I get messages from people looking for words of wisdom on how to go about creating a successful Kickstarter project and so I thought it might be interesting to collect those thoughts and share them with you here. Like many of these pages, this will be a work in progress as questions come up.
Read all the Kickstarter University material. I really do mean ALL OF IT. From front to back. It’ll save you time and you’ll learn how to avoid some of the more common mistakes.
Read the articles on the Kicktraq blog.
Kicking it forward – While this is a truly amazing concept, your project should focus on getting the best product out there and not based off a 5% reduction of your funds. If you’re using Kickstarter to start a project, no doubt you’ve already funded a few projects on your own and that speak volumes to me rather than signing up for another 5% off the top of your venture (Amazon and Kickstarter take combined 10-15% off the top of whatever you make off your project).
Research other projects in your category and see 1) how long their project was up for funding, 2) what rewards were offered and at what price, 3) what were the stretch goals. I would go back to at least 1 year of projects to get a good sample to study from.
AFTER FUNDING IS COMPLETE
Don’t send the backer survey out too quickly! Otherwise, you’ll have to update people’s shipping addresses until you can ship you product.