Luckily, internet magic has given the world a quick and easy way to replicate this process in front of more proverbial commuters than ever before. You just upload your work online, and then hit your local neighborhood crowdfunding site to solicit donations. Except the "local neighborhood" part was a joke. The truth is, there are just a handful of sites people actually use. They have some pretty important differences, and you can bet that once you let the world know you're using one, plenty of people will instinctively tell you all the reasons you should have used a different one.
Case in point, I opted to use Kickstarter. Almost immediately after launching the project, someone tweeted this at me:
No way! I didn't even think to research such things!
That's true. With Kickstarter, if you don't reach your stated goal, you get zero money. It's like appearing on Judge Judy, but being a young punk about it, so she gives all your appearance money to your shitty ex to cover legal fees and the $3,500 you borrowed and never paid back. Just like that, actually.
With sites like Indiegogo, if you shoot for $25,000 but only get $12,500, you at least get to keep what money you did make. That's cool, but they also have at least part of their homepage dedicated to convincing me Charlie Sheen should have his own line of condoms. Also, it's called confidence. Try it sometime.
However, that shouldn't be your only concern. If your project is something that absolutely can't happen if you don't get the exact amount of money you're requesting, Kickstarter is the move. If you ask for $50,000 and only get $10,000, the people who did donate are going to expect you to follow through on all your wild promises, whether you have the money for it or not.
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