*Insolent boldness, especially when imprudent or unconventional
*Fearless, intrepid daring
My mother is here. My hair is pink. Last night I owned my stage for the first time in a long time.
Also last night people kept handing me money for my album pre-order/fundraiser because kickstarter is in bed with amazon payments who do not accept worldwide payment methods. Some people have been able to donate but many have not because they lack a visa or mastercard.
MAJOR FAILURE. Might scrap kickstarter completely and migrate over to a paypal based system. In which case everyone who donated so far would have to re-donate (your cards have not been charged.)
Reasons for migration:
A.) Residents of the UK, EU, and everywhere else in the world would not be LEFT OUT.
2.) Indefinite time line. I'm not a "hard seller" I don't want to send 8 emails, and 65 tweets a day, and go door to door to try to sell my product. I'll do my work, and maybe I should push it more, but I think at this point trying to get another $17,000 in 20 days is perhaps a tad overly optimistic.
Reasons to not migrate:
1.) Kickstarter is a neat idea and the impending end date and threat of receiving no funds may urge people to donate sooner.
b.) If I choose to migrate I could lose some people who change their minds, or just forget or whatnot.
3.) The link to my kickstarter page has already been seeded across the internet and I risk confusing the hell out of people - including myself.
But seriously the non worldwide payments thing....kind of a deal breaker. I am not super famous, but I do have friends and fans all over this lovely planet and leaving them out of the loop seems lame. Lame. Lame. Like a racehorse with a broken leg. You know what happens then?
So weigh in here. What do you think I should do?
And does anyone out there want to intern 4-6 hours a week on this with me?
Love!!!!
K
I think you should go with paypal but I will give you money for your album either way.
ReplyDeleteUhm (o.O) Sondern?
ReplyDelete(P.S.: Wundert mich, dass der Beitrag durchgekommen ist. Hab gestern bestimmt zehn mal auf *abschicken* geklickt und immer ne Fehlermeldung bekommen ^^)
Questions:
1) What happens to the kickstarter fundraiser, once the time is up when the goal is *not* met? No credit cards become charged, you don't see any US$?
2) Can you push the deadline further away?
In case the first answer is "yes" and the second is "no", then there's nothing left to think about...
As much as I would hope it for you, I don't see ~80% of the money coming in in ~30% of the time, while all the early adopters and die-hard fans already hopped on the train (at least those, that were able to...).
I doubt that the kickstarter version will work out within the next 24 days so this is doomed. The question is not "leave the kickstarter or try another method". The question seems to be "Start a *new* fundraiser via kickstarter or via another method". That question should be easier to answer...
I know that I wanted to donate for it, that I made a kickstarter account and then failed when it came to the credit card. Kickstarter not offering PayPal as a payment method is an epic fail for international fundraising, just as you pointed out above.
errr... intern? (o.O) What are you up to?
Arg... please ignore that first part of the comment... My browser was acting up, so I copied the text in a textfile, restarted the browser, copied it back from the textfile in the comment thingy again... and overlooked that there was other text in the text file as well ^^
ReplyDeleteyou could collect paypal orders and then just donate to your own kickstarter on behalf of them.. that way you could meet your goal and not lose what has already been pledged.
ReplyDeleteI haven't donated yet, because we've been suffering from broken appliances and the school I work at has had an 18% budget cut, so they've already cut our salaries slightly, and they're meeting tomorrow to decide who to let go. That said, I'm typically quick to jump on the pre-order/buy something/donate wagon because I want to keep seeing you do what you do (because I totally respect you as an artist). Because of the fact that I haven't been able to contribute yet, I don't like having the deadline so soon. I also don't like that if you don't get all the money by the deadline then you don't get any of it. I say go with paypal. You can create your own page that lists contributors and what percent of your goal you've met. Also this way, the money is helping you out NOW, which is when you need it, right? I don't think that those who have already contributed will have a problem recontributing, especially if their credit cards haven't even been charged yet. Maybe just send them pretty postcards apologizing for the inconvenience and thanking them for their generosity? You'll think of something.
ReplyDeleteI've been in fear of you not making the 20,000 by December. Everything you're suppose to have will be gone. I will definitely be willing to move my donation to paypal which may be the better way to go. If not for this pre-order, then maybe the next one - if you do another like this.
ReplyDeleteInterning with you would be fabulous but... me being in Cali and probably not qualified anyway sucks.
But I do hope you find someone great and I hope this pre-order works out for you.
P.S. Rad hair.
I haven't like kickstarter for a long time. It has good intentions but bad implementation in my opinion. When I first saw it I thought it was awesome and I was curious about how to get an account. However, after reading the fine print I became kinda disgusted with all of the stipulations. It sounded more frustrating to me than worth it.
ReplyDeleteI don't like several things with it and honestly had been curious why you hadn't just gone with paypal in the first place. Like I emailed you about previously the desire for multiple packages. Then I didn't like that it was all 'stream lined' through amazon either. If you have an amazon account, fantastic, if not, there's a whole new world of problems. I also was actually going to ask you about potentially sending payments to your paypal all ready because I don't like having to wait to pay for something. I want it paid for and the money out of my budget so that I no longer have to think about it and everything is taken care of. Instead of this waiting game that Kickstarter makes you go through.
Which that also raises a very valid point. A lot of people do work within budgets and are constantly balancing their finances. I know I have not ordered yet personally because I know how much I would like to pay and have put the money aside for aforementioned payment in another account (Paypal actually) so that I don't spend it, but I don't want to order and perhaps (accidently) forget that I've ordered. Which who knows, I could spend that money I was planning for the order and then be in big trouble later when I see 'X' amount of money is missing out of my account that I wasn't expecting to go 'missing' because I completely forgot that I had used that money for the order. So it makes sense to me that a lot of people wouldn't want to order 40, 30, 20 days before the kickstarter time is going to be up. A lot of them are probably going to order a few days before the time limit has been reached. Which explains the boom that happens to a lot of these projects right before their deadlines come up.
It seems to me if you want on going funds to come in, ditch kickstarter. If you want assured money, ditch kickstarter. If you want others to be able to pay around the world without a lot of extra time and energy having to be spent (as per Jordan's idea, which I do like if you choose to stick with it), ditch kickstarter. If you want people to be able to donate when they want and possibly make multiple donations for different packages, ditch kickstarter. I'm sure I could come up with more reasons but this post feels like it's getting rather long.
I'd be all for gearing up and switching all the SAFI stuff over ASAP if you do want to transfer everything over to paypal as I've been keeping a careful tabs on everything that's been put up and where its been placed. I don't mind assisting in trying to keep things organized if you'd like as well.
I'm curious as well, what do you mean by Intern with you? Hope you can find someone in Germany if that's what you're looking for. :)
<3
What does interning involve/require? I may be interested.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think moving to PayPal or something similar may be better for your album fundraiser, especially if it means more people can donate.
stick to kickstarter because if you don't reach your goal it'll end anyway, just start a paypal one in the meantime. Be careful of their fees though sometimes they can be shit high.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in interning... But can only do so online