Crowdfunding project

If you haven’t heard about Crowdfunding yet, you’re in for a pleasant surprise, but know this: while Crowdfunding is all about gaining the financial backing you need for your startup or product, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd and not reach your funding goal.

There are hundreds of Crowdfunding sites today and the industry, designed to help individuals and groups raise funds from the “crowd,” is growing at a phenomenal rate.

Who’s the Crowd?

The crowd consists of family, friends, fans, followers and strangers.

In pledge Crowdfunding, upon which most of today’s Crowdfunding sites are based, people are not investing in a business, product or idea. They are not receiving equity. Nor are they donating to a charity, this gift is not tax deductible.

Not an entirely new concept, Crowdfunding lies somewhere between investments and charity.

That’s the part crowdfunders (those with campaigns) need to understand.

The people who support campaigns do so for their own reasons. They may like the idea of being a part of something bigger than themselves, or helping an interesting person, project or startup, or owning a pre-release of an item to be produced, or obtaining one of the enticing rewards being offered.

Like I said, people have their own reasons to contribute funds. It’s one of the most important things to be prepared for when building a campaign. You need to create enticingly strong, emotional or intellectual reasons for your audience (think crowd) to relate to. What would make them want to fund your campaign?

Another all-important-part of creating a successful Crowdfunding campaign is attracting your crowd. The fact is the Crowdfunding site you choose to post your project on is not responsible for bringing the people to your offer. Their part in this is giving you the platform – the technology and capability to set up your campaign. Your part is bringing your contacts together in support of your project and helping them spread the word to their contacts, all converging upon the public space in which you are provided.

While creating anything with the intention of going viral is difficult, at best, it can happen with your campaign with concerted effort and marketing savvy.

How do you get this particular marketing savvy?

Watch other campaigns. Watch lots of other campaigns. See what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. What attracts you to some of them while other make you just leave the page? That’s a great start.

Know that your network of people is where this all begins. Hopefully you have built a relationship with the people in your social circles before you even consider building a Crowdfunding campaign.

It takes an audience, a great message and story, massive effort and perhaps a good deal of luck to end up like one of the few that have gone well over their intended goal and ended up with a million dollars* or more.

What makes what you want to do worthy of Crowdfunding?

That is the ultimate question.

* Have you heard about the ipod nano “watchband?” Their crowdfunding goal was $15K but they collected nearly $1-million ($941,648 to be exact!) on Kickstarter. (Product pictured above.)

Crowdfunding is the future for entrepreneurs with a passion to create the next coolest thing, even if it’s not for everyone.

So whether you’re looking for funding for your project, or want to help fund someone else’s project, you can do it!

Soon I’ll be introducing a crowdfunding project site that I’m co-founding with a couple other women. We plan on focusing on women (not exclusively, though) . I’ll be announcing this soon.

In the meantime…

We are putting on a live event June 9th, 2012, at the Radisson Hotel LAX. We have a panel of true experts (and successful fundraisers) to help you understand how to create a successful campaign! It will be very exciting (and informative).

For more information on this live event, go to CrowdfundingLive.com >>

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