The heart of a crowdfunding campaign is the pitch

The hallmark of any successful crowdfunding campaign is a compelling video pitch. There were so many people who I spoke to very early on, asking them to listen to my pitch, and to give me feedback. But it was the one final piece of advice that I got from my sister who has a great deal of experience with fundraising, that helped me to tweak my pitch in the last hour. She reminded me that it's important to have a good "elevator pitch" so that people can easily relate to your message.

You can have a great message, but translating it into something visual, in this case, a video is key. In the case of my written pitch, it definitely fell in to the categoy of TLDR. TLDR is internet poison. It stands for, "too long, didn't read." 

This is where the talent of Robin Adams came in. He not only has the technical skills to shoot, produce and edit my crowdfunding pitch video, he literally coached and directed me on the day of the shoot. Having worked on a few video shoots, based my limited experience, in my opinion, there is a HUGE difference when it comes to having a videographer who is just a good camera person and someone who is a director, i.e. someone who knows how to coax you into being more natural and personable on camera. We certainly had a lot of fun with it. There's even a blooper reel from our shoot and you can watch it HERE:

In the end, we went against some conventional wisdom, which says that the shorter, more concise a video pitch the better. My video pitch is nearly eight minutes long! I've read that the ideal length for a crowdfunding pitch video is five minutes as mentioned in this post: 6 Tips for a Good Video Pitch from Indiegogo's blog . I think that the Making History crowdfunding pitch video meets five out of six, except for #1 of course, which is keep it short!

Hear what Robin Adams, the producer #willifest and the "Making History: The Story of Su Beng" Crowdfunding Campaign has to say!

There was a lot of work behind the scenes including some very last minute revisions just days right before the campaign was launched. Robin really went above and beyond what I had asked him to do with the video. I think that using the opening clip (of me talking at the ITASA 2013 Conference in February) before the actual pitch was genius. That was his idea. You can listen to my entire presentation : Getting on the Path to Write at the ITASA 2013 conference on SoundCloud HERE. 

In a lot of ways this crowdfunding campaign has been a roller coaster, and the story behind this crowdfunding campaign is becoming a chapter that I will write about in the ACCIDENTAL BIOGRAPHER, an ebook about my experiences as Su Beng's biographer. It is one of the perks being offered for a contribution of $40 through the Making History: The Story of Su Beng crowdfunding campaign.

Update #3a on the Making History Crowdfunding Campaign

The MAKING HISTORY Crowdfunding Campaign is now 43% funded.There was a problem with one of the contributions. I've been in touch with Indiegogo about this. Apparently someone accidentally entered the wrong amount and had to get it refunded. 

In other news the MAKING HISTORY Crowdfunding Campaign has actually made it to the SECOND page of "Popular Now" Indiegogo campaigns in the writing category!

Update #3 on the Making History Crowdfunding Campaign

The MAKING HISTORY Crowdfunding Campaign is currently on the THIRD page of "Popular Now" on Indiegogo in the Writing category. This means the campaign is getting lots of clicks, and it's all thanks to a huge social media push on the part of others who have been sharing and posting about this campaign through their social media channels.  It all adds up! I can only do so much as one person. So THANK YOU if you have shared, posted, tweeted, emailed or told someone about the Making History Crowdfunding Campaign!

We are in week 3 of the MAKING HISTORY Crowdfunding Campaign and I can barely keep up with the pace of contributions. When I started writing this post last night the campaign was at 39%. This morning it hit 42%. And now it is at 45%! It looks like all those clicks are translating into actual contributions. I point this out because there are other campaigns on the third page that have a very low percentage of their goals raised. They are probably there because they have gotten a lot of clicks or views, but apparently clicks do not always translate into contributions. 

I'd like to get parts of my Indiegogo campaign page translated into Chinese. So I've reached out asking for help with the translation and graphics. And now there are a few people volunteering to help with this. I'd like to translate the perks I'm offering at different contribution levels, but more importantly we are going to do screenshots with instructions in Chinese translation explaining the step by step procedure to make a contribution online at Indiegogo. I hope this makes it easier for people in Taiwan to contribute.

As the Chinese subtitles were being added I was thinking about whether or not I should translate parts of my Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign page and some of my friends in Taiwan seem to think it would be a good idea.

I was inspired to do this by another wildly successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for LINSANITY: The Movie. If you're curious to see how much they raised and what they did in terms of translation you can visit their crowdfunding page here. Scroll to the very bottom.

Oh, and another thing,  I just realized that the number THREE is very apt for this particular post:

1. It's week 3 of my crowdfunding campaign

2. This is update #3

3. Making History : The Story of Su Beng is currently on the THIRD page of "Popular Now" Indiegogo campaigns in the writing category

You know how the saying goes: Good things come in threes!

Update #2 On the Making History Crowdfunding Campaign

It's the start of week 3 and I'm so thrilled that the MAKING HISTORY Crowdfunding Campaign has already broken through it's 33% funding goal for week 3! At the time of this post the MAKING HISTORY Crowdfunding Campaign has raised $5120!

It's been a lot of work behind the scenes and I am constantly amazed by the people who have been so willing to lend me support, some who I have literally just met, others who I haven't yet met and do hope to one day meet. For me this is just the beginning of the relationship- which will extent to the day the biography of Su Beng comes out in print, and perhaps even reach beyond that.

Update #1 On The Making History Crowdfunding Campaign

I'm excited to announce that Chinese subtitles have been added to the MAKING HISTORY Crowdfunding Campaign pitch video!

It only took the help of FOUR people to get the pitch translated and uploaded as subtitles to my YouTube video. Special thanks goes to Hsiao Wan Lin (林曉婉) and Professor Lee (李清澤) for initially putting me in touch with Ms. Lin to do the translation.

One of my friends, Chia-Chun, who was involved with the movie Dear Taiwan (好國好民) told me that there was a way to add Chinese subtitles to a YouTube video. So I thought, great, how hard can it be to add the subtitles once I get the Chinese translation? 

But after I got the Chinese translation of my pitch,  I couldn't figure out how to add the subtitles to my YouTube video.

When I asked Robin about this he said that the subtitles would need to be embedded in the video file. This would mean that he'd have to reedit the video, which would be doable, but a bit of a technical feat. But this would also mean that I'd lose the current number of views of the video on YouTube.

So I went back to Chia-Chun  and she knew exactly what to do. She took care of it for me, but not without some effort. She had to create a caption file with text and time codes for when each line of text should be displayed.   She even did some extra translation of the first 20 seconds of my video, which is technically not part of my pitch and didn't initially get translated.  After she sent me the caption file, I uploaded it to YouTube and then VOILA! just like that the video was subtitled.

But then Chia-Chun noticed that "華僑美國社區"  had been used to translate the term Taiwanese American community. My Chinese is not that good, but I do know the character "華" which is often used to refer to Chinese or overseas Chinese. So it's a good thing that Chia-Chun caught this! She immediately changed the translation to "台美人社區" and resent me the file. This just goes to show how the nuances of translation can be so important. 

I reuploaded the new file overriding the previous file (Thank goodness)! I think Robin is quite happy about this too since it saved him the time of having to reedit the video. Truth be told there were revisions and edits done to the pitch video before it got to the one you see on YouTube now. