Perks Preferences?

[pinepig]

What kinds of perks get your attention and encourage you to dig into your hard-earned cash? I'm trying to figure out how to adapt crowdfunding to my photography and am interested in knowing what people like, what is The Shiny that encourages them to dig in. And what are realistic levels to ask for when you're a budding artist?

You don't have to actively support crowdfunding or photography or crowdfunded photography if you want to answer.

I figure prints are always a possibility. The 2 biggest issues with that right now are cost of postage & getting time to ship (I live in New Zealand) & our printer, while a good photo printer, sometimes puts marks on the back of the paper and I'm afraid this might turn people off.

I like ysabetwordsmith's use of posting a few pictures in her journal and then offering to post others if she gets donations. I usually upload my picts to Webshots for people to see/download as screensavers/send as e-cards. I could hold a few prize ones back when I do this and offer to upload them if I get donations. When I upload my Webshots I'll usually upload a few of the better ones to my Weblogimages account and post them in my journal.

I could also see if there's a way create a special album at Webshots and lock it to only certain people. I don't know if it's possible and this would require my audience getting a Webshots account.

Or I could make a special Donor filter and post the picts on that on my DW/LJ.

What are your thoughts?

And come to think of it, how do you make a Paypal donation button?

(ETA: Sorry ysabetwordsmith, not sure what tag would fit best for this so I've put networking but feel free to tell me what to change it to!)

Comments

Re: Thoughts

[pinepigs_garden]

These are great ideas, thank you! I'd never considered post cards and that would be easily ordered from my Cafe Press shop and kept (and sent in an envelope) for donors.

Silly question though, what's ACEOs?

I also want to open up perks to people for non-monetary support/contributions. I have a lot of people on my friends list who would probably give money if they could, but they can't and I don't want them left out. I am trying to get a poll together to post in my red_trillium journal (since that's where I have a paid account) but am having technical difficulties. I want to know what kinds of non-monetary support would also attract perks. I figure signal-boosting is a possibility (not sure how often/how many places), what other options would you, as a non-monetary person, consider doing?

And thank you for tag help!

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>Silly question though, what's ACEOs?<<

ACEO stands for "Art Cards, Editions and Originals". These cards have one main rule - they are 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches - the size of a trading card.
http://www.art-cards.org/

I chipped in for the Haiti Earthquake Charity Painting, and the donor perk for that is an ACEO card.
http://community.livejournal.com/therebirthofme/tag/haiti

>>I also want to open up perks to people for non-monetary support/contributions.<<

Well, first is plain old recognition. While some folks prefer to stay anonymous, many enjoy a listing on a Patrons page or whatever. My Fishbowl Report each month always lists that month's donors; individual poem posts list the prompter(s) and sponsor(s) of that poem. The Aphorisms of Kherishdar has a Patrons page and some of the names are even linked to that person's homepage:
http://stardancer.org/kherishdar/patrons.html

Another possibility is special posts that are only visible to certain people. I do one for Donors but you could just as easily do yours for people who promote your work by linking to your journal(s) or whatever.

Just tie the perks to things you want people to do. Avepasifika offered to post extra episodes of her serial after reaching a certain number of new Friends, because she wanted to boost her Friends list. So you really need to ask yourself, what do you want to accomplish with this project? How can people help you achieve that?

>>I figure signal-boosting is a possibility (not sure how often/how many places), what other options would you, as a non-monetary person, consider doing?<<

The main thing is signal-boosting. I will quite casually post links on my LJ and DW journals. I may also post to the Crowdfunding communities, though I prefer creators to do that themselves for sake of diversity. My LJ echoes to my personal Facebook page; for writing/editing stuff I may hand-copy a link to my fan page there also. I have some email lists where I occasionally post things, but nothing photography related.

Branching out a bit, I can write reviews, usually of books but I've done other projects like music, personal care items, calendars, etc. as well. Sometimes I do small writing/editing bits for friends as a way to help a project -- it saves them having to hire someone to write, say, a press release. Or I can do barter for that stuff too.

On a few occasions, I've gathered addresses or other resources for friends, like libraries or newspapers. You might find someone to hunt down galleries for you, if you wanted to hang your photos in far-flung places; I know that artists and photographers sometimes do stuff like that. It's a bit outside my range.

Oh, and check with Quennessa over on LJ about ideas for advance funding of photography projects. She's done some of that and might be willing to share.

Re: Thoughts

[red_trillium]

I like the idea of the ACEOs. Clever!

Something like posting to Facebook, Wordpress, other blogs as well as someone's DW/LJ would be a bonus, I'd consider it as important as monetary contributions, especially as we're going towards Christmas.. I don't have a FB or WP and while I know it's not hard to create one I am trying to not stretch *too* thin so that would be a bonus for me.

I'll ask Quennessa some time. I know she's full on right now & since I'm still working on this, trying to formulate it all I've got some time to gather thoughts still.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I like the idea of the ACEOs. <<

Yeah, apparently they are popular for trading.

>>especially as we're going towards Christmas<<

That reminds me of a special seasonal activity: the virtual shopping fair. Several people do a post where they invite all their friends to list what they sell, so other folks in the audience can shop with them. It's a lot of fun and really boosts promotion. These were mine from 2009 and 2008:
http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/871196.html
http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/438042.html
You can see the 2008 one worked a lot better; the timing wasn't as good in 2009. I'll probably do it again this year too.

>>I don't have a FB or WP and while I know it's not hard to create one I am trying to not stretch *too* thin so that would be a bonus for me. <<

Facebook has features you can set to echo posts from other services, so it's possible to have content there with very minimal effort. That's how I originally set up my FB page. I only started going direct to FB and spending time there when it became a networking hub for me -- I was surprised to see how many of my professional contacts were on there, so that boosted my interest.

Re: Thoughts

[pinepig]

I tried to put up a kind of virtual fair post and didn't get anyone posting, but that was a couple months ago and maybe it's time to think about doing it again.

I've been resisting FB....still resisting. For now, that might change :)