Crowd Funding Tip # 5 - Create a forum signature with your link in it

If you are a registered user of a forum before you create and launch your Kickstarter project, or if you become a registered forum user of one or more forums after you create and launch your project, then here's an easy - and free - way to advertise your crowd funding project to other people.

Create a forum signature with your link to your project page in it.

Typically, this is done by accessing the User Control Panel on the forum, and then editing the Profile section where the Edit Signature option is.

Now, if you don't know what a forum is, then it is a place online where people gather and congregate to post messages and to carry on conversations over an extended period of time. If you've never been to one, before, then don't worry. By and large, they tend to be interesting and worthwhile things. I've used forums for years on end, and some can even become a home way from home, so to speak.

Now, if you're brand spanking new to crowd funding, then you could do a lot worse than to make your way on over to Salvador Briggman's KickstarterForum.Org forum. I hang out there, as do numerous other people who have already posted a whole bunch of messages about all sorts of different things related to crowd funding and improving project pages of project creators like yourself. Did I mention that it is free?

Head on over there, and create an account for yourself on that forum by registering. Basically, that involves creating a user name to post messages under (so that everyone can keep track of everyone else), and coming up with a password - so that you have a means to log in, each time that you visit the forum. None of it is rocket science.

Now, after you create your account, there is a link located at the very top of the page called User Control Panel.

Click on it, and you will then see something that looks sort of like this, provided that you have created your account and logged in, already.

 

Next, click on the tab that says Profile. It will then take you to a screen that looks similar to this:

 Next, click on the link that says Edit signature. It will then take you to a screen that looks similar to this:

If you click on the image above, then the image should become bigger for you, to make it easier for you to see what my own signature on that forum currently looks like. I have three separate lines in my forum signature, because I am "advertising" more than one place online via the forum signature link method. Since your crowd funding project will likely be your priority, you might want to consider just posting a single link in your forum signature.

And here is what my forum signature on that forum currently looks like, to people reading messages that I have posted there:

NOTE: Some forums on the Internet disallow forum signatures, altogether, while other forums impose limited of various sorts on what you can put in your forum signature. Some forums disallow images in forum signatures, while others disallow links to other websites. Some forums are lenient, and some are strict, where the use of forum signatures are concerned. But, even if you can't use a forum signature link in every forum that you visit or use frequently, take advantage of it on the forums that you do visit or use frequently. A forum signature can lead other people to your crowd funding project page.

After you create your forum signature, be sure to hit the Submit button or the Save button, depending upon which forum that you are on, so that the forum will retain the information that you post in your forum signature section.

A lot of forums use something called BB Code, these days, which is simply a means whereby you can make text perform other functions, such as converting text into a link to your project page. For a good, simple example of how to create a link using BB Code, I suggest that you refer to the BB Code website's page dedicated specifically to that purpose, which can be found by clicking here.

BB Code definition: BBCode is short for Bulletin Board Code. It is used as a way for formatting posts made on message boards, blogs and more. It is similar to HTML in the sense that in BBCode one does also use tags to format something specific (contained within the tag). In BBCode tags are indicated by rectangular brackets surrounding a keyword, which is in turn transformed into HTML before being delivered to a web browser.

SOURCE: www.bbcode.org

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Crowd Funding Tip # 4 - Avoid Ambulance Chasers Disguised As Marketers

What's the difference between a crowd funding ambulance chaser and a genuine marketer?

Real Results!

When you create a crowd funding project, you also signal the arrival of potential fresh meat to the dens of wolves disguising themselves as sheep of the marketing profession.

In any system of free enterprise, the range of services offered will typically run the gamut from one extreme to the other, with many who offer their "services" lying somewhere in between.

We live in a world where junk mail and spam are commonplace occurrences. Word spin and clever packaging do not alter the core nature of what is being sent to you, whether by postal mail, e-mail, or any other means.

Generally speaking, being informed is the best defense against falling prey to scams and marketing ploys.

What people who are new to crowd funding project creation are after are tangible results, plain and simple. They are new to the game of raising funding via crowd funding mechanisms. Thus, they lack the advantages which experience naturally conveys.

So, in a nutshell, let me try to simplify this for you, in case you happen to come into contact with this article BEFORE you come into contact with people who are after your money, to help you with making your crowd funding project a success. Are you ready for it? Here it comes!

There are people out there who will take advantage of you!

They will make all kinds of claims. They will push all the right buttons. But, let me ask you this - what do they actually guarantee?

