Top Ten Tips to Tackle Crowdfunding

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Friday July 20, 2012 · 8:14 PM PDT

2012/07/20 · 20:14

Cross-posted at Huffington Post and the Democratic Daily

My company, Spend Consciously, has just launched its second crowdfunding campaign. At the start of our first, my boss Matthew Colbert and I were fairly new to the process. But thanks to what we learned from the first campaign, the second is off to a very encouraging start. In fact we're currently the "Hottest" campaign on StartSomeGood.com. It's incredible how a bit of experience can manifest so significantly. We developed an idea for what communication methods were most effective. We learned about - and made - some common mistakes. But as a result, we are more battle-hardened, more effective entrepreneurs. It's one thing to read up on crowdfunding. It's another to go out into the field and get your hands dirty.

At Spend Consciously we're developing an app (Eye$pend) that will let consumers scan products with their smartphones in order to learn whether or not buying that product is in line w/ their values. While this current seed round chugs along, we figured we'd experiment with crowdfunding to see if it was worth the time. After all, it's risky business. Some ventures succeed wildly, collecting three or four times their goal. Most are not so lucky.

Overall I recommend giving it a shot, if only for the experience and the exposure. But it's not easy. Still, others have been there, and you can learn from their mistakes. And their victories.

Top Ten Key Strategies for a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

beezling

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Tuesday September 22, 2009 · 4:13 PM PDT

2009/09/22 · 16:13

On August 31st, Dan Eggen of the Washington post wrote an article containing factual errors, errors which are emblematic of the media's failure to properly cover the health insurance reform debate.

The article in question purported to describe the kick-off of Organizing for America's nationwide health insurance reform bus tour.

From Eggen's From the Washington Post

The initiative began Wednesday with a rally at a labor hall in Phoenix that featured the Obama sunrise logo and placards that became fixtures of the 2008 presidential campaign.
...
The DNC kickoff rally in Phoenix attracted about 1,200 reform supporters, but a raucous meeting on the other side of town hosted by Obama's former presidential campaign rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) attracted hundreds more -- most of whom were loudly opposed to Democratic reform proposals.

beezling

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Sunday August 23, 2009 · 5:27 PM PDT

2009/08/23 · 17:27

The American Liberty Alliance are some of the people behind the Teabagging movement. They are arch-teabaggers. They are also the group behind RecessRally.com.

This is about the real, down-to-Earth grassroots Americans behind American Liberty Alliance Because they're not all just a bunch of former Republican congressional staffers, Republican operatives, noted conservative pundits as well as Republican PR/Marketing gurus. Really. I mean it. Not all of them. The administrative assistant seems totally genuine. Okay, that's one...

Poll

6 votes Show Results

Which ALA leader is the biggest teabagging town-hall crier?

6 votes Vote Now!

Which ALA leader is the biggest teabagging town-hall crier?

Eric Odom

1 vote

Ken Marrero

0 votes

Alen Fuller

0 votes

Amy Hagerstrom

1 vote

Corinne Williams

0 votes

Ali Akbar

1 vote

Bill Murphy

2 votes

Truman Bean

0 votes

David Yardley

1 vote

John "The Junk Man" McJunkin

0 votes

I Wish They All Could Be Pakistani Giiiiiirls...

beezling

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Monday February 16, 2009 · 11:51 AM PST

2009/02/16 · 11:51

The original song, California Girls by the Beach Boys talks of the lovely ladies and their tans and, of course, the beach. It doesn't mention whether or not these California girls are all simpletons, however. It doesn't ask whether sometimes their good looks made them pariahs among their peers - envied by girls, intimidating to boys - functioning to limit positive social interaction and in turn slow social development.

What the hell am I talking about? Pakistan. That's what I'm talking about.

The Pakistani Govt. just okayed a deal to impose Shariah law over large swathes of northwest Pakistan - the Swat Valley area.
From the AP via MSNBC:

Many extremists in northwest Pakistan apparently favor the exceptionally strict brand the Taliban imposed in Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion in 2001, where female education and music was banned. The Swat Taliban have declared a ban on girls' education.

beezling

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Wednesday February 04, 2009 · 1:33 PM PST

2009/02/04 · 13:33

Okay, so it's no big surprise that Mormons donated a ginormous amount to support California's Proposition 8, which unconstitutionally and retroactively ended gay marriage in California by taking away the right of homosexuals to marry (even though the Mormon church claims to have only donated $189,000 in in-kind donations to the cause).

Also, I realize that not everyone in Utah is Mormon. And there are many, many, many Mormons who live outside of Utah. But we'll come to that.
The point is this - after searching sfgate.com's database of Prop 8 donors for any person, group or company in Utah, I reached the following total:

$2,596,164 donated from Utah

Why does Utah give so much of a rat's ass about a proposition in another state? It couldn't have anything to do with the Mormon Church's dominance in Utah, could it?

