KickStarter.com hear of it? Opinions Please

[tldrental]

Have you guys heard of Kickstarter.com? Have any of you ever used it and what were your results?

I am seeking opinions, does this make your eyes hurt. Is it to much information? I haven't submitted my pledge campaign yet. I still have to do my main video. My wife told me reading it made her eyes hurt.. I am seeking second opinions. This is my campaign http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1032258189/1922087882?token=2a6b1fbf . I just have so much to tell.

I would love to hear feedback from someone that has been successful seeking pledges via Kickstarter.com, but everyone feedback is welcomed.

 

[DigiNames]

I am very familiar with the concept of crowdfunding; I have some direct experience, and I have attended industry conferences and met with many people in the industry. A successful campaign requires several things to be successful:

1- A great idea. It should be something that people are passionate about, they want to see it happen and they wish they could do it themselves. Although some people may wish they could buy out their competition, I don't think that they are passionate about you doing so.

2- A strong personal network. Typically the first 30% of funding comes directly from people that you directly connect with or "friends-of-friends". I don't know if you have this or not, but you may want to look at how many friends and family you can count on, and also how many people are in your network on Facebook, Twitter, your website and/or blog, that might help you spread the word.

3- A great description. People want to know what you are going to do with the money and why it is important. I think you do explain what you do explain the "what" but you don't explain why it is important to them (the person giving you their hard earned money).

4- Great incentives. In my opinion, discounted inflatables are not a great reward unless I am directly in the market to buy one. The only way I see this really working is if there is a huge demand for the inflatables and the discount or price that you are offering is an excellent deal (I haven't really looked at prices so I don't know). Still, I think if you do the math, it would take a great number of supporters that really want a deal on inflatables to meet your goal. If there is such a demand I am still not sure Kickstarter is the place for it. You might be better off having a sale on your own website and promote it through your own network to people that are interested in purchasing these items.

Honestly I don't think your campaign has much chance of successfully funding. It's not the design, I just think the whole concept and goal doesn't lend itself to crowdfunding very well.

If you are serious about it, you may want to contact Kickstarter and see if they can give you advice on improving the campaign before you go live. In my experience these types of companies are very helpful and want the users to succeed because it means success for them.

 

[Gerry]

Also very familiar with KickStarter.

Take a look at this project that has finished (guy out of Charlotte NC)...Spoke Mechanical Pencil

I have to agree with your wife because your promo appears to be a never ending story.

Not so much concentrating on the project-to-project basis, but the spoke pencil presentation is short, succinct, impressive, and to the point. Your presentation is almost endless, the copy and text and font size in many places does hurt the eyes and almost chops up your primary points too much.

Example:

OBJECTIVE! ramp up production
of inflatable movie screens -
HOW? buying 12yr old american
inflatable manufacturer going out
of business

You need to get some serious help in your copyrighting, grammar, and punctuation (just to name a few).

Additionally, not only is your first headline so choppy, you put a massive negative into the sales pitch already...the company went out of business! Why? That is what everyone is going to want to know! That is what everyone is going to see at the very onset. That is what is going to turn people OFF from contributing...it went out of business?

The general feeling will be, gee, did you ever think WHY it went out of business???

You need to kill that buzz-kill right off. You need to ONLY accentuate the positive. And you only need to represent the strong points of your product. Imagine this as being a sales pitch and having to get your message out there immediately.

Hey guys. I want you to fund my business plans because it went out of business once before.

No.

 

[copper]

Inflatable screen seems like good fit for "Shark Tank"

 

[tldrental]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1032258189/921298472?token=bf24c4af <= is this better? I revised it to focus on one style of movie screen. I added a "Mobile" and "Smartphone or Tablets" portability to the story line. Am I on the right track? It has a much shorter page scroll then before.