Major congratulations to Amanda Palmer for raising over a million dollars on Kickstarter. With her achievement following the recent ten million dollars raised by Pebble ePaper Watch, Kickstarter is becoming all the rage. I think Kickstarter is great and I have no problem with anyone using it to raise founds, but…
Can you also raise money on Kickstarter?
There is one thing you MUST have if you plan on launching a Kickstarter campaign… a fan base! Kickstarter is not going to help you acquire fans, it is about your existing fans helping you. Here is the basic truth… if you don’t have a fan base you are not going to raise any money. You need a fan base to promote your Kickstarter campaign to.
Amanda Palmer has approximately 559,000 Twitter followers and 143,000 Facebook likes. 24,883 fans pledged her Kickstarter campaign. Even if every fan on Twitter and Facebook was unique (and they aren’t) that means roughly 3.5% of that fan base pledged. Yes, I am sure there are pledges from people not following her on Twitter or Facebook, but this is a simple illustration of the point. How big is your fan base?
Don’t think that Kickstarter is the new easy answer to making money and that everyone can do it. It is without a doubt a great tool, but as a tool it only supports the work you have already put into your career.
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