BETTER PREPERATION

Looking back now— even though I'm only 11 days into this— there are a few things I wish I would have done before to better prepare. I blame the lack of these preparations on the upcoming holidays. I was more worried about the final days of the campaign falling too close to Christmas, and wanted to get the campaign launched ASAP. But now, I think properly preparing, like I knew I should've, would have resulted in a heftier amount of contributions at the beginning (which will help push those people who want to contribute, but are waiting to see if it looks like it will be successful before they do).

So here is what I should have done, before launching the IndieGoGo campaign:

1) Update my email contacts at least 30 days before going live with the campaign. This time frame is important. In fact you may want to get this one ready 60-90 days in advance. And make sure to use Facebook to get all of your family and friends updated emails. I thought I had many of my family's emails already in my contacts, but I was wrong.

2) After updating the email list (again, do this at least 30 days before you go live) send an email to all the email contacts you gathered. Inform your family and friends on what you're doing and when you plan to go live with the campaign. Make sure to ask them for help in raising the contributions and sharing IndieGoGo project.

3) Use FaceBook and Twitter (and whatever else you do) to send the same message you sent in step 2 to those people who you couldn't find an email for.

4) During the next 30 days, send one to two reminders to your contacts about campaign launch. For the people who you emailed the first notice, you may want to Facebook for the second notice. It takes on average 3 to 6 calls-to-action to take effect. And using different media types will up your averages.

5) After launching, call your family and friends to action spreading the word and contributing what they can.

I'm going to publish this post. But I'm going to edit and finish this in the next several days, so you will see changes.