Just for fun let's add in the $189,000 the Mormon Church claims was all they gave. That jacks the total up to 2.78 MILLION DOLLARS. All from Utah

beezling

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Monday January 26, 2009 · 2:45 PM PST

2009/01/26 · 14:45

On the Obama HQ blog, we have David Plouffe introducing Mitch Stewart, the new volunteer czar:

beezling

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Sunday January 25, 2009 · 3:31 PM PST

2009/01/25 · 15:31

Former detainees are rising to leadership roles in al-Qaeda. From Newsweek:

The Pentagon is preparing to declassify portions of a secret report on Guantanamo detainees that could further complicate President Obama's plans to shut down the detention facility.

The report, which could be released within the next few days, will provide fresh details about 62 detainees who have been released from Guantanamo and are believed by U.S. intelligence officials to have returned to terrorist activities, according to two Pentagon officials who asked not to be identified talking about a document that is not yet public. One such example, involving a Saudi detainee named Said Ali Al-Shihri, who was released in 2007, received widespread attention Friday when Pentagon officials publicly confirmed that he has recently reemerged as a deputy commander of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Al-Shihri, once known publicly only as Guantanamo detainee No. 372, is suspected of involvement in a thwarted attack on the U.S. embassy in Yemen last September.

Poll

18 votes Show Results

Should Gitmo detainees be placed in Alcatraz?

18 votes Vote Now!

Should Gitmo detainees be placed in Alcatraz?

Yes - it is secure, and retrofitting the national park into a max-security prison would create jobs

8 votes

No! The Republicans are trying to blow up San Francisco!

10 votes

Last Israeli Soldier Leaves Gaza Strip

beezling

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Tuesday January 20, 2009 · 10:53 PM PST

2009/01/20 · 22:53

This just breaking, from AFP:

Israeli army completes Gaza pullout: official

8 minutes ago

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli troops have completed their withdrawal from the Gaza Strip after a 22-day offensive against the Islamist Hamas movement, an army spokesman told AFP on Wednesday.

"The last soldier left the Gaza Strip this morning," the spokesman said. "However the army remains deployed all around the Gaza Strip to meet any eventuality."

Updates as they come

beezling

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Tuesday January 20, 2009 · 9:53 AM PST

2009/01/20 · 09:53

For those of who in desperate need of source material with a pathological aversion to leaving DailyKos.

For actual analysis of the post, check out the following diaries:

jasoncinema - Change Has Come to Whitehouse.gov
HeidiEight - WHITEHOUSE.GOV has been updated

Published 1.20.09 onwhitehouse.gov:

WHITE HOUSE BLOG

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 12:01 pm

Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. I'm Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog.

A short time ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and his new administration officially came to life. One of the first changes is the White House's new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.

Read the rest below the fold

beezling

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Monday January 12, 2009 · 1:46 PM PST

2009/01/12 · 13:46

Today President Bush held his final press conference. It was a beautiful, halcyon moment, but one not without its share of inevitable, even cringe-worthy Bushims. Especially in his introductory comments, when Bush admits to disliking some stories over the years and says, satirically,

"Sometimes you misunderestimated me."

Sorry, Mr. President, but that's not the case. See, what we did was OVERestimate you. We thought perhaps you would keep your campaign promise to make Washington D.C. a more bipartisan town. We thought you would take a measured, respectful tone in our nation's foreign policy. We thought you could keep your head in a crisis, not act like an uncertain and frightened juvenile.

If you underestimate someone, that means they exceed, or at least are capable of exceeding, your expectations. If you underestimate someone's ability to underachieve, you're not really underestimating them. You're overestimating them.

That wasn't the only gem from today's ultimate conference, of course.

beezling

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Friday January 09, 2009 · 8:54 PM PST

2009/01/09 · 20:54

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff seems to be giving helpful tips and emotional support to individuals planning on disrupting Obama's inauguration and/or assassinating the President-Elect (or the President, depending on exactly when any potential chaos occurs).

From MSNBC.COM, Nightly News w/ Brian Williams, 1.8.2009

"The hardest thing to detect is the individual who is disturbed, or has an axe to grind, or maybe he's a racist, who wants to carry out an individual act of violence, whether it's a home-made bomb or a gun. You're going to have millions of people, potentially, in and around the area; it's impossible to guarantee that no one in the city of Washington is going to have bad intent or a weapon of some kind."

Thanks for the tip, Secretary Jackoff.

beezling

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Thursday January 08, 2009 · 7:23 PM PST

2009/01/08 · 19:23

So I like to sit in front of my computer. Big shock. It's my preferred viewing mode for The Daily Show, Colbert Report, and of course Countdown and Rachel Maddow. Hell, I'm glued to MSNBC.COM from 6 pm on, Brian Williams through Maddow. And it's this recent compulsive fixation which has drawn out the following observation - there are some really sick and downright disgusting commercials in between video segments on MSNBC.COM

The three worst offenders? Read on.

#3 - VICKS DAYQUIL/NYQUIL w/ VITAMIN C

There are several commercials in this campaign, but one really tweaks my coccyx. It involves three women working together in a school office who are concerned over a sick co-worker who loves Vitamin C but still has a cold. The token sassy black colleague says, "She loves her C" like she's calling her a damn dirty whore, then later busts out with, "She's a C FREAK." Meanwhile, the token polite Asian colleague politely whispers all her lines to the audience.
This one isn't too bad other than its cheap stereotypes but still, it grates.

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