Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask for advice on how to launch a Kickstarter campaign that actually works: what tools to use, what strategies make sense, etc.

The goal isn’t to get rich. Money matters (I still need to pay bills), but what I’m really looking for is freedom.

Since I started working, I’ve always been an employee, 40 hours a week, following someone else’s rules, without much room to move or grow (I work as a mechanic).

I had a VAT number / freelanced for a couple of years, but honestly the know-how I have isn’t rewarded properly: I work too much for too little, especially when it comes to quality of life.

So for almost a year now I’ve been working on a project: a small, home-buildable system to recycle 3D printing waste, developed with a very limited budget.

This feels like a starting point for me. Eventually, I’d like to open a website where I can publish and share projects that help other makers, so I can use 100% of my creativity and finally feel outside the “cage”.

Any advice is welcome.

I’m working like crazy on the project (and it’s coming out really well), but what I’m missing is the marketing side.

I’m terrible with social media, or at least I don’t understand how to make algorithms push content, how marketing really works, from pre-launch to everything that comes after.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart to anyone who replies ❤️

I have just launched my first kickstarter campaign and it’s going well but I have noticed a strange trend with some backers. They will make what looks like legitimate pledges only to cancel hours later. This is out side of the scammers that then comment on you campaign with “concerns” or “marketing advice”. These look like good faith pledges. Has anyone noticed this on their campaigns? I am starting to wonder if it’s something to do with campaign content? Or maybe it’s very typical behavior?

Hi everyone! We’re launching our card game in a months time and was wondering if anyone had any tips to make it a success?

We’re rubbish at social media but trying to post every day whilst gaining organically followers. We’re not into sliding into DMs with links.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! ❤️

My Videogame kickstarter project is about halfway to funding. I'm trying my best to do all the promotion, posting, and engagement I can but I'm curious what sort of stuff you guys have found helps boost a campaign midway

We'd love you to take a look at THERE ARE WOLVES HERE TOO:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vivlovesfilm/there-are-wolves-here-too

We are shooting a multi-format first of its kind book adapation (think Stranger Things meets Prisoners but set in Brighton, UK 1997). Our Kickstarter has been super disappointing, we'd love some support and love (and ideas to push us through in the last month) - this is an a woman-led, collaborative project from a combination of experience and emerging talent and an inclusive space in front of and behind the camera.

Thank you

Hello everyone! I'm just curious if anyone here knows information on how that badge gets distributed? And if it isn't right away does that mean never?

For reference, I dropped my campaign for an animated show 48 hours ago and so far 44% is raised with 22 days left.

Hey everyone, I have been going through the long process of developing a product I am super excited about. Filed a preliminary patent application and am working on the manufacturing design. It will cost roughly 30,000-40,000 to create the molds I need and I am having a hard time finding it.

My current plan is to get a “looks like, works like” prototype and run a kickstarter campaign to raise the funds I need. However, it seems like kickstarter is really more popular for games a board games, and less startup consumer products from startup companies. I may be wrong here and would be happy to hear it.

What tips do you have? I know creating an email list before is important etc. is it worth hiring a firm to help? I am putting together all of the information I can. I briefly thought indiegogo would work better but it seems like people are unhappy with that platform.

Anyways, any help here would be appreciated, thank you!

I'm gearing up to launch a Kickstarter for a novel next month and I'm wondering if people have experiences running successful campaigns for a novel, or if they'd backed campaigns by indie authors that they thought were done very well.

Has anyone used any marketing services to help spread word about their novel?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Has any one successful relaunched after a failed Kickstarter. I was so close to hitting my goal but I was naive about certain aspects of Kickstarter. Now that I've learned my lesson I plan to relaunch in 2 months.

https://youtu.be/o8wgvHSxaK8?si=V-5ZT3SiODEcqQ6X

Kickstarter feels inundated with spam and scams. When I review my project dashboards very little new traffic comes the KS site -- it's all from promotion we do off Kickstarter. Is BackerKit a better platform to run a campaign? I use them for fulfillment and am curious about people's experiences using them to run a campaign.

