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

Starting crowdfunding while in beta is good - you already passed part of the way. So for backers it is less risky to support you. When I've started my project - the only real option was KickStarter. Now it is the same because only KickStarter has "blockbuster" effect - huge paying audience. On KickStarter you'll collect at least ten times more if to compare to #2 IndieGoGo. Sure if your project will pass KickStarter moderation. But it is worth trying. Giveaways, in my opinion, is always better: you test your production chain & keep full control over your business. Also the product is the core of your business and improving your product will lead to higher valuation. If you have community - try to make it bigger & tell your followers about your crowdfunding plans so they prepare to back you when funding starts. If there is no community - start to build one. Also prepair press kits & at least 10 updates (when 30-50-75-100-150-200% of goal reached, explaining functions of your product etc.), make spreadsheet with press (also include communities related to your project) contact details, check your project category on the selected crowdfunding platform for projects related with yours (for future cross promotion). Hiring expert is pretty useless, I think. Calls on clarity.fm will work better as you not tied to one person and may get more opinions, probably, for the same price. And it is not so much information in the net about crowdfunding to lost in it. All you need (considering you already have great product) is: 1. good project page (which means video + photos + text) 2. good work with press (not so much may be done: press kit + send it over the contacts you have - the result is related to kit quality and amount of contacts) 3. some ways to utilize KickStarter organic traffic (that's "30% rule" & crosspromotion - these ways generally don't cost a penny and both work great for me and 2 more projects I've mentored). Call me for details - I'll be happy to help.

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

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!

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.

Good luck! Forget about SEO. This is just a temporary improvement. Not worth your effort right now specially if you have to pay. If is free, take it as long as it doesn't distract you with "useless busy" work. Focus on the emails. This has huge upside potential!! A video is a powerful tool that automatically enables you to connect with those who share your interests and can make people find you simply because they like you. This also reassures them that you haven't forgotten about them, that you are doing what you can but also need the communities help. Share this on all your social networks. Leverage the power and newly harnessed interest of Periscope or Meerkat of both and announce(schedule) through Twitter a video pitch of what you trying to do. This will get you potential viral spread if you ask your viewers to use a hashtag or to simply tweet your live streaming. If you have backers you're doing something right, you just have to now drive traffic to the campaign. Not really work on the pitch itself... Now you're in the numbers business... :) Humberto Valle Best of luck.