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Type of Crowdfunding Platform to Choose

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Type of Crowdfunding Platform to Choose

In the 21st century, crowdfunding platforms are becoming more and more popular among businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals. Crowdfunding is regarded as a viable alternative to conventional loans and borrowings and it is opted for by many startups and new businesses. This is a type of online fundraising which can help you gather funds quickly, and without a lot of hassles. However, it is important for you to choose the right crowdfunding platform, and the following tips will assist you in finding the best one for your needs.

Check the user traffic

Find out whether or not the crowdfunding platform enjoys high user traffic from search engines and referrals. Check the reviews and various sites that inform about the traffic count of such platforms. You will need a platform that is visited by lots of people, so that your marketing pitch is able to grab lots of eyeballs. Crowd funding sites that have high traffic are generally more successful, for obvious reasons.

Check the acceptance of projects

You should also check whether the crowd funding sites you are going for accepts the type of project that you would like to raise money for. Not all crowdfunding websites allow every type of project, and the least that you can make sure is whether the platform you are signing up with accepts your kind of project. A lot about online fundraising is choosing the right type of platform.

Check the success rate

It is also important for you to check the rate of success that is enjoyed by the platform. Evaluate the total number of campaigns on the crowdfunding websites that you pick. Sites like IndieGoGo and Kick Starter have lots of campaigns – many of which are successful. These have flexible policies in financing projects.

Check the fees

Crowdfunding platforms are one of the best ways to raise money, but you should check the project fees. For successful projects, most platforms charge a specific fee. However, some platforms charge a higher fee for pitches that fail to make the cut. You should check the percentage of fees and decide which one you would wish to go for.

Crowdfunding is undoubtedly one of the best ways to raise money for startup businesses. However, the platform needs to be chosen carefully – as it is one of the most important factors that can decide the success of a marketing pitch. You need a platform that justifies the time, energy and effort that you invest into it.

Keyword: crowdfunding, crowdfunding platforms, crowdfunding websites, online fundraising, ways to raise money, crowd funding sites, crowdfunding platform

How to Make Your Online Fundraising Campaign Successful

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How to Make Your Online Fundraising Campaign Successful?

When you are short on funds, starting an online fundraising campaign is undoubtedly one of the best ways to try and gather the finances that you need. If you boast of a well-accomplished follower network, you will be able to use them to make your crowdfunding campaign grow and hopefully realize your monetary objectives once your marketing pitch is able to meet its deadline.

Grow your reach

You can hire partners to assist you in the creation of photos and videos for your crowd funding campaigns. In case your company is sponsored by some organizations, you can ask them to build a fundraising website for you that look professional. You can also get access to the supporter network of your sponsors, if you can make your sponsors add a personal appeal to your campaign.

Add a sense of urgency

On the fundraising website, you should also set a deadline for your campaign – and preferably keep it minimal. With an extended deadline, your potential backers may not feel the urgency to contribute and put off the donations for a later date – forgetting it all in the process or ending up spending on some things that they personally need. Try to keep the deadline for the campaign restricted to a week or slightly more to make your donors on online fundraising sites feel the need to contribute quickly.

Use varied channels and platforms

Do not rely only on online fundraising sites to do the trick for you. You should coordinate your crowdfunding sites with your own fundraising website as well as social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. These platforms will help you communicate frequently with your audience and keep them hooked. These will help you to leverage support from your friends as well as other people whom you may not even be familiar with. Share the progress of your campaign with your followers, attract them with rewards, offer interesting information about your offerings etc.

Arrange easy donation facility

You have to make it easy for your crowd funding contributors to donate money for your project. You can use simple payment modules such as PayPal or Amazon Payment. No matter which module you utilize, remember to store the email ids and other important information of your contributors. This will help you to thank them for their donations and keep the information stored for using in online fundraising campaigns in future.

Keywords: Crowdfunding, crowd funding, online fundraising, fundraising website, online fundraising sites

5 Things to Remember While Building a Crowdfunding Profile

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5 Things to Remember While Building a Crowdfunding Profile

Crowdfunding is a method of raising funds for any business, venture or project. It is regarded as an alternative way of financing small and even big projects. Today, you can find tons of online fundraising sites such as Kick Starter and Indiegogo that allow you to make marketing pitch for your own project. You have to keep the following 5 things in mind when you are creating a profile on any of the crowd-funding websites.

