The Crowdsourceress: Get Smart, Get Funded, and Kickstart Your Next Big Idea

by Alex Daly

"Neil Young's Pono campaign was the third most successful hardware campaign of all time, and Alex deserves much of the credit, second only to Neil, of course. The Crowdsourceress will give you everything you need to make your campaign a success." -- Phil Baker, COO, Pono "Owning The Crowdsourceress is like having Alex Daly's 'special sauce' right at your fingertips." -- Jesse Reed, cofounder, Standards Manual In recent years, the crowdfunding industry has generated several billions in funding. But the harsh reality is that around 60 percent of Kickstarter campaigns fail. Enter Alex Daly, a crowdfunding expert who has raised over $20 million for her clients' campaigns. She has run some of Kickstarter's biggest projects-TLC's newest album, Neil Young's audio player, and Joan Didion's documentary. In this book, Daly takes readers deep inside her most successful campaigns, showing you how toGet fans and influencers excited about your launchBuild an appealing and powerfully designed campaignAccess proven video tips, pitching tactics, press releases, and rewards ideasAvoid the most common headaches and pitfalls Here you'll get tangible tools to run your own crowdfunding campaigns and fully connect with the crowd, get people to pay attention, and inspire them to act.

Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Nonfiction

257 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 28, 2017

Reviews

[Gizem Kendik Önduygu · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are going to launch our Kickstarter campaign in a week and Alex is our hero <3

[Heather Dune Macadam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got a advance copy of Alex's book yesterday and read it in one sitting, while making loads of notes especially around my own crowdfunding campaign, which is not going all that well:P

The step by step processes for each unique campaign that Daly underlines are exceptionally helpful. The passion with which she writes about raising money for her projects is both practical and inspiring. It is also overwhelming! By the time I shut down my Kindle, I was ready to re-edit my film, re-vamp my press release and send out a really great new update and it was two in the morning!

Is crowdfunding courageous, foolhardy or both? My take away is: work hard, be organized, have fun and don't be afraid of your passion for your project. Passion is something I always underplay, so it is back to the editing bay to allow my energy and optimism for my project into my campaign. Since I'm raising money for a film about the women in Auschwitz, sounded excited is a bit difficult! But I'm going to figure out how to balance the weight of the story I am trying to tell with the passion I have to tell this story.

Thanks @AlexDaly for sharing your brilliance with the rest of us plebs.

And if you read this and want to donate to the documentary on the Last Survivor of the First Transport to Auschwitz, Click Here! :) http://kck.st/2kWkmMT

[Jeremy Alan Graves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing insigt

This book helps anyone prepare a product for market and gives you literally step by step instructions to bring your product to the Crowd Sourcing platforms MUST REad for anyone looking to build a following or prepare for a new product launch

[Gabriela Pires · Rating 5 out of 5]

I now feel completely confident about starting my first Kickstarter campaign! Alex is so inspiring and gives step-by-step on how to confidently start your first campaign!

[Sean Post · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything it promises to be. Super actionable. Proven from her vast experience with crowdfunding.

[Nic Lishko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! I found it to be an incredible resource as I plan on launching a few kickstarters in the coming months!

[Adam A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very practical and honest guude if you want to start crowdfunding. There are a lot of golden nuggets of wisdom. Makes me want to start my personal crowdfunding project soon.

[Colleen]

Very long. From 2016. Need to relisten or check out another book on the subject. Too complicated. Author makes a business out of it.

[Tom M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alex Daly stumbled into, and then created a whole new industry for herself: managing Kickstarter campaigns. Her book, "The Crowdsourceress" details how all of that came to be and what her strategies were for working on some of her biggest campaigns.

I was initially very taken by her book and amount of work that went into each of her first projects. Then, as the book progressed, I realized there were several major shortcomings to her advice:

* She partnered (both business and personally) with a filmmaker and graphic designer who helped her immeasurably during all of her campaigns.

* Her projects were all relatively big name projects with build-in, pre-existing fanbases that could be easily tapped into.

* She continually references the same projects over and over again, meaning there's a lack of diversity to the types of projects and approaches to the projects.

* She almost embarrassingly mentions a failed Kickstarter project that she managed twice in the book. Neither time did she go into any details about why that project failed. Lessons learned in this case must be just as important as those learned from successful campaigns. Why she left out any details on this was, frankly, frustrating.

Make no mistake: there is a lot of very useful, helpful information in Daly's book on the business-end of creating and managing a Kickstarter campaign. (Spoiler Alert: There's a lot more than you might think.) However, my lasting criticism of the book is that it is really tailored to the type of Big Idea project, or Next Big Project from That Big Company and not towards the average person who has an idea and needs to build a project and backer base from scratch.

If the book was marketed towards big companies/big ideas, I would have been fine with it. However, as someone who isn't a big company and doesn't have something on the scale of a NYC Subway or NASA Graphics book to sell, I felt left out of the story and community that is so important for creating successful Kickstarter campaigns.

[T. Laane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should re-read it. Although I took a lot of notes, I'd forgot in time the EFFORT needed. To sum it up - not only the best book about crowdsourcing that I have heard, but one of the best starter-kits for unleashing any project in the public. The key: homework! A LOT of homework, MONTHS before any launch. The book goes over systematically different things that need to be considered and prepared, e.g. giving a list of action steps to find and get into contact with journalist. For example, first selecting them via their previous articles and writing to them about the parallels of your project etc. No spam, only careful customization with each letter. And sticking to 3-4 sentences, even if you'd want to write a page. And even though this book was not directed to startups, I'd say many-many principles apply. How to communicate to public, how to communicate to investors etc.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book came in the mail from a giveaway I frankly do not remember signing up for. I didn't expect to read it. But after a few days I picked it up, and I couldn't put it back down. This book is shockingly engaging, and very informative. I have never had any interest in crowd funding, although I have contributed to a few campaigns, but this book was a fascinating study. I have already recommended it to several friends and relatives. It was really a good read.

[Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of what's written feels like common sense. But it really comes to life because she uses cases. In the end I liked it because it was a positive message that everyone can do it, but not too fluffy to give the feeling that it would be easy.

It's not a long read, so I would certainly recommend it to everyone thinking about starting a crowdfunding campaign.

[booklearner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very handy and informational, if I decide to go this route. Esp. Ch. 9- "Press and Influencers"

[Linda Epach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the name of this book by Alex Daly, "The Crowd-sourceress: Get Smart, Get Funded, and Kickstart Your Next Big Idea" I thought it very creative and clever. I was hoping for the same in the book. Instead it was very methodical and organized. It was well written and had several examples and tables for things to do for a large Kickstart campaign. However, I found it lacking in providing practical advice for those looking to do a smaller GoFundMe or KickStart campaign. I hoped the book would provide some crowd funding solutions for small independent bands or authors. Unfortunately the book catered to larger projects, so i personally was not able to utilize the book as I had hoped except for a smaller version of the timeline at the end.