1) Not Everybody Watches The Video
It's hard to overstate how important your Kickstarter video is to the success of the campaign, but you can't assume every visitor will hit "Play". In other words: The rest of the page needs to stand alone. "In our case, only half the pledgers watched the video—who knew!?" says Stephanie Nicora Fryslie, who used Kickstarter to fund her Nicora Johns line of shoes.
2) Refunds Are Rare—But They Do Happen
"Buyer's remorse is a thing," says author Michael Malice, who Kickstarted his "unauthorized autobiography of Kim Jong Il". "One backer claimed her son sent money by mistake. Then she filed a claim with the credit card."
While Malice says he only dealt with this one disputed charge, several of his backers cancelled their pledge during the campaign. "There's nothing worse than watching your total decrease!" he says.
3) You Can't Coast—Even If You've Previously Had A Successful Campaign
In fact, there's an argument to be made that folks who've already had a successful campaign may have to try even harder in order to rally support. "Recently, some folks from a popular game developer decided to Kickstart an indie game they've been working on, but the timing was horrible and it failed miserably," says Suzy Ryoo, who is currently Kickstarting a zippered dress shirt called the LK3. "They were previously so successful with their first game that the fans didn't really think the developers needed the money that badly, and there also was a huge lack of marketing and PR push from their end."
4) You Can't Neglect The Real World
There's still no substitute for building buzz in the real world—especially when you ask people to put down cold cash on an untested Kickstarter project. "One-to-one personal communication is critical," Ryoo says. "My partner Denise reached out to friends in gaming and fashion circles s he thought would be interested in the product and showed them samples and let them try some of the shirts—at a gaming convention in Seattle, in fact. That initial buzz on the product carried over to the Kickstarter, since people already knew it was something in the works for a long time and had actually seen samples."
5) It Helps To Mine Your Team's Talents—And Offer Surprise Perks
"The other night, my partner Keavy created a surprise campaign bonus: Anyone to pledge $25 or more before midnight would have their portrait drawn by her—she used to be a professional portrait painter—and posted on our Instagram page." says Allison Kave, who is currently Kickstarting a dessert and cocktail bar in Brooklyn called Butter & Scotch. "We tagged these #pledgerportraits and they were a huge hit, resulting in a big boost in pledges in just one night."
6) The Brutal Reality Of Success
Congratulations! Your record-breaking campaign was a success, with thousands of backers chipping in to help you produce your widget. The only thing left to do: Send out those perks.
"There is a stark and brutal reality that descends upon you when you suddenly realize the physical process of having to manufacture and ship hundreds and hundreds of T-shirts or other reward items to people all over the world who might not have filled out their address correctly or live in some weird place," says Brady Hall, who worked on the Kickstarter for the Neal Stephenson-backed video game Clang. "The logistics alone of compiling all the address data, matching a name to a preferred size, stuffing the envelopes, and printing and sticking the postage labels is a long and tedious process."
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Seth Porges is a writer and co-creator of Cloth for iOS. For more fun, follow Seth on Twitter at @sethporges, or subscribe to him on Facebook or Google+.
