Read. Read. Read. (oh – and listen, too)

This is what I’ve been doing quite often. And I humbly suggest you do the same.

Below, you will find the best resources you can read, watch, listen and join to become a Kickstarter master. It’s not the most glamorous part of the process, but well worth it.

Books

A Crowdfunder’s Stategy Guide – Build a Better Business by Building Community

In A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide by Jamey Stegmeier (he also has a blog, see below), he distills years of actionable advice packed into 217 glorious pages. He’s the veteran of 7 (and counting) successful campaigns and raised more than $3.2 million. Now that’s somebody we can learn a ton from.

Warning: The examples used (and some of the advice) is geared specifically towards board game designers. If this is your thing, great! If not, you’ll still get value, but not as much!

The Kickstarter Handbook: Real-Life Crowdfunding Success Stories 

In a series of interviews, business journalist Don Steinberg approached (picked the brain) of dozens of artists and inventors who launched their passion projects on Kickstarter. Read these stories and hear it from the founder themselves. Wait, not hear it! Ok, you know what I mean.

Podcasts

Funding the Dream

Funding the Dream is a podcast packed to the rim with tips and strategies to help you rock. It’s no longer active, but there are 332 episodes you can dive into. Wow! Just WOW!

Facebook Groups

Kickstarter Best Practices and Lessons Learned Facebook Group

With over 8,000 members, the Kickstarter Best Practices and Lessons Learned Facebook Group is a great resource. Ask to join and be sure to follow the rules and guidelines.

Websites/Blogs

James Mathe’s Blog

This is James Mathe personal website. In it, he posts mostly about game design and Kickstarter. It’s not the coolest (or friendliest) of designs, but remember to never judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, a blog.

Stone Maier Games

Stone Maier Games is a super successful (and useful) blog run by Jamie Stegmaier. In it, you’ll find literally hundreds of tips and tricks ranging from fulfilment to interviews he’s done with several successful Kickstarters. Oh – he’s also written a book about it. See above or check it out here.

Courses

The Kick Training

I was suuuppperrrr excited when I found The Kick Training course on a Google search. It checked all the right buttons for me. Well structured, with filled to the rim with relevant action-oriented tips and created by successful Kickstarter projecteers. Edu Gaya and Ramón Pérez, the successful creators of Barner, a brand of blue-light blocking glasses promised to teach us such things as:

• How to create a full Kickstarter campaign from beginning to end

• Understand all the costs involved on Kickstarter and prepare a great rewards strategy

• How to drive a massive amount of traffic to your campaign using growth hacking tools

• Set up your analytics platform to properly track your sources of traffic

= The importance of digital marketing and how to measure the ROI of your campaigns

How to build a strong community and how you should communicate with them

The key things for a great post campaign, how to gather your Backers’ information by creating a great final survey

What shipping options and crowdfunding logistics centers available

Unfortunately, the course is not online yet. However, I did reach out to Edu Gaya, which gracefully had these Expert Kickstarter tips for you and I.

MasterClass by Sara Blakely (creator of Spanx)

Have you heard of Masterclass? It’s a really cool concept. They ask world class athletes, performers, cooks, businessmen (and women) and other experts in their fields- to teach everything the know in a series of videos. I’ve learned cooking with Gordon Ramsay, writing with Malcom Gladwell and basketball with Steph Curry.

Pretty damn amazing, right?

Anyways, today I found out about a class by Sara Blakely, creator of the world famous spanx undergarment and youngest self-made woman billionaire. In it, she shares advice on developing our big idea, developing our entrepreneurial mindset, prototyping, producing and much more. I suggest you take a look at her Masterclass. I hope you enjoy it. I certainly did. 🙂

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Next up: Learning: Mentors and/or Advisors

Or, you can go to the Table of Contents.