Crowdfunding: Your Friend's Guide [Intro/Index]

Successfully fund your project via sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Crowd Supply

Hi, Jeremy Cook here from Tech Adjacent. I’ve had moderate success running two successful Kickstarter campaigns (JC Pro Macro 2 and Transistor Coaster PCB), the latter of which just ended.

In this series of posts, I am going to do a deep dive into crowdfunding. This will based on my crowdfunding experience, as well as research that I did and wrote about before, during, and after my campaigns. Instead of an end-all, be-all guide on the subject, this guide will attempt to present my knowledge–that I’ve gained actually crowdfunding things–as if you were asking a friend for advice.

If your crowdfunding prep looks anything like this, you’re in the right place! Photo via Rue Mohr.

Some readers of Adjacent will find this information extremely valuable, but others may not be interested in crowdfunding at all. My plan, therefore, is to make this the first paid subscriber-only series of posts, to be published Fridays¹ versus the normal weekly Wednesday posts.

As a paid subscriber, you’ll have access to new posts as they come out, and I hope to keep this series of posts updated as I learn, have more ideas, questions, and the like. In fact, I would LOVE if you want to ask me questions here, which I could potentially answer as the subject of an article, or find someone to help.

The Plan/Index

I don’t own a marketing agency. I’m an engineer; I’m a creator. I’ve been where you are, thinking “can I really get my thing funded?” “Is this a good idea?” “Is there somewhere I can get help?” As a paid subscriber, you’ll be able to add comments/ask questions on each post, and potentially get a more personal answer.

A very loose outline of the planned content is found below, which I will make into live links once I’ve actually written the articles. Plan to use/bookmark/refer back to this page as needed. Sections will come out serially², though not necessarily in the order listed, and everything below very much subject to change:

• Crowdfunding Intro/Index (here you are) ✅

• What is Your Crowdfunding Goal? ✅

• Crowdfunding Options, Where to Crowdfund? ✅

• Set yourself up for long-term success

  • set your pricing ✅

  • Flux Engineering Interview: Add-ons, not options ✅

  • Multiply Your Funding: Allow unlimited pledges with add-ons

• Marketing TO Your Crowdfunding Page

  • Spend $$?

  • build your brand RIGHT NOW

  • pre-launch page

  • advertising – largely leave out

• Marketing ON your crowdfunding Page

  • Good titles/obvious copy ✅

  • Animated GIFs

  • video

  • enlist help

  • Campaign Changes While Funding? ✅

• Make a Quick and Dirty Campaign Video ✅

• Crowdfunding Graphics Editing ✅

• Should you Crowdfund?

  • Counter-Crowdfunding Arguments and Crowdfunding Alternatives

• Helpful Relationships

  • Hackserspace

  • Podcast

  • Youtube

• Crowdfunded Interviews/experience

  • TBA

• Initial Failure, Eventual Success?

• The Golden Month: Campaign funded, but not done!

  • Huge opportunity

• Challenge: Listen to advice, know what to ignore

• FAQ

  • When to Launch

  • How do you get paid?

  • Do you Really need a video?

• Further reading and resources

  • Crowdfunded: The Proven Path To Bring Your Product Idea To Life

  • YouTube Interviews?

As noted earlier, I will try to answer these questions as if you were a friend coming to me for advice. In fact, this has happened more than once recently. If you have questions/comments, let me know and we can help each other out as this guide gets written!

I can help YOU hit the medium time!

The planned scope of this series will include the product idea, positioning, basic marketing, funding, and setting yourself up for success. I’m not going to cover fulfillment or building a business afterwards, but I have some ideas. Such subjects could be part of a sequel series and/or continuation.

I put a paywall below. There’s not much interesting below it in this index/intro post, but it serves as a place to sign up for the paid plan. This gives you access to future crowdfunding posts, plus any other paid content that I may publish here.³