Did you know that, when it comes to crowd funding your project, zombies can give you a distinct advantage? We'll come back to that, but first...what is crowd funding and why do you need to know how to do it?
Crowd funding is a new internet phenomenon that allows artists, musicians, and entrepreneurs get free funding for their projects, by "crowdsourcing" the money needed to start or finish a project. You don't need a budget, and you don't need to convince "investors." All you need is a dream and the ability to talk about what you want to do. Here's how it works.
For example, imagine that you had started a film, and shot the initial footage, but you needed about $5,000 to finish your film including editing and sound. You don't have a rich uncle, and your friends have already helped you fund the beginning stage of your film. What do you do? That's where crowd funding comes in.
You find a crowd funding site, submit a write up about your project, add a video and some "perks" for your backers, and presto - the crowd funding engine gears up and your project is on it's way to getting the money you need to finish it. Now, is it really that easy? Well, almost.
There are a lot of crowd funding projects that succeed with flying colors (and even exceed their funding goals)...but there are just as many that fail miserably. The trick is to know what makes a crowd funding project successful and what makes a crowd funding project tank before it's even out the gate.
There are several surprising secrets to successful crowd funding that we have discovered, but for the moment, let's start with 3 of the most important crowd funding tips that can get your project started on the right foot.
Crowd Funding Secret Tip #1: Gratitude Attitude
It may sound simple, and maybe even cheesy, but the first thing that will give you an advantage with crowd funding is an "attitude of gratitude" right from the start. When you write your description, when you make your video, all the way through your crowd funding submission in fact, you need to make sure to express gratitude. It gives a good impression, it convinces people that you will grateful for their help, and besides...it's nice. At least, that's what my mother says. And she's usually right.
Crowd Funding Secret Tip #2: Details, Details
One thing that people sometimes get wrong when applying for crowd funding is not getting specific enough with the details. The kind of details that make a difference with crowd funding are: who, what, when, and where details.
So for example, you shouldn't just say "Hey, I want to make a film about zombies and I need help funding it." If you want crowd funding support you need to include specific details like who will be in the film, what kind of film it will be (super 8, digital, etc), when you plan to finish the film, and where it will be filmed and released. This makes your crowd funding project real and believable sounding, instead of far-fetched and vague.
Crowd Funding Secret Tip #3: Video is King
One of the fastest ways to get a crowd funding advantage is to do a good video about your crowd funding project. There are too many details to go into here (you can learn more about filming a good crowd funding video at the link at the bottom of this article) but let me just say that an Indie GoGo cofounder actually gave me that advice personally so I know it's a great tip. Include video.
Ok, so there's your 3 crowd funding tips. Wait, what's that you say?...You don't understand where zombies come into the crowd funding picture?
All right, I'll explain. There happen to be a disproportionately large number of crowd funding submissions that include zombies...and not only that, those projects are getting funded. For example, if you click the link below you will read about a zombie crowd funding project that got over $6,000 to make a zombie video (and there weren't even any real zombies involved!)...
I guess everything's just better with zombies. Makes sense, in a strange kind of way. Anyway, if you want to learn exactly how to make your first crowd funding project a success (including 7 more surprising tips) just click the link below.
