Saying THANK YOU for a job well done

I contacted Felicity Ford AKA Felix via Kickstarter and asked her a couple of questions around crowd funding…

What is great is seeing her January blog saying thank you to all her supporters, giving them all a mention in her podcast.

Here are the questions I asked with her response:

1. How did you plan your project? Was it 10 minutes down the pub or more like weeks?
I started planning my book in October and I launched my Kickstarter in April, so it was several months in the pipeline with tons of meticulous planning in advance. I got advice from everyone at all stages beforehand.

2. Did you make contact with people and companies who may have been able to influence some publicity about your idea?
YES! I called in all my comrades from wool world, and especially my friends who had already self published their own books or run crowd funding campaigns.

3. Did you have a crowd before you started the campaign? Were these living unconnected offline or were they part of an online community?
I had a fairly sizeable online audience before I started the Kickstarter, but this grew exponentially once the online knitting community bloggers began publicising my campaign.

4. Did you add a video to your project, and if so, were you given any help or advice with scripting and producing it?
I paid my brother to produce my video: it was essential to my campaign and I had tons of help making the video, editing the video and then getting feedback from others on the video.

5. Did you have assurance of any funding in advance of your project going live?
Nope, it was a case of GO HARD OR GO HOME!

6. Was the process fun or more like a job?
It was fun AND it was at times a lot of work; I have worked harder this year than in any other year of my life and with the added extra pressure of being highly visible and a great sense of responsibility to my amazing backers. That has been stressful and I haven’t really had many weekends or evenings free at all. On the other hand, the sense of responsibilty was a pro rather than a con – it was very motivating – and the visibility of my campaign has really helped with promoting the book now that it’s published; it has been a LOT of work, but definitely fun, and exceedingly empowering!

7. What was your most memorable moment of the campaign?
I was on my way home from a conference in Ireland when I launched the campaign, and was blown away by the huge flurry of emails, tweets, messages, pledges that hit me the second I got back to the UK and switched on my ‘phone. I was extremely happy to see all the enthusiasm for my idea!

8. What 3 top tips would you give others thinking of starting a crowd funding campaign?

It isn’t easy but it is amazing, and Kickstarter are really good at giving you detailed information on the whole process – you need to read all of that.
Crowd Funding is a great way to test the market and see whether your idea has any commercial viability;
Your backers are the most important thing – they are invested emotionally and not just financially in your mission so it’s really important to keep them updated with what is going on.

Hope that helps some?

Cheers,
F

It does…

Cheers,
J

Now go buy your copy of her book “The KNITSONIK Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook” now in its second edition 😉