Month: September 2015

How is Crowdfunding Better from Traditional Funding?

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How is Crowdfunding Better from Traditional Funding?

Crowdfunding has turned into one of the main ways of online fundraising. These days, this type of fundraising is not limited anymore only to specific products. It also includes raising money for films, music bands, books, games and many community ventures. Crowdfunding platforms offer a terrific platform to people who need to generate funds, and also provide them with ideas to market their venture. It can help them to let others know about their venture or product even before it is made. This type of funding is better from traditional funding in a number of ways:

Easier to find investors

With the help of crowd funding sites, you will find it comparatively easier to find investors for your business. In comparison, traditional funding needs a lot of effort and time and you have to persuade the investors and make them see the benefits of investing in your product or venture.

Scope of better networking

Crowdfunding platforms also offer a bigger platform for entrepreneurs to network with individuals and market their items or venture, or find investment for the same. With regular funding platforms, you can only get to network with a small number of individuals. As crowdfunding is a method of online fundraising, you can harness the power and scope of the World Wide Web to network with more people.

You can get better market information and feedbacks

Given the fact that you are able to introduce your item to lots of people simultaneously through crowd funding sites, you get the scope to acquire worthwhile feedback and info about the market. You do not have to research extensively about the market, as you can get feedbacks almost instantly. With traditional options for funding, there is no such information, feedback or scope for easier market research.

You can get funds more easily

On crowdfunding sites, you can find investors to be usually inspired by some innovative idea that they like and see profitability in. Naturally, you can easily draw funds in case you have a worthwhile or lucrative business idea. But traditional investors are generally motivated by the practicality of the idea, expansion, potential for making profits and revenue generation.

You can get better business control

With crowdfunding sites, you are able to retain the control of your business in your own hands. Investors will not force their own decisions over you, unlike in traditional funding where investors may attempt to override your plans and take control from your hands.

Keywords: crowdfunding, online fundraising, crowdfunding platforms, crowd funding sites, crowdfunding sites

Best Platforms to Fund Musical Bands

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Online Fundraising Sites – Two Platforms to Fund Musical Bands

When it comes to fundraising ideas, it is a good idea to go for online fundraising sites. It is important to keep in mind that crowdsourcing has become one of the very important ways to raise money for expensive projects to take off. Whether you are trying to gather money for a business venture, a music album or just for charity, you can get the necessary funding from these sources. If you are a musician who is trying to finance your band or music album or even get a degree in music to further your career, you can try music crowdfunding – which is also referred to as fan-funded music. These are two sites that you can try.

Sellaband

This is one of the best online fundraising sites that you can try for funding your musical aspirations. A lot of artists begin on this website by gathering funds for the expenses needed for recording a new album. Money can also be raised from this site for supporting musical tours as well as for covering promotional expenses. Fundraising campaigns can also be organized in order to fix a broken down vehicle for journeying many miles on an open road.

There is also a search page that can be used by users to browse through the genres of music that they love and discover new artists. There are special musicians discounts offered to specific vendors who offer important services like digital marketing, promotion or mastering. A fee of 15% is charged on the platform for all successful campaigns. It is undoubtedly one of the best online fundraising sites where you can use creative fundraising ideas to raise money for your musical career.

PledgeMusic

Like Sellaband, PledgeMusic charges a fee of 15% on every campaign that is successful. Fans can make pledges for free. In case a campaign is unable to meet its target of fundraising, the pledges are forfeited by the artists and given back to pledgers. Music-based crowdfunding benefits everyone – from fans to artists and even the platform itself. Crowdsourcing, apart from being one of the best ways to raise money, also helps artists to engage better with their fans. Musicians can make pages on the websites where they can pitch for money. Artists can also incorporate some of their tracks for potential pledgers to listen to, and get to listen to new music and discover new bands in the process.

The artist page of PledgeMusic appears similar to that of a blog page, where most of the sections and the content can be found on the landing page itself.

Keywords: online fundraising sites, fundraising ideas, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, ways to raise money

Peer to Peer Lending

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Peer to Peer Lending – Should You Go For It?

You might have heard about the term “peer to peer lending” one of these days and wondered what it might be. This is simply one of the social ways to raise money which is going from strength to strength and more and more people are going for this type of funding instead of traditional banks and lending institutions which have elaborate and usually difficult approval processes, not to mention the strict terms and conditions. If you are looking for some effective fundraising ideas and wondering whether or not P2P lending can be your answer, read on and know.

How Does This System Work?

