Friday 07th August 2015
While it might sound romantic, and even be slightly enjoyable at first, being a starving artist sort of stinks when you get right down to it. Unless you've already made it as an established artist, it's more than likely that you've got a job that helps you pay bills, keep a roof over your head, and make sure your stomach is at least partly full. Wouldn't it be a dream come true to be able to do ditch the job and spend all your time working on your passion? Undeniably, unless you're one of those lucky and clever people who have also found a job that they truly enjoy doing.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the last decade or so, you've probably heard the term 'crowdfunding'. You might even have supported a project that you were interested in. Essentially, crowdfunding is exactly what it sounds like - funding a project with small donations from a crowd of people, instead of a single wealthy patron. But did you know that there is a growing community of artists, writers and musicians who rely on crowdfunding to support their projects? A relative few, but the number is growing along with the popularity of the crowdfunding model itself.
It can be a daunting experience, to begin with, but the rewards are great if you succeed. If you're already comfortable building up a crowd of your own, a loyal following of fans, then you're well on your way to crowdfunding your next project already, as this is often the biggest stumbling block for artists - we tend to be an introverted lot, after all. At least with crowdfunding, you can ask for help digitally instead of in person!
There are a number of crowdfunding platforms available, from the grandfather of them all, Kickstarter, to IndieGoGo and GoFundMe, each with its own various benefits and pitfalls. The biggest pitfall tends to be that unless you reach your project's funding goal, all the money is returned to your donors. The exception to this is IndieGoGo, but they charge a higher fee for those types of projects. Explore the various options, take a look at the plans, and decide which site seems right for you. Then stop and examine the most successful projects, and use them as a model for how to design your campaign. Determining funding goals, the way you tell your story, and what you offer to your donors can make or break your campaign. You may not succeed your first time around - but learn from your mistakes, and try, try again, and you may just be able to live out that dream of making your passion your only job.
Posted on August 07th 2015 on 03:00pm
