March is national Crowd Funding Month

As you think about different ways to fund your project or business, you cannot help but think of crowd funding as a source. Most people have never even heard of crowd funding. Those who have may be confused about it. It’s worth taking the time to know about it. It’s good to have enough information so that crowd funding is an option for you.

Creating a project is not hard, however creating practical rewards might be. You need to think about those who are supporting your effort. What would they want? What would they need? What would be so remarkable that they would tell others about it? Some people will give just to support your cause. Most people think about what’s in it for me? They want something novel or unique. I have one client who is a musician. The most popular reward he gave was a song that included the givers name. Who wouldn’t want their own song in an mp3 by their favorite artist? Most of the people had purchased his last CD. They were already fans and were delighted to get this perk. Then he had a whole new set of people who wanted that mp3 for a gift. No matter how many people he gave it to, it was still unique to that person. My client assured me that this special mp3 did not involve writing a new song each time and it was something that he could easily do for anyone who asked for it. This reward was a huge homerun. If you can find a unique reward like this, you will get more than enough support for your project.

When is the best time to do your own crowd fund? Now! People are getting their tax refund and have some extra cash on hand. Also, it’s before the summer. In the summer, employment numbers change. Some seasonal workers like teacher are out of work and then you add youth workers who are out of school and looking for a job.
Unless your project is a fun activity or you have a strong base to work with, the summer can be tricky.

Make a decision this month to get your crowd fund happening!

IndieGoGo Updates Their Algorithms

The crowd funding websites usually feature some projects on the front page. Those projects have an advantage in that mostly everyone visiting the site will see it and consider giving towards the success of the featured projects. Each site has different criteria for what is being listed on their front pages. IndieGoGo, one of the more popular sites has recently changed how they decide what goes on the front page. Much like Google, IndieGoGo has an algorithm it uses. They feel an algorithm is fairer. The algorithm will take into account how many comments a project gets and how much people are sharing it on social media. This means they are tracking your activity while you promote your project. Updating the pages often will also help. Basically if you do your work, get people to promote your page, view it and fund you, you will get the homepage advantage to help promote your project even more.

IndieGoGo is just one of many crowd funding sites. Many sites specialize in types of projects. For example, there are sites for education money, sites for just films and television, sites for scientists, sites for art only projects. You need to look at the different sites, see what they have to offer and find out as much as you can about what it takes to be featured on the home pages. For some sites, it is as simple as paying an extra fee. With sites that use an algorithm, you to have some understanding of what is being weighed. If the actual formula gets out, they will change it up again to keep it secret and keep people from “gaming” the system.

You have to make good use of your social media to make this work. Updates need to be frequent to keep people interested. As your project goes along, hopefully you can gain Facebook friends and Twitter followers because they got involved. Asking people to share and re-tweet can only help you reach that all-important financial goal.

Want to learn more about Crowd Funding, join us for the mastermind on Wed Night

at 6:30 PM

$20   call 909 626 3835 to RSVP

Crowd Funding Terminology

Confused about Terminilogy? This will help

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