One thing he doesn't mention that's important to keep in mind for Kickstarter is that people who give you money are investor, not donators. What money they give you will depend on whether they thing the rewards are worth the price. A while back I saw a Kickstarter for an iphone game that wanted $100 bucks and all you got at that level was a bunch of stickers and a t-shirt! Excepting your backers pre-order something for more than it would theoratically retail for less is a sure fire way to make sure you get no business.
+Kathryn M Kickstarter as an investment platform is a bit of a misnomer, seems to mislead people about what to expect from KS, and generally sort of a pet peeve for me, so I feel compelled to try to dispel this. An investor has a say in what actually gets done with their money. Often it's somewhat indirect, like having shareholder meetings to make various decisions, or relying on a board of directors(elected from shareholders). But investors almost always have some sort of say in what gets done with the money they give. With Kickstarter, you give them money and hope they deliver a product according to the agreed upon schedule(and occasionally some other terms). That makes you a *customer*. An investor expects profit, (which do not exist with kickstarter). Kickstarter is a *preorder* platform. It's like ordering a suit or expensive dress. There will probably be some back and forth on the product, but you have no say in what they do with the money you give them. You only have a say so far as asking for a specific product/service. It is most definitely *not* an investment. Nothing about the kickstarter structure, rules, format, etc should give any backer any expectation of getting money when they give money. They "back" with the expectation of a product in return, and the transaction is over once that product is delivered. There are some nuances to the rules with the minimum success/fail margin, but the fundamental premise of the transaction is that you're making a purchase. Kickstarter is for preorders, not investment. Hope that was useful.
Anguel Roumenov Bogoev I meant an investor in the general sense, not specifically a shareholder. And that's not even related to my point which was that a lot of Kickstarter project creators seem to be under the impression that pledges are a kind of donation, which they are not. You can nit-pick my use of language, but I never implied what you think I did. If it makes you feel better just imagine I used the word customer instead of investor. Customer is not quite as accurate since Kickstarter is not a simple pre-order system, but it still works for my statements purpose if it will make you feel better.
Kathryn M Fair enough. I just felt like i should respond because a lot of people get really frustrated with the decisions various kickstarters make because they see themselves as investors, specifically. I guess I wasn't so much responding to you, as elaborating for other people reading, because people seem to get confused notions about it all because "investor" is sort of casually thrown around.
This is probably the most informative video on this subject I've seen so far! I recently launched a Patreon and I feel it's doing really well so far. I'm excited to build a place of value and community that helps me create more.
I've got a healthy patreon page (not as big as yours however!) and have run 3 kickstarters now. It is AMAZING how many people ask how to do it. While I was on my first kickstarter I had dozens of emails in the inbox asking if i could support their campaign that they'd had running and questions like 'how do I get backers' AFTER they'd launched their campaigns! People think you can just make a campaign and suddenly they will make money. It's SUCH hard work. This is a great video!
Quick question, how did you know filming yourself off-center would make me listen to you all the way through? I have no plans of starting any form of crowdfunding, and im ENTHRALLED. How? How do you do this?
On a purely emotion al level, I understand it as "He's just a guy sitting near you talking to you about a thing he knows, as opposed to a professor spitting facts at you to memorize"
Thank you for sharing this. We are launching our indiegogo campaign tomorrow and have spent several months investigating how to build and launch a campaign. These are all the points we worked on. As an Artist I do want to get my ass paid!
Personally, I'm more willing to pay for a media kickstarter project, than I am willing to pay people through Patreon, and here's why: I have a very limited budget, but wide viewing/listening interests. Imagine if I paid all the people I'm watching and listening to through Patreon. Some people want five bucks a video, and want you to pay for every video you CAN watch a month from them! That could easily be $100 a month for ONE content creator, and I subscribe to dozens of them! I don't even understand how creators think that their viewers are able to do this? Even if I only paid ten bucks a month to each creator I love, that would be higher than my utility bills. Patreon isn't a bad idea, but I think it needs tweaking to work well with subscribers that aren't rich. I would personally love an option to throw five to twenty bucks at a creator when I have the money, and if I can't keep doing it every month, fine. At it stands now, I can afford the ongoing payments, and because there usually isn't a venue for one-shot payments to creators, they get nothing at all from me. I can't be the only one.
Great advice. Looking to step up my youtube channel this year and you have spelt out the differences between kickstarter vs patreon fundraising really well. Was a total nube before watching this. :) Glad I discovered your channel.
