Category: Marketing

I am participating in a 30 Days LinkedIn sprint with 80 other participants run by 

Tom Kuegler

. We are going to publish 30 posts in 30 days. It just started on 10 January, and I have already seen some fantastic results.

My first post, I Hate Sprints, got 1877 views and 58 comments. Even when posting daily on the platform, I didn’t get this kind of engagement. Before that, I never had more than 600 views and occasional 1 -2 comments.

Image by the author

Compared to other platforms, it is much easier to grow on LinkedIn. In three days, I generated 3215 views and gained 33 new followers.

Just a few days ago, I struggled to come up with personal stories. It felt as if my well had gone dry, but as I read other people’s stories, it triggered my memories, and now I have many more stories ready to share.

I found personal writing is much easier on LinkedIn as the audience is primarily professionals and refined, unlike Facebook and Twitter, where some troubled people try to put everyone down.

Short-form storytelling works much better on LinkedIn, as you get straight to the point.

Why participate in a sprint?

Why not do it yourself?

Because sprints work.

Tom Kuegler found that the first hour after posting on LinkedIn is crucial for the success of your post. For example, if you get five comments in the first hour, the LinkedIn algorithm thinks your post is engaging and promotes it.

Working in a cohort where everyone posts around the same time and engages with other participants’ posts, you can quickly get five or more comments within an hour.

Viola, you get LinkedIn machinery behind your post!

My 1877 views were nothing compared to another participant, whose Day 2 post had more than 10,000 views in 24 hours.

How LinkedIn Can Help You Establish As A Writer

LinkedIn is one platform that is most suitable for writers. Even more than Medium, Vocal, Substack, or Twitter. It has a unique blend of all the ingredients you will need to have an author career.

• You get way more views and fans on LinkedIn than Medium in way less time.
• You can create a useful post in less than 20 minutes which can go viral within 24 hours.
• The more people will see your posts, the more they will know your writing style and the value you can provide.
• LinkedIn allows you to send a newsletter (a brand new feature released just this year), which means you can build your fan base right on the platform without urging readers to join your other newsletter.
• You can win freelance work right on the platform. Most of the companies come looking for freelancers on LinkedIn.
• You can meet other writers and collaborators who could enhance your writing career much faster than working by yourself.
• You can market your products without getting penalized (most Medium publications don’t like when you promote your services).

Takeaway

For the next 30 days, I will be concentrating on posting on LinkedIn and sharing my learning here.

If you like, you can follow me on LinkedIn by clicking here.

Since everyone is affected by the diminishing views on Medium, LinkedIn could be an alternative for us as a writer.

In 2008, Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of Wired magazine, wrote one of the most famous blog posts in internet history: “1000 True Fans.”

Kevin’s 1000 True Fans concept was made popular by many gurus of online audience-building and monetization, just like Malcolm Gladwells made Anders Ericsson’s 10,000-hour practice rule popular through his book Outlier.

Kevin Kelly’s idea was simple but novel. He wrote:

To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.

He presented this concept at a time when creators were doing anything they can, including spending a lot of money to attract as many clicks as possible to their websites.

Clicks were considered the equivalent of ‘foot traffic” in brick and mortar stores, and the online entrepreneurs and creators were obsessed with increasing the number of visits to their stores.

Kelly showed them an alternate way using simple math.

If you have a thousand fans and they buy $100 worth of product in a year, you earn $100,000.

Of course Kelly had two criteria:

But this simple math had a major flaw.

Many creators, in fact, thousands of them, didn’t even have 1000 followers, let alone 1000 true fans.

I am one of them.

I have been writing online for almost three years now my email subscriber number is still in two digits.

My LinkedIn follower number is, 930

My Facebook followers are just 270

My Instagram followers are merely 80.

Most of them are family and friends. They are not buyers. I can’t launch a book or a course and expect to make a sale.

But then something happened last month.

I asked a simple question on my three social media platforms.

One person responded. She chose option one.

She wrote, “Please write the first one, and stick to basics. I will buy it because you explain things in simple terms.”

That one reader gave me all the confidence I needed to write the book.

I wrote the book for her.

