“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

Chances are you’ve considered this question before. Perhaps an action comes to mind.

• Apply for a promotion.
• Travel the country.
• Start a business.
• Build a house.
• Return to college.

Perhaps yours is a creative response.

• Teach an online class.
• Launch a website.
• Record a CD.
• Publish an article.
• Submit a piece of artwork.
• Write a book.

Our minds instinctively weigh risks and rewards. When our perception of a risky venture is likely to be more successful than unsuccessful, we’re all in! If the opposite is true – we hesitate.

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

If your answer to this question serves a creative purpose, and your largest hurdle is funding – consider launching a Kickstarter campaign! When you launch a campaign, the risk is virtually non-existent. Failure is a possibility, but with a 0% fee for failed campaigns, you have little to lose.

Why Kickstarter?

Kickstarter’s artistic founders created this platform with the goal of helping creative work come to life. Kickstarter does not crowdfund charity or personal campaigns, solely projects with clearly articulated objectives. The fundraising income is not intended to support ongoing expenses or be seed money for start-ups, but its purpose is to support a creative project.

“Carrying an undone project to completion” defines the goal for each campaign. If you kick-start – be prepared to kick-finish! Kickstarter projects must fall into one of these thirteen creative categories: art, comics, dance, design, fashion, film, food, games, music, photography, publishing, technology and theater.

What does it take to launch a Kickstarter campaign?

• 100% commitment.
• A completed project ready to present to the public.
• A compulsion to get funded.

Launching Your Campaign

You will need to create the following prior to launching a campaign:

• A project image, title, and category.
• Your story about your project.
• Description of your project. (Always make sure your descriptions are searchable!)
• Amount of money you needed to fund your project.
• Rewards and the donation amount for each reward.
• Duration of the campaign to meet your fundraising goal.
• A video explaining and promoting your project.
• A list of contacts and highly probable supporters.

The Fine Print

Kickstarter fees based on fundraising amounts:

• 5% to cover Kickstarter marketing and analytics.
• 3-5% Amazon payment processing fee if goal is met.
• 0% for failed campaigns!

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All Or Nothing

Setting a fundraising goal can be the trickiest part of launching a campaign. Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing approach means you achieve your full funding amount, or receive nothing at all. You may be tempted to low-ball your fundraising goal, but do not risk coming up short and being unable to complete your project.

Kickstarter campaigns have a 36% success rate. While this may be viewed as a low statistic, 140,719 successfully funded Kickstarter projects and $3.5 billion pledged dollars to date equals great creative successes. Learning from failure is all part of the process, and learning from failure is especially part of the creative process. The 36% successfully funded campaigns started with a solid project and intense determination – and yours can too!

“If you don’t fail at least 90% of the time, you are not aiming high enough”
~ Alan Kay, Computer Scientist

“I was inspired by this ideas of people being like, I don’t know what I am doing but I can try.” Christian Joy, in an article published by Kickstarter for creatives.

For more insight on crowdfunding, click here.

To check Kickstarter’s live stats, click here.

To view the most successful campaigns on Kickstarter, click here.

Raise money. Raise awareness. Raise your game.

Share your Kickstarter success (and failure) stories here so our readers can gain additional insight.