I did a Kickstarter and THEN a Patreon. I think if you have an ongoing Patreon for a body of work and a Kickstarter for a specific project within that body, people will probably be OK with that. And if you start a Patreon right after closing a Kickstarter as a kind of "for the people who missed the Kickstarter" thing, people would probably be OK with that as well. But I don't know if running a Kickstarter for a project that already has a Patreon would go over well with people. It might, but I can imagine folks complaining that you're double-dipping.
I've seen so many Kickstarters not produce anything, or take years to fund. I've got a couple that are at 5 years with no product. And Kickstarter doesn't provide any support if the creator absconds with the funds, so I'm finding myself less likely to even kick in on the campaigns that interest me. I'm far more likely to support through Patreon, because if the creator turns out not to be reliable, I can cancel my subscription.
Personally, I've never used kickstarter. I just can't give big chunks of money when I don't know when or if it will ever pay off. I do use Patreon, and I subscribe to a couple very small youtubers in the hopes that they'll be motivated by the knowledge that their audience. I don't have much money and I feel like my few dollars make a bigger impact that way.
Patreon seems to be a much slower burn in terms of ramping up the numbers of people. Comparing Key of Awesome's patreon to something like Crash Course, KoA came in /much/ later and is finding it harder to really get people to pay for content.
It's been super interesting watching this video, since I've been on patreon for years but still haven't dared throw my hat in the Kickstarter ring. Due to being in a peculiar economic position, making a lot of money in a short time will DOOM me. I HAVE to build my business slowly and gradually, because my only other option is to take off like a rocket and hope I never fall back down, which I know is highly improbable. In the years since you made this video, patreon has done some hinky stuff, enough that I'm looking at alternatives. That said, it's been a huge improvement over my prior crowd funding method, which was PayPal buttons on an over-the-hill blog site. (Still can't believe that worked for about two years, by all rights I should've failed hard.) Right now my biggest concern is... I can't do social media anymore. This is my Anon account, because harassment got to me. I am tacking against the wind, moving more of my business offline, because at least I have recourse if someone threatens me there.
Uninvited constructive criticism: I'm distracted by the number of cuts in these two crowdfunding videos. The content is good, just as with your previous productions, but here your face is on display as opposed to a graphic highlighting a key point or acting as a segue. I'm focusing on your facial expressions for that kind of information now, and whenever I see a lot of cuts in succession I'm playing catch-up trying to figure out how your face got from A to B to C and what you're communicating through it. I can understand the choice of getting in front of the camera considering the subject matter but in the future I think some longer takes might improve your flow. However, perhaps for this kind of stuff you don't like to read from script and just talk from the gut? Don't let it hinder your content but maybe give it a thought.
great info thanx ^_^ , i'm on patreon right now and i'm constantly trying to make it worth it for my backers. I was thinking about Kickstarter but i just felt everyone might be too tired of that stuff. But since your video i might reconsider it. thanx ^_^ I guess i'll look into if people still would like graphic novels there haha
This insider baseball is slightly awkward for me to watch... I don't have any interest in crowdfunding, so this feels like some justification for your ask and I'm like "I was actually already sold. Stop selling me!" :-p
i can't agree with Kickstarter for things like video essays or, in my case podcast. I feel that it comes across as "I won't work on this thing that I can do for free until you all pay me $10,000." People's response is going to be "And who are you?" You have to get fans first for these kinds of projects and you can't ask someone to start paying for something that they've been getting for "free" (the real fans will have given tremendous value to the brand through word of mouth)
One thing he doesn't mention that's important to keep in mind for Kickstarter is that people who give you money are investor, not donators. What money they give you will depend on whether they thing the rewards are worth the price.
A while back I saw a Kickstarter for an iphone game that wanted $100 bucks and all you got at that level was a bunch of stickers and a t-shirt! Excepting your backers pre-order something for more than it would theoratically retail for less is a sure fire way to make sure you get no business.
+Kathryn M
Kickstarter as an investment platform is a bit of a misnomer, seems to mislead people about what to expect from KS, and generally sort of a pet peeve for me, so I feel compelled to try to dispel this.
An investor has a say in what actually gets done with their money. Often it's somewhat indirect, like having shareholder meetings to make various decisions, or relying on a board of directors(elected from shareholders). But investors almost always have some sort of say in what gets done with the money they give.
With Kickstarter, you give them money and hope they deliver a product according to the agreed upon schedule(and occasionally some other terms). That makes you a *customer*.