And she bought it.

It was a big thing for me that someone paid $2.99 to buy the book that I wrote.

That single true fan gave me more confidence than 2.1 followers on Medium and 1000+ followers on social media.

You don’t need 1000 true fans. You just need one.

I don’t know how many followers I need to get 1000 true fans. Fifty thousand? One million? Many million?

I don’t know whether I will ever get them.

But I have learned that I don’t need them. I just need one person to believe in me, to buy my book, or to take my course to get me started.

Having a single buyer or client can give you enough confidence to get you going. The key to online business isn’t skill or even knowledge.

Instead, it’s confidence.

Most of us start with fancy titles like “book coach, yoga teacher, life coach, etc.” when in fact, we’re still right on the bottom rung of the ladder.

When a single client pays us even a tiny amount of money, it gives us just the boost we need to keep going. Aiming for a thousand clients, in the beginning, freezes us in our tracks.

I sold 18 copies of my book on the first day. I know six of those were my family and friends, but the rest 12 were true buyers.

I am starting my second book.

Once again, I asked my tiny little following, would they like to read the story of my journey from competitive to creative life in the form of conversations between my inner critic and me?

Three people responded in the affirmative.

I am going to write the book for them.

You don’t need 1000 true fans, you just need one.

Two days ago, I wrote an article where I said, knowing your end game will help you decide what kind of writer you want to become and what path you need to take to get there.

M.A. Mercier, a dear young friend of mine and upcoming prolific writer, wrote, “I don’t understand your reasoning behind ‘genre fiction.’ I consider myself a Passion writer, but my ‘end-game’ is to write literary fiction. My ideal future where I do both content writing and fiction writing.”

Dear Mercier, this article is for you.

You have pulled the words out of my mouth and wrote them in the comments section. 

It was precisely the question I was trying to understand when I wrote the article. Like you, I am a literary writer. So what is my end game, then?

Being a literary writer is not the end game. The end game is how to stay as a literary writer and make a living.

It is hard to make a living as a literary writer. For one, you can’t keep coming with a book every six months or a year. A good literary book takes much longer to write. 

Second literary readers are not lining up like the fans of Harry Potter or Jason Bourne waiting for the next book. They buy the book when there are enough reviews that say that it is a great book, even if they are written by a great author. Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Khalid Hussini’s subsequent books didn’t sell as well as their first ones.

I didn’t understand it either when I was told, time and time again, that if you want to make a living as a fiction writer, you need to pick a genre. 

Genre writing is what people buy in hoards. They can’t seem to have enough of Nora Roberts, Dan Brown, Stephen King, Arthur Hailey, Michael Crichton, Ken Follett, and Robert Ludlum.

Genre writers can build a following, self-publish, and make six to seven-figure income by selling directly to their readers. The model is well-established and many authors are following it and succeeding at it. 

Literary writers who make a living solely on their books are far and few. The New York Times published a small article based on a recent study by the Authors Guild that said:

“In the 20th century, a good literary writer could earn a middle-class living just writing (citing William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Cheever). Now, most writers need to supplement their income with speaking engagements or teaching. — Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the Authors Guild.

The end game for literary writers used to be to win a major literary prize. This is how Ros Barber described in The Guardian: 

Traditional publishing is the only way to go for someone who writes literary fiction. With genre fiction, self-publishing can turn you into a successful author (if you can build a platform, if you can enjoy marking and are good at it, if you are lucky). But an author who writes literary fiction is dependent on critical acclaim and literary prizes to build their reputation and following. If genre fiction is chart music, literary fiction is opera: the audience is small, and there are limited ways to reach it. Self-published books are not eligible for major prizes like Baileys and the Costa and the Man Booker, and getting shortlisted for major prizes is the only way a literary novel will become a bestseller. The chance of a self-published novelist getting their book reviewed in the mainstream press is the same as the chance of my dog not eating a sausage. The chance of an indie author being booked for a major literature festival? Donald Trump apologising to Mexico. — Ros Barber

She received £5,000 for her most recent novel for two year’s work. Yet, she thinks self-publishing is a terrible idea for serious novelists. 

