Quick Kickstarter Lesson Recaps: #1-5 – Stonemaier Games

Quick Kickstarter Lesson Recaps: #1-5

In this series, I’ll revisit the Kickstarter Lesson posts I’ve written over the last 7 years in chronological order, highlighting the core elements of each.

Starting and Submitting Your Project Page (#1): This post has been updated over time, but the core idea is if you’re thinking about launching a Kickstarter project, I recommend that you proceed to create a basic project page and submit it for Kickstarter’s approval. You can later spend many hours perfecting the page, but since you’ll already have the approval at that point, you can just click the “Launch” button whenever you’re ready (even if it’s months later).

Back Other Projects (#2): I still believe that one of the best ways to learn how to become an effective Kickstarter creator is to back–and closely follow–other projects. As I say in the post, by reading the updates of those projects, “You’ll see what’s helpful and motivating, and you’ll also see what’s annoying. Simply by reading these updates, you’ll become a better updater yourself.”

Art and Graphic Design (#3): I’ve found the artists for our games in a variety of locations (including websites like ArtStation), and I’ve posted many of my favorites on this master list. Though one of the top ways I select artists now is by paying attention to new games and reaching out to artists on BoardGameGeek to tell them that I enjoy their work and want to work with them someday. One other takeaway from this post is how I value communication–if an artist or graphic designer is really slow to reply to preliminary e-mails, that doesn’t bode well for our ongoing communication.

Accounting and Finances (#4): Kickstarter creators will pay income tax, typically using the accrual method of accounting (which is based on when you actually ship the rewards). My biggest recommendation here is to open checking and PayPal accounts specifically for your creation, especially if there’s a chance it will someday become a company.

Connecting with Bloggers (#5): Here I discuss the idea of sending individual notes to content creators well in advance of your project, particularly those who may want to chat with you about your project when it goes live. But I think this quote near the end of the article says it best: “Overall, this is about much more than a Kickstarter campaign. It’s about forging relationships and connections with bloggers who share some of your passions. Perhaps you’ll get a few backers from that connection, and in addition to the temporary value you’ll offer their readers, perhaps in the future you’ll be able to reciprocate for that blogger.”

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If you have any questions or thoughts about these topics, feel free to share in the comments!

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