How can I get press for Kickstarter campaign in advance before launching?

It's all about building a relationship with these journalists and bloggers. You want them in your pocket long term. Ultimately, they are usually interested in the same things as you, which gives you a chance to connect on a deeper level and make an online friend. If you make a friend, then maybe they can even introduce you to their other journalist friends when the time is right. Ps: when you finally do send them your stuff, keep it short and make sure your visuals get the point off without them needing to read a description. Visual storytelling is huge. Remember: people don't like to read

This is a tricky question, because it's very difficult for a consultant or PR firm to get major press like this for a startup unless the startup has an amazing, innovative product, is doing something so incredible that it has to be talked about, or has a fantastic story behind it. A PR firm is only as good as its clients' stories, and they often can't get the press the client wants. There are strategies for getting into the press on your own without spending a fortune on a PR firm that may or may not be able to get the tech press you want. As well, there are things that a consultant can do to help you build the narrative to make your startup as appealing as possible to get into the national tech press. We've gotten major national press (Inc., USA Today, Fast Company, Technorati, MSN, Yahoo, Intuit, Tech Cocktail, etc.) for ourselves and our clients. I'd be happy to talk with you about what we can do to help.

At ShopLocket, we deal with a lot of crowdfunding alumni like InteraXon, Nomiku and PopSLATE (among others). Through talking with them and through other hardware entrepreneurs in our Blueprint series (www.shoplocket.com/blueprint), we've uncovered a lot of great tips and tricks that I haven't seen anywhere else. Here are just a few: - Send individual emails to your mailing list when announcing your campaign rather than a generic mass blast. At least for people you're close with. It greatly increases the chance that they will act. - Send calendar invites out to friends to remind them when the campaign starts. - Have a website during the campaign to look more professional. Maybe even setup an AngelList profile, a lot of investors now use Kickstarter as a source for leads. - Use virtual assistants from services like ODesk to help you with some of the grunt work launching your campaign. Like media list creation and email drafting. - Be ready to launch pre-orders immediately after the campaign to keep up momentum. Just collecting email addresses rarely converts to sales months later. - Send updates more than you think you should. It keeps everyone in the loop and also increases the likelihood that you get shared. Here are some stats on the collelation between updates and amount raised from Indiegogo > http://support.indiegogo.com/entries/20491883-how-to-send-campaign-updates - Shipping can be very expensive. A cool hack is to ship pallets to Amazon overseas in order to save on international shipping These are just a few tips, we're actually in the midst of writing a full guide. If you have any additional questions feel free to email me at katherine@shoplocket.com or ping me on Clarity!

The honest answer is that it's not hard IF you have a great (remarkable) and cool product. I've placed our products such as DNA11 on csi:NY (entire episode centered around our art), The Amazing Spiderman, Today show and many more. For the most part they contacted us with interest. The way I got us on CSI is by doing something really outside the box. I literally wrote a letter (yes on paper) to the show's creator Anthony Zucker. I simply offered him a free portrait and told him I was a fan. 2 months later the producers contacted me and told me they had written an episode that would feature us. It was amazing to see our idea featured on one of the most watched shows on earth! This was more luck than anything but I had to put myself out there to get the opportunity. The worst thing that can happen is you get a no. Don't be afraid of rejection because 9 out of 10 times you will get rejected. All you need is one yes. Ok. Real tips: 1. Get on LinkedIn. Get a pro account. Many producers are on there and you can simply InMail them. You just have to make sure your pitch is solid. 2. Send free samples. Use research and hustle to find the names and addresses you need. There's no real easy way to get this info but there are several web sites that offer lists. 3. Never pay for placement. Ever. 4. Get on popular product blogs and get traditional PR on top tier blogs. Product researchers are often on these sites looking for the next big / cool thing. Again, you must have a really cool product for this to work. Once you get some momentum on these fronts you will magically begin to get lots of inbound Opportunties. That's when things start to get easy. However there's a reason they call it "earned media" HUSTLE! If anyone wants to brainstorm more or talk about tactics in detail contact me on Clarity.

First thing to do is to research other crowdfunding sites other than the big two as neither was really meant to raise funds for startup businesses. I would suggest something in the nature of www.crowdfunder.com or www.seedinvest.com might better suit your needs.