How to Open Up a Fundraising Website Easily

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How to Open Up a Fundraising Website Easily?

Crowdfunding is a method of crowdsourcing, and is used to gather funds in the form of donations for particular projects. If you are thinking of thinking of establishing a new project or business, but lack the capital to invest in the same, you can use a fundraising website and get likeminded people to donate funds for your venture. You may also consider setting up your own site, and the following tips will assist you in establishing one for your requirements.

Think about your objectives

First of all, you have to consider your crowdfunding goals. You will have to write, design and program your fundraising website around the objectives that you have set. You will need to keep various factors in mind, such as the target audience, the objective of online fundraising, how to raise the money, the amount of money that you need and also how you will reward the supporters.

Consider how you wish to do fundraising

Determine the way you plan to do online fundraising. Funds can be raised by accepting donations from online backers or through the sale of merchandise. You should set up a payment system in any case in order to ensure easy and quick transactions. Many online payment firms design widgets, and you can integrate any of them into your own fundraising website.

New or Prepackaged Site

You will also have to consider whether or not you should build a crowdsourcing site from scratch or use a prepackaged site. If you are adept at HTML coding, you can build a new website for crowd funding. However, if web development is not something you are conversant with, it will be better to opt for a prepackaged solution.

Select a proper website layout

You need to choose a decent layout for your website which can help you meet your crowd source funding goals effectively. It is important to choose a layout which is simple as well as functional. The donation widget needs to be able to facilitate smooth and fast contributions and welcome the visitors through proper video or audio communication features.

Choose proper elements

You need to choose proper elements, such as a proper title for the home page, welcome message, descriptions, instructions for backers and more. It should look professional enough for your crowd source funding purposes.

Promote your site

Once you build the site, promote it all the way with the help of social media sites, email, events, personal meetings, phone calls etc and try to convince investors as much as possible.

Keywords: crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, fundraising website, crowd funding, crowd source funding

How to Ensure Success of Your Crowdfunding Videos

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How to Ensure Success of Your Crowdfunding Videos?

If you are considering starting a crowdfunding campaign, it is important to create a nice video. It is widely known that campaigns with videos make a better impact among potential investors than those which do not come with videos. As per Indiegogo, campaigns consisting of videos have a 122% greater success rate than those that do not use any videos. With a good video, you can enhance the success rate of your campaign by a large measure. The following tips will ensure the success of your crowdsourcing videos.

Create a good storyline

You need to create a proper storyline which is sensible and has a definite beginning, middle and end. It is important to do efficient preproduction and plan every scene. It is a good idea to check quite a few crowdfunding videos before you begin to shoot your own video. Check those videos which are on the similar lines as your own crowdsourcing project campaign video.

Make it simple

It is a sensible idea to make a simple video for crowdfunding sites, without too much of technical complexities. This will keep your expenses down, and also make your work understandable for potential investors. Explain the business plan you have, the problem that you are facing in gathering funds and how you intend to reward your backers.

Demonstrate your prototype

If you are creating a product campaign, it is a better idea to showcase a working prototype of your item. Demonstrate it from various angles, to give your backers a proper idea of the item that you wish to launch in the market.

Get feedbacks from friends and close ones

Show the first cut of your video to a group of friends or even people who do not have much knowledge about your venture. Find out whether they understand the video clearly, and make out all that you have to say. Based on the feedbacks, you have to add some scenes or even delete a few before launching it on the crowdfunding sites.

Use an interesting thumbnail

The thumbnail for your crowdsourcing video should be an attractive one, so that visitors feel inclined to click on it and see the entire video. Use an interesting image that makes visitors feel the interest to take some minutes from their time and see the video. You need to follow the photography rules while choosing the image. The thumbnail needs to be from a right angle, and fully clear. Check a few video thumbnail images on sites like Indiegogo to get an idea.

Keywords: crowdfunding, Indiegogo, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding sites

Crowdfunding Websites – 5 Tips to Compare Them

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Crowdfunding Websites – 5 Tips to Compare Them

You can find many crowdfunding websites on the internet, with each of them coming with a unique set of features. Some of these target particular niches, like filmmaking, music or journalism. Others serve any type of projects. Various crowdfunding platforms present various types of projects, and you can use the following 5 tips to compare them.

Check out various sites

First of all, you should browse through various online fundraising sites. Find out how they allow setting up of crowdfunding profiles. Check which elements are allowed – blog, present contributors, rewards for contributors, progress for funding, goal for funding, videos, images, descriptions, project titles etc. With these parameters, you can also evaluate other sites of this type.

Compare them depending on your requirements

Next, you should compare the crowdfunding websites on the basis of your project requirements. For instance, if your venture can be understood only in a visual manner, it is best to go for a fundraising website which can help you post videos and images. If you can describe your project only in words, you have to choose a website that allows you the same. If your venture is in a specific niche, you need to go for a crowdfunding site which allows you to target that particular niche.

