Alpacas Magazine - 2013 Autumn

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AUTUMN 2013 | 21
To see how we structured our Rewards,
go to , then type
“Zadie and Plain Vanilla, the Rainbow
Alpaca” in the “search projects” space
near the top of the page.
4.Kickstarter must approve your project; then it goes
live. Once your project is approved, use Facebook,
Twitter and other social media to notify all your
friends, relatives and professional acquaintances
that your project is up and running. Encourage them
to spread the word to all their contacts. BUT don’t
spam! Kickstarter is firm about that.
5. Set up a business page on Facebook and link it to
your Kickstarter page. As soon as your project goes
live on Kickstarter, your Facebook page should be
up and running. Keep working your Facebook net-
work during your campaign and post project news
often on your project Facebook page.
6. Once your successful campaign is completed,
send the Rewards to your Backers. Be sure to
include shipping time in your campaign plan.
Depending on what you promise, this can be time
consuming! I spent three weeks packaging and
shipping 242 books! The lady with the $2032 goal
for professional kitchen equipment to produce
her special marshmallows raised an astounding
$104,667! (To see her Kickstarter project, go to
then type “Kerfluffles” in the
“search project” space.) One of her Rewards was
three dozen marshmallows for $25. One thousand
four hundred thirty-four backers pledged $25 each
for that Reward. That’s a lot of marshmallows to
bake and ship!
7. If your project involves a product you will continue
to sell after your campaign ends, create a website
for your product and announce it on your Kick-
starter page and on your project’s Facebook page.
Have your website ready to go as soon as your
Kickstarter campaign ends. I used
to set up a free business website:
press.weebly.com. I can go into to my website any
time and update it by myself. It has many options
and is truly easy to set up. Your website can include
a PayPal account so you can sell online after your
Kickstarter campaign is over.
If you meet your Kickstarter financial goal by
your deadline, Backers’ cards are charged and the
funds go into your Amazon account. Kickstarter
keeps a 5 percent fee. Amazon charges a 3-5 percent
fee for processing credit cards. Be sure to take
these fees into consideration as your create your
Rewards.
Indiegogo ( ) offers choices.
You can opt for an all or nothing approach like
Kickstarter and you’ll pay a 5 percent fee. You can
opt to keep whatever you raise even if you don’t
make your goal but you pay 10 percent. The
advantage to the latter is you will raise some funds.
The disadvantage is that you may not raise enough
to produce your product and you will still be
obligated to send the Rewards to your Backers.
Depending on what your Rewards are, this may
present a problem. You can see you have to
carefully think your project through.
Don’t forget:
1. Shipping is expensive. Find out exactly how
much your Rewards will cost to ship when
you set up your site. Consider the cost of interna-
tional shipping because Kickstarter is a worldwide
site. You may want to build some or all of your
shipping costs into your Reward pledge amount.
2. Consult your tax person before you set up your
Rewards. Sales tax laws vary from state to state.
The IRS may want a portion of your take.
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