Because she says, “Self-publishing authors spend only 10% of their time writing and 90% of their time marketing… Good writers become good because they undertake apprenticeships… My first novel was my fourth novel. It was accomplished on the back of three complete novels (plus two half novels)… The gatekeepers are saving you from your own ego… Good writers need even better editors. They need brilliant cover designers. They need imaginative marketers and well-connected publicists.”

So if making a living from your literary fiction is not your goal, then you can go on the path to become a good writer and do a long apprenticeship. I will be cheering for you. But that will take you to the hobby writer category (writers who like to write for personal satisfaction) until you start making a living from it.

Let me come to the question of ‘Passion writers.’

Maybe my definition of ‘Passion writers’ was incomplete. Allow me to elaborate a bit.

Passion writers write what they are passionate about, whether it is content, fiction, or non-fiction and make a living from it.

But even this doesn’t sound right. Maybe I shouldn’t call them ‘Passion writers.’ In the real world, they are called the ‘Bestselling writers.’ They are bestselling because they write to market demands. 

But I want to stay with the term ‘Passion Writers.’ Because I believe passion moves mountains. 

It was the writers’ passion who wanted to break away from the clutches of traditional publishing and create a model for self-publishing within a decade that is repeatable. They wrote in the genre they were passionate about. 

Literature is a genre too. It, too, has dedicated fans. They may not be lining at the bookstores to buy the next book by their favorite author, but they do buy many books.

I think literary writers can do the same. I think we can build enough followers and make a decent living even with fewer books. We might need to become savvier in terms of selling the rights of our work. I am certain that young bright writers like yourself will find a way.

So, by all means, keep your end game to become a literary writer. But learn the market forces. You don’t have to bend to them. You need to bend them to yourself. Learn from genre writers. They are a decade ahead of you and have a lot to teach. Then, apply it to literary fiction and change the game for writers like me. 

I am counting on you.

Make literary writing mainstream writing because there is nothing better to read than a well-written book by a thoughtful writer.

I hope I answered your question. 

As far as my end game is concerned I am a hobby writer. I will be writing whatever I am passionate about at any given time and not worry about making money from it (also because I don’t have to). I am turning sixty this year and don’t have too much time left for a long apprenticeship or traditional publishing. I want to leave my legacy in the form of stories in whatever broken English I can tell them. 

I believe in the power of the stories rather than the strength of the language. Not because I don’t appreciate good writing but because I am in awe of it. 

All the best.

Some relevant reading:

How Much do Fiction Writers Earn?
Is Self-Publishing Literary Fiction Possible?
The horrible hidden truth about self-publishing that nobody wants you to know
These self-published authors are actually making a living. Here’s how.
For me, traditional publishing means poverty. But self-publish? No way

Photo by Andrey Metelev on Unsplash

When we start writing, we have no idea where we want to go with that. We write because we like to write. We enjoy the process and we continue with it.

Then comes a time when writing takes over our lives.

We want nothing more but to write. Our job becomes a liability. We want to quit as soon as possible so that we can devote more time to writing.

We convince ourselves that we can make an income from writing. If only we can devote more time to it, build a following, write that book, write an article a day, start a newsletter… we will be able to make a living from it.

But it is not that easy.

Making a living from writing takes more effort than making a living from selling insurance policies (or door-to-door selling or network marketing or selling used cars or becoming a real estate agent — take your pick).

Why?

Because we don’t know what our end game is.

We take writing as a generic profession, as a GP (General Practitioner), whereas it is a specialization.

There are different fields in writing and each one requires a different strategy to succeed. Not knowing that from the beginning not only makes it harder to succeed but takes much longer and causes so much heartache and frustration that many people give up after a few years, never to come back.

I divide writers into three categories:

1. Hobby writers
2. Freelance writers
3. Passion writers

Hobby Writers

Hobby writers are the ones who like to write for personal satisfaction. They might write poems, short stories, or even articles in magazines (online or physical). They might write a book, maybe more than one. It could be fiction or non-fiction. But they have no intention to make a living from their writing.

They had a story to tell, and when they have told it, they are satisfied if they have been able to publish it and send it out in the world, even better.

