Kickstarter+Project

=Kickstarter End-of-Semester Project=

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Instructions
Your team will produce a video that could be used to seek funding on the Kickstarter web site. You do not have to post your video to Kickstarter, but you are not forbidden to do so either.

How much do you want to raise?
The first thing you need to do is determine how much money you want to raise through your campaign. Some people place the bar too high and do not receive funding; others place it too low, resulting in similar sadness. Find an optimal goal that will reward you and your team financially and give you more insights into the market for your product or service.

Video
You and your teammates should search the Kickstarter website to find campaigns that (1) are comparable to what you are doing and (2) use the video medium in creative and/or highly effective ways. Use these examples to storyboard your Kickstarter video presentation, practice your presentations, then film and publish them to Youtube. Use your link to the google sites page to complete your project description and post your video (see // How to Get Started with Your Google Sites Kickstarter Project // below // ) // - we will watch all of them on the last day of class.

Check out Luke Iseman's Kickstarter campaigns - one failed to attract enough backers, the other was a big success. And read about this phenomenally successful Kickstarter project from January, 2015: Exploding Kittens Sets Fire to Kickstarter

Rewards Structure
Separately, you will need to create a rewards structure for backers of your project. The rewards are generally structured to provide more stuff to backers as their pledge levels increase. You will need to think analytically about how to structure your rewards so that you meet your funding goal successfully without going bankrupt in the process. [// Here is a worksheet to help you do this analysis //]

Posting your Kickstarter project
Now that you've made your video and figured out your rewards structure, it's time to post to the course website for Kickstarter projects.

Guidance
The text and links below are intended to provide you with deeper insights into what constitutes a successful crowdfunding project.

Launching a successful Kickstarter campaign
[ // in progress, this update is from 11/21 am // ]
 * 1) **Setting a reachable goal for funding** - if you set your funding goal too high you will not raise any money and you will likely disappoint those who sponsored you. Use the worksheet to see if the "narrative of the numbers" makes sense to you.
 * 2) Related to #1, **making sure that you structure your rewards and levels in ways that help you surpass your goal** - cushion is good when it comes to money. Use the worksheet to make sure revenues exceed costs for each reward level.
 * 3) **Producing an effective video** - the flow should generally follow the same structure you used for your pitch: Big pain, brilliant solution, how your solution is different / better from what they are currently using, why you or a greater detail of features, and finally a call to action. Tell your viewer what you want them to do next.

The importance of video in Kickstarter campaigns
Why should I bother making a video for my Kickstarter campaign? Video is the best way to communicate the emotions, motivations, and character of a project, and the sincerity and seriousness of the creator. It’s also more fun. Projects with no video disappoint the audience, feel less complete, and cause the viewer to question your commitment to your idea. A good video can also make you care about a project you never would have before. Here is an "interesting" example from the Kickstarter site: [|Somatic Natural History Archive of the USA.]

Be careful about how you walk viewers through your rewards structure in your video - you can quickly bore (and lose) someone who would otherwise have been happy to read your rewards levels in the text accompanying your video. In Yancey Strickler's Kickstarter blog he observes that:

"A regular challenge I see in project videos is how to approach rewards. How important is it to walk people through every tier and option versus letting people see it for themselves? Once people begin counting down each and every reward most of the time I’m reaching for the stop button. But there have been a couple of exceptions: [|Allison Weiss’ project] (she was the first to do the reward walk-through) and Ben Hicks’ [|Kids Go Free to Fun Fun Time]. I won’t spoil Ben’s joke, but he very cleverly shares his reward options in the clip. I wouldn’t have pledged to his project without it." Source: Kickstarter.com


 * ===Kickstarter Example 1 - Lock 'n Load Bullet Pens===

He's from Hoover! || media type="custom" key="24421530" ||
 * ===Kickstarter Example 2 - Skullgarden Linocut Print Project===

A Tuscaloosa-based business. Anyone know this person? || media type="custom" key="24421546" ||

How to Get Started with Your Google Sites Kickstarter Project
Everyone got a link to a google.sites page for presenting your Kickstarter project. This video explains how to get started with the online portion of this project. media type="custom" key="24452986"

Fall and Winter 2013 Student Kickstarter Projects
@https://sites.google.com/site/uakickstarterprojects/home-page - (requires login)