Tyler investigates BackerClub, a community of frequent crowdfunders that offers promotional 
opportunities for Kickstarter creators. Is BackerClub a legitimate marketing vehicle for creators, or is it scam creators and backers alike should avoid like the plague? This session will help inform you in order to make your own intelligent decision.
Today’s Session is Sponsored by…
Solar Flare
Today’s session is sponsored by the ongoing comic series Solar Flare by James Haick and Branko Jovanovic, currently on Kickstarter.
Download the first issue for free at www.solarflarecomic.com/store using the coupon code comixlaunch (all one word.)
Session Table Setting
Welcome back to ComixLaunch!
The podcast to learn about mindset, strategies, and tactics…
Buckle up for this one… a little investigative reporting.
But first, a little housekeeping…
Thank you for the voicemails that are coming to to the ComixLaunch hotline. We’re going to have fresh session of “Ask ComixLaunch” coming up, and I’d love to get as many of your voices on the podcast, asking your KS questions as possible.
ComixLaunch Course — Hard to believe it, but Monday is my last lecture of the pilot session of The ComixLaunch Course.
It will be a another month or so before first graduates launch their KS, so excited to see how they put the lessons into action.
Jeremy and I are learning a ton by pulling together this course — about the things creators are and aren’t doing, where the pain points and course corrections are needed, etc.
It’s helping me gear up for a few new Kickstarter projects I’ll be managing in the coming months as well.
And I’m excited about going back through the course from top to bottom and making it even better for the next group, based on the valuable feedback from our brave pilot course members.
Still not sure exactly when the next group of the course will run, but if you’re at all interested, please get on our interest list at www.comixlaunch.com/course
What is Today’s Episode About?
Is BackerClub a Scam?
What Sparked my Interest
Post in a FB Community
Here is another trick and spam from the people at BackerClub that I am now firmly filing them under never participating and actively speaking out against… my last campaign I got into a fight with the guy who spammed me 3 times. Now this deceptive email comes across my desk:
Cool campaign, [creator name]! Congratulations on yet another great campaign opening. What an awesome design and concept! I want this for game night! Realistically I can’t join you on this venture as I’m a new dad since last month (!) and I can’t justify the expense for something I don’t need right now. Despite this I can’t help but be tempted even with the weak Canadian dollar…let me discuss it further with the wife!
Have you ever considered adding it to Backerclub? It is a community of frequent backers. Backerclub helps projects get high yield exposure to people that back a lot! I am just a member but I love seeing excellent campaigns like yours in the community. You do not need to provide any payment information until after you get accepted so it really is no risk to apply! Actually, you don’t even get charged until your campaign has been fully funded AND Backerclub has provided you with enough pledges to cover the entrance fee of $379! It would be so amazing to see you join.
If you are interested and want to put [Project Name] in the lineup, look up backerclub! Here is a link for your convenience:
[Link]
Looking forward to hearing from you. I can help you with coming up with perk ideas!
[Name]
I’ve received this same email or one very similar… and usually I just ignore them, and everyone else interested in taking my money in exchange for providing me access to mystical backers.
Most of the comments
But not all…
“BackerClub is legit. There are a lot of parasites in the Kickstarter ecosystem but BackerClub is not one of them. They can help your project a lot if you’re a good fit for them.”
I don’t know the commenter, but I have seen his comments elsewhere, and found them to be good advice…
The reality is… I don’t know if BackerClub is a SCAM or not… I don’t know much about them at all.
I’m dismissive.
I’m skeptical.
My warning bells are ringing… but I don’t know.
But you guys listen to this show to find out about this stuff.
So, it was my duty to find out more.
In this episode, I’m going to take you with me on my journey inside BackerClub.
What is it?
How does it work?
What’s in it for Backers?
What’s in it for Kickstarter Creators?
How does BackerClub make money?
Is it a legit deal for Creators looking to crowdfund their projects? Or is Backerclub a SCAM.
Now, I’m going to tell you upfront, I won’t be able to answer this question in full in this session… and there will be a part two required.
My goal for this session is to really dissect BackerClub, mostly from the Backers side of the equation.