All promise and no guarantees make for an awkward recipe for success, and especially when what is being presented to you is a one-sided marketing scheme. Namely, they get money from you, and they want it upfront, but you get no actual, concrete guarantees in return.

Numbers are close kin of statistics. Numbers can be manipulated all kinds of different ways, as can statistics. If you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, then why be so quick to judge a marketing scheme by its cover? That's how people fall victim to scams. It's how people become prey of other people who are out to take advantage.

How do they take advantage of you?

(1) By preying on your inexperience. You're new, and THEY are BANKING on it!

(2) By preying upon your ignorance (which is simply a lack of knowledge and understanding of something).

(3) By preying upon your desire to succeed.

(4) By preying upon the natural disposition of human nature to take advantage of what seems to be a good offer.

(5) By offering limited time offers, offers designed to get you to rush in responding to them, so that you don't take sufficient time to explore and to investigate the claims that they are making. Don't let them use the ticking of the clock against you! If you rush yourself, then you become more prone to making a mistake.

(6) By surprising you, generally by appearing in some form of message from right out of the blue. You didn't initiate contact - They contacted you, first. In layman's parlance, it's known as springing a trap.

(7) By holding up the potential for your project to fail, whether directly or indirectly. In essence, they hold the keys to success, which is nonsense, of course, since there typically tends to be many different keys to success, no matter what the undertaking is.

(8) Through guile - by way of clever use of words to make you think that you're getting a great deal, when in fact, you're not. You just don't know it at the time, and they already full well know that. Snake oil is snake oil, though, whether in liquid form or in verbal or written form. Snake oil is no miracle cure for a project just freshly launched, nor for one about to be launched.

(9) By manipulation of numbers. What a particular number means, no matter how big or how small that it is, always depends upon the context that it is presented in. Fifty thousand may be a lot - but, here's the clincher - fifty thousand of what? Five thousand of what?

(10) By playing visual shell games. Numbers are not always interchangeable. High numbers in one area do not necessarily translate into high numbers in another area. Numbers are used to distract, as much as they are used to inform, if the person or company claiming to be interested in making your project become a success is simply seeking to take advantage of you.

I call them ambulance chasers, not because there's been a wreck, just because you've launched your crowd funding project. Your intentions are good. It's not YOUR INTENTIONS that are the concern. Rather, it's THEIR INTENTIONS that can be cause for alarm! The wreck happens, when you trust them with your money, when quite clearly, you shouldn't. Taking a little time out, BEFORE you make a decision to send complete strangers your money, might just save you more than a few headaches.

What will always serve you well is by doing some research, first. People who are legitimate marketers, people who are committed to your well being, aren't going to have a problem with you taking your time to decide. In fact, any research by you should validate the claims of companies that seem to be promising you the proverbial moon.
 
You be the one to initiate contact. Follow that one simple rule, and you stand a much better chance of avoiding being scammed, right from the get-go.

The very moment that a company or individual contacts you out of the blue, becoming immediately suspicious of them serves to protect you from them. Your conscience is not your enemy, and neither is your suspicion, and particularly where your suspicion is flagged by someone or something appearing out of the blue, uninvited and unexpected.

Ask yourself this question - Why YOUR project? What about your project warranted such an immediate response from these companies and individuals? BAM!! You no sooner launch your project, than the offers to "assist" you with your project start raining from the sky like cats and dogs. If anything, that's a sure sign that somebody out there is looking for a sucker.


Don't be that sucker! Don't be the wolf's next meal!

Your wallet will thank you for it!

Squandering your project's budget (assuming that you're even fortunate enough to have a budget, to begin with) will not benefit your project. It's OK to be on guard. It's OK to be suspicious. It's more than OK to just say, "NO!"

If, after you tell them no, they want you to send them your e-mail address, don't do it! If their initial intentions weren't good, and if their marketing spiel is questionable, then why trust them with your e-mail address? Heed the warning signs and avoid them like the plague that they likely are!

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Crowd Funding Tip # 3 - Chase your dream, not rainbows!

Many people who launch Kickstarter projects think themselves to be guilty of but one thing - They are but chasing a dream. Namely, their dream.

The problem doesn't lie with people chasing their dreams, though. It doesn't even start with that. Rather, it's when they allow themselves to become distracted from chasing their dreams, that they then become susceptible to all kinds of distractions. In essence, the problem is when they allow other things - other pursuits - to distract them from chasing their dream.

To chase a dream is one thing. To realize one's dream is another matter, altogether. They are not one and the same thing. They never have been. They never will be.

