It has been a while since the completion and successful funding of Collectors and Capers! During that time I have been gathering my thoughts on how the Kickstarter ran and what I would change the second time around.

First and foremost, running a campaign is stressful! Watching the flow of backers (and sometimes ebb) and drumming up support is a lot of work. From the first day we raised 27% of the funding for the campaign goal which indicated a strong start thanks to friends, family, and ambitious backers. With that strong start in mind it is easy to imagine that the momentum will only grow or even stay the same, however, that is not the case. The pledges tend to trail off and level off towards the middle of the campaign.

Even there are backers who cancel their pledge. Seeing the number of backers decrease or stay the same for a day is disheartening. It is important to follow up with the backers that cancel if for no other reason to to let them know that they are important and thank them for their initial pledge. Frequently backers realized that they overextended themselves in number of pledges or have other life circumstances happen and as a creator that is out of your control. I will repeat, some of these things are out of your control.

In order to offset the potential for losing backers and the slowing down of number of pledges keeping up with your online/marketing presence is crucial. This can come from interviews, reviews, in store demoing events, updating the Kickstarter, and social media posts. This took up most of the time duringand it is a lot of work.

If I have learned anything from this campaign it is that you cannot be discouraged and accept that some things are out of your control. What is under control is how you follow up with your backers and reach out to new ones and that work comprises most of a Kickstarter.