Pick a simple layout

First of all, you have to choose a layout with a simple design. Look for one that comprises of a basic header, footer, sidebar and main content section. If needed, more elements can be added later. Add an interesting title to your own crowdfunding profile. To ensure consistency, give the title of your fundraising pitch the same as your project. You should introduce this title into your header section.

Give a short, but proper tagline

It is also important that you write a short tag line. Introduce it under the title of the crowd funding page of your fundraising website. This tagline should simply be a description of your project in only a phrase, but should be interesting enough to catch the attention of readers. In the main content section, you can make the description lengthier. Try to make it a powerful and attention-grabbing.

Do not forget the Action Step

The Action Step is nothing but urging your readers to make monetary contributions for your crowd funding project. No matter which fundraising website you use, you need to make every step easy for your potential backers; informing them about the links they should click on, the sites to visit and how they can contact you.

Mention the rewards

Inform them on the crowd funding page about the list of rewards that you have, with the bigger rewards for the bigger donation amount. Your rewards can comprise of simple to more detailed gifts, such as tees, key-chains, coffee mugs and pens. Once your fundraising comes to a successful end, you need to spring into action immediately and spend some money on buying and delivering the gifts to your contributors.

Specify a deadline

On online fundraising sites, such as Indiegogo and KickStarter, you will find people specifying a fundraising goal and the deadline to fund a project. Keep your project expenses in mind as well as the potential value of your networks. You should adjust the goals of your project as you need and set a deadline that will make your contributors understand the urgency of the campaign.

Keywords: Crowdfunding, crowd funding, Kick Starter, Indiegogo, fundraising website, online fundraising sites

5 Major Advantages of Online Fundraising

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5 Major Advantages of Online Fundraising

Crowd funding is a new way of online fundraising which can help entrepreneurs find investors easily, and find a proper platform where they can publicize their creative ideas in order to get lots of investors interested to put money into their projects. Efficient and cost-effective, crowdfunding platforms can go a long way to help you in getting your funds. It offers the 5 major advantages to any entrepreneur.

You can raise funds easily

It is quite difficult to raise the initial capital for any venture. But whether you have a business, a film, a social cause or even a personal cause to raise money for, you will find crowdfunding sites to be extremely useful. These save the time and effort needed to talk with bank authorities, apply for loans and inform about your business idea. If you are turned down by traditional lending organizations, these platforms can be a great alternative way to raise funds.

You can avoid risks

As a startup without enough business knowledge, putting your own money in the line can be an extremely risky proposition. However, crowd funding helps you avoid the risk of investing your personal funds. Even if the project fails, you will not land up with a financial emergency. You can even test risky business ideas with crowdfunding.

You can use the platforms for marketing

Crowdfunding platforms prove to be one of the best ways to raise money. Other than helping you with fundraising, it can also assist you with marketing. You can get vital marketing tips and ideas from experienced investors on crowdfunding sites, get them connect you with valuable business contacts and also get feedbacks from them about whether or not you need to fine-tune your business model in order to make it more successful.

You can promote your offerings before launch

There is also the advantage of being able to promote your products and services before actually launching them, and finding out whether they are actually able to generate some interest in potential consumers. You can also get valuable suggestions on improvement from online users on crowdfunding platforms and tweak your offerings to make them more suitable for consumers.

You do not have to offer stocks or ownership

With online fundraising platforms, there is no need for you to offer remunerations to your contributors in terms of money, equity or any special privilege. In exchange for funding, you may offer free tickets for concerts, t-shirts or mugs, discounted services etc.

Keywords: Crowd funding, crowdfunding platforms, crowdfunding sites, online fundraising, crowd source funding, ways to raise money

Top Crowdfunding Benefits for Investors

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4 Ways Crowdfunding Benefits Investors

Crowdfunding is a relatively new phenomenon, and a way to help entrepreneurs and startup business owners gather the funds that they need as initial capital or investment funds. It is well-known that this process works with some strategizing, but many people wonder how this business model actually works out for the investors. In other words, what benefits do the investors get out of investing in startups who may not be able to pay them back in terms of money? Read on to know 4 benefits of crowd funding for investors.