I hang out at the forum over on KickstarterForum.Org quite a bit. Too much, in fact, but that's not your fault. It's not even Salvador Briggman's fault. In case you don't know Sal, he's the guy who founded the KickstarterForum.Org site (amongst other things). But, this isn't an article about Sal Briggman. Nope! This is supposed to be an article which offers a tip about how to better your chances of making your Kickstarter a success.

So, let me begin to connect a few dots, and we'll see if any of it makes sense. Fair enough?

Like I was saying, I hang out in that forum - a lot! I encounter many postings authored by many different people, there. Unfortunately, I also encounter a lot of people chasing rainbows.

Not chasing their dreams, but chasing rainbows - and they do this by allowing themselves to become distracted from the important task at hand. Namely, they should be building and growing a community of their very own, but because that can often turn out to be hard work - a struggle, even - they allow themselves to fall pray to all kinds of distractions.

Distractions - They're out there. They're everywhere!

If I told you that I could make your Kickstarter project successful, that I could make you reach your funding goal, simply by you giving me five dollars, and me then tweeting about your project on Twitter, would you believe me?

If I lined a bunch of people up in a circle, and told them all to back one another's projects, would you believe me if I then told you that this was the right way to go about building and growing a community of your very own?

Either of those examples would likely strike you as odd, or perhaps even a bit on the strange side, particularly if I insisted that you take me seriously, when I was suggesting them to you.

Yet, on a regular and recurring basis, this is just, exactly the kind of distractions that I see people who launch their own Kickstarter projects buy in to.

What about you? Yeah, YOU! Do you believe in the Five Dollar Fairy? Well, what if I told you that there wasn't just one Five Dollar Fairy, but a whole slew of them? What if I told you that for a measly five dollars, you could buy a whole bucket of Five Dollar Fairy Dust?

Line up, people! The line forms right over here, right behind YOU!

Five Dollar Fairy Dust is apparently a very widespread commodity. But, it comes in other increments, also. Need some ten dollars fairy dust? What about fifty, or even better, one hundred dollar fairy dust? How much do you want? How much does your Kickstarter campaign need? How much can you handle??

If I tweet you out to all of my Twitter followers, will you still buy my fairy dust?

Apparently, you will. If not you, then the next guy or the next gal. You are just a number. Your Kickstarter project is just a number. The number of Twitter followers that I have is just a number.

Yet, to some, it becomes a fixation.

Do this - Pick a card, any card. Go on, pick a card. Pick a number, any number. Go on, pick a number.

As an example to help me to illustrate a point, let's say that I have one hundred thousand Twitter followers. Oops! What was I thinking? It will look better, it will come across as more visually impressive, if I write that very same number in numerical form.

100,000

Yeah, baby! I'm cooking with Twitter Crisco, now. This is the big time. This is Twitter City. Look at that number. Focus on that number. Stare at that number. You're getting sleepy - very, very sleepy. You are under the sway of that big, fat, juicy, gorgeous number. You are under my command.

Send me your five dollars!

Ahem.

I am trying to make a point here. This is no sleight of hand. The sleight of hand is in the number that you're focused on. And, because you're focused on that number - on somebody else's Twitter number - then your focus isn't upon your project. It's not upon building and growing a community that is unique to your Kickstarter project.

Tell me this - if your Kickstarter project is truly unique, then why are you chasing rainbows in pursuit of a generic community?

Why are you spending your time and your money helping somebody else to realize their dream of making money off of the size of their so-called Twitter "following," instead of nurturing your own sense of community for your very own Kickstarter project?

Why are you chasing circles, pledging to supporting his campaign, if he will only support yours? Sure, that does technically qualify as trying to build a community, but is that actually the kind of community that you are wanting to build? Before you hit the launch button for your Kickstarter, was THAT the kind of community that you envisioned for YOUR project? A community of people pledging to support a project, if everyone else will only pledge to support a different project, turns the whole concept of "community" on its head.

What you end up with is a distortion. What you end up with is a freak.

Is that what you're after? A freakish version of community? If not, then why allow yourself to stoop to such nonsensical antics? Don't you have better things to do? Shouldn't you be out and about actually building and growing a vibrant, thriving community of people who actually give a damn about what it is that you are trying to do?

Or, are you after numbers, at any cost?

Is there any level to which you will not stoop? Is there any antic that you won't engage in? Is there any tomfoolery that you won't engage in?

So, you don't know what to do, huh? Is that it?

