How time flies! It does, but it doesn't. People often say that. They frequently believe it. Their own experience over the course of their respective lives confirms it. Yet, the clock always ticks and tocks at the same methodical pace.
The same holds true for crowdfunding campaigns. At the beginning of a campaign, there seems to be plenty of time, but as each day passes by, project creators begin to realize that time is of the essence. There's never enough time to get it all done. The clock eventually reaches the end of the funding cycle, and all of a sudden, the end is upon you, for real.
As I stroll through the Kickstarter website, I can't help but to notice how project creators have a dreadful tendency to fail to grasp just how crucial that time management is to a crowdfunding campaign. Invariably, a lot of time gets lost in the learning curves that populate the vast majority of crowdfunding undertakings. Time is money, as the saying goes, and how one manages (or fails to manage) the time allocated for their crowdfunding project can make a decisive difference between ending the campaign either fully funded or not funded, at all.
The grim reaper hangs around each Kickstarter project, biding its time until the hour of reckoning is at hand. Each tick of the clock is an opportunity wasted - unless you're not wasting it!
You may not think that a day or two, here and there, make much of a difference in the outcome of a Kickstarter project, but if you think that, then you could never be more wrong.
At the very beginning, when your project is brand spanking new, the temptation to put things off until tomorrow can be very strong, indeed. All the more reason, then, to double down and press your project's nose to the grindstone. That new smell won't last forever, and neither will the Kickstarter website's focus of attention on your budding project.
It won't be long, until your project makes its way to the dustbin of yesterday's news, and cast into the proverbial dead zone that awaits all projects that prove too weak or too unprepared or too neglected to resist the fate of the ordinary. The dead zone is a common staple of Kickstarter life for most crowdfunding projects. Get used to it!
Or better yet, prepare for it. Plan for it. Count on it.
At times, I interact with project creators on Kickstarter. Sometimes, I send them a message out of the blue. I might give them a little unsolicited advice, or I may simply share an observation or three. There are so many Kickstarters running at any given moment in time, that it would simply be impractical and unfeasible to try and keep track of them all.
So, I don't even try. Then again, not every Kickstarter project interests me. Some never manage to capture my eye, while I am browsing. If I don't click on them, then there is no way that I will become a backer for those projects.
Waiting until your Kickstarter is in the dead zone, before you take an active and earnest interest in it, can prove to be a death knell for many projects. Why wait until your project's head has already sank beneath the quicksand, before your project's fate begins to take on a palpable sense of urgency? You do both yourself and your crowdfunding project an enormous disservice, that way.
If you stop and think about it, it is nothing short of truly amazing that so many people can tell time with such an unerring degree of accuracy, even as they seemingly have no solid grasp on how time-demanding that an undertaking of a crowdfunding nature can be.
Once you hit the launch button on your Kickstarter project, the race is on! For many, the race actually began well before that button gets pushed. It's called preparation, and unsurprisingly, it's still a relevant consideration in this day and age.
As project creator, the destiny of your project lies in the palm of your hand. You know, the one that wears a watch on its wrist, or the one that holds a Smart phone that is capable of telling you what time it is.
When you lose track of time, you lose track of your project. Don't let that happen!
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