An investor expects profit, (which do not exist with kickstarter). Kickstarter is a *preorder* platform. It's like ordering a suit or expensive dress. There will probably be some back and forth on the product, but you have no say in what they do with the money you give them. You only have a say so far as asking for a specific product/service.
It is most definitely *not* an investment.
Nothing about the kickstarter structure, rules, format, etc should give any backer any expectation of getting money when they give money. They "back" with the expectation of a product in return, and the transaction is over once that product is delivered. There are some nuances to the rules with the minimum success/fail margin, but the fundamental premise of the transaction is that you're making a purchase.
Kickstarter is for preorders, not investment.
Hope that was useful.
Anguel Roumenov Bogoev
I meant an investor in the general sense, not specifically a shareholder. And that's not even related to my point which was that a lot of Kickstarter project creators seem to be under the impression that pledges are a kind of donation, which they are not.
You can nit-pick my use of language, but I never implied what you think I did. If it makes you feel better just imagine I used the word customer instead of investor.
Customer is not quite as accurate since Kickstarter is not a simple pre-order system, but it still works for my statements purpose if it will make you feel better.
Kathryn M Fair enough. I just felt like i should respond because a lot of people get really frustrated with the decisions various kickstarters make because they see themselves as investors, specifically.
I guess I wasn't so much responding to you, as elaborating for other people reading, because people seem to get confused notions about it all because "investor" is sort of casually thrown around.
This is probably the most informative video on this subject I've seen so far! I recently launched a Patreon and I feel it's doing really well so far. I'm excited to build a place of value and community that helps me create more.
I've got a healthy patreon page (not as big as yours however!) and have run 3 kickstarters now. It is AMAZING how many people ask how to do it. While I was on my first kickstarter I had dozens of emails in the inbox asking if i could support their campaign that they'd had running and questions like 'how do I get backers' AFTER they'd launched their campaigns! People think you can just make a campaign and suddenly they will make money. It's SUCH hard work. This is a great video!
Quick question, how did you know filming yourself off-center would make me listen to you all the way through? I have no plans of starting any form of crowdfunding, and im ENTHRALLED. How? How do you do this?
Rules of thirds
Rule of thirds as mentioned before or the golden ratio, which is why the rule of thirds exists
On a purely emotion al level, I understand it as "He's just a guy sitting near you talking to you about a thing he knows, as opposed to a professor spitting facts at you to memorize"
And the cuts too(Even though it's standard today), I'd say he's a fan of Vlogbrothers.
Thank you for sharing this. We are launching our indiegogo campaign tomorrow and have spent several months investigating how to build and launch a campaign. These are all the points we worked on. As an Artist I do want to get my ass paid!
Personally, I'm more willing to pay for a media kickstarter project, than I am willing to pay people through Patreon, and here's why: I have a very limited budget, but wide viewing/listening interests. Imagine if I paid all the people I'm watching and listening to through Patreon. Some people want five bucks a video, and want you to pay for every video you CAN watch a month from them! That could easily be $100 a month for ONE content creator, and I subscribe to dozens of them! I don't even understand how creators think that their viewers are able to do this? Even if I only paid ten bucks a month to each creator I love, that would be higher than my utility bills.
Patreon isn't a bad idea, but I think it needs tweaking to work well with subscribers that aren't rich. I would personally love an option to throw five to twenty bucks at a creator when I have the money, and if I can't keep doing it every month, fine. At it stands now, I can afford the ongoing payments, and because there usually isn't a venue for one-shot payments to creators, they get nothing at all from me. I can't be the only one.
this is the best video ive seen so far for describing these two sites.
i now understand them. thank you :)
Great advice. Looking to step up my youtube channel this year and you have spelt out the differences between kickstarter vs patreon fundraising really well. Was a total nube before watching this. :) Glad I discovered your channel.
Great talk, keep'em coming!
You could use this camera to give yourself an updated profile if you want, the white balance + lighting is real nice :)
Patreon is much safer for the audience.
Yep. Lets people go 5+ months without making a video and still make $4k. People set it and forget it.
I really want to watch you perform in front of the mic for one of your usual videos. fascinating to watch you!
Super insightful!
Awesome vid. Thanks! I'm currently thinking of rapping and I would need every advice I can get.
my question is can you do both kickstart And patrion
I did a Kickstarter and THEN a Patreon. I think if you have an ongoing Patreon for a body of work and a Kickstarter for a specific project within that body, people will probably be OK with that. And if you start a Patreon right after closing a Kickstarter as a kind of "for the people who missed the Kickstarter" thing, people would probably be OK with that as well. But I don't know if running a Kickstarter for a project that already has a Patreon would go over well with people. It might, but I can imagine folks complaining that you're double-dipping.