Well, I can - and do - understand what it's like to find yourself in that kind of a predicament. But, tell me this - just how, exactly, did you end up in this predicament?

I mean, after all, I certainly didn't tell you to launch the exact Kickstarter project that you thought was such a good idea, at the time that you launched it. Somebody else is responsible for that. You, perhaps?

Running a successful Kickstarter campaign isn't about always knowing just exactly what to do. There are plenty of people who have run successful Kickstarter campaigns, and they will be the very first to tell you that, looking back on things with the benefit of hindsight, they truly had no clue as to what they were getting themselves in to.

But, they didn't let that stop them. Heck, some of them even allowed themselves to get distracted by some of the very same stuff that you have allowed yourself to get distracted by. They've been there. They've done that.

No, running a successful Kickstarter definitely isn't about always knowing just exactly what to do. In fact, it's more about knowing what NOT to do.

Running a Kickstarter is a learning process. Did you hear me, when I said that? A LEARNING process. It's a PROCESS that entails learning.

There's definitely a learning curve. You will almost certainly make mistakes - maybe even a LOT of them.

But, at some point you have to acquire good judgment, based upon your mistakes, and upon what you have learned from them, not to mention what you can learn from the mistakes of other Kickstarter project creators who came before you, well before you ever even came on the Kickstarter scene.

If I offered to sell you a bridge, would you buy it? What about fairy dust? If I offer to sell you some fairy dust, right here and right now, would you be willing to buy it, having now read this article?

What about running in circles? Do you honestly think that your project will ever get anywhere, that it will ever reach the destination that you picked for it, by running in circles - the circles of you pledging to support my project, if I will but support yours?

In the old days, it was called a shell game. Now, it's become a substitute for being productive for your Kickstarter project.

Oh, that's right. I forgot! How silly of me! How could I forget something like that??

Maybe - just maybe - you'll be the one that gets lucky.

And, we all know that that's how most successful Kickstarter campaigns get funded - by getting lucky.

NOT!!

I'm not trying to rain on either your Kickstarter project or your dreams. All that I'm trying to get you to do is to come in from under the sprinkler.

It's not rain. It's not fairy dust. It is running in circles.

Learn to recognize things for what they actually are, not for what you want them to be.

Wishful thinking and reality are two very distinct things. Even a genie only grants you three wishes.

How many wishes does it take to make a Kickstarter campaign successful?

Let me know when you figure out the answer to that last question.

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Crowd Funding Tip # 2 - Visual Dividers: Focusing the Eye

When creating a Kickstarter project page, one task that will await you is determining what text to use in describing your project, explaining it, and transforming your message into a voice of persuasion.

This is no small task, to be certain. But, beyond just figuring out what to say, and how to say it, you are also faced with the additional task of how to present it, visually. This visual presentation of your text holds the potential to enhance - or detract from - the power of the message that you seek to convey.

Imagine, if you will, a world where no punctuation existed. Ponder for a moment a world where all instances of text are displayed without commas, periods, or any other form of punctuation. Then, on top of that, imagine that no one uses spaces - not even to form paragraphs. Text, as trivial and innocuous as it often comes across to us, as easy as it is to overlook on many an occasion, would suddenly take on a rather hostile form. Our eyes would feel under siege, as we began to read. The world of reading would come undone!

Can you begin to see how everything would run together, and that reading text would suddenly become a lot less fun and much more of a challenge. Now, imagine if you will great reams of text, entire mountains of it, all slammed together to form gigantic columns of text towering over a Kickstarter project page.

YOUR project page!

Obviously, you don't want that. What a nightmare that would turn into, for people considering backing your project. Text, thus, holds the power to act as a visual dam, obstructing the visual flow of your project page, and potentially costing you the support of additional backers. Thus, if you want the pledge dollars to flow more like a river into your Kickstarter campaign, then you would be well-served and well-advised to seriously consider how your text on display on your project page comes across, visually, to page visitors.

There are certain techniques that will increase the visual impact of text on your project page. The use of bold text, for example. Or, italicized text. There's even different font sizes that you can use to increase the visual appeal of text on your page.

And, this is all fine and dandy - as far as it goes. But, are you even aware that there is more - far, far more, that you can do to better manage the text resources of your Kickstarter project page?

Let's take a few example of how some other Kickstarter projects used visual dividers to enhance the look of the project page, and to better manage the mass of text, so as to make swaths of text more appetizing for project page visitors to nibble and consume. You do want visitors to your Kickstarter project page to actually read what you've written on it, don't you?

