This is the third post in our 30 Day Ask Clay Crowdfunding Q&A.
I’m answering a new question every day in June.
Submit your question by going to CrowdfundingHacks.com/AskClay, where you can see all of the questions and all of my answers.
Full Transcript
Hey everyone…this is Clay Hebert from CrowdfundingHacks.com…and today’s question is…
How do I know if my idea is a fit for crowdfunding?
To be clear, for this question and this series, we’re talking about rewards-based crowdfunding.
To know whether your idea is a good fit for crowdfunding, there are three things to consider…
1. A successful crowdfunding project is
A creative project, with a beginning and an end, in which something new gets made and shared.
If you think about everything from The Pebble Watch and The Coolest Cooler to an independent film to a deck of cards, all of those things are creative projects with a beginning and an end in which something new gets made and shared.
2. Read the crowdfunding platform (by that I mean Kickstarter and Indiegogo) categories and guidelines
I’ll link to them here:
- Kickstarter rules (and prohibited items)
- Explore Kickstarter categories
- Indiegogo’s Terms of Service
- Explore Indiegogo categories
If you were thinking of making a documentary, what would you do? You’d (hopefully) go watch some documentaries and learn about how they’re made. It’s the same with crowdfunding.
Yet, I’m always amazed by how many people come to me that haven’t even browsed the Kickstarter and Indiegogo categories or read the guidelines and browsed and backed some projects. That’s the best way to really understand and get a feel for what kind of projects are good for crowdfunding.
The platform categories (and Kickstarter even has sub-categories) are pretty specific. Your project will likely fit cleanly into one of those…and if it doesn’t, it may not be a good fit for crowdfunding. And lastly…
3. Who is going to back you? And how are you going to reach them?
This gets more into the marketing of the campaign, which we’ll touch on later in this series but if you have no idea who is going to back you, or if you have no permission to market to those people, then crowdfunding isn’t going to magically bring you a bunch of traffic and backers. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo can amplify an interesting project with good marketing, but they’re not going to fund your project just by posting it there.
So to recap…
To know if your idea is a fit for crowdfunding…
- Ask yourself, is it a creative project, with a beginning and an end in which something new gets made and shared?
- Familiarize yourself with the platform categories and guidelines
- Know who are you selling to and understand how you can build permission to talk to them and let them know about your project.
You can submit your question or see all of the crowdfunding questions and my answers at http://crowdfundinghacks.com/AskClay