Ability to spot new opportunities

Inventing a new business idea that can work is not always possible. If you are into business, you must already have a fair idea of how difficult coming up with a sound business idea can be. On crowd funding sites, investors can readily get business ideas along with owners or entrepreneurs who would be responsible for the success or failure of the business. Thus, they do not have to manage the business alone. The business idea is developed by somebody else, and even the management aspect is taken care of by that person.

Ability to share the investment cost

Crowdfunding websites such as Indiegogo or Kick Starter allows investors to share the cost of investment. In simple terms, they do not need to invest alone. They can simply invest a part of the money that is needed by the startup owner and encourage others to do the same. Crowdfunding takes care of the fact that the entrepreneur gets the necessary funds for starting his or her business. However, the entire burden of investment does not fall on a single investor.

Ability to get good rewards

Although the crowd funding rewards might not be as profitable as real cash, they can come in handy at times. For instance, a food store might offer rewards to its backers in the form of discounted foods during office parties, holiday events or special family events. A photography business might offer to cover a wedding or birthday party for free or at great discounts. Investors can come across such businesses easily on crowd funding sites like Kick Starter.

Ability to know which businesses work

On crowdfunding websites like Indiegogo, investors can also get the chance to put their money on different businesses and track their success of failure. This helps them to understand which businesses work, and imitate the success strategy of those enterprises.

Keywords: crowdfunding, crowd funding, crowd funding sites, Kick Starter, Indiegogo, crowdfunding websites

How to Market Your Crowdfunding Campaign

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4 Things to Consider Before Creating any Crowdfunding Marketing Pitch

The ongoing recession has made it more difficult for people to get the funds needed for setting up their startup businesses. This has also made crowdfunding more popular, and startup owners and even people with financing requirements for projects of all shapes and sizes are turning more and more towards this type of funding. However, not every crowd funding marketing pitch is successful and this is exactly the reason why you need to consider these 4 things before making a pitch.

Think about the business idea

First of all, you need to have a proper idea about the business plan that you intend to make a pitch for. Your business idea and model should be attractive enough for investors, and interest them enough to put their money into your venture. Analyze whether or not you have such a business model. You should also be clear about the kind of profits or rewards that you will be able to offer to your backers on crowdfunding platform in exchange for the investment.

Be clear about the capital

You should also have a clear conception about the kind of capital that you need. On crowdfunding sites, do not ask for less than the total amount of funds that you require for starting your project or venture. Make a list of the expenses that you will need to make, and work out an investment amount that will help your business to start comfortably. Make a pitch for that kind of funds on the crowd funding websites.

Consider the platforms

There are lots of crowdfunding sites on the internet, but not all of them accept all types of project. You need a crowdfunding platform that will accept the type of project you need to gather funds for. It is a good idea to research on the internet and know about various crowd source funding sites and find out which ones accept your type of business project.

Have proper marketing tools in place

Finally, you should also have the right marketing tools in place for your crowd source funding pitch. Once you create the images, videos and posts for your marketing pitch, show them to your friends and family members, even to outsiders, and ask whether they look up to the mark. If the feedbacks are negative, you should try and make them look as professional as possible. With amateurish creations, you cannot go too far with your crowdfunding campaigns.

Keywords: crowdfunding, crowd funding, crowdfunding platform, crowdfunding sites, crowd source funding

Creating Community Awareness and Support thru Crowdfunding

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How to Use Crowdfunding to Obtain Community Support?

You must have heard about how crowdfunding has become one of the newer ways of funding, and is even being considered as a viable alternative to traditional lending institutions such as banks. This is actually one of the ways to raise money from many supporters for a single goal or project. It takes online fundraising to the next level, and helps people and organizations to get the support from a community of likeminded individuals in order to get finances for a project. Read on and know how you should use crowdfund to get support from the community.

Express yourself well

There are lots of crowdfunding websites, such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, which can help gather the necessary funds for a project. With these platforms, you can get a prominent position from which you will be able to run a fundraising campaign. These offer some of the best fundraising ideas, and you have to offer a small amount of money as fees. But it is important to express your ideas well to the crowd of potential crowdfunder investors and customers that you are trying to reach out to. Clear expression and articulation can help you to get people crowdfund your business. You can easily get the capital required and get your project started.