With some stroke of luck, hobby writers might be able to make a lot of money with a single book or an article, even without much marketing. Such examples are rare, but they do happen.

Hobby writers treat writing as a way to communicate their feelings (poems), their stories(memoir or biography) and messages (articles or a book).

They are usually not stressed about their writing and very satisfied with their output.

If you are a hobby writer, enjoy your writing and don’t get caught up in the whirlwind of building a following or starting a newsletter. Keep in mind you are not in it for money.

Freelance Writers

Freelance writers make a living from their writing and sometimes are well paid and at the top of their trade.

Many professional writers are in the paid form of writing where it becomes a job — many journalists, content writers, ghostwriters and copywriters fall in this category.

They may or may not have proper qualifications in writing. To them, writing provides not only personal but also professional satisfaction. They might start in one category and move on to others.

They become professionals to work in the field they love but soon get caught in the vortex of a trading time with money. They get busy with delivering other people’s projects while their own projects get sidelined.

Their end game is to get some big bucks for ghost writing or big clients for content writing. Many journalists are going into paid newsletter arena where they fulfill a particular need of a group or a community with their writing skills.

Passion Writers

Passion writers write what they are passionate about, whether it is content, fiction, or non-fiction.

They are successful because they keep evaluating where they are going. They not only know what they want to write but also what the market wants.

Content writers

If they are content writers, they know they are writing to inspire or to educate. They know to make a living with content writing, they need a healthy mailing list and courses to sell. They start small, but by consistently providing value to their readers, they make a name for themselves. These writers often become entrepreneurs.

That is the end game for them. They will build some business from their writing. It could be a publishing company or self-development organization or marketing agency.

Fiction writers

If they are fiction writers, they write genre fiction. Genre fiction has populist appeal and it sells well. Traditionally genres are romance, mystery, thriller, horror, fantasy, historical, and children’s books. But new genres are being added all the time. Genre readers follow their writers and read everything they write.

The end game for fiction writers writes is to write series. Their readers are ready to buy their next book because they are invested in the story. The imaginary universe the fantasy and sci-fi writers create are money spinners. Think J K Rowling, Nora Roberts, Stephen King, Dean Coontz, Dean Wesley Smith. These are just a few well-known names. Many other not-so-well-known writers are making six to seven-figure incomes. These writers become brands in themselves.

Non-fiction writers

These are the writers of non-fiction books. They pick a niche and become experts in that. They write books in that niche and take speaking engagements. Sometimes just a single book becomes such a bestseller that they can build their whole business around it (think James Clear’s Atomic Habits). Other times they release series such as Rober Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad series.

The end game for non-fiction writers is the speaking engagements. They charge premium rates to speak at premium conferences and may have a whole business behind their book.

What is your end game?

Do you write for personal satisfaction, or do you want to make a living with your writing?

Do you want to build a business around your niche, or do you want to create a fictional universe?

Figure out what your end game is and then choose your path to get there.

In 2006, a young entrepreneur was running a support platform for video bloggers. He called it fundavlog. 

Keen on spreading the word; he started a blog explaining the idea behind fundavlog and coining a term for the concept he was trying to introduce. 

I have used a recent buzzword within fundvlog babble. That word is Crowdsourcing. My first interpretation of it was a broad one… one that can be applied to generalities surrounding concepts/observations such as ‘smart mobs,’ ‘wisdom of the crowds,’ ‘new economies,’ ‘open-source,’ and ‘self-sustaining communities.’

…

But I have decided that another similar term can be used to explain the general ideas being presented here. And I think that term is ‘Croudfunding.’ Money is the root. Money incubates, inspires, and give rise to good content. Money provides new and/or rejuvenated opportunities. — Michael Sullivan

Michael figured that building a community from an online ‘sphere’ was a challenge but not impossible. He looked at the idea from different angles and completely out of the box. He was very impressed with mediaventure.org, both the initiative and projects funded through it.

He wanted fundavlog to raise money for projects like mediaventure.org. But unlike mediaventure.org, he wanted the focus on content creators rather than the industry.

