Indiegogo campaign needs traffic

[cashflow3000]

Hey guys -

So I'm on the home stretch with my book

Virtual Breadwinner: How to Make Money Online as a Second Life Land Baron,

and I started an Indiegogo campaign to help fund the final editing, formatting, and graphic design.

Today is the first full day of the campaign and we got a couple of contributions on 45 visits.

The conversion rate is good, but I'm wondering what can I do to get more people to take a look?

So far I've been posting on Facebook and Google plus, plus some posts in related forums.

I've got a small Google PPC campaign going,

and I'll have paid advertising in a prominent Second Life forum kick in shortly.

Anyone had success raising funds on Indiegogo or Kickstarter?

Anything obvious or not so obvious I'm forgetting to do?

Thanks in advance for your response!

James Hagarty
Bellingham, WA

 

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[1step]

Have you read the Tim Ferriss blog post on how he used/uses kickstarter?

 

[AndrewNC]

Hey James,

"So far I've been posting on Facebook and Google plus, plus some posts in related forums."

Did you build any marketing plan in advance? It doesnt sound like it based on the above quote. Normally I would advise to start over, but with the goal being $2,500 and you being able to open up a second campaign if you don't raise anything now... its do'able.

Step 1 - Drive traffic to your page
You are not going to get any funding from people browsing through indiegogo. It is your responsibility to drive all the traffic to your page to begin with. Posts on social media to friends and some advertising are not enough. When you create your campaign, you are on the last page of search results where nobody will find it. They will actually hide your campaign from searches if you dont raise $500 in the first 2 weeks.

https://www.facebook.com/secondlife?fref=ts
Notice where it says "Recent Posts by Others on Second Life" and the box below that of campaign pages that second life likes? Go through facebook groups that are related to second life and (more specifically) your product market. Talk to the people there and find out where they hang out on the internet. Make a list of all these places. (blogs, forums, other social groups, twitter)

Once you do that, get ready to build a contact the owners of those pages/forums/etc. and ask them for some feedback on your campaign. They are in your industry and will know best what perks people will be likely to purchase.

Step 2 - Create a page that sells itself.
The Video- It is best to have a pitch video instead of an image there. But if you keep the image, I would make it give the viewer more of a taste of what the benefit of the product is "How to make a second income within second life" or something. And eBook cover made on fiverr and a call to action would be good.

Sales Copy- Talk to some people on a sales copy forum (or here) to touch this up a bit.

Perks- It looks to me that the most valuable perk is the $25 one with the pre-order of your book. Have you thought about having an eCover built on fiverr to put in your image or in your sales copy to highlight this perk? I dont know much of anything about second life, but do these rewards equal their weight in value for the funder?

The $25 sells the most. The $100 perk raises the most funds on most campaigns. Make sure you offer quality value on these. A presale of the book at $25 is good. Can you offer some personal coaching to people for a higher priced perk? Do the people viewing your page know that you can give them their money's worth?

If your conversion rate is good, then focus more on marketing and getting people to your page.

Form relationships with the power players (forum owners, facebook page owners, bloggers) in your industry. Remember to add value to them. Can you offer one of their items in one of your perks so they will have an incentive to promote you? These are the people that can also help you sell your book after your campaign ends. They probably get approached a lot for favors, so be different see how you can help them.

Don't rely on anybody browsing through indiegogo to fund you. Figuring out their ranking algorithm was the thing that got me into crowdfunding consulting and you need to plan in advance to take the right steps to getting funded.

This campaign is not about you, but about your customers (funders). When you deliver your perks and write your sales copy,make it about THEM just as much as it is about you.

I could go on for hours, but shoot me a private message and we'll talk more on skype.
-Andrew
100kCampaign.com

 

[cashflow3000]

Thanks so much for your help Andrew.

Working on your suggestions now!

+Speed

 

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[biophase]

Are you doing this for publicity? If not, why do you need to raise $2,500 if you have grossed over $500,000.

This makes absolutely no sense!

"Help, I need $2,500 to complete the book I wrote that shows you how to make money."

Sorry, but it just looks ridiculous.

 

[TK1]

 

[LightHouse]

Are you doing this for publicity? If not, why do you need to raise $2,500 if you have grossed over $500,000.

This makes absolutely no sense!

"Help, I need $2,500 to complete the book I wrote that shows you how to make money."

Sorry, but it just looks ridiculous.

Yeah i noticed this as well, you mention you profit every month, then mention you need $1k for a cover design... yet you have a design (which needs to be re-designed). This doesn't make sense... which is true?

