Jeremiah Owyang – Crowd Economies On The Rise – LeWeb’14 Paris

The honest Kickstarter campaign, by Vooza

@voozahq : Best video comic strip about the startup world ever ! Can’t get enough of it ! 😀

Crowdfunding Pays Off For Black Stars

Majic 102.1

LeVar Burton and other celebrities have turned to crowdfunding to fund their new projects. Evita Robinson, Travel blogger/Crowdfunding consultant and Rodney Sampson, Social media consultant joined Roland Martin Friday on ?NewsOne Now? to explain how Spike Lee, Salli Richardson and Don Cheadle are using crowdfunding to bring their creative ideas to life.

[ione_embed src=http://player.theplatform.com/p/BCY3OC/FdyDRHtFeBqI/embed/select/cZjJEbxkT6La?form=html service=tvone.com width=610 height=343]
Be sure to listen to “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, weekdays at 7 a.m. EST and watch at 9 a.m. EST on TV One. 

View original post

Changes to Crowdfunding regulations

Go Getter

   

Crowdfunding a project can be an effective way of raising money, particularly for start-ups. In light of this, the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee is looking at whether or not to loosen the regulations on rewarding funders, potentially allowing equity crowdfunding.

View original post 3 more words

Crowdfunding Site Pozible Promotes Chinese Innovators

By Damon Poeter, April 24, 2014 06:23pm EST
Western-based crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo now have company in the race to bring great ideas to market.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo have company. Pozible is a competing crowdfunding platform, but with a twist—the site targets projects and startups originating with Chinese innovators.

Western-based crowdfunding sites have been a fantastic means for bringing strong ideas to market at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago, with examples ranging from the Pebble smartwatch to the Veronica Mars feature film. But Pozible co-founder and director Rick Chen thinks projects emerging from China represent a vast, untapped market for investors looking for ideas worth backing.

“Most of the world equates China with mass-produced, cheap products, missing out on the amazing innovations and maker movements that are being generated from there,” Chen, who is based in Australia, said after setting up a new Pozible office in Shanghai.

The crowdfunding site this week reported that one of its very first crowdfunding campaigns for a China-based project, the Gyenno One fitness wristband, smashed its funding target within minutes of going live.

Within 25 minutes of launching their Pozible campaign, the Gyenno One creators were “halfway to selling out of their current stock” and by 2 p.m. local time on Thursday had raised 46 times their funding target, the crowdfunding site said.

“Just after midday on Wednesday, the campaign for the stylish and affordable new wristband Gyenno One was launched. Within a minute it had reached its campaign target of 10,000 Chinese yuan and for several minutes, every time the page was refreshed, the number of pledges doubled,” Chen said.

The Gyenno One is just one of several China-originating projects now in the pipeline for Pozible funding campaigns, he said.

“Over the next few months we look forward to hosting another seven to 10 campaigns, including an app that turns your smartphone into a wireless remote control, a smartwatch that helps health care providers monitor the vital signs of elderly or unwell patients, and various events and fashion projects,” Chen said.

By connecting project backers from around the world with Chinese innovators, Pozible is “effectively bridging the gap between the western world and the Chinese market,” he said.

Pozible is hoping to tap into its largest market for ideas yet with the expansion into China, but the site already has a presence in other, smaller Asian markets like Malaysia and Singapore.

Source : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2457106,00.asp

Inkshares wants to create a hybrid of traditional book publisher and crowdfunded digital platform

Gigaom

As with so many other media and publishing-related businesses, the book industry has been massively disrupted by the internet, to the point where an increasing number of authors have found success by avoiding the traditional publishing system altogether. But is the old-fashioned publisher model totally without value? The founders of Inkshares don’t think so — which is why they are trying to create a kind of hybrid platform that combines the benefits of crowdfunding with some of the services that traditional publishers have offered in the past.

Independent success stories like young-adult author Amanda Hocking — who wrote and sold her stories on Amazon’s Kindle platform and wound up becoming a multimillionaire in the process — are definitely inspiring, says Inkshares co-founder Adam Gomolin, but to some extent they are “unicorns,” in the sense that not every author is going to be able to duplicate their success.

Gomolin’s co-founder Larry…

View original post 843 more words

Crowdfunding, for books only

Nickum's Nook

Laura Explores Pubslush, the New Authors-Only Crowdfunding Platform (via http://writeforkids.org)

  Find out about our new partnership with Pubslush, an impressive platform that allows authors to raise money to create, produce and promote their work.   Children's Book Insider Publisher Laura Backes takes you on a site wallkthrough, and then sits?

---

View original post

Crowdfunding Metrics: The 30% Rule

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Michael Ibberson

Grow Your Secondary Network for Crowdfunding Success

It’s been said that if you achieve 30% of your crowdfunding goal, then you are well-situated to reach 100% by the end of your campaign. This rule is a bit confusing since 30% is less than half-way. Yet, despite this fact, it has become a recognized marker for success. Ultimately, there’s one reason for this: 30% of your crowdfunding goal should represent your own personal network’s value—that is, the funds raised in advance to get the ball rolling.

Once crossing the 30% milestone, statistics suggest that crowdfunders have nearly a 90% rate of success. A recent study by Seedrs analysed the different levels of pre-committed funds and its effect on the success of a campaign.