But to truly understand whether it’s worth considering for you, the creator, I’m going to need to use it in conjunction with a KS project… So, I will commit to using Backerclub for my next KS project, and then reporting all the details… good, bad, ugly, in the part 2 follow up.
If you are a ComixLaunch listener and have any past experience with BackerClub, either as a backer or a creator using their service, please, please, please chime in over at comixlaunch.com/voicemail and share your experience with the rest of us. I’ll add your voice to the part two BackerClub follow up session.
And finally, if you would like to check out BackerClub yourself and do your own investigation, please go to ComixLaunch.com/backerclub and click our special referral links on that page, which will help us mitigate our risk in testing the service out. Again, ComixLaunch.com/backerclub for the links for creators and backers alike.
Okay, What is BackerClub?
Let’s start by letting BC tell you —
Becoming a BackerClub Member (Free)
Signed up as a backer
Name and Email and password to Sign Up
Complete Registration
Asked for Forum Name
Kickstarter or Indiegogo Profile
Required me to add “Member of BackerClub.co” to my biography.
Submit
Email to Confirm my account
“Welcome to the club! You are a big-time backer and have qualified to be a part of our community. Congratulations! Please login to your account to get started.”
Log in and the set up is:
Projects
Heart of the site, a 4 projects across filterable projects section.
Filter by Site
Kickstarter or Indigogo
Filter by Category
Standard KS categories
Find Project
General Search
What’s on There?
Featured Top Row
DanverBag – Sports Bag
SoapBerri – Soap made from berries
The Ultimate Pet Carrier for Scooters & Bikes
Plantsitter – Worlds smartest plant monitoring system.
Pretty random.
What about Comics?
1 live comic book project on BackerClub. 206 projects live, so less than .5% of comic projects on BackerClub.
Heroes: Ignited – 56 Page Anthology Comic
Reward for BackerClub Members
BackerClub members who pledge $20 – $35 will get an automatic upgrade to the next tier reward beyond what you pledge (up to the $50 pledge level).
10 BackerClub supporters
224.00 USD 5 Days to Go (4% of pledged total, $22.40 avg pledge)
Overall – 110 backers $6,048 pledged of $6,000 goal ($55 avg pledge)
7 Other Past Comic Projects in the Search
6 of 7 projects were ultimately successful on Kickstarter.
1 of 7 did not get a single BackerClub pledge.
Those Six that got BackerClub pledges
7 backers for $81
— Less than $379 guarantee
35 backers for $1443
– $379 = Net $1,064 (280% ROI)
12 backers for $410
– $379 = Net $31 (8% ROI)
25 backers for $384
– $379 = Net $6 (1.6% ROI)
9 backers for $10
— Less than $379 guarantee
6 backeers for $6
— Less than $379 guarantee
Project Failed
So, over the 7 projects in this small sample.
1 project was significantly helped by BackerClub, with a 280% return on the $379 spend.
3 projects weren’t charged, by failing to hit the BC minimum of $379.
2 projects lost money using backer club… as their ROI was 1.5%, 8%.
Cost of those pledges would be such that they lost money on every BackerClub backer.
So, overall, for this small sample size, only 1 out of 7 projects was BackerClub a good idea… and 2 out of 7, it was a bad idea.
3 live publishing projects on BC of 577 total projects on KS. .5%
39 Tech Projects on BC of the 746 live on KS. 5% of Tech projects… clearly, Tech sector takes BC more seriously, and more aware of it, than comics and publishing.
Profile
As a 2 Star BackerClub member you have earned the badge displayed to the left.
Click the button below to download your BackerClub badge so you can update your crowdfunding profile images to proudly display it.
Show the world that you are an influential backer.
For Backers:
How do you know what rank you are? How many backed projects do you need to promote to the next rank?
BackerClub Intern: 5-49 backed projects
1 Star Member: 50-74 backed projects
2 Star Member: 75-99 backed projects
3 Star Member: 100-249 backed projects
4 Star Member: 250-399 backed projects
5 Star Member: 400-549 backed projects
6 Star Member: 550-699 backed projects
7 Star Member: 700+ backed projects
Lounges
BackerClub private lounges are special rooms that only members at certain star levels (or above) can enter. On any given day, week or month, you don’t know what you’ll find in these rooms.
