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Would This Be A Really Irritating Kickstarter Project?


MikeRivers

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People beg for money for all kinds of stuff on Kickstarter. I'm wondering if I should try my hand at a handout.

 

Most of you here are aware that I write NAMM and AES (and occasionallly NAB and CES) show reports and post them on my web site. A few of you even read them. I don't have anyone paying for this. I go to the shows to see what's new and interesting, see some old friends, make an occasional new one, and on rare occasions find something to review. But the days are over when I could get paid for my writings. (and, yes, I've asked Harmony Central to put me to work for them at these shows and they don't have any money either).

 

My biggest expense is getting to be hotel rooms. The prices are skyrocketing, and they know when the shows are now so for show dates, even the cheap, dumpy hotels in Anaheim are over $100/night. It's getting hard for me to justify the expense. Would it be waaaayyyy too tacky for me to at least partially fund my show reports through donations? If I could get $2,000, I'd be making money. If I could scare up $500, that would ease the burden. I don't really know what I could offer to contributors since I couldn't give them a discount on something that I'm giving away for free. Maybe some guitar picks that came all the way from Anaheim?

 

Would I sound like a total jerk if I asked for $500 to pay for a hotel room, the product of which would be my show report? I don't want to ask for $25,000 and assemble a team to cover the whole show with videos and dancing girls, I don't want to stay at the top dollar hotels, I just want a clean room within walking distance of the show. I haven't written anything up yet, I just wanted to get an idea of whether this is just too self-serving to expect anything but insults.

 

And for anyone with real live crowd funding projects, would any of the other crowd funding web sites be more appropriate than Kickstarter?

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I don't see any problem whatsoever in doing something like that. I mean, you're not expected to work for free.*

 

One of my 3DW friends is a (very) small, (mostly) poetry publisher (with a huge catalog of books and chap books, he might not sell much but he certainly publishes a lot).

 

He's begun using Patreon -- which is kind of 'subscription' oriented. With that system, you set up tiers. A small amount gets you basic stuff, access, or whatever. The more they give, the 'bigger' the perqs are. For his top tier he actually gives x hours of small-publishing and/or editorial consulting (a lot of people who buy poetry and short-run books appear to be aspiring writers, themselves) -- but alternatives include just talking with him about stuff, his life, writing, poets he's known over the years. And, knowing him, maybe some gossip. (J/K, J/K.) He offers the consultations via voice/vid via Skype or through email.

 

 

So, for instance, you could have a basic tier (guilt-free access and the satisfied feeling of knowing your helping support good show reportage) and then have higher tiers where people get to ask you direct questions or get special insider reports or even just chat with you (over media of your choice -- or perhaps theirs, the customer usually thinks they're king).

 

Anyhow, I think it sounds like a solid notion that you can probably bend to fit your circumstances. (Not necessarily the Patreon model, of course, that was more example. Also, I'm not sure if all their modalities are the same subscription type thing -- but it is oriented to ongoing support, as I understand it.)

 

 

* [video=youtube;wFle2YoQwWg]

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Before companies paid for me to go, I paid for trips myself. The expenses were deductible on my schedule C, and I could always book enough business to make it worthwhile.

 

At the last NAMM we booked an Air B&B for Dendy, Phil, and me. It ended up costing $67 a night and the wi-fi was actually usable :)

 

Meanwhile, sure, give Kickstarter a start. Bert from the Effects Database sold Effects Database t-shirts prior to the show to raise money to go. He was there, so I guess it worked.

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Before companies paid for me to go' date=' I paid for trips myself. The expenses were deductible on my schedule C, and I could always book enough business to make it worthwhile.[/quote']

 

That's what I did for many years when I had enough paying work so that there was something to deduct from. Nowadays, my actual income from Schedule C reportable projects is only a few hundred dollars a year. If your Schedule C shows a loss for too many years, the IRS will tell you to get a better job and quit deducting the loss from your other income.

 

At the last NAMM we booked an Air B&B for Dendy, Phil, and me. It ended up costing $67 a night and the wi-fi was actually usable :)

 

I looked into Air B&B a couple of times, both around Anaheim and also downtown LA for the west coast AES show. I could find rooms a bit less expensive than a hotel, but most of them had a $50 cleaning fee tacked on, and none were within walking distance of the convention center, so there was the added cost and inconvenience of parking or a cab. It's hard to beat the Ramada on Harbor for price and convenience, but it sure was dumpy. The Travelodge International was my go-to place for about half a dozen years until they (or other NAMM attendees) caught on. The price doubled in the last two years.

 

Meanwhile, sure, give Kickstarter a start. Bert from the Effects Database sold Effects Database t-shirts prior to the show to raise money to go. He was there, so I guess it worked.

 

At least he had something tangible to sell. Maybe I should make some T shirts. ;)

 

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You know....For some reason I thought all you guys were rich. At least I thought Craig, Dendy and Phil were.

 

I already appreciated all the work you all put into the place here. Now I feel...I dunno. Like sending you some homemade jerky or something.

 

I really do appreciate this place, and the hard work all the above fellows put into it.

 

 

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Re: Kickstarter

 

How much does it cost if it doesn't work? Time and/or money.

 

It doesn't cost anything if it doesn't work, except the time to write up the project. At least I don't know of anything else. You set a goal and a deadline. If you don't get enough donations to meet the goal by your deadline, you don't get any money at all (not even the amount offered if the total is less than the goal) and the donators don't pay anything. If you meet or exceed the goal, you get the money with Kickstarter skimming 5% off the top.

 

Usually when it gets near the deadline, there's a pretty good pot but not quite enough to make the goal, you get a friend to kick in enough to put you over the line and then you give him his money back when you cash in. Yeah, people really do that.

 

If you can afford the try in both, why not?

What do you have to lose?

 

I suppose I could lose my credibility, if I had any. Without a tangible product, only something that everyone who's interested in it (and there seem to be fewer and fewer who are) will be getting for free, it seems kind of tacky to ask for contributions toward it. I'd probalby poo-poo a project like that, though I've donated money toward toward audio productions that were slated for NPR (where everyone gets it for free, or for "support").

 

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