 

• Projects starting with 0% showed a 15% chance of success
• Projects beginning with 1%  experienced a 27% likelihood of success
• Projects with 5% of their funds pre-committed had 50-50 odds
• Projects with 10% pre-committed discovered that their odds increased to 70%
• Projects having 20% experienced a 80% chance of success
• Projects starting with 35% or more completed their goals in every instance

Although these results reflect equity-based crowdfunding in the UK, Kickstarter and Indiegogo have recognized the 30% rule back in North America as well. It seems that after reaching this magic number, project creators feel inspired to persist. The trick to filling the gap between 30% and 100%, however, rests in the hands of the secondary network.

The secondary network refers to the colloquial “friend of a friend.” While you may not know these individuals intimately, the introduction, referral, or recommendation through a friend is crucial to your overall success. But you cannot rely on your primary network to do all of the work for you. You need to map it out – literally. Look at your own confirmed supporters and try to tie some influential individuals to each. You may not get them all, but securing only a few is all you need to put things in motion.

With 30% under the belt, your project is validated—it instantly becomes credible. No one wants to be the first to pledge money to an unknown, uncertain project. By exhausting your personal network at the beginning, you ensure that those in the secondary network are already familiar with your cause, thus feeling less hesitant to throw a few bucks your way. The 30% rule is an interesting and merited strategy, so it’s worth considering. Before launching, try and pre-commit at least 30% (if not more), either through guaranteed pledges or your own personal money.

 

Source : Crowdclan

The Importance of Social Media Crowdfunding Can Not be Stressed Enough !

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Michael Ibberson 

It cannot be stressed enough: social media is one of the most important aspects of crowdfunding. Under no circumstance should a project ever neglect to reach-out to supporters and expand its network. Managing several different accounts across the web takes time, but it’s a necessary step towards success. Instead of joining every platform, however, look for those that suit your campaign. In other words, SoundCloud works well for musicians, whereas Instagram, in most cases, does not.

For crowdfunders, there are a few staple websites to join if you have not done so already. These include Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. For entrepreneurs, Google and LinkedIn are also advised. Focusing on the first three, let’s take a look at some statistics that illustrate social networking’s potential:

• 189-million Facebook users are on “mobile only”
• Youtube has a greater viewership of those between the ages of 18-34 than any cable network in the US
• The fastest growing demographic on Twitter is 55-64; this same age group comprises 46% of Facebook users and 56% of Google+
• Every second, two people sign-up on LinkedIn

Knowledge is key, so continuously browse the web for data for it will ensure that your social media campaign remains relevant, intelligent and targeted. Two great sites to research trends are Mashable and Hypebot, but some industries may need to rely on more specific feeds.

For Twitter and Facebook, be creative and use the tools available to you. The average user may not think to create a community page or a twitition, but these are both powerful and sharable tools that businesses and non-profits use regularly. Remember that it’s not necessarily about the quantity of people in your network but the quality as well. For instance, finding “amplifiers” — influential social media enthusiasts — will help spread your word faster.

Try and always keep the mobile market in mind and practice concise messaging. Consider the statistic about Facebook users — not everyone wants to read a novel on their handheld. In fact, infographics have become one of the most compelling forms of social media today. So save the paragraphs for your blast e-newsletters at the end of each week (more about this later!).

There are a handful of tools one can use to increase their social media presence, but there’s a few tricks unknown to the average user. If social media can assist crowdfunding, can it not work the other way around? Yes it can. For example, consider offering loyal followers and fans incentives through a social media contest. This is only one of many ways to uniquely engage an audience and generate a buzz in the online world.

 

Source : Crowdclan 

 

Crowdfunding Backers are not Deterred by Celebrity-Usage

Over the course of the last couple years as crowdfunding websites have gained significantly in popularity, several celebrities have used them to raise funds for their own projects. For example, Zach Braff used crowdfunding to raise $3.1 million to produce his film “Wish I Was Here.” Director Rob Thomas raised $5.7 million to make “Veronica Mars” the movie. Singer, Amanda Palmer raised over $1 million to create her new album.

Some have criticized these celebrities for using crowdfunding instead of paying for their own projects. Although there are no rules against it, many feel crowdfunding is an opportunity for those unable to get the investment they need on their own to make their dreams come true.

Despite this criticism, each of the projects received more funding than they asked for. They were huge successes, which strongly suggest users are not opposing celebrities using the platform as well. Many backers stated they were excited to be apart of something big or they were happy to contribute to a creative project.

The overall support for crowdfunding has increased dramatically over the last year. According to assistant professor of management, Ethan Mollick, from the University of Pennsylvania, in 2012 the amount of money spent by backers on crowdfunding projects rose 81%. This brought the total spent to $2.7 billion.

Despite these numbers, the success rate is still less than 50%. This means that money was spent on less than half the campaigns launched. Mollick went on to explain that succeeding in a campaign is actually the easy part for most. Managing and fulfilling rewards is actually the difficult part. Mollick explains that 75% of campaigns end up being late delivering rewards to their backers.

Despite these drawbacks, the popularity of crowdfunding continues to grow. Users are eager to back projects; especially film and music projects, which have the highest success rate.

 

Source : http://www.josic.com/crowdfunding-backers-433are-not-deterred-by-celebrity-usage