 

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[Likwid24]

I would have to agree that if I came across this, a saw that your selling a book on how to make money, but your asking for $2500, I'd be pretty skeptical.

 

[cashflow3000]

Hey thanks for the feedback guys.

All of the above is true.

What happened was I reached the point where I thought I was finished with the project, then I read a book that said it was critical to have a book copy-edited before publishing, and also to have it professionally designed, and that kickstarter (or in this case indiegogo) was a good place to raise funds for those projects.

The truth of the matter is the business does spit out cash every month, it has grossed well over $500K, and I have already kicked in $1,000 for (structural) editing.

I created the campaign in order to:
1. increase publicity for the book
2. raise funds
3. create public accountability and
4. give myself a deadline for completion.

Once the campaign is complete I will have real, paying customers whose orders I need to fulfill.

It is running for another week and a half and I'm striving to make the most of it.

If you think the project looks stupid, do you have any suggestions on how I can improve it so it looks less stupid?

Thanks!

 

[biophase]

I created the campaign in order to:
1. increase publicity for the book
2. raise funds
3. create public accountability and
4. give myself a deadline for completion.

Once the campaign is complete I will have real, paying customers whose orders I need to fulfill.

If you think the project looks stupid, do you have any suggestions on how I can improve it so it looks less stupid?

Thanks!

1) I can understand that. But it just looks stupid in general because most people who need money to get their business off the ground are not selling something that supposedly teaches you how to make money.

2) Again, this just never happens. You are also asking for too little, maybe if you asked for $20,000 I would believe that you don't have that money.

How can you say that your strategies have grossed $500,000 and not have $2,500 to spend on your book. It's not as if you spent $50,000 making a prototype and that you need your final $10,000 to complete it. You wrote a book that basically costs you no money, only time.

3) Probably not a good reason to run a crowdfunding campaign

4) Again, not a good reason.

Your video is way too long, I have never seen a 15 minute video on any of the projects I've looked at.

Basically, I'm thinking that you don't need the money to complete the book. I don't know if people who don't play Second Life would get this book in order to make money. You haven't convinced them that they can do it. So your audience is only people who currently play Second Life and want to learn how to make more money. Therefore, I'd probably be posting about your contest in Second Life forums. If you are well known in Second Life you should be able to get a bunch of sales from people who know you. Your Second Life player better have had alot of net worth in the game.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

it has grossed well over $500K

But what has it NETTED? This is the only important metric when it comes to money making. If I sold brand new iPads for $50, what do you think my gross would be? Millions! And yet, I'd be LOSING money, not making it.

I hate it when people try to push "money making" BS and use gross sales figures. The fact that you are trying to sell a money making product and "need money" would make me immediately say, in Shark Tank lore, "IM OUT."

But then again maybe I should be happy; I'm now a "million dollar author" as TMF has grossed over $1M in books.



Anyhow, back to the original question ... your problem might not be traffic, it might be your offer.

 

[cashflow3000]

thanks for the comments.

MJ, congrats on being a Million Dollar Author!

 

[biophase]

But what has it NETTED? This is the only important metric when it comes to money making.

It's a double edged sword. You can quote gross income all you want if you want to impress people. But when it comes time to shell out some money and you don't have any, people will wonder. Gross income also means nothing without a unit of time.

If you watch Shark Tank, people sometimes quote gross income over the entire lifetime of the business.

"Our revenue is $250,000"

Sharks, "Over what time period?"

"Over the last 8 years"

Sharks, "Eight years? What was it in the last 12 months?"

"$30,000"

Sharks, "That's horrible, and what was your net?"

"$8,000"

Sharks, "LOL, I'm out"

So if you want to claim $500,000 gross income on your product, then you can't be asking for $2,500 because you are basically saying to your investors that they too can make $500,000. A more realistic pitch would have been to say that with your book you can make a nice steady monthly income of $500/mo with little work and it's only $25.

When I talk revenue, I always talk net. Everyone else loves to talk gross and they always think I'm talking gross. They later in the conversation they may ask, and what are your expense and margins on that? When I say that I'm talking net, they are shocked because in their mind they were probably thinking my net was 10% of the number I was just talking about.

 

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[cashflow3000]

yep.

ok, I added an FAQ in response to your comments.

8 days left in the campaign, maybe it will help, I'm sure it won't hurt.

you can say what you like about Fastlane forum but one thing is for certain - you guys don't sugar coat the truth!

lol

wish me luck