| Kickstarter is nothing more than a web hosting company? Pardon? I recently raised more than $38k from Kickstarter. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have been able to raise nearly that amount by throwing up a website and going it alone. Here are some stats (for this project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jackadam/dark-sky-hyperl...) 1) 32.26% of our funds came from visitors who found our page through the Kickstarter newsletter. 2) In total, 56% of funds came from visitors finding us via other Kickstarter pages (their home page, category sections, etc). 3) 44% were referred to from external sources. But here's the thing: the external links were primarily due to the publicity we got from Kickstarter's promotional efforts. We got mentioned on Wired, Fast Company, the New York Times, and CNN.com -- not because we reached out to them, but because of the large number of people talking about us after finding us on the Kickstarter site itself. In the end, Kickstarter enabled us to raise tens of thousands of dollars and in return took a measly 5%. |