Short version: things are going extremely well for the Fermi Resolution Worldbook Backerkit. Sufficiently so that I am wondering whether Kickstarter is a cost-effective move. It’s not that Kickstarter is bad. It’s just never given me these kinds of numbers.
To unpack a little: at the moment, I am at 83 backers, and $2,020 on a $500 goal. The ratio is 37/63 returning/new backers, and I am at a 13% returning backer rate. My average pledge is just under $25. Let me put up some numbers on how that compares to previous projects:
| Project | Backers | Amount | Backer % | Avg Pledge | R B R | |
| Old | New | |||||
| Fermi Res WB | 83 | $2,020 | 37% | 63% | $24.34 | 13% |
| TFR 2 | 62 | $2,134 | 80% | 20% | $34.42 | 24% |
| Tinsel Rain | 83 | $2,589 | 65% | 35% | $31.19 | 33% |
| Pickman | 23 | $362 | 90% | 10% | $15.74 | 11% |
| TFR 1 | 57 | $1,091 | 85% | 15% | $19.14 | 33% |
| Frozen Dreams | 149 | $5,238 | N/A | N/A | $35.16 | N/A |
As you can see, we’re ten days into the Worldbook Backerkit and already it’s tied for second in backers, fourth in total money gathered, and leading in new backer percentage (technically Frozen Dreams had 100%, but that’s not really meaningful, since it’s the baseline). What’s not visible from this is that the current project isn’t as front-loaded as the other ones were, with the sort-of exception of Frozen Dreams; crowdfunding projects traditionally have doldrums in the middle, and I’m having them with the worldbook, but I’m still seeing daily churn for right now.
I should also note that obviously the numbers for the worldbook don’t take into account the boost in backers that traditionally comes in the last two days of a campaign, either. I don’t think I have enough data yet to even make a guess, but I should get some. A significant amount? Maybe. The Old Backer and Return Backer Rate percentages suggest that my usual audience hasn’t fully engaged yet, and those people generally like me.
All in all, it’s hard to argue that Backerkit isn’t doing a better job for me than Kickstarter did. I’ve been heeding their suggestions pretty closely on this project, from building interest beforehand to growing my mailing list to blindly following their instructions on advertising, and so far it’s been working – actually, no. If it all shuts down today I would score this as ‘it worked,’ and everything after this is pretty much gravy. Their customer service is also spot-on, although I have some thoughts about handling smaller projects that I’ll save for my after-project discussions with them.
So that’s that. Oh: back my project, if you haven’t yet. You deserve a bit of fun.
Moe Lane
PS: Kickstarter is not bad now. Their system works perfectly fine, and may indeed work better for other projects. I’m just favorably impressed by how much better Backerkit is working for me.