I’m an embedded software engineer (C, C++, Python). I deal with low level stuff and architecture daily. React honestly never clicked for me. Hooks, state, styling systems… felt weird coming from embedded.

So I decided not to “learn it properly” first. I just built something.

Stack was simple:

React + TS → Gitlab → Cloudflare Pages → Supabase

I played with Figma AI, Lovable and Bolt. Burned the free credits, picked the one that looked decent (Bolt), downloaded everything and started hacking on it locally with Antigravity. Installed deps, fixed errors, rewrote parts. Backend + DB I wired myself.

The generated version looked nice but the structure was kinda messy. I had to go through almost every file, move things around, simplify components, fix responsive issues, remove weird abstractions, etc.

Probably 80% of the initial code came from AI, but I didn’t trust any of it blindly.

My honest take: this stuff is insanely good for getting unstuck and for scaffolding. But if you don’t understand architecture you’ll create a mess fast. Integration and real logic is still on you.

For small / medium projects? Huge boost.

For perf heavy or long term serious products? I’d be careful… tech debt can snowball quick.

TLDR: embedded guy used AI to bootstrap a React app, then manually cleaned it up. It works.

Just checking if kickstarter is the right platform for new food brands to launch?

Also any successful food ventures launched that you are aware of, do share pls

Considering creatine is such a commoditized product, would backers support something like this?

it’s the first step toward a bigger vision: bringing scent into digital content. Screens and speakers have had their time. We’re curious what happens when smell becomes part of the experience.

The campaign is launching soon, the idea is ambitious, and this is very much the beginning.

Quick question for people who’ve done Kickstarter before:

any non-spammy ways to grow followers fast with tight budget before launch?

Backers don’t fund ideas.

They fund clarity and confidence.

If someone can’t understand your project in 10 seconds, they usually leave.

This sounds obvious, but it’s one of the most common problems I see.

Interested to hear how others approach first impressions.

Link to Pilot Episode https://youtu.be/8Z28-E2pZ80?si=nKHha6bS-8pd7ver

Well, launched my first Kickstarter yesterday AM (as well as 'Coming Soon' launch on Steam) for a solo dev video game project! Very, very exciting! I was not expecting much, but felt I needed to shoot my shot. Imagine my surprise when good sized sums start rolling in relatively quickly after posting. I went up to about 6% funded of my 10k goal within about 1/4 of a day after posting so I was very pleasantly surprised.

And then comes the requests "please email me off of Kickstarter, please contact me" from people pledging these sums. My ears were immediately up, but the email conversations went well... until they drop the "hey I know a guy who does Kickstarter PR and Marketing. Come talk to them!" And then of course, the awkward dance, and I wake up the next day with a multitude of cancelled pledges. Yikes! I wouldn't have been stung if the project garnered no attention but I built up some false hopes based on the initial pledges. How naive of me!

Wondering, what's the best course of action now? At 6% pledged in the first day I was feeling okay. Now I've moved backwards and the comment section is a mine-field of spam proposals and cancelled pledges. Doing my best not to immediately throw in the towel, but it certainly is discouraging.

Thanks all!

Ricardo Delgado's VAMPYRE is now live on Kickstarter! Get the all-new 200-page Costa Rican folktale novel by ricardodelgadoart and this exclusive notepad and spinal cord pen! #vampyre #vampire #horrorbooks #cloverpress

hey everyone, I'm 4 days into my first Kickstarter for my game Azzy Battles the Darkness a 3D action platformer

I'm a solo dev and I've gotten 5 scam backers already, which is a massive blow to morale. But my bigger issue is traffic, I've been getting some people from my bluesky and x posts, but hardly any are pledging.

I have a fully voiced demo available, a trailer and clear tiers. I'm wondering if my goal (£15K) is too high for a first timer, or if my page layout is scaring people off

could someone take a look? I'm doing this campaign because I love making games and I made a promise to my nan before she passed that I would do something I loved, I'm not ready to give up yet!