I've seen so many Kickstarters not produce anything, or take years to fund. I've got a couple that are at 5 years with no product. And Kickstarter doesn't provide any support if the creator absconds with the funds, so I'm finding myself less likely to even kick in on the campaigns that interest me. I'm far more likely to support through Patreon, because if the creator turns out not to be reliable, I can cancel my subscription.
I wish you luck!
Personally, I've never used kickstarter. I just can't give big chunks of money when I don't know when or if it will ever pay off. I do use Patreon, and I subscribe to a couple very small youtubers in the hopes that they'll be motivated by the knowledge that their audience. I don't have much money and I feel like my few dollars make a bigger impact that way.
What's the end song called? it's awesome :3
Sounds like a remix of Vi Sålde Våra Hemman or We Sold Our Homesteads, an old Swedish migrant song
What about Bloodstained/Mighty no.9/Shovel Knights anyway!?
I haven't watched this yet, but based on the title I went to see if Innuendo Studios is on Nebula. They are, but not this video....!?
Patreon seems to be a much slower burn in terms of ramping up the numbers of people. Comparing Key of Awesome's patreon to something like Crash Course, KoA came in /much/ later and is finding it harder to really get people to pay for content.
It's been super interesting watching this video, since I've been on patreon for years but still haven't dared throw my hat in the Kickstarter ring. Due to being in a peculiar economic position, making a lot of money in a short time will DOOM me. I HAVE to build my business slowly and gradually, because my only other option is to take off like a rocket and hope I never fall back down, which I know is highly improbable.
In the years since you made this video, patreon has done some hinky stuff, enough that I'm looking at alternatives. That said, it's been a huge improvement over my prior crowd funding method, which was PayPal buttons on an over-the-hill blog site. (Still can't believe that worked for about two years, by all rights I should've failed hard.)
Right now my biggest concern is... I can't do social media anymore. This is my Anon account, because harassment got to me. I am tacking against the wind, moving more of my business offline, because at least I have recourse if someone threatens me there.
Solid.
Uninvited constructive criticism: I'm distracted by the number of cuts in these two crowdfunding videos. The content is good, just as with your previous productions, but here your face is on display as opposed to a graphic highlighting a key point or acting as a segue. I'm focusing on your facial expressions for that kind of information now, and whenever I see a lot of cuts in succession I'm playing catch-up trying to figure out how your face got from A to B to C and what you're communicating through it.
I can understand the choice of getting in front of the camera considering the subject matter but in the future I think some longer takes might improve your flow. However, perhaps for this kind of stuff you don't like to read from script and just talk from the gut? Don't let it hinder your content but maybe give it a thought.
great info thanx ^_^ , i'm on patreon right now and i'm constantly trying to make it worth it for my backers. I was thinking about Kickstarter but i just felt everyone might be too tired of that stuff. But since your video i might reconsider it. thanx ^_^ I guess i'll look into if people still would like graphic novels there haha
You should launch a kickstarter for the development of a head-worn sneezeguard. Just sayin.
Why not just use all of them? :b :3 ;)
Guy looks exactly how I imagined
So many cuts...
The framerate in this video with the head movements was a bit nauseating for me. Had to minimize the video and listen instead.
0:50 I can see spit in a split second coming out from his mouth
This insider baseball is slightly awkward for me to watch... I don't have any interest in crowdfunding, so this feels like some justification for your ask and I'm like "I was actually already sold. Stop selling me!" :-p
+Stella-Terra Clemens transparency yo. Also keeping you. Else you could jump ship any time, right?
+Stella-Terra Clemens Since a bunch of people have come to him for this advice, it's pretty cool he's putting it out there for free :)
+Stella-Terra Clemens Why would you watch this video if you no interest in crowdfunding?
i can't agree with Kickstarter for things like video essays or, in my case podcast. I feel that it comes across as "I won't work on this thing that I can do for free until you all pay me $10,000." People's response is going to be "And who are you?" You have to get fans first for these kinds of projects and you can't ask someone to start paying for something that they've been getting for "free" (the real fans will have given tremendous value to the brand through word of mouth)
Theyungcity23 What do you mean you can't get people to pay for something that was free? Capitalism did that to food
there are pill to fix that uncontrollable face twitches.
not 2 be rude but ur kinda overexposed here