Although his project failed, he came up with two basic rules for crowdfunding:

Rule #1 Not to pilfer facilitated funds.

Rule #2 Absolute transparency.

Crowdfunding is based on “reciprocity, transparency, shared interests and, above all, funding from the crowd.”

If you haven’t read yesterday’s article, I suggest you read it first and then come back to the current one to understand how crowdfunding can be your prime strategy to write and sell books.

Crowdfunding is not a marketing platform.

Most people make the mistake that they think crowdfunding is a marketing gimmick, just like Mailchimp or LinkedIn.

That is not true.

Crowdfunding is a sales platform just like Amazon.

It is a place where you can test your book idea and sell it even before you have written it. 

Isn’t it cool?

Before I get into details to describe the difference, let me clear a few more concepts about crowdfunding. 

There are typically three types of crowdfunding: 

1. Reward crowdfunding, where you raise your funds by reaching out to supporters, who receive a small gift or product sample if they pledge a certain amount.
2. Debt crowdfunding is where you receive a loan and pay it within a specific time frame — some prefer this over a bank loan because it can be much faster.
3. Equity crowdfunding means you give a portion of company ownership to the people who provide you with funding.

Although Kickstarter works on the Reward Model of raising money, one thing to understand is that you are, in fact, raising a debt which you will have to pay in the form of the product which you have specified in the pledge.

So when you hear someone say they raised $1M on Kickstarter, they haven’t raised any money at all. They have, in fact, pre-sold their products.

Ben Einstein has written an excellent article to explain the misconceptions about money raised on Kickstarter. Have a read of it. The link is below.Crowdfunding is Debt
Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other crowdfunding platforms are often misunderstood. It definitely isn’t investment: It’s…beneinstein.medium.com

Crowdfunding is one more market.

It’s one of the rare self-publishing markets that offer to pay you in advance. It also has a great financial incentive, paying roughly 92% of your list price.

But once your campaign has run its course, it’s pretty much over until the next time. The platform isn’t designed for long-term sales.

Since 2009, Kickstarter has helped raise over $5B in revenue for nearly 200,000 successful projects.

Of this, publishing rates $185M on 18,000 successful projects. Publishing is sixth out of fifteen potential categories. That’s an average of $10,000 per successful project, but it’s not exactly a linear curve. Only 4,200 projects have made $10,000 or more—still, a respectable 23%.

Gaming is the biggest category. The reason being Gamers adopted crowdfunding years ahead of writers and readers.

Readers are traditionally anti-technology. It took Kindle more than a decade to be accepted. Even now, given a choice, people prefer paper books to digital books.

But pandemic changed that big time. All of a sudden, there is a surge in eBook and audiobook sales.

However, writers’ participation at Kickstarter is increasing. Several bestselling authors are launching their books on Kickstarter.

Michael Sullivan, a bestselling fantasy and scientific-fiction writer, has successfully run eight campaigns; his last campaign raised $168,000.

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits campaigned to raise $44,700 for printing and publishing his book Zen Habits: Mastering the Art of Change. 8,211 backers pledged $244,255 to help bring his project to life.

Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo started a project to raise $40,000 to publish Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls — 100 Tales to Dream Big. That humble children’s book packed with 100 bedtime stories about the lives of 100 extraordinary women from past and present, illustrated by 100 female artists from all over the world, raised $675,614, much more than the wildest imagination of the creators. Their second campaign was even bigger, which raised $866,193.

But no one can beat New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson’s records of raising $6.8M.

Crowdfunding can be a very influential market.

The important thing to keep in mind is that Kickstarter or any other crowdfunding site is one market. A very influential market.

Even a career-defining market.

It can be a complete bust, but only if you treat it lightly and give up too early.

Even if you have a few failed attempts, it doesn’t matter. Where else can you get the word out for your project and get paid in advance?

For many writers, Kickstarter is becoming their launching strategy. Once you have run a few campaigns, you will know how much effort to put into it and how much reward you will get from it.

Fear of the failed campaigns

A false hurdle to starting a Kickstarter campaign and any long-term Kickstarter success is the fear of what happens if your campaign fails to fund. 

