Hacker News Reader

Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

Separate to the idea itself, this KS made me realise there's an art to choosing the right rewards and levels. Some KS are just irrestible to donate to partly because they get the rewards just right. Others, like this one IMHO, don't make the most of it.

View on HN

Kickstarter allows me to add rewards after the project has started. What kind of rewards would you like to see?

+ You want to have rewards in lower donation brackets. Right now there's nothing between $25 and $200 — if I were to donate, I'd likely donate more than 25, but less than 200. You probably want rewards at the 50, 75, 150 levels.

+ Most projects offer tangible rewards (posters, booklets, figurines, keychains, tees-shirts etc.) that are just cool to have for any self-respecting geek. Unfortunately you're a software enterprise so it's not that evident for you, but I'm sure you can be creative in that space.

That's a good idea. Michael, you should look into doing a run of CoffeeScript coffee mugs. These ones were much-loved and are no longer available: http://www.etsy.com/listing/93595042/coffeescript-mug

Perhaps you could find a sponsor to offer some free give away items like t-shirts etc to donors, in return they get mentioned in the kickstarter, the email list and throughout the project. I imagine any startup would happily back this, if you managed to get one that used coffeescript that'd be even better.

Along these lines, for Kickstarters where both individuals and companies are probably going to donate in you're going to want different rewards. Companies want recognition... their name in lights. Individuals want participation and swag. Set rewards up accordingly.

Maybe you can register a domain or add a directory to an existing domain of yours where you create a project page.

You can blog about your progress, you can offer adspace on your page which might sell better than a name/company in the readme.

I think GuiA gave a good response. Psychologically, I think the $1 level is a bad anchor but then you're also missing a lot between the $10-$100 range where I'd suspect most donations would come (by quantity, not $ total).

Also, you're offering a mention in the README as a bonus - which is a good idea. But IMHO you should consider also having a separate DONORS file (or similar) which will list the names of anyone who donated and still be part of the project. Even such a small gesture will help people bond to the project and feel like they're a part of it, beyond the Kickstarter. I bet there are people who would even donate $5 just to get into such a file on what might be a popular project :-) (sad but true!)

My real thinking behind this is because I might be including this in JavaScript Weekly next week. And if I do, I think it would be awesome if people felt motivated enough to throw you some money.

Hah, you could always go the Indy game route and name library functions after the big donators :).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com