It actually involves getting money from online marketplaces such as Prosper.com that allow borrowers to get in touch with lenders. Peer to Peer lending is actually a form of social lending in which lenders and borrowers can agree on a loan without letting a third party dictate the terms and conditions of the loan. It is one of the coolest ideas for fundraising, without depending on traditional lending institutions. The loan request of a borrower is listed on the website and indicates the amount needed as loan, the loan duration and the interest rate preferred. Depending on their investment criteria, lenders go through hundreds of listings to place bids on the ones that suit their business as well as by determining the monthly expenses, monthly income and online profile of the borrowers. Where fundraising ideas go, this is one of the newest ones.

How Are Borrowers Assessed?

Like traditional lending organizations, such as banks, social lending places such as peer to peer lending sites have their own ways of judging whether or not a borrower is creditworthy. These websites assess them through their credit scores and a variety of other parameters, such as their affordability scores, stability scores, DTI ratio and more. Based on these parameters, these sites can lend as big amounts as 25,000 pounds for a span of 1 – 5 years. P2P is certainly one of the best ideas for fundraising.

Can You Apply for this Loan?

As long as you satisfy the minimum application criteria, you can apply. In most P2P lending websites, the registration process is fast and can easily be satisfied. If you can offer a realistic explanation of your need for the loan, your chosen way of paying back the loan and a few pointers about your reliability and stability as a borrower, you can have a higher chance of getting your loan funded. It is one of the best ways to raise money.

Keyword: peer to peer lending, fundraising ideas, ideas for fundraising, ways to raise money

Charity Event Ideas

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Charity Event Ideas – 3 Ways to Raise Money for Charity

Once you have decided on your charity event ideas, it is time to move on to something bigger – gathering funds for the charitable purpose. Everything needs money and a charitable cause needs large donations from hundreds of people to be a success. However, this is easier said than done. Charitable events are known to be preachy and boring, and getting people to actually contribute money – especially in the ongoing economic climate – is nothing less than a mission impossible. However, there are 3 effective ways to raise money that you can try in order to gather funds for your cause.

Crowd-funding

It has become quite popular in recent times as one of the easier and effective ways to raise money for everything from business to personal causes and charitable purposes. In order to get crowdfunding, you need to visit online crowdfunding platforms such as Razoo, Indiegogo, Kickstarter or RocketHub. You need to build an online fundraising page and advertise the charitable cause that you wish to raise money for. With the help of these platforms, you can get people interested in your cause and donate money for the same.

Angel Investing

Other than crowdfunding, you may also try Angel investors. These are generally experienced and well-established entrepreneurs who can offer funds and well as valuable connections and advice for starting a new business. If you have a charitable event to organize which would raise some money in the form of ticket or product sales, but you need some initial investment to set up the event, angel investors can be good to go with. Investors’ Circle, Tech Coast Angels and Golden Seeds happen to be some of the most popular angel investing networks out there and can get you in touch with potential investors. You can also join the online social network known as AngelList, which is used for debt investment or raising equity. You may build an online profile and get in touch with potential angel investors who would like to join their name with your cause out of goodwill or due to a lucrative marketing opportunity.

Charity Auction

You can also find this to be one of the best charity event ideas. It is one of the most effective ways to raise money quickly and substantially. Make sure that you buy a collection of great products which have a lot of demand. You may request your relatives or friends to donate second-hand items. You may also approach corporate firms in the locality to donate items for the auction and get free ads in return at the venue. This is another effective way, apart from crowdfunding platforms and angel investors.

Keyword: charity event ideas, crowdfunding, crowdfunding platforms, angel investors, ways to raise money

Kickstarter

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What is Kickstarter – How Does It Help Entrepreneurs?

It is said that big dreams come at a cost, and if you are an entrepreneur you must have realized that too well by now. Getting your dream projects off the ground is not easy, unless you have proper funding for the same. Crowdfunding is a relatively new way of gathering funds for projects that require high amount of investment. One of the best and biggest websites for crowdfunding, Kickstarter offers excellent help on creating successful campaigns.

What is Kick Starter?

Kickstarter is actually one of the biggest and most popular crowdfunding sites. It was launched in the US in the year 2009 and is now also available in the UK. It has around 381 m USD in pledges and boasts of a 43.5% rate of success. This is a rewards-based platform without any investors. It only has donors or backers. Financial donations to various projects are awarded here with things like tees, movie credits and more. Advanced copies of games are also sometimes handed over to backers.

Main Features of Kick Starter

In Kickstarter, projects are submitted to be approved. As much as 75% of the projects are found to be accepted. The time for turnaround is around a couple of days. It also comes with a unique “All or Nothing Pledging” system in which entrepreneurs do not receive the funds if they do not reach their objectives.

The projects that are submitted need to fit into any of the thirteen creative categories specified on the website. This is one of those crowdfunding sites which are only dedicated to projects. It demands a plan for manufacturing and needs a prototype.

