Good May to everyone! I hope that April saw you with a project that you felt like donating to! It was a very successful month for the projects featured. Sunday Driver ended up raising 111 percent of their target goal on PledgeMusic, Strange Artifact pulled in about 85% of their goal thanks to IndieGoGo’s Flexible Funding option, H.U.M.A.N.W.I.N.E. still has a few days left to raise beyond their $7,000 goal, Davenport and Winkleperry are at almost 30 percent of their goal, and Dirigible Days more than doubled their goal. The most successful by far, though, was Jordan Stratford’s Kickstarter for Wollstonecraft. What started as a project for one book with a $4,000 goal turned into a Kickstarter with almost 3,000 backers that raised $91,751 that will be funding four books, a teacher’s guide and “An Adventure of Your Own Choosing.” Congratulations to all!

I was also able to enjoy the fruits of labor from the North Fulton Drama Club’s kickstarter for their Steampunk version of The Tempest, which was one of the first projects I wrote about. The production is wonderful, and is running for one more weekend this upcoming weekend. If you’re in the Atlanta area, I suggest making a stop by Barrington Hall to see it!

This month, however, I don’t have a project to focus on. There’s a few games, a web series and some our puppet friends trying to make a soapbox racer. However, due my status as a university student changing into a university graduate, I didn’t have time to interview anyone or find a project that is continuing through May. Instead, I decided to write a how-to guide on starting a crowdfunding project.

It’s seems that crowdfunding is coming synonymous with Steampunk as much as cogs, gears and goggles. It’s impossible to search the term on Kickstarter without a new crop of projects popping up. More and more Steampunk makers, writers, creators and musicians are using websites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo to help fund their projects. It’s a great tool to fund a project as well as an awesome way to strengthen and expand a fanbase. However, we’re not all Amanda Palmer, who can raise $100,000 in a day. In fact, more than half of all of projects on Kickstarter fail. So here’s seven tips on how you can have a successful project on your crowdfunding website of your choosing.

1.) Figure out what website is right for you - Kickstarter is the main go-to for Crowdfunding projects, but many more crowdfunding websites have begun to pop up with some different features. IndieGoGo has a Flexible Funding feature that makes sure that you get any funds raised, and PledgeMusic has options for charity and international  funding. Shop around before starting your project to figure out which website is right for you.

2.) Be reasonable in your goal - We all want to raise $100,000 for our projects, but it’s highly likely that we can’t raise that much in 30 days, much less a day. Instead, figure out the minimum amount you’ll need for the project and go from there. That way, you have room to expand if you exceed your goal.

3.) Make your incentives appealing - The incentives are what help sell your project to others. People love recognition and cool things. See what you can add alongside your project that still fits within the guidelines. Liner note recognition? T-Shirts? Hand-knit items? Kazoos? The sky’s the limit! At least for your imagination. One of those is at least $25.

4.) Promote, promote, promote - Once your crowdfunding project is out in the world, you still need the crowd to fund it. This is where you use social media to your advantage. Tell your fans what’s going on, and let them work for you.

5.) Keep people in the loop - As the project continues, you need to keep your fans informed of what’s going on. Let them know about new goals and incentives, and how far the project has gotten. Even after your project is over, let them know how things are going and when they can expect the product.

6.) Whether you succeed of fail, be grateful to those who funded you - Even if your project fails, there are people out there rooting for you. Thank them for their support when it’s all over. A little bit of gratitude goes a long way in the future.

7.) If at first you don’t succeed, assess the situation and try again - If your crowdfunding project fails, don’t get down on yourself. Step back and figure out what happened. Were your goals too high for what you received? Did the word not get around about it? Once you figure that out, don’t be afraid to try it again from a different angle (or website)!

I hope that these tips were helpful for your future crowdfunding projects! I hope to return next month with more projects, but for now, may your steam power always have back up!

Liesel Hindmann is the Steampunk Chronicle’s Backing Steam columnist and correspondent. She is the Apprentice of Internal Machinations and Operations for The Extraordinary Contraptions and considers herself a lover of media from multiple dimensions. You can follow her on Twitter as well as her blog: The Diary of a Dimension Hopper.