It could be a giveaway (like a free t-shirt)…
It could be a contest to win free Kickstarter rewards…
Or, even money to use in pledging for more Kickstarter projects!
Check out the forum to see our recent BackerBucks drawing winners. We’re prepping the lounges for more great ideas to come. Check back soon!
Recruiting
Leaderboard of backers by Month
Member Level
Backed Projects
Members Recruited
Projects Recruited
Backer Bucks earned.
Learderboard Example
Ex. #1 Pontus Eriksson has backed 1,025 projects, recruited 1 member and 21 projects, earning 1,135 “Backer Bucks” in March.
#2 $595 , #3 $229, everyone else sub $100.
BackerBucks
You can earn BackerBucks in a number of ways in the BackerClub community. These are tracked on your Profile page showing your account balance. You can withdraw BackerBucks to a Paypal account anytime you want. If you have more than $50 in your balance that you are withdrawing, then there is no fee. If you want to withdraw less than $50 in BackerBucks you may do so, but there is a $10 fee.
Referral Program
Projects – $70 (Kickstarter) or $50 (Indiegogo)
Whenever you recruit a project and they are approved for entrance into BackerClub you’ll get a referral fee! You can get credit two ways:
by having the creator mention that they heard about BackerClub from you on their submission form or
the project creator uses your recruiting link (see below) in the process of applying to BackerClub. If more than one member recruits a project, then the fee will be divided between those members evenly.
http://backerclub.co/project-submit.php?i=6rp
CrossPromote.co – $10
If you invite a Kickstarter or Indiegogo project to join CrossPromote.co and they pay to use the site’s service you will get a $10 credit in your BackerBucks account. To recruit the project please use the link below:
http://crosspromote.co/?i=6rp
Members – $4
When you invite a new member (5+ projects backed) to join the Club you’ll earn $4. There is no limit to how many people you can invite so share away! You must use the link below so we can track that you were the one who referred this member:
http://backerclub.co/member-join.php?i=6rp
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please DO NOT post your referral link or any comments about BackerClub on a project’s comment sections about BackerClub. This frustrates the project creators and often causes issues for them with their other non-BackerClub members who are not getting a special perk. Posting any comment about BackerClub in the comments of a project is not allowed and will result in suspension of your Club membership and forfeit of any accrued BackerBucks in your account.
Getting Special Perks:
When you pledge for a Kickstarter or Indiegogo project that is featured on BackerClub you will automatically qualify for the special perk the creator is offering (assuming you pledge at the correct tier). Each project creator has a BackerClub dashboard that shows them a list of all of their BackerClub supporters. This allows them to easily fulfill any special perks they need. So, just pledge and enjoy the special perks. It is also a good idea to mention you are a BackerClub member when you are filling out your survey at the end of the project.
Other Items:
We will notify you each morning of new BackerClub projects that have been added to the site. These notification settings can be changed on your Profile.
Please leave feedback for the creators. Your input to them will be very helpful.
Even if you do not want a reward, please consider backing BackerClub projects for $1 just to help them gain momentum in their first 24 hours on the crowdfunding site. The first day often makes all the difference in a projects ultimate success. As a community we want to support BackerClub project creators!
Promoting Your Project with BackerClub
At BackerClub You Only Pay If We Produce RESULTS!
No upfront fee…
No fee if you don’t reach your goal…
You only pay after we get you new backers…
You won’t find an opportunity like this anywhere else!
Found Money
This is an opportunity to connect with new backers and always come out ahead!
Our listing price is $379 and we guarantee you will get at least $379 in new pledges.
If not, you don’t pay!
This is a classic “Risk Reversal” offer… No risk guarantee.
The average projects (sic) gets over a 300% ROI from BackerClub and the best ones get $5K, $10K or even $25K in new pledges!
See the Highest Supported projects at the bottom of this page.
Plus read reviews from recent project creators about BackerClub.
