Lesson #15 – Pros and Cons of IndieGoGo InDemand

The only platform I have ever used to crowd-fund my projects. Up until recently, I had never used IndieGoGo or GoFundMe. Recently, I (along with many other creators) have been approached by IndieGoGo to run an InDemand Campaign for one of my previously funded Kickstarter Campaigns InDemand is set up so that creators can take an already funded project (on Kickstarter or IndieGoGo) and continue to collect pledges for as long as the creator wishes.

I recently gave InDemand a test run for my game Gadgeteers (which funded in September 2016) and I wanted to discuss my experience with this feature.

The Run Down ^

Gadgeteers – previously funded on Kickstarter in September 2016, raised $12,083 thanks to 451 backers.

After successfully funding and waiting a few months, I launched an IndieGoGo campaign for Gadgeteers on February 6th, 2017 as an additional method to collect pre-orders.

I was careful to make sure that this was not a slap in the face to my Kickstarter backers. Gadgeteers was $19 shipped to US backers (on Kickstarter) and I have increased it to $23 shipped to US backers (on IndieGoGo).

The pros of IndieGoGo InDemand ^

• It is fairly easy/straightforward to load a campaign project. I already had all of the art and video assets needed from my Kickstarter campaign and I only had to make a few minor tweaks to the main image in order to get everything to port over to IndieGoGo. I would say all in all it only took me about 30-60 minutes from signing up to having the page complete.
• There is a new audience on IndieGoGo. It seems that completely different audiences use Kickstarter vs. IndieGoGo. I have connected with many people through Kickstarter and hope that running a campaign through IndieGoGo will introduce my company and products to an entirely new set of backers.

The cons of IndieGoGo InDemand ^

• The audience just is not there yet. IndieGoGo is working hard to increase their board game presence but it just is not there yet. I have had my campaign on the site for just over a month (at the time of writing this) and have received two pledges. One was from someone I know. I tried not to publicize that I am running the campaign as I wanted to see what kind of internal audience/traffic IndieGoGo has built in to it, and the answer seems to be that it is pretty small right now. However, any new backers are good and I do feel that IndieGoGo will be doing a lot over the next year to increase traffic to their board game projects.
• The fees are a littler higher than KS, especially if you used Kickstarter to run your original campaign. IndieGoGo takes 8% if you ran your campaign on Kickstarter vs. 5% if you originally ran the campaign on IndieGoGo. These percentages do not include your standard Credit Card processing fees of 5-8%. Although the fees are a little higher than Kickstarter, they are not too bad and definitely manageable if you have done your diligence in creating a sustainable MSRP for your product.
• The fees are not instantaneous. When you collect pre-orders on your website, someone pays you and you receive the money through your Credit Card processor immediately. With InDemand, disbursement of pledges happens once a month. Although you will not be receiving pledges immediately, you will get a nice deposit in your bank account monthly!
• You cannot send packages out immediately. Once you have received your product and can ship out immediately, you still do not want to do this when you receive a pledge. The reason is, people who pledge to a campaign typically have 10 days to request a refund. You do not want to send out a game and then find out the backer asked for a refund. This means you have to make note of the purchase, wait until the 10 day holding period is up, then send out the perk the backer requested. This can be tedious not being able to just fulfill immediately like you would a purchase off of your site.
• The amount collected is a little misleading. On the InDemand campaign page, the amount collected for the project that is shown on the site is the total you collected in your Kickstarter campaign plus what you collected from InDemand. This feels misleading as it makes it look like I collected over $12,000 on my InDemand Campaign when in fact the bulk of that was originally collected through Kickstarter last year.

Overall Impressions ^

Overall, I would say that my experience with IndieGoGo InDemand has been a positive one. It was really easy to set up and although I have only gotten a few new backers, I am happy to connect with new people regardless of the amount. After setting up the site, maintaining information and shipping out rewards is no different than collecting additional pledges and shipping out games purchased off of your own website. If you have the time to set up a campaign, I definitely think it is worthwhile and I feel that this will be even more true in the coarse of another year, when IndieGoGo hopefully grows their board game presence. I am by no means an expert at using IndieGoGo but I have set up this one campaign there, so please reach out to me if you have any questions and I will do my best to help you out!