It costs money to grow a content business. Have you ever considered crowdfunding?
The Tilt research finds it costs an average $10,700 to start up operations, and ongoing revenue or infusions of cash to expand the content product line.
If your business bank account won’t support the growth, consider a tool that usually grabs attention for launching physical products – crowdfunding. The well-known platform Kickstarter supports a whole world of word projects.
Oriana Leckert, head of publishing at Kickstarter, says “Crowdfunding is a unique way to build and strengthen connections between an author and their readers, a publisher and their audience, any kind of creative person and their network.” Oriana says.
But, she notes, crowdfunding also brings secondary benefits like raising awareness of the work, building communities, testing ambitious ideas, and making a “moment” out of bringing new work to life.
Oriana, who works on Kickstarter’s outreach team, works with a wide range of creators. Some of the successful projects include:
About 150 projects launch every week in Kickstarter’s publishing category. “A few years ago, when we crossed $200 million pledged, we put together this extensive roundup of 117 Favorite Kickstarter Publishing Projects to show what’s possible,” she says.
Book campaigns tend to be the most straightforward because authors generally use the platform to raise funds for print production and the other costs associated with bringing a book to life.
But, Oriana says, campaigns also exist for larger, stranger, or less tangible items. Their success requires creators to get creative by figuring out unique rewards, coming up with innovative promotional plans, and connecting with everyone in their network to bring everything to life.
Creators who meet their project goal pay a 5% fee to Kickstarter and receive their money two to three weeks after the campaign ends.
How to get startedKickstarter offers a plethora of resources to help creators launch a crowdfunding campaign. Its robust hub covers projects from books, comics, journalism, poetry, zines, and more. It tackles topics from creating your Kickstarter budget to building your audience to getting your crowdfunded books into libraries,
But Oriana’s No. 1 piece of advice for the Kickstarter curious is to find five live campaigns and become a backer so you can follow those creators out in the world. “This will give you a sense of how people are running their projects – the tone and style of their campaign pages, the kinds of rewards they’re offering, the cadence of their updates, the frequency of their promotion, and everything like that,” she says.
And don’t forget the historical archive of Kickstarter projects. Oriana says, “Do a deep dive into what works and what doesn’t, and unabashedly adopt all the best tactics.”
Learn revenue opportunities and much more with experts at Content Entrepreneur Expo (May 5-7, 2024). Registration is now open!The post Creators Can Turn to Kickstarter To Crowdfund Their Content Products appeared first on The Tilt.