Lifelong journal : 7 days before launching my Kickstarter campaign.
This article is about my Kickstarter project. Now I’m working on a new lifelong journal for documenting personal history over time. You can check the beginning of this idea here.
Last week, I finally launched my Kickstarter project. It is first time to launch my project on crowdfunding service so everything was new. For last seven days, it was literally crazy schedule. I haven’t slept for a week. So when I finally clicked the ‘Launch project’ button, it’s difficult to describe the amount of joy I felt.
Here, I just want to leave my records about what I did for seven days before launching the campaign. I’m not an expert on crowdfunding and all things I describe here were last-minute work. This is NOT To-Do-List before launching the campaign. I believe you can make a better schedule. I’m just hoping that this can be a good reference for someone who is curious about the process or about to launch their campaign on Kickstarter.
Mar. 23 Seven days ago — Fixed final design
After making three prototypes, I finalized a notebook design: templates inside, size, pages, binding method, etc. Template was simplified compared to 2nd prototype which had seven different templates. I revised them to the 2 types of templates: Simple and Detail. Last feedback I’ve got was all-in-one style, seven templates, was overwhelming, and it was limited to use in various situations. I had two options. One was specializing in a particular subject. Choosing a subject such as favorite movies or books and making this journal more detailed and guided for specific target. Second option was Keeping it minimal so that any users can customize it according to their interests. Both were worth a try. But this time, I decided to make the latter.
Mar. 24 Six days ago — Submitted for Review
I Submitted the project for review and waited for approval. At that time, I was busy, so I just wrote a very rough description of my project and put some pictures of my prototype. I thought it was enough. After approval, I could revise my project description. But…
Mar. 25 Five days ago — Rejected from Kickstarter, Appealed again
It was the hardest day. Early in the morning, I tried to choose optimal paper for quite a bit of time. After selecting a paper, I visited several printing shops. Most shops were too expensive just for printing, not binding book. So I went to my school’s Digital Imaging Center and printed out my design with relatively reasonable price. On my way back to school, I received a notification from Kickstarter. It was in response to my Kickstarter review. My project was declined. I couldn’t believe this, because they said that “Resale is not allowed on Kickstarter. All rewards must be produced or designed by the project or one of its creators, and projects must center on a creative endeavor.” My project was created by me and all of the design was mine. I thought there was a misunderstanding in the process of reviewing my project. Maybe it’s because of my description. It was too brief. I didn’t know exact reason, but I should appeal that it’s my own design, not existing design. So I sent appeal form to Kickstarter with the detailed reason and waited for response.
Mar. 26 Four days ago — Visited printing shops, Made a sample
I visited two printing vendors to find a partner which I can work with if I succeed to funding. But one was too expensive and the other one didn’t have the binding method I need. Except binding, they were perfect. They provides quality products at reasonable prices. However, My notebook should be made by sewn binding so that it can be opened 180 degrees. It’s one of the most important part of the product. Afraid to be left behind, I came to school and started to bind a book to make a sample book. Binding a book was the most fun part during 7 days. After staying up whole night, I could get the final book.
Mar. 27 Three days ago — Adjusted budgets, rewards, and goal
I contacted with several printing shops to receive quotation for the mass production before. Friends and alumni introduced several printing vendors. But the costs I’ve got was pretty high than I thought. Especially, it looked impossible to find good vendors with reasonable price here in New York. I don’t want to lower the specification. So I started to contact with vendors in another country to get reasonable price with high quality. Based on quotation, I adjusted budgets, rewards and goal including all consideration: printing, binding, the Kickstarter fees, packaging, and shipping. (Note : You should contact early because they usually respond 2~3 days later.)
Mar. 28 Two days ago — Approved finally, Revised the description
My big concern was that Kickstarter didn’t response yet. Since it’s two days before launching, I should be hurry. I just sent a message to them via twitter, and then they quickly answered my question. Thanks to their quick response, finally my project was approved. After being approved, I started revised my description. I added detailed information including why I started this project and product specification. All was prepared except images and video. Most important part was still left.
Mar. 29 One day ago — Made the video
Since this project is my own project, I don’t have a co-worker. However, to record the video, I need other’s help. My classmate, Uijun Park helped me. Thanks to him, I could finish recording video well. I wanted to make a simple video that shows how we can use this journal. You can see final video here.
Mar. 30 Launch Day!
At 1pm. I Finally launched my project! http://kck.st/21TKFhq
The lessons — What I should do next time.
- Make a sample as soon as possible.
In my case, making a sample was late. I spent a lot of time revising design. Before getting a sample, I could only rely on costs of similar project to mine. Since it is available to get exact quotes from printing shop when I have exact product specification, I could confirm the budget and rewards right before launching. So if you can finish your design early, you can spend time much more efficiently before launching.
2. Setting up an account and submitting a project for review should be finished at least a week before launch.
As you can see in my case, you can face up to an unexpected difficulty. So to cope with those situations well, you have to prepare in advance. And I recommend you to write your intension and process of the project for the review, even though it’s not perfect. Because I think I omitted those things in my project description and it negatively affects for review. Above all, when something goes wrong, ask for help to people. In my case, my professors and classmates helped me a lot.
3. Don’t put off Building a Network with (expected) target users.
Personally, one thing leaves much to be desired is not to build much more network relating my campaign before launching the project. I heard several times it is important to build the network with target audience before launching. I wanted to make an email sign-up list prior to launching. However, as you can see, last seven days are really busy. It’s hard to get the time to care about that. You can make it after launching, but if someone engaged in your project before, they are willing to share or back your project more actively. And it’s much better than just showing them your finished work in terms of network quality. So I highly recommend you prepare making network much before, at lease seven days before, your launch day. And I should do next time.