Submit your project to see if you are one of the lucky ones who gets admitted entrance into this exclusive Club of repeat backers!
Sponsor Mid-Roll
In a moment, I’m going to give you today’s ComixLauncher, but first, we need to thank our sponsor…
Solar Flare
Solar Flare is an ongoing comic series that takes place in a world very similar to our own. The only difference is that Earth was just hit by an x-class solar flare wiping out all electronics, similar to an EMP.
The main protagonist of the story, Jake Clifford, has to travel from Florida to Tennessee in this new electronic less world. He not only wants to reunite with his young daughter Mazzy, but to also help his scientist friend get to a facility that will act as ground zero in reestablishing the country’s electrical infrastructure.
Solar Flare is a post apocalyptic, sci-fi story that has been described as Y: The Last Man meets The Walking Dead without zombies.
James and his team of creators have successfully raised enough money 4 separate times now on Kickstarter and the 5th campaign launched on March 1st.
All 5 issues are available for sale on their website, www.solarflarecomic.com/store. Comix Launch listeners can download the 1st issue of Solar Flare for free using the coupon code: comixlaunch
Also, if you could, like their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/solarflarecomic.
ComixLauncher
It’s time for today’s ComixLauncher.
A ComixLauncher is a short, actionable activity you can and should do right now, or immediately after listening to the show. They’re all activities I’ve done myself, and will get you one step closer to a successful ComixLaunch. They’ll transform this Podcast from a passive, lean back activity centered around Tyler James, into an active, lean-forward activity centered around YOU.
ComixLauncher — Share a Kickstarter Project you think is cool.
Do it not to make money.
Not to hit them up when you launch.
Not to keep score.
Do it because it might make someones day — the creator or the person who discovers their new favorite book.
Today’s ComixLauncher
All of us our busy, but we all can spare 5 minutes to do this. [NA — What comes out on paper may surprise you. And if you’d like to share the results of your ComixLauncher with me, I’d love to see them. Email me at [email protected], subject line: ComixLauncher #36.]
Wrap Up
So, that’s their offer…
We found out what we could about BackerClub from the inside…
But to truly understand it fully, I’m going to have to use it myself.
So, I’m committing to you all to submit my next KS campaign to BackerClub.
Giving it an honest go…
Reporting back to you in Follow up BackerClub Session to discover whether or not it worked for me.
Now, if BackerClub sounds interesting to you, and you might want to check it out from either the Backers side — find out about new cool products and get exclusive bonus pledge perks for every project — or, if you’re a creator and you think it might be worth dropping $379 to get your project in front of their community of backers, go to ComixLaunch.com/backerclub
There you’ll find a short video where I poke around my new backerclub dashboard.
You’ll also find BackerClub referral links for Backers and Creators.
Full disclosure
For every one of you who create a free Backer account, ComixLaunch will get $4 in backer bucks, as long as you have backed 5 or more Kickstarter or Indiegogo projects under your profile.
And if you’re a creator who decides to bring your Kickstarter or Indiegogo project to BackerClub for their $379 service fee, we will get a $70 referral commission.
So, again, if you’re going to check it out, please use those ComixLaunch.com/backerclub referal links, as it will help us pay for our BackerClub experiment, which we’ll be reporting back to you on.
And again, if you plan on running your own Backerclub experiment, please tell us how it went, by leaving a voicemail at ComixLaunch.com/voicemail and you’ll be apart of our follow up session.
Thank you so much for listening, and for letting me walk with you, as you taken another step forward toward your next successful ComixLaunch.
Have You Subscribed, Rated, or Reviewed ComixLaunch Yet?
If you’ve enjoyed this Session of ComixLaunch, I need you to do me a favor… actually, I need three favors. Please Subscribe, Rate and Review ComixLaunch on iTunes.
They’re the rocket fuel this show is running on, and the sooner you do it, the more powerful your action will be. Don’t wait to give us some love!
>>> CLICK HERE TO LEAVE A REVIEW ON iTUNES <<<
Provide a rating, 1-5 stars and leave an honest review.
This can be done in less than 2 minutes and could make HUGE difference to the show.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
