Quickstarter

There was some discussion about Quickstarter on my Backyard Dairy Goats Kickstarter thread here, but I thought maybe Quickstarter deserved its own thread, so now it has one.

Nicole Alderman wrote:

Kate Downham wrote:
It's a 'quickstarter' campaign, where we're encouraged to make a video in one day on a phone.

I was curious as to what a Quickstarter is, and found out it's a relatively new thing at kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/the-quickstarter-manifesto):

The Quickstarter Manifesto:

1. The development process—from sketching an idea to launching it on Kickstarter—should take no more than three months.

2. Keep the campaign under 20 days.

3. The funding goal should be below $1,000 (or thereabouts in your local currency).

4. The main reward should be under $50.

5. The video should be shot over one day with whatever camera you have (smartphone highly recommended).

6. Don’t do any PR and media outreach (unless you get contacted).

7. Don’t run any paid ads on social media.

8. No stretch goals.

9. Include “Quickstarter” in your campaign name.

(bold added by me)

It's a pretty cool idea! The only problem I see with it is the 20 days. Most kickstarter campaigns are 30 days, so when someone sees "19 days left," they think, "Oh wow, 11 days have passed and people have only bought 3 books. There must be something wrong with this campaign." I wish it would say, instead, "19/20 days remaining."

I agree that it would be much better if they said eg. 19/20 days remaining, or gave a percentage, instead of just days left.

Having the campaign limited to 20 days or less has some other good and bad points about it.

Good: Because the goal is much smaller than for a standard Kickstarter campaign, maybe we don't need a full 30 days for it, and it's better to not have to wait as long.

Bad: Limited time to share and promote the campaign - I didn't want to share the campaign until it was actually up and ready for pledges. It can take a while for some people to read emails, get back to them, some email newsletters aren't sent out that frequently, so there aren't as many days to do this in, and if the campaign doesn't take off right away, it's probably a bit more stressful than it would be for a longer campaign.

raven ranson wrote:
Quickstarter is nifty because it encourages us to be amateurs.  I noticed when I was doing my Kickstarter, I'm competing with people who spend months or years preparing their campaign - very polished, a lot of backhanders going on in some of the campaigns.  Stuff like that.  QuickStarter feels more authentic.  Here we have a real person, just like you or me, making a real thing that needs a helping hand to exist in the world.  I know it's only 20 days and no one knows what a quickstarter is yet, but I think it's going to catch on because it's so much like how kickstarter was in the early days - an authentic willingness to encourage an unpolished campaign that focuses on the project, not all that shiny promotional bling.

I agree. There are plenty of people who have good things to create and share, but aren't skilled with making videos. We shouldn't always be expected to make professional-quality videos and compete with people that do, when we're creating something fairly simple and small. If your campaign had a homemade phone video I still would have pledged for your linen book, because I think the writing style and content of books are more important than video making abilities.

I hope it catches on.

Quickstarter campaigns get added to a second section other than the standard category listing on Kickstarter. If you look at the Quickstarter campaigns list here mine is near the top at the moment, but if you go to the 'publishing' category using the main Kickstarter website it's very difficult to find.

I think Quickstarter is good for print on demand publishing, small print runs, zines and so on. There's probably plenty of other things it could be used for, such as pre-selling one batch of jam in order to test the waters for a bigger jam and pickle making campaign, or just doing a test campaign for some other wonderful homemade things to see how Kickstarter works.

Thanks for starting this thread.

My 'quickstarter' now has less than 3 days to go (link is here), and I think it has already given me the confidence to do another Kickstarter campaign later on, and to try and find someone to help me make a video next time (hopefully someone local will trade their video making skills for my goat cheese).

I've learned a lot about the whole Kickstarter process through this campaign. I wrote a bit about it over on this thread.