Mention the idea and the business plan

Some people hesitate to come clear about their business models and plans on crowdfunding websites, for fear of imitation and concept thefts. But you need to realize that without a proper idea about your business plan and your background, crowdfunder individuals will hardly feel enthusiastic about supporting you and get your venture off the ground. It is essential to tell them where and how you intend to go with your proposed venture. Be real, honest and transparent on the crowd funding sites and you can get the trust of people. You can make them crowdfund your project with less insecurities and greater amount of confidence. As the concept of fundraising online revolves around gathering community support, it is important for you to be serious in your efforts and make sure that you leave no stone unturned.

Mention the results and end goals

You also need to come clear about the kind of results that contributors can expect to witness and the time frame that they can see it in. You should tell them about your business model and the type of revenues or rewards that you expect from the venture. You need to tell them the reasons why they should feel the urge to be interested in your campaign, and prefer to invest on you instead of others. Keep in mind that crowdfunding is one of the best ways to raise money based on trust. Naturally, the more that you can get people on crowd funding sites to trust you, the better you will be able to get their support. The kind of support that you can get may go beyond simply monetary contributions. Your investors can spread word about your campaign and enhance your online fundraising efforts.

Keywords: Crowdfunding, fundraising ideas, crowdfunding websites, crowd funding sites, crowdfunder, crowdfund, ways to raise money, online fundraising

Crowdfunding for Medical Research

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3 Ways Crowdfunding Helps in Medical Research

The new century has seen a lot of advances in the field of science and medicine. Technological advancement has made medical practice better, more economical and quicker. The best thing about this advancement has been the type of benefits that patients are now able to get. The innovations and scientific advancements in the domain of medicine has helped also doctors and medical researchers to devise newer and easier methods of treatment, and experiment more as far as treating patients is concerned. But the lack of funds can kill the progress, and it is a fact that only grants are insufficient where medical innovation is concerned. Added to these, there are continuous budget cuts in these programs which make it quite tough to initiate and carry on meticulous research. Crowd source funding, one of the best ideas for fundraising, proves to be assistive in at least 3 ways.

It can help raise money more easily

With medical research, it can be quite tough to get government grants and even private organizations seem disinterested at times to loosen their purse strings without enough scope of profitability. However, there can be a major benefit in the field of medical research with the help of crowdfunding. It can help research organizations to publicly advertise their requirements and make use of online ways to raise money. It is able to create awareness even among investors who have been hitherto unaware of the scope of this type of investment. Investors can be wooed into backing these types of research projects for various reasons – any personal interest in the research, an interest to earn decent returns on investments or an inherent interest in the domain of medicine and medical science.

There are many platforms available

There is a wide range of crowdfunding platforms available, which are reward based in nature. These have assisted researchers to gather enough money from many investors, even total strangers, to finance their medical experiments which would not have been finished otherwise. With the availability of many crowd source funding platforms, there is the scope to get more and more backers interested. However, it is tougher to set up a biotech firm or a life science organization only from donations. With reward based crowdfunding, funds can be raised for the starting research. Once enough information is obtained and experiments are carried out for the medical trials, researchers can catch the interest of many VCs, economical strategic partners and dynamic partners more easily.

It helps broaden the investor population

Online fundraising is also one of the best ways to raise money for clinical research, considering the fact that it helps democratize investments as it lets any individual earn through investments in private organizations that solely aim to improve life science There is enough chance for patient communities to lend their own support to researches and innovations in medical and life science. Crowdfunding platforms are helping even people interested in bringing about a change in the healthcare system to make their monetary contributions, in however small way possible. This is undoubtedly one of the best ideas for fundraising.