Go through the terms and conditions

You should also properly go through all the terms and conditions of the online fundraising sites that you intend to use for online fundraising for your project. You can find two primary forms funding structures – however-much-you-raise or all-or-nothing. The second model lets you get finances only when your funding goal meets a particular deadline. If the deadline is not met, the funds are returned to the backers. Although this can seem a little odd to you if you are new to the concept, this model inspires a lot of confidence in potential investors and is quite successful. But if you do not like it, you can go for the first model.

Check out the fees

You should also check the type of fees that are charged by the crowdfunding website that you choose. It is better to go for one that charges lower fees, especially if you have a tight budget.

Test varied platforms

You should also do some amount of experiment. A lot of crowdfunding websites let you test them before actually making a pitch. You should try out 3 – 4 varied crowdfunding platforms in order to find the one that suits you the best.

Keywords: crowdfunding, crowdfunding websites, online fundraising sites, crowdfunding platforms, fundraising website

Top 3 Ways Crowdfunding Helps Entrepreneurs

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3 Main Ways Crowdfunding Helps Entrepreneurs

Crowdfunding is an alternative method of financing that many entrepreneurs of small businesses are opting for. It has helped many small business owners to get funds for their ventures. It is a type of crowdsourcing which is assisting entrepreneurs in bypassing traditional ways of funding and getting investment capital more easily from people known to them and even outright strangers. Know about 3 main ways in which this type of funding proves to be assistive to new entrepreneurs.

It helps use crowd resources

The major benefit of crowdfunding is that it can help you to build wealth from your venture without using your own resources. No one can run a business all alone. In the initial stages, you are likely to lack the skills and experience that is needed in order to set up a business and make it grow. With the help of crowdsourcing, you can tap into the resources of others who believe in your venture. You can get funds in the form of tiny equity investments from lots of backers. You can even get established entrepreneurs to help you with professional advice and probably also turn into your customers.

You can get proper market feedback

There is also the scope for you to get proper feedback from potential backers and customers on crowdfunding sites as well as get the amount capital that is needed for starting your venture. You can also get feedbacks and suggestions from backers about any adjustments that you need to do prior to spending bucks on manufacturing, operations and promotions. You can receive proper feedback from the market by doing a test launch, and avoid unnecessary wastage of resources. There is the scope to get assistive suggestions and feedbacks on improving your product or service from crowdfunding platforms and make it more suitable for your customers. You can indulge in bulk production once you get completely satisfactory responses.

You can get valuable contacts

There is also the chance for you to gain valuable contacts through socializing on the crowdfunding platforms. You can get a first-hand experience of how to market your service or products. With the help of good business contacts, you can find great teams to support you, more investors and better marketing skills. With crowdfunding sites, you can also get an idea of how many people are interested in your business. Even before the launch of your product, you can generate awareness about your offerings without spending on glitzy ad campaigns.

Keywords: crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding sites, crowdfunding platforms

Kickstarter, Indiegogo or MyEFunder

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Kickstarter or Indiegogo – Which One Should You Go With for Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding has become extremely popular with new entrepreneurs, especially in these tough economic times when it has become tougher to gather funds for even small investments. Luckily, there are crowdfunding websites available today that have been set up to provide entrepreneurs and potential investors with the ideal launchpad to release their products or establish their ventures. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are two of the best crowdfunding sites out there which promote crowd-funding that is donation-based. There is a long-standing debate on which one is the better site, and the following points can be helpful for you to know which one you should go for.

Acceptance of Projects

Kickstarter only finances projects that are creative in nature, such as videos, music, films, journalism, comics, stage shows etc. On the other hand, Indiegogo does not have any preferences with the projects. It accepts every type of project without any type of restriction. It offers a lot of flexibility in terms of accepting and releasing various project ideas.

Project Fees

Kick Starter tends to charge a fee of 5% for projects which receive funds successfully. But entrepreneurs do not get anything in case their funding fails to meet the specified limit by even a few bucks. Indie Go Go charges a fee of 4% for projects which receive funds successfully and a higher fee of 9% for those that fail to meet the limit.

All or nothing model

Kick Starter maintains it security by following an ‘all or nothing’ business model. This means you cannot get any funds if you fail to meet the deadline. But Indie Go Go proves to be of the best crowdfunding sites as it does not follow such a model. Although this measure bypasses the urgency to gather funds, it proves to be useful in some cases.

Success rate

Of the two crowdfunding websites, Kick Starter enjoys a higher success rate of around 43%. But it has less total number of campaigns, slightly more than 46,000. Indiegogo has a reported success rate of about 10% but it has more than 92,000 campaigns due to its flexible policies in project funding.

User Traffic

Kickstarter has better traffic and more number of users than Indie Go Go. The moderate user traffic of the latter is believed to be a result of its financing strategies.

Considered from varied angles, Kickstarter seems to be more dependable, secure and popular. However, Indiegogo is also beneficial due to its better strategies, features, special algorithms and easier accessibility across the globe.

Keywords: Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Crowdfunding, crowdfunding websites, best crowdfunding sites

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