There is no doubt that some of your campaigns are going whether you work at them casually or aggressively.

But does it matter?

You fail at submitting your articles to reputed publications.

You fail at getting your manuscript accepted by the traditional publishers several times.

You fail at selling your book on Amazon.

Failures are just the stepping stones to success.

So what is my game plan?

Publishing hasn’t hit the same critical mass in the audience as Gaming has, but the potential is there. 

Every writer who will use crowdfunding will improve the market and bring more audience to the platform.

That is what we need to do.

I intend to study Kickstarter for six months to a year before launching my first campaign. 

During that time, I will support several campaigns both in publishing and other categories. 

All that exposure will help me understand what kind of books do better on Kickstarter.

There is no secret to crowdfunding. Crowdfunding rewards ingenuity and hard work. Writers are familiar with both.

References:

1. Archived blog on fundavlog.
2. Crowdfunding Your Fiction: A Best Practice Guide by Loren L. Coleman.
3. Kickstarter Stats

Disclaimer: I am learning about Crowdfunding. If my understanding is incorrect or the information doesn’t align with facts, let me know, and I will correct those.

Photo by Nicholas Green on Unsplash

(What I am finding is more interesting than cryptocurrency)

I have always been mesmerized by the concept of crowdfunding. 

Not because of the stories about people raising millions of dollars for their project, but because of many other reasons:

• It is a great way for creators to get the word out for their projects.
• To find out if anyone else is interested in their project
• Get enough money to start the project.
• Sell before they actually build 
• Reason to go actually finish and deliver the product.

But my interest had been superficial. I had never gone to a crowdfunding site to find out what kind of projects are being funded, who are floating them, and the benefactors.

Until recently, when I bought a book bundle (where multiple authors get together and release a number of books at low prices), and one of the books was Crowdfunding Your Fiction: A Best Practice Guide by Loren L. Coleman.

The book revived my interest, and I started going to the crowdfunding sites just like a new writer would explore Medium. It is early days but what I have discovered so far is really interesting and encouraging.

What is crowdfunding anyway?

According to Loren Coleman, a veteran in crowdfunding, it is a little bit eBay, a little bit Etsy and a whole lot of speculation. 

You have a project you want to create, a story, a board game, a piece of technology, you post your idea on the crowdfunding market and make a promise. 

If X number of people agree to give you Y dollars each, you will create the item in Z amount of time and send all your backers a copy.

That’s it.

There is no rocket science to it. 

Although it is considered a new concept, the core idea of “the crowd” funding ventures is nothing new.

The history of crowdfunding.

Between 1200 –1800 traders used to finance shipping ventures. The trading expeditions used to be very risky, expensive, and yet exceptionally profitable. Traders would get a share of the profit or bear a part of the loss. This approach would provide shipping companies with a sensible risk management strategy.

In 1713, a young poet, Alexander Pope, raised money to translate the ‘Iliad.’ Alexander Pope was quite keen on translating Homer’s epic poem, ‘The Iliad’, into English but lacked the necessary resources to publish it. He asked donors to pledge two gold guineas to support his work in exchange for having their names published in the book. He was perhaps the first one to run a reward-based crowdfunding campaign and successfully completed a creative project.

In 1783–84, fans crowdfunded Mozart’s tour. Mozart was performing three piano concerts in the Viennese concert hall but didn’t have enough money to travel. He sent an invitation to prospective backers offering concert manuscripts in exchange for financial support for the tour. 176 backers donated enough funds to make his tour happen.

In 1885, New Yorkers donated millions to install the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty was a diplomatic gift from the French people to the US. But the efforts to raise funds for its pedestal stalled. When all means failed, Joseph Pulitzer decided to launch a fundraising campaign through the newspaper. More than 160,000 New Yorkers chipped in. $100,000 was raised in five months.

Digital crowdfunding.

The modern digital crowdfunding has its roots in 1996–97 funding of British rock band Marillion. Marillion’s fans raised $60,000 through an internet campaign to support their tour to the United States.

