Article: A crowdfunding campaign showcases an entrepreneur’s idea to the public, asking for contributions to make the entrepreneur’s vision into reality. In order to do that effectively, the crowd needs to be convinced the entrepreneur’s vision is something to be pursued.  You have to do more than just tell your story.  The crowd needs to identify with the story you’re telling. Your good idea gets them to listen to you and give you their time, but it’s your story that gets them to give to you at the exclusion of everyone else. So, if you started selling prosthetic limbs because you lost your leg in Iraq, tell the story of how you lost your leg and how it lead you to want to create better products. A crowdfunding campaign isn’t promising a return on investment. It offers the chance to help fund the development of a project—for the donor to feel like they are part of the story you told so well. But they don’t want to be a part of a tragedy or a farce, so they can’t feel like they’re wasting their money. To avoid that, you need to appear knowledgeable and competent. Even if you don’t realize it, you’re already the world’s foremost authority on your project. Still, you need to organize your thinking about it. Learn it cold. You’ll know you’re ready when you know it so well you can immediately and fluently explain to anyone what your goals and projections are at six months, one year, eighteen months and two years from startup. Turn yourself into a walking infomercial/business plan. You want to create buzz around your campaign, because campaigns with buzz make the most money. One way to create buzz is by setting and meeting funding goals. Set goals at intervals like 10%, 25%, 50%, and so on. In order to meet your milestones, lean heavily on your personal network (especially in the beginning). Hit up the usual suspects, like your immediate family and your regular circle of friends, but don’t stop there. That Facebook friend from high school you haven’t spoken to in six years? There’s never been a better time to catch up. Do something special for your donors when you reach each milestone. The quicker you hit milestones, the more momentum you’ll have, and the more funding you’ll get. For example, if your crowdfunding goal is to open a restaurant, you could send each of your donors a sweet treat from your kitchen when you hit each milestone. Even if your donors are mostly friends and family in the beginning, that’s ok. Treating them like customers makes you seem more professional. Most people’s personal networks aren’t large enough to get them all the way to their funding goal. So once you’ve tapped your personal networks, kick it up a notch. Begin your social media campaign in earnest after you’ve hit a milestone or two. There’s nothing sadder than going to the landing page of a crowdfunding appeal and seeing that no one’s donated anything yet. You can try engineering a social media campaign yourself or you can pay a social media marketer to do it for you. If you’re the type with 3,000 Facebook friends, you’ll probably get a lot of mileage from a do it yourself effort. If you’re the type with 300 (which is an average number, don’t feel bad), you might want to bring in some help by paying someone. The closer you are to getting funded, the more professional and poised for success you need to seem. So, while you might have been able to skimp on production values in the beginning, leave some money in reserve to add polish  and increase production values as you go. For example, the longer your campaign goes on, the more important it is for you to attend to things like integrating logos into your landing page and emails and paying for professional video editing for your funding pitches.

What is a summary?
Craft a compelling story. Develop your idea thoroughly. Leverage your network to hit milestones quickly. Grow your audience. Create more polished appeals as you get closer to your goal.