Crowdfunding is NOT as easy as it sounds. It is becoming increasingly difficult as crowdfunding platforms become more and more saturated. A few years back I kickstarted an Adult Coloring Book  and was able to get a LOT more kickstarter traffic than the children's book I kickstarted this year. Now, that could be due to the fact that the adult coloring book came out right as that fad was getting popular, but it seems that overall it is more challenging now to get funded on kickstarter if you plan to rely solely on the kickstarter traffic.


A REVIEW OF MY EXPERIENCE

After I launched my children's book, I was emailed daily by various marketing agencies promising that, for a rather high cost, they could get the project a lot more traffic. The only two that stood out were Crowdfundsocial and First Wave PR. I went with Crowdfundsocial because their "money back guarantee" stood out to me.

......$350 later I felt sick to my stomach.

I can barely spend $20 on a shirt.

My experience with them started out rather rocky. They sent their facebook ad mock-up and it was pretty clear that they had selected a blanket statement that they used on their numerous other clients. Had they even looked at my project? I am still not sure. It said something like, "This kickstarter project is taking the world by storm!" .... I had made about $400 at this point. Not exactly what I'd call "taking the world by storm." But I decided not to question their judgement and went with it.

...and then silence.

Eventually I received a few emails that were very unhelpful and impersonal. They sent one that claimed they had been reviewing my project and had a few suggestions. They sent a general list of suggestions that you'd find on a crowdfunding blog. "...make sure you have a video." Another email that was trying to sound specific to my project stated that they had discussed what my project needed in order to be more successful. Their answer = go spend MORE money on the First Wave PR agency.

At this point it had been nearly two weeks and I still had not had any backers aside from fans that I could trace to my own efforts. I sent them many emails asking for my money back, or a little bit more transparency into what they were doing on their end. They replied that it was too late for the money back guarantee, so I decided to try to be patient.

Eventually there were about 4-5 days where I started to get a few really generous backers whom I couldn't track. Only a two of them actually wanted books. My guess is that the CrowdFundSocial team was targeting crowdfunding backers, not necessarily children's book lovers. But it seemed that I had at least made my money back! ...or so I thought.

*********AFTER THE PROJECT CLOSED, I was looking through my backer list, and the "generous backers"  that had come from Crowd Fund Social WERE ALL FAKE ACCOUNTS!! The payment failed on EACH OF THEM. My current guess is that they are fake profiles from Crowd Fund Social that they used when I began inquiring on the money back guarantee****** I traced other projects that they had "backed" and it appears they are all projects that have hired Crowd Fund Social***************

Here's what happened after the project was backed:
(the red triangles are the alert symbol meaning that the payment failed - the red lines I put in to block the REAL backers names to respect their privacy)





I have spoken with many other crowdfunders who have had the EXACT same experience with CrowdFund Social, and also with First Wave PR. Please be cautious before you hand them your money.










******UPDATE: FUNDING FROM "OTHER" (meaning they weren't family, friends or fans) totaled around $157 - since many of the "backers" ended up being fake profiles



Sooooo...for all of ya'll who may be considering hiring Crowd Fund Social, here is my Pro/Con list


PROS

****PENDING***** Most of the backers that seemed to come from Crowd Fund Social's efforts seem to be fake accounts and the money isn't coming through. Crowd Fund Social MAY BE A SCAM!


CONS