KickstarterForum.org

A word of warning: Before you decide to pay money for any type of promotion, you need to first make sure that it will work for you.

There are a ton of people out there vying for your dollars when it comes to crowdfunding promotion.

Paying for a promotion to send traffic to a project with 0% funding will take you nowhere.

However, paying for a promotion to send traffic to a project with at least 30% funding will actually convert that traffic into backers.

It’s really just basic human psychology at work. Imagine two restaurants right by each other. The one on the right is bursting at the seams with people while the one on the left has no patrons.

Which one do you think is better?

Which one would you more likely go to eat at?

Clearly there must be something wrong with the one with no diners so you head to the restaurant in the right to join the bustle.

There's a lot of people here talking about this promotion place versus that promotion place, but I definitely do not recommend wasting any money so the first thing you should do is think about whether it will work for you or not!

Simply put, wherever you choose to pay for services to promote your Kickstarter project, be sure that you first do the work to ensure that the traffic actually will convert into backers.

If you're curious to read more about this in detail, here's the link: https://crushcrowdfunding.com/promoting-a-kickstarter-campaign-with-gadgetflow-backerclub-and-backerland/

I saw the link and the heading "What’s the experience like after using these platforms? Subpar."

As we're a crowdfunding agency too, we've stayed away from complaining about what our competitors do. Of course, not all of them are great, but there's information out there from people who've used their services.

Do you know the companies you mentioned in your post?
- The owner of this forum is sponsored by Gadget Flow for example, not sure he'd appreciate the link you posted.

If I came out and started to do the same (whilst trying to subtly promote my own services), it would make me stand out as a bit of a jerk to any potential clients coming our way.

You're getting established in the niche of crowdfunding, welcome! But starting out by discrediting your competitors isn't the way to go about it.

So in answer to your paragraph "Simply put, wherever you choose to pay for services to promote your Kickstarter project, be sure that you first do the work to ensure that the traffic actually will convert into backers."
- Yeah they know that. The majority of campaign owners are smart, they can work things out for themselves.

Thanks for your response here, Hyperstarter.

In the rest of the article, I go through to explain how these platforms work and also how to make the best use of these platforms and agencies. Oftentimes I come across people who frantically try to pay for promotions on these platforms, hoping that it will be their saving grace only to find out that it doesn’t move the needle and they come to forums (like this one) to bad-mouth the platforms or agencies.

Through the article, I hope to better inform creators so that they become more educated consumers when deciding on promotions and how to use them. The way I see it, it’s a win-win-win for everyone in the crowdfunding space because:

1. Creators don’t squander their money for promotions that "don’t work" (because they will know after reading this that they have to make it “work” for themselves first for these platforms to better aid in their success)

2. Platforms (like GadgetFlow) continue to get good leads and informed creators so that they continue to be a leader in product discovery and more people use their services.

3. Backers continue to get access (and discover) the best products though these platforms and services.

Definitely don’t mean to offend anyone here, especially other agencies because I know that they’re doing great work in the space. But now that you mention it, I’ll shoot Evan an email and check in with him about the article just to make sure we’re on the same page and make any updates as necessary!

Ingrid_Wolf wrote: ↑Sat Apr 05, 2014 1:29 pm I'm using the services of CrowdfundingPR (Silver pack, $50) and Ayudos (Basic, $60), and I would recommend both.

My press release published on Crowdfunding PR is currently in the top-10 sources of traffic to both my blog and my project page. As to Ayudos, they responded to my email very promptly, recommended a range of associated web resources to promote my campaign for free, and sent a free ebook with crowdfunding tips.

The one leading my campaign on Ayudos is Mike Gonzalez, the CEO. I asked him to write a better press-relase than mine was. There was no response for a week, and I was about to remind him of myself when I saw his article about my campaign featured on their main page (http://ayudos.com/)! On the same day, it was also published by Wallstreeter Crowdfunding News.

Salvador Briggman, the CEO of Crowdfunding PR, is regularly sending me updates on the media contacted. During the first week of my campaign, they sent my press-release to 5200 journalists, 600 of whom viewed it.

I don't think I'd ever have time to find and contact so many media representatives myself, so I'd rather transfer it to those who is an expert at it and focus on promotion via social nets and forums instead. The guys from Ayudos and CrowdfundingPR don't really charge much, and I suppose they are much better at contacting media than I am. They do it on a regular basis and are known there, while I am not.

Is the information here valid? I clicked on your audos.com link and it doesn't exists

Getting noticed is one of the core tenents for success for any crowdfunding campaign. Let's compare between paying and not paying for promotion:

1. Paying for attention

You can do this by investing funds into advertising (with Facebook, Instagram, and Google being your holy trinity for ads). By pushing budget into advertising, you are literally allocating money to stop people in their tracks to learn more about you.

You can also assign some budget towards partnerships with people who are influential in your project niche.
Alternatively, paying for an in-depth review from an influential.

Another way to garner attention is to pay to get in front of crowdfunding-specific audiences. What we already know about crowdfunding backers is that they really like supporting multiple projects.

Companies like BackerKit, Gadget Flow, BackerClub, and others have already amassed a giant list of people who are obsessed with crowdfunding. Reach out to them and see how you can get your project in front of their list. Usually, they'll charge a certain fee in exchange for this.

2. The non-paid alternative

Is to invest your time into forming relationships that you can activate later down the line. This ranges in every realm from your core audience to journalists to influential bloggers to friends and more.

What you're required to do now is to push forward in finding where these people are hanging out, reading, responding, commenting, talking - and putting yourself out there with your own opinions. Be the value-add in any way that you can be.

Although it might not seem like much, this type of persistence usually pays off in the form of top-of-mind recognition. Down the line, when you do reach out for a review or a shoutout, they'll quickly recognize your name and be more likely to want to cooperate.