With that in mind, let's check out a few example, to give you a visual demonstration, that it might serve as a catalyst and inspiration for you to set about tackling the text beast that can easily grow to a very unwieldy size.

Our first example comes from a project called Super: Issue 2, which is the creation of Joshua Crowther and associates of Jay Crow Comics.

The idea, as you can perhaps better see, now, is to create a visual object to act as a separator/divider to place between swaths of text.






Now, you can do the same thing, by just using extra spaces, as I demonstrate with this sentence being separated a disproportional amount from the previous sentence.

But, which of the two is the more visually appealing approach to solving the same problem? Clearly, I think that Joshua Crowther and company, the ones who created Super: Issue 2 knew what they were doing. They wanted their visual dividers to double as text, to better focus the page viewer's attention.

Now, let's look at another example. This one comes from a really beautiful project page, the Kickstarter for Shamsee: A Fistful of Lunars., being published by Tristan Jade Tarwater of the Back That Elf Up website.

Note how you can use art, in conjunction with text, rather than rely solely upon decorative large text, as in our previous example, to break up the mass of text. This approach is invariably more inviting to the eye, and the Shamsee: A Fistful of Lunars Kickstarter has a cornucopia of beautiful imagery on its project page, demonstrating a clear mastery of understanding the importance of off-setting text with imagery, so as to make the consumption of text more manageable for the page visitor.


Another example that I would point to is a fairly recent Kickstarter launch called Murder & Midnight: Book 1. from Jon Eastman and David Ward of the Murder & Midnight website.

Again, a rather lovely way to utilize just text, but in a way that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye - and by extension, visually inviting to page visitors who encounter it.

Remember, when you're trying to maximize your chances of persuading people to pledge to back your project, it pays to know all the tricks, to possess every advantage possible. The use of visual dividers isn't exactly rocket science, but you might just be surprised by how often that you don't encounter it.

Our final example, today, comes from a card game called Pirate Loot, A Card Game of Treasure and Treachery, which hails from the fine folks over at Minotaur Games.

If you're going to offer swag (or rewards, as it is often referred to on Kickstarter), why handicap your project by not visually commandeering page visitors' eyes, thereby directing them exactly where you want them to look?

In conclusion, if you really want your Kickstarter project page to stand out, don't overlook the opportunity that visual dividers can provide. You can even use photographs (or cropped portions, thereof) to accomplish the same, basic task.

If you want maximum funding, then go for maximum visual effect! Visual dividers of some sort or other can help your Kickstarter project to be more successful than it otherwise might be without them.

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Crowd Funding Tip # 1 - Silence: The Unseen Project Killer

If you want your Kickstarter project to die an early death, then say no more - literally!

That's right, my friend, silence is the unseen killer of Kickstarter projects, everywhere. Want to raise a lot of funds? Then make some noise. Want to go unfunded? Then, embrace silence with every fiber of your being!

I've spent a good bit of time, lately, browsing Kickstarter projects, and one thing that really stands out to me is how seldom that project creators issue updates or make comments about their respective Kickstarters.

Silence won't get you anywhere. It won't move your project forward. It won't get you funded. Why, then, do so many people do it?

Part of it, I think, is simply attributable to the fact that they don't know any better. It goes hand-in-hand with being a newbie to the Kickstarter medium, and to the phenomenon that is crowd funding.

When I visit a Kickstarter project page, what's the number one thing that motivates me to click that page off in my web browser? You guessed it - Silence!

Another part of the silence problem is attributable, I think, to the fact that, many times, project creators just don't know what to say. They want to say something about their project, to attract people' attention and to persuade them to back the project that they have launched, but all of a sudden, they find themselves at a loss for words. So, instead of embracing spontaneity and speaking or writing about their project in an off-the-cuff manner, they opt for the easy way out - silence.

Of course, it's pretty darned hard to build and grow a following around a culture of silence. You have to break out of that bond. You've got to burst free of that shackle. You've got to launch, not just your project, but yourself into action.

You don't have to speak volumes to say something. Even a mountain can be moved one speck of dirt at a time. It just takes time and effort and persistence.

The future of your Kickstarter project depends on YOU. So, grab your tongue and grab your pen, and one way or another, find something to say about the thing that you want everyone else talking about.

If your Kickstarter isn't important enough for you to talk about it, then how can you expect others to talk about it?

Avoid silence, as though it were the plague! Both your project and your backers will thank be thankful for it.

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