The first online website, “fan-funding,” to raise funds for artists, was launched in 2003. Soon after ArtistShare platform was established where artists could seek funding from their supporters to cover their production costs in exchange for free, early access to their album, song, or another piece of art.

The first peer-to-peer lending platform Zopa kicked off in 2005 in the UK. Zopa was followed by Lending Club and Prosper in the US in 2006.

In 2007, the Australian Small Scale Offerings Board (ASSOB), which is considered the world’s first equity-based crowdfunding platform, was established.

After the 2008 financial crisis, people turned to the internet to seek funding. IndieGoGo and Kickstarter, launched in 2008 and 2009, respectively, made crowdfunding a household word. Many other platforms started, and in just five years, crowdfunding grew 1000%.

To date, people have raised more than $34 billion worldwide using these platforms.

Whatever your reason for raising money, there is a crowdfunding site for you.

Just how much money can be raised by crowdfunding?

In few words, much more than your target.

In 2015, Pebble Technology started a campaign to raise $500,000 to build a smartwatch. They were at the right time at the right place. This was their second Kickstarter campaign which beat their original Kickstarter record from 2012 by over $10 Million dollars. They raised $20,338,986.

The biggest amount ever raised is by Cloud Imperium Games which has raised over $317 million for the development of their video game Star Citizen, breaking a record funding volume for a single project. They have been crowdfunding since 2012, both through crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and their own website.

Travel Tripod by Peak Design, Goal $500,000; Raised $12,143,435.

The World’s Best Travel Jacket, Goal $ 20,000; Raised $9,192,055.

The Veronica Mars Movie Project, Goal $2,000,000; Raised, $5,702,153

Okay, these some of the extra successful projects. 

For every successful crowdfunded project, there are many unsuccessful projects. 

But that is not the bad news.

In fact, the news is mostly good for crowdfunding.

In July 2018, The Conversations (a research-based news and analysis publication) analyzed Startnext, (the biggest German crowdfunding platform), to figure out what was behind crowdfunding’s success? 

At that time Startnext had more than 100,000 pledges to more than 2,000 projects. They gave The Converstaions access to their whole database. 

This is what they found:

• It was never too late to get a campaign on a successful track — provided its creator manages to get a surge in pledges rolling.
• Attracting a lot of support in the first day or two was considered a crucial indicator of quality. The Conversations analysis found that even projects that fell short of this average path to success, succeeded. Nearly 90% of the projects that are under track after two-thirds of the campaign still become success stories.
• Even more strikingly, 40% of severely under-track projects still make it in the end. These are projects that are more than 70% off their targeted amount with a handful of days to the deadline.
• A large fraction of successful projects (23%) were late bloomers. Meaning the average crowdfunding campaign started off with a healthy amount of pledges, levelled off in the middle of the funding phase, and then got a boost in the last few days.

Their biggest insight, it is never too late with crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding is best learned by participation.

Just like Medium or a social media platform, crowdfunding is a community bases activity. It can be best learned by participation. 

There are many platforms. Some are listed below. 

• Best Overall: Kickstarter
• Runner-Up, Best Overall: Indiegogo
• Best for Nonprofits: Causes
• Best for Creators: Patreon
• Best for Personal Fundraising: GoFundMe
• Best for Equity Crowdfunding: CircleUp
• Best for Business Loans: LendingClub

Source: The Best Crowdfunding Sites

Hop on to anyone and participate. Follow and back campaigns. You can invest with as little as $1. There is a merit in doing that because then you will start getting emails about how the campaign is going. 

Build sample campaigns for yourself, even if you don’t intend to launch everyone.

Research by surfing your preferred categories at least weekly and other categories at least monthly. 

Watch the failed campaigns too, you will learn a lot from them.

When a project interests you for content or just for the campaign, back it. Leave a word of encouragement under comments. Encourage good campaigns.

References:

1. The History of Crowdfunding
2. Crowdfunding success and failure: what actually happens during a campaign.
3. Top 20 Most Funded Kickstarter Projects of All Time (2019).

Let me know what your thoughts or experiences are about crowdfunding.

In my next article I will write about crowdfunding your book project.

Photo by alex bracken on Unsplash