Today’s post is brought to you by procrastination and curiosity. I should be working on my Kickstarter video, but, instead, I have another spreadsheet for you.
I’m in a Facebook messenger backchannel of ComixLaunch Pro creators running campaigns in April. One of those creators, Scott Harris-King, has a campaign that is really coming down to the wire. With Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing funding model, I know this is one of the most stressful situations to be in as a creator. He is so close to funding, and the clock is rapidly clicking down.
To figure out if the project will ultimately be funded, you can’t just extrapolate to see if you will make your funding goal based on a linear amount/day, either. Kickstarter's funding curve is notoriously U-shaped, with the keen early backers and the last-minute procrastinating creatives providing about 40% of a typical project’s funding in just a few days on either end of the campaign.
This has a lot of implications, not the least of which is determining how stressed you should be if your project is not funded by the last week of the campaign. And more importantly, if you would need to do something more than what you are doing now to ultimately meet your funding goal.
So I created a crutch for myself as I am prone to be a stress puppy spreadsheet based on data from the TLSS campaign to model a typical funding curve. I found it useful for, among other things, setting an appropriate funding goal for Lump Dog™. (I may write more on this tomorrow.)
I am using a typical 30-day campaign, but the spreadsheet could be adjusted to a shorter or longer time frame. The percentages are simplified amounts taken from my last campaign, but taking time to adjust the values based on one of your own campaigns would likely create results more reflective of what you can personally expect. Last but not least, the data was from a campaign I ran years ago, and reportedly, the ends of the “U” are even more dramatic now. Enjoy!
T minus 5: Lump Dog™ Launch Journal
During the Lump Dog crowdfunding campaign, I am recording a journal of my activities each day. The goal is to have a record of what I did so I have something to refer to when I do my next campaign. Hopefully, this will also give you ideas for your own campaigns.
Recent tasks (besides this post)
I wrote a brief introduction to the character and then posted a character reveal for “C-in-C” to Instagram.
Helpful resources
Tools used
Scrivener
Microsoft Word
Canva
Apple Preview
Adobe Premiere Pro
What I am waiting for
Lenticular cover images - Due by Friday
Lesson learned for next time to share
Organizing most of your Kickstarter page graphics in Canva into project folders makes creating new graphics much easier. Consider creating a folder just for branding assets that will be used across multiple campaigns.
Snapshot (What I’m currently monitoring)
Current pre-launch page followers: 37
Instagram ad spend
Landing: $49.84 CAD for 3708 views, 147 prelaunch page visits. $0.34/visit
Alien: $79.47 for 7178 views, 269 prelaunch page visits. $0.30/visit
The number of people clicking the “notify me on launch” button has been nominal.
BackerKit Launch e-mail. 217 were sent, 103 were opened, and 16 clicked. (The BackerKit Launch service costs $99US for 60 days.)
Up next
Work on the Kickstarter video.