This is a guest post by Pamala Clift.
January 2012 I started a 30-day timed funding campaign on Kickstarter.
I had worked within a community mostly of virtual world residents giving lectures and helping understand virtual relationships.
When I started to see the problems repeat in patterns from those that requested my help with their relationships I simply got tired. The same questions, perplexities and pain were hitting everyone.
So the community followed me as I did my research, and presented my findings and group discussions. They all wanted something tangible for them to reference. So I wrote a book. But because I was in virtual worlds and my university thought I was crazy, I was moved to the top of the layoff list when they down sized.
So being on unemployment gives you time but not a large funding resource for publishing. Since the community was aware of this need they all wanted to help. (Many digital residents have time on their hands but also low on funds so I wanted to make this a reachable contribution goal for everyone who wished to assist.)
So I started. EEeek! Filling out the forms for Kickstarter and then tying into Amazon accounts for money was worse than taxes. In fact I think Amazon can do my Federal Income Taxes better than I can by now. They have every password and bank account number I have almost. It is so demoralizing that your security is wiped out. They have to make sure your legit I suppose, but really?
Then we have the pitch. What wonderful things are you offering that is unique; why do you want the funds and what will they be used for?
But that is not all…They want video. Well fortunately I didn’t have to stay a “talking head” for too much of the presentation because I do machinima (video recording of the computer screen filming) and used that for interest generating. It was something that my target audience would recognize.
I started the creation of the project during the last week of December 2011 and didn’t get it launched until three weeks later working 12-hour days. Funding period ?Jan 13, 2012 – Feb 12, 2012 (30 days)
I was exhausted and more than a little frightened by the whole thing. It is one thing when people SAY they want to help, quite another when you ask them for money to solidify their comment.
I was so tired after the video when I was supposed to the text box component of my request; I just copied and pasted the video’s script without doing editing. Blush
But I hit the button to start it and I was done… umm. Now the emotions escalated. After the first couple of hours with no hits from outside, since I thought the actual website put my project out to the public and I thought it was such a cute video.
I started the social media thing, with twitters and Facebook. Then I went back into the virtual worlds and sent notices out to several groups including my own Roadside Philosopher’s group (it had under 500, at the time, international members). I contacted individually several of my more affluent associates with the intro of “You wanna see what I just did?” and threw out a link to the project.
That is when I was hit with but I don’t want to give all my information to Kickstarter to contribute. It was a hassle for them to set up accounts and tie them to their Amazon accounts. I hadn’t thought about that part of the process. If you wish to be anonymous in a virtual world “coming-out” to contribute a few dollars to a project is a big request.
But I did get a surprise with a $500 donation right off, which gave me hope. The goal was only $2000. I watched the calendar and targets for the funding progress and when things appeared slow, started a new attack from another direction.
The last attack was to enable the very low contributors an opportunity to contribute and remain anonymous.
Since this was a book on virtual relationships we asked for volunteers to be auctioned off for virtual dates. They each had to come up with what they would do or present on their virtual date. A friend donated their venue and assisted with announcements to his group. I did pictures and notecards that contained their information. I contacted the company that provides Second Life and got them to put it up on their internal destination site.
The day of the event brought lots of activity and I facilitated the auction with 9 men & 9 women making sure everyone was having fun as we exploited everyone’s virtues or lack there of. At the end of the event we had enough Linden dollars that converted to over $300 US dollars that brought me within sight of the end.
It was at week 3 of this 4-week sprint when an already-donated friend decided to hike up his contribution by the needed amount and finish my pain. The deed was done. I stopped begging, running and slept.
I had kept the notices going out to my contributors along with the notice of the celebration party and the plans for distribution of rewards. Record keeping is paramount.
With each contributor there is a way to reach him or her directly so I kept in contact. The Kickstarter project can be found here: Virtual Relationships.
To see the book that got published as a result: Virgin’s Handbook on Virtual Relationships where I also keep everyone updated to its progress.
And the list of contributors. Here it is a year later and I am putting out a re-edited version and working on an Audible version.
The construct is good. It has helped quite a few people who have been nice enough to contact me directly from all over the world. So until I can make it functional to interact online I will continue plugging away.
If you are going to construct a public funded project you need to have the passion and dedication to continue. They are contributing to your vision. It is your responsibility to believe in it enough to never let it go.