All the awards are restricted to single items, which can be in the price range of 1 – 5,000 pounds as far as UK projects are concerned. On an average, most of the successful projects in the US raise 10,000 USD. An average of 71 USD is pledged per person.

Is Kick Starter the Only Crowd-Funding Site?

Where crowdfunding sites go, Kickstarter is certainly one of the biggest. However, it is not the only one. You can find similar sites such as Indiegogo and RocketHub which have also become global. However, Kickstarter is one of the sites with the maximum media exposure – something that Indiegogo and RocketHub do not have. This helps entrepreneurs and start-ups to get backers and donors easily for their projects. There have been some landmark campaigns on this site, which include Tim Schafer’s Double Fine that have seen as much as 3 million USD to be pledged. There was also the Pebble e-Paper Watch campaign where a staggering sum of 10 million USD has been pledged.

Keywords: Kickstarter, Crowdfunding, crowdfunding sites, Indiegogo, RocketHub

Indiegogo

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What Makes Indiegogo a Special Crowdfunding Platform?

Crowdfunding was born as a crowdsourcing phenomenon. It consists of combined efforts of various types of people who come together, generally online, in order to offer support to the initiatives and projects of various organizations and private entrepreneurs. Indiegogo is one of the largest crowdfunding sites out there which is best for small businesses. Read on and know all about it.

About the Platform

Indiegogo is one of the largest crowdfunding sites to be found over the web. Founded in the year 2008, it is also one of the earliest sites to be founded for this purpose. The site started with the endeavors of 3 individuals, Slava, Eric and Danae each of whom attempted to raise funds for some project that were close to their heart. However, the money fell short and they found that traditional channels of gathering finances were limited. The three began to look for a solution to this issue and this led to the birth of Indiegogo. This crowdsourcing solution gathers support for powerful ideas and can help people to easily donate funds.

What Makes the Platform Special?

The crowdfunding platform has assisted in raising millions of dollars across 194 nations for more than 30,000 campaigns. It is quite flexible, given the fact that it is open for use by anyone from any part of the world. There is no application process and a wide range of projects are accepted, which include even charity drives. For ambitious individuals, it stands as a very attractive option. This is a flexible and very easily accessible platform, which has made it highly popular. Even the fees are on the lower side. The platform initially began with arts although it now claims to accept everything, apart from illegal activities and porn.

How Does It Help Projects?

This is more of a generic fundraising website and is targeted at utilizing the resources of the existing community for helping any type of project, which can either be a film, a cause or virtually anything that needs some fast investment within a specific frame of time. The website charges 4% of the entire amount that is raised in case the threshold is reached. If the threshold is not attained, 9% of the amount is charged. Every initiative or project on crowdfunding sites like these comes with its own set of policies and rules and some of them do not even come with rewards for their backers.

Keyword: Indiegogo, Crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding sites

Gofundme

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How to Use Gofundme for Raising Funds?

Since the recession, getting money for the initial investment has become harder for small businesses and private entrepreneurs without big money for support. This has led to the birth of crowd funding, a phenomenon that has become more popular in the US after it was directly mentioned in the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act which aims at supporting funding of small businesses in the US by relaxing the security regulations. If you have a small business project that is relatively personal but need external backing nonetheless, GoFundMe is the perfect crowdfunding platform to go for.

What is Go Fund Me?

It is an online crowdfunding platform, similar to other online fundraising sites such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, and has been helping Americans all over the nation successfully raise funds for their business. If you have the power to move the crowd, you will be able to get donations for about any type of project. It comes with sensible fees and offers the scope to have your project get more visibility on the social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.

What Can Go Fund Me Be Used For?

This platform for crowd funding can be used for raising funds for practically anything. It is one of the best ways to raise money, whether you are a private entrepreneur fresh out of a B school with a bright business idea or a young college student who is trying to gather money to complete his education. Even if you have a blog or website and need some funds to pay for your domain name and web hosting, you can get the registration fees covered with funds that you accumulate from the website.

How to Gather Funds on Go Fund Me?

You can use a wide variety of strategies and techniques to raise funds, as GoFundMe is undoubtedly one of the best ways to make money. Even more than other crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, the key here is to focus on higher visibility. Without taking the help of any paid online advertising services, you can simply rely on the social networking websites to promote yourself aggressively. Post frequently on MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus pages and upload high quality videos to your own channel on YouTube and add links to the posts on your own GoFundMe profile page. It is important to be patient, and you will begin to see success in a matter of a few weeks with persistence and smart endeavor.

Keyword: gofundme, crowd funding, crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, ways to raise money