Before starting my own Kickstarter project I went about researching as many other projects as I could. I viewed their videos, read their write-ups, and reviewed their stats (whether successful or not). I wanted to know what made a project pass or fail. What did people like about the projects that made them want to give their hard earned money over to a complete stranger with some pipe dream.
Well… for the most part it seems to be the story that sells the idea, not so much the idea itself. People have great product ideas, brands, clothing, music, etc but unless they felt that connection with them in some manner they will usually pass. I’ve read this and heard this several times that the average price point a person is willing to part with on a whim is about $20. That is how much a stranger will invest into you if they like you enough. For $20 they’re getting a piece of you and your dream and a little “feel good” in their souls. Sounds like a fair trade that any project funder will take 
Now back to the story idea. The story is YOU. Your life. What brought you here to this point of making a video and telling the world, “HELP!” Was it a new child inspiring you to write a children’s book? Or perhaps a heartless ex-girlfriend that made you pen every word of your soon to be classic album, “Emma vs the Vampires?” Or did you simply just happen to make the next best iPhone app? All of the above and more qualify as great reasons to be a part of the Kickstarter universe. So now that you have discovered who you are and why you want people to like you enough to give money… it’s time to make that video!
So the videos seem to range from professionally shot commercial quality to a digital point & shoot camera with video that was filmed in your living room. Either one will work great – as long as you have a great story. Mine was about my son’s Autism diagnosis and how it pushed me to think of how to make my life work around his. How can I be at home more often? How can I support his needs and still be a professional with a career to keep food on the table? Well the answer came to me in the form of my artwork. The characters I had been developing for years turned my illustrations into a brand. This brand would begin with characters on Apparel, Art Print, and then forward into the realm of children’s books and many other assorted goodies. So I took this story, wrote out a storyboard with my message as briefly and concise as possible. You don’t want to get into every detail of your life – just the basic information that will get your point across. Who are you? What do you want? And why?
Once you have your story plotted out with great visual pieces to show anything necessary to follow along with your words – go ahead and shoot it. Editing the video should take a while to make sure that it makes complete sense to an outsider. So feel free to have a third party person view it and give their feedback. When you’re wrapped up in a project that’s possibly been in your head for years, you can tend to forget that everyone else doesn’t know about that time Emma took you to a graveyard to make out and then totally bailed on you thus breaking your heart and is the reason you refer to her as a vampire through out half your record. So make it. Show it off to a couple of people. Make some edits and then go!
If you need to fill out any other little details that made your video too long and wordy please use the text area below the video to note these as well as any other imagery you wish to use to support this. But remember once again people don’t want to read a book. Keep it simple. Keep it short. You want their support and you can scare them off using too many words
Shown below is a nice stat page Kickstarter poops out for you upon completion of your project. As noted above it shows that the median price point for the average person is about $20. So make sure you have a nice price range for your rewards. I’ve read (and will agree) that you should also keep the rewards below 10 options. Don’t confuse people or make them think too hard about which option to chose. You want their support and you can scare them off using too many words
That is all… enjoy your life and sharing it with the world via the wonderful fund raiser source that is Kickstarter.
Robert
