What I Wish I would Have Known before Launching My IndieGogo Campaign

In my previous post I explained that I am testing 2 crowd funding sites. With one week left on my Indiegogo campaign, I've learned more about the complexities of getting your campaign to go viral. Some things you should know before launching your campaign. Here is my email to The Indiegogo Happiness Team expressing that I wasn't very happy.

I thought I read and understood how your platform works. In hindsight, I
think the preliminary info is lacking. The site brags that starting a
campaign is easy and simple. That is true, but I've discovered that getting
your campaign to go viral proves to be quite complex. The first thing that
caught me off guard was once I launched my campaign the confirmation email
said I needed to get 2 donations to just appear in the search results. I
begged friends to do that for me. I wiped my brow in relief a few days
later when 2 came through. I understood my gogo factor was influenced by
how viral my campaign link became. I'm a solo entrepreneur so I read as
much as I could of your tips to spread the word and I did as many tips as I
could. Unfortunately, it wasn't until a few days ago when I got my report
by email saying my gogo factor was down and I was looking at the analytics
that I read the asterisk that referrals were counted if I used the link
that appears WITHIN my campaign. For the first half of my campaign I had
posting/sharing the organic URL in the address bar. I was crushed. So then
I began a new wave of posts and begging friends and family to post the
"correct" link (a bit embarrassing because I'm quite sure everyone that
knows me is tired of hearing about this fundraiser by now). Maybe if I tell
you why I chose to do an Indiegogo campaign, it will be easier to explain
why I'm disappointed with about 1 week left until it expires.

I was hoping to get the generosity of strangers that were moved by my
mission and story. I knew my project was well vetted, my fundraising goal
realistic and I had a great video and superb rewards. After reading some of
your success stories, I thought, "I can do this." I was reaching out to
strangers because I know my friends and family are broke. If they weren't,
I would have just asked them all for donations directly. So far my loved
ones have ponied up $295. The whole point of this was to get $5 bucks or
more from people I don't know. But yesterday was the devastation when I
browsed through 67 pages in the "small business" category (multiple times
because I was convinced I had overlooked it somehow) for my campaign. I
kept thinking, I must rank above all these people with 0 donations and why
are there pages and pages of expired campaigns taht people can no longer
donate to? Then I went to FAQ page for help and read "Why can't I find my
campaign" to find out that after a few weeks if a campaign hasn't raised
$500 it no longer shows up in the browse results. I cried and I'm crying as
I write this. I realize with 7 days left I have failed. I cannot do a new
campaign and start over to try to do this "right" a second time. There's no
time. I would like to suggest that these "make or break" requirements be
made part of the "get started" stuff before people launch a campaign or at
least email that info to the admins. It would have been nice to know I had
to meet certain milestones to be visible in browse results. I like to go
into things with my eyes open and I feel I had to dig for this info. Whats
the point of improving my gogo factor if I don't even have a chance to
increase my rank in the browse results? That was the whole point of doing
this! Am I missing something here? Is there any hope for my
campaign<http://igg.me/p/199621?a=998868>with 7 days left? I
appreciate any advice to rescue my campaign.

--

Peerbackers VS. Indiegogo for crowd funding

About a week ago, I launched a 30-day fundraising campaign on Peerbackers to help my business cover the costs of finishing the bigger store front we're moving to in September. I discovered today that Peerbackers isn't as well known as I thought and decided to create another campaign on Indiegogo which is a more known peer funding site (higher Google rank, more campaigns running, more funders giving overall). I'm hoping for this thing to go viral and get the support of strangers along with family and friends. Thank you to the people I know that donated through Peerbackers already! That campaign will still run and I will honor the rewards as promised.  I copied the same rewards from Peerbackers to Indiegogo. I partnered with some other businesses to offer a variety of bribes rewards in exchange for donations.

Indiegogo does take a bigger cut of money I raise (4% if I meet my goal and 9% if I don't) in addition to the standard 3% that Paypal keeps to process the payments. I chose "Flex Funding" so I can get any funds I raise. When you choose "Fixed Funding" all the money goes back to the funders if you don't reach your goal. Since my project will happen whether or not I raise all the monies, I just the former. Peerbackers keeps 3% on top of Paypal's 3%. I'm hoping I will get more supporters through Indiegogo's platform. The catch with Indiegogo is they say I need 2 funders to be able to appear in their search results. But I didn't find that out until like the last step. Kind of hard to go viral if I don't even appear in browsing results when people are looking for ideas to fund.

Overall, I think I liked the back end of Peerbackers more. It seemed a little more user-friendly when setting up. They even allow you to upload specific images for each reward. That was a nice touch since I was featuring other people's products. But Indiegogo wins in tech integration. You can easily copy and paste an iframe code to paste into your website. I couldn't find that on Peerbackers so I emailed customer service and they quickly replied that the feature didn't exist yet but I had permission to create my own image using their logo. Which I did (see on right). Then I did an image link. This has since been replaced on my website's home page with the widget provided from Indiegogo. (see below)

This crowd funding thing is new to me so bare with me folks! If you've done one before, I'd love to hear your opinion and get advice. I am open to feedback and will try to answer questions if you consider trying this avenue to raise capital. Both of the above mentioned sites are non-restrictive as far how you can use the funds. Health expenses, travel, non-profit - anything goes it seems.  You may have heard of a site called Kickstarter. But they have this disclaimer stating very clearly what kinds of projects you can post.

• 1. Funding for projects only. A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it. A project is not open-ended. Starting a business, for example, does not qualify as a project.
• 2. Projects must fit Kickstarter’s categories. We currently support projects in the categories of Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater. Design and Technology projects have a few additional guidelines. If your project is in either of these categories, be sure to review them carefully. View Design and Technology requirements
  
• 3. Prohibited uses:
  • No charity or cause funding. Examples of prohibited use include raising money for the Red Cross, funding an awareness campaign, funding a scholarship, or promoting the donation of funds raised, or future profits, to a charity or cause.
  • No "fund my life" projects. Examples include projects to pay tuition or bills, go on vacation, or buy a new camera.
  • Prohibited content. There are some things we just don't allow on Kickstarter.