Keyword: crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, online fundraising, ideas for fundraising, ways to raise money, crowd source funding, grants

Top Crowdfunding Sites for Raising Capital

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5 Unique Crowd Funding Websites to Use for Gathering Finances

Are you considering opening up a business that requires taking a small business loan, you need to think about acquiring crowdfunding as a possible way of gathering investment capital for your venture. Those who know what is crowdfunding and how powerful it is come back to it again and again and exploit its power for online fundraising. This is actually a way of gathering funds from a large pool of contributors who might or might not be into professional investment of ventures. It makes use of the internet in order to gathers funds from lots of small investors. It works as a profitable strategy for business when you are unable to get enough venture capital or loans from traditional banks. The following are 5 unique crowdfunding sites that can be used for easy fund generation.

Prosper.com

This is one of the best crowdfunding platforms which offer personal loans as a substitute for investment capital options, credit card debt and bank loans. As a borrower, you can avail a fixed rate of interest. You may even get a short term, unsecured loan which can be paid back in the form of equated monthly payments. If you are fed up with asking for loans from traditional lending organizations, you may try this for a change.

Kiva.org

It is one of the specialized crowdfunding sites which make use of a global network of microfinance organizations that collaborate with self-organized teams which are ready to lend as little sums of money as 25 USD to poor borrowers from across the globe. Alongside funding projects, it is also a global community comprising of individuals who come together in order to pool their finances and help the poor people across the world.

RockThePost.com

This is another of the best crowdfunding platforms that is loved a lot by entrepreneurs, and used by them for online fundraising. Other than entrepreneurs, it also helps creative people, professionals and creators of projects to get in touch with investors and generate capital that can help them to set up an idea, project or business and grow the same. This business social network attempts to close the gap between potential investors and entrepreneurs and helps the latter to get money to get their projects started. The platform can also help entrepreneurs to get ideas and tips on getting their ventures started and make them successful.

StartSomeGood.com

People who know what is crowdfunding and its capability, love to make use of this project crowd funding website which is used by borrowers in order to raise the money that is important for using as capital. This site can be used to raise capital that is needed for financing diverse types of projects.

MyEFunder.com

Where crowdfunding for businesses is concerned, this is an ideal one for startups. It offers new entrepreneurs with a platform that can help them to attract potential investors as well as issue stocks in their own firms. The rules of this platform need a minimum of one accredited investor to invest in the firm, who has to also specify the initial value of the stock.

Keyword: crowdfunding, what is crowdfunding, crowd funding, crowdfunding sites, crowdfunding platforms, online fundraising

Why is Peer To Peer Lending One of the Best Ways to Raise Money?

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Peer To Peer Lending – Why it is one of the Best Ways to Raise Money?

Peer to peer lending, also referred to as P2P lending or person to person lending, is fast being seen as an ideal alternative to government loans and funding from traditional banks. This type of lending allows you to borrow money from P2P lenders. At one time, this concept was meant for financing micro loans for entrepreneurs to set up businesses in developing countries. With changing times, however, this type of loan is being commonly opted for by students trying to fund their higher education, housewives and small businessmen. Read on and find out how it proves to be one of the best ways to raise money.

Lack of high interest rates

Considering the fact that banks come with greater overhead expenses than P2P lenders, they charge a higher rate of interest. In case of P2P lending, banks are kept away entire from the entire process. This helps you to save a high amount of money in terms of interest, which makes it one of the best fund raising ideas.

Quick approval process

As compared to traditional sources of lending, such as credit unions or banks, which can take even a month for approving or rejecting your request for a loan, most of the P2P lenders make use of an application known as “automated decisioning” software which can almost immediately reject or accept the application for a loan. Once the application is met with approval, most of the P2P lenders take as little time as 5 days to process your request and release funds. This makes it one of the best fund raising ideas.

Fewer legal obligations

Many people find it difficult to satisfy the elaborate legal obligations which are set by banks, and the transactions also happen to be quite tiresome with these institutions. Peer to peer lending proves to be one of the best ways to raise money due to the fewer legal obligations that it comes with. The approval process is fast and the release of funds is quick enough, when applications are approved.

Easy qualifying

While approving the loan, neither the cash flow for your business nor your assets is considered. You can use the proceeds of the loan for any type of purpose associated to your venture. The P2P lending market is undergoing a huge growth. Some of the US firms engaged in this type of lending involve Virgin Money USA, Green Note Loans, Fynanz Loans, Lending Club and Prosper.com.

Keyword: peer to peer lending, ways to raise money, fund raising ideas