How to Kickstart your personal passion project. A talk given by professional photographer Doug Plummer to the Seattle ASMP on 11/20/14 on his Contradance Calendar series, which he funded with Kickstarter. He covers how to build a fan base and use social media as the primary mechanism for successful crowdfunding a project.

1. Kickstart Your Project
The Art of the Ask

2. What is Contra Dance?
https://vimeo.com/67428955

3. • Assumed sales would pay for it
• Lost $6,000

4. • Used Kickstarter to
pay for printing
• Goal of $7,000
• Raised $8,262
• 182 Backers

5. • Asked for $11,200
• Raised $11,416
• 227 Backers

6. • Asked for $11,500
• Raised $13,055
• 248 Backers
• Presold 550 Calendars

7. Kickstarter Factoids
• Total pledged to date on Kickstarter: $1.4 Billion
• Annual support to artists is greater than the NEA
• Average supporter is 42 years old
• Kickstarter is the biggest, but there are others
• Indiegogo—Popular with filmmakers
• GoFundMe—For heart wrenching stories
• Patreon—fund individual artists on an ongoing basis
• Hatchfund—Just artists, lots of support
• And about a hundred more

8. Kickstarter Factoids
Most projects fail
Only 43% success rate
Biggest predictor of success—your network
• 10 Facebook Friends—9% success rate
• 100 Facebook Friends—20% success rate
• 1000 Facebook Friends—40% success rate

9. Building your fan base
• Your fans are not people you want something from.
They are people you feel connected to.
• It takes a shared passion
• It’s a relationship
• It takes years to build

10. Amanda Palmer: The Art of Asking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj_P_6H69g

11. Preparing the soil
How to be a good Social Media citizen
• Engage. Comment. Like.
• Share cool stuff. Credit and tag.
• Post frequently. Aim for daily.
• Post your own content, but make it the minority of your posts.
• Give freely. Be authentic.
• Forget Pages. Do this on your Personal Timeline.
• Share. Share. Share.

12. Kickstarter Operating Principles
It’s not about you.
It’s not about your project.
It’s about your community.
It’s about your fans.
It’s about your story.

13. Kickstarter Prelaunch
Campaign Description
• Tell the story of the project.
• Tell why you have the passion for this project
• Tell why this is important to your fans
• Be succinct. Viewer should “get it” in the first paragraph.

14. Kickstarter Prelaunch
The Pitch Video
• Yes, you have to be in it.
• Slickness is not required. Authenticity is.
• Ad libbing is OK.
• Tell the story of the project.
• Tell why you have the passion for this project
• Tell why this is important to your fans
• Be succinct. Viewer should “get it” in
the first 10 seconds.
• Maximum 5 minutes. The shorter the better.

15. The Pitch Video
http://youtu.be/PY598xsuZhw

16. Kickstarter Prelaunch
Pledge Levels
• Make a low level that anyone could pledge.
• Most pledge levels will be for the “thing.”
• Add on rewards is how you make your goal.
• Add one or two “lottery level” rewards. You never know.

17. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plummer/the-2015-contradance-calendar

18. Kickstarter Prelaunch
How much do you ask for?
• Production cost of your “thing.”
• Production costs of your reward extras.
• Shipping costs for everything.
• Don’t forget the cost of boxes for shipping. Order from uline.com
• 8% more for Kickstarter and Amazon fees.
• Taxes on the “income” from Kickstarter.
• Retail sales tax for in-state rewards.

19. Kickstarter Prelaunch
Updates
• Plan your updates before you launch.
• Prepare 2 or more videos.
• Update ideas: BTS, new pledge level, in depth story.

20. Kickstarter Prelaunch
Campaign Length
• No longer than 28 days.
• Time it to end on a weeknight evening.

21. The Campaign
Prelaunch
• Teaser posts.
• Email friends and family.

22. The Campaign
Ignition!
• Front load as many backers as you can.
• The more $ you raise in the first 5 days, the greater likelihood of success.
• Post every few hours in the beginning.
• The half life of a Facebook Post is between 30 to 80 minutes.

23. The Campaign
Facebook tips
• IMPORTANT FACEBOOK HACK—Post an image with the campaign link.
• Keep the same image for every campaign post.
• Use a custom bit.ly shortcut. Mine was bit.ly/contracalendar2015
• Every post—ask to share. Way more important than asking for support.
• Post a minimum of 2x a day.
• Post and tag your recent supporters.
• Change up the content. Say it a little differently each time.
• Don’t bother with advertising.

28. The Campaign
Time the campaign so that you can drive traffic in the last hours. Late midweek
evening is good.
Most of your backers will come at the beginning and the end of the campaign.
Fear not the Valley of Despair.

29. After The Campaign
Success!
Now the fun begins!

30. After The Campaign
• Love your spreadsheet!

31. After The Campaign
Throw a work party.

32. After The Campaign
Continue the updates.
Feed and water your fan base.

33. After The Campaign
Go dancing!
https://vimeo.com/89062043

34. Resources
http://www.ianmack.com/howto-crowdfunding/resources/ Good resources from Ian MacKenzie. Take his workshop when he comes to town.
http://www.nathanielhansen.com/film-fundraising/the-ultimate-crowdfunding-to-do-list-before-you-launch/ Another good list of Kickstarter tips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj_P_6H69g Amanda Palmer’s TED talk on The Art of Asking. A must watch.
https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats Kickstarter stats.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plummer/the-2015-contradance-calendar My Kickstarter project.
http://www.dougplummer.com/ My site.
http://contracalendar.com/ Get your 2015 Contradance Calendar here! Share this!