My Kickstarter ended yesterday: Funded! I’m excited and relieved at the outcome and look forward to my next research trips. Yesterday, I booked my flight and hotel for the Entomological Society of America’s annual meeting, which will include a host of papers and symposia on bed bugs. That trip, and the others I have lined up for this year and next, would not have been possible without the Kickstarter funding.
This was my first Kickstarter. It’s been interesting watching the donations come in– where they come from, how much people gave, whether or not they accepted rewards, and more. And, I like stats, so here’s the basic breakdown for those of you interested in Kickstarter sausage. Some of this info was collected by Kickstarter, some came from me. For general Kickstarter stats, including which types of projects are most often funded, click here.
Overall, there aren’t big surprises on my project. The most popular project goal for publishing is between $1,000 and $9,999, which is where mine fell. My goal was at just over 55% at my halfway mark and, according to Kickstarter stats, most projects that make it that far are successfully funded in the end. Most of my funding came from generous friends, who arrived at my Kickstarter page via my posts on Facebook, Twitter and direct emails. And, there was a surge in donations in the very beginning and at the very end, which is when you’d expect people to have the greatest urgency to donate.
General
Project goal: $5,000
Project duration: 2 months (August 16 to October 16)
Money
Amount pledged: $5,900
Lowest donation: $1
Highest donation: $500
Average donation: $63.44
Percent funded: 118%
Percent funded at halfway point (Sept. 16): 55%
Biggest jump in donations: Aug. 20 and Oct. 9 tied with +16 backers each day
Longest stretch with no backers: Sept. 20-27
Backers
Number of backers: 93
Backers I know personally: 85
Backers I’ve never met: 8
Family: 3
*Friends: 68
Colleagues and/or work peers: 25
*Some overlap between “friends” and “colleagues”
Where they came from
Direct traffic: 65.66%, raising $3,874
Facebook: 12.03%, raising $710
Twitter: 5.85%, raising $345
Kickstarter searches: 7.8%, $460
brookeborel.com: 4.24%, $250
Misc.
Backers who upped their donation: 4
Most popular reward: $50 (thank you messages & signed paperback)
Least popular reward: $5 (thank you email)
Backers who selected no reward: 16
Animation hits: 446
Image may be NSFW.
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