paul wheaton wrote:There is so much about crowdfunding that is a mystery to me.
I thought that our live pdc, which asked for $6800, had a 50/50 chance of getting funded. But it got 1400% funded.
I thought this kickstarter would be close also, because they were asking for $43,000. But I threw in a bunch of my own stuff to help them get funded. And we worked a deal so that their stuff would end up in the permies.com digital market. It felt like good business. I was even grooving on the idea that there would eventually be 48 DVDs, one for each state. Each with three to four homestead businesses. This seemed rock solid to me, but it looks like it won't happen.
Please, please, please give me feedback. Lots of details. Josiah and Cliff followed all of my advice to the letter. I have two projects in the works right now that would be kickstarter projects and I am now thinking that maybe I should scrap them before even getting to kickstarter.
I felt like the initial kickstarter was rock solid. After it did poorly, I met with josiah and cliff and we brainstormed to make the changes you see now. I thought "there's only a few days left, but I admit, what we have created now is three times better than what we first offered." And it is still doing poorly.
There are hundreds of farms doing amazing stuff and we don't know about them because they are not "youtube people" or "teach classes people". So this project would roll up, harvest a lot of knowledge, set that knowledge up as a class and we can tap the knowledge of those people directly.
Ok, ok, ok, sorry ... i'm a bit enthusiastic about the project. The focus of this post is: what went wrong? Why do folks support my previous kickstarters, but they are less keen to support this one?
First off I want to say that I thought this project was interesting and I wanted to see it work out so please don't take my feedback as me being opposed to this project.
One piece of feedback is on the reward price jump from $1 to $15. I think having a $5 and a $10 level would have made it easier for more people to support the project. To me the $1 does not seem worthwhile but $15 seemed a bit high - I need to know for sure that the project is something good before I give $15. But $5? I can see that making a bit of a difference and it does not make me really pause especially if the rewards are interesting. I know I could do a custom reward but I just don't tend to do that even though I know I could.
I also don't think it is clear what the focus of the project is. Okay it is about Homesteading Business Courses but then there is a bunch of stuff about a tour and then a lot about the Ponder Family. The section on the family reads a lot like the Great American Farm Tour (visiting farms, national parks, meet-ups, etc.) while the other section is focused on the courses and homesteading business. This seems like two separate projects. The rewards also did not seem to be focused on the topic of Homesteading Business Courses.
Trying to think about this as if I'm someone who has never been to permies.com or PermaEthos but I want to start a homestead or I have one but I can't support my family from it. Lets call this person Bob.
Looking at the $1 rewards: Early Access to the Daily YouTube Vidoes (great but how are these videos related to the courses?), Email Update (okay, but I would think that would be free to anyone signing up on your website...), Understanding Homeschooling Quick Win Course (This is potentially good!), Hugelkultur Micro Documentary (Could be useful but what is Hugelkultur? Bob likely does not know what this is), Permaculture Playing Cards PDF eBook (What is this? I actually own the cards but for Bob... Permaculture is only mentioned once in the whole summary and then only in relation to the Ponder Family and the PDC they took - Bob does not know what a PDC is), 21 podcast review of "Holzer Permaculture" (what is Holzer Permaculture? I get it but no guarantee that Bob would), Public Thanks (Thanks!).
Jumping to the $15-$50 rewards: your choice of one/two/three/four of the four DVDs as HD streaming (why does Bob care about the first three States or the family video? Bob is supporting Homesteading Business Courses not a tour), access to the ThriveThrough community club (first time this is mentioned - what is it? If Bob does not know about PermaEthos why would this mater to Bob?)
The $60 rewards: Same as above but now there is finally a mention of courses! But wait micro-courses? Are these the same as the first 12 you mentioned in the description? Or are they different? What is Bob getting? Bob is confused...
What are Bob's pain points? What are the things that Bob is struggling with that you all could help Bob with? To me this project sounds great but does not show me that you understand where Bob is coming from or what his struggles are. Seeing that it is supported by Paul, Permies.com and PermaEthos is enough to make me think it would be good. But I don't think Bob would think you get his struggles - I don't think you are talking to Bob.
If I'm Bob I want someone to offer me the information that will let me start my homestead and be successful or make my struggling homestead successful.
Also, you did not give Bob much reason to trust PermaEthos or permies.com - give social proof. Something like this (would need to be cleaned up a bit):
"PermaEthos, a company that specializes in online education with X online courses that have helped Y homesteaders do Z, is on a mission to create the ultimate homesteading online library of courses that will give you the skills and knowledge you need to create a successful homestead that supports your family, and increases your independence."
"They have teamed up with Permies.com, an online community of X homesteaders, to see this undertaking come to fruition."
Then add some quotes from people who have taken classes from PermaEthos and some users of Permies.com - really only need one or two from both. Add a nice picture of the person if possible - ideally them doing homesteading tasks.
I would then describe the courses and I would not mention the States. Instead of documentaries I would shift that to micro-courses (still videos but instead of being focused on the individual States I would focus them on some broad topics - say raising animals, or growing your own food, etc.). Then I would have full courses that dive into specific topics in much more detail and go beyond just a video. Say a course on raising cows, another on chickens, another on ducks, etc. This way the broad micro-courses would feed into the more detailed and focused main courses.
Other rewards could be short written guides or checklists based on the same topics. These would be good lower level rewards. Perhaps some short videos from experts in the topics that could be done beforehand (might already exist) on specific topics.
The goal would be to tie all the rewards back to the idea of courses and providing a solution to ease Bob's pain.
Currently, the rewards seem unfocused or tour based which does not seem to be the true focus of this project.
Hope that helps - I don't want to be mean about this because I think the idea is great. My feedback is based on how this project and the way it was marketed hit me when I looked at it. Personally, I think you should launch this kickstarter again but redo it and make it much more focused on the courses and really explain to people how you will help them be successful at homesteading or how by supporting this kickstarter they will be helping you help other people to be successful at homesteading. The tour is how you will get the content to create the courses but the tour should be in the background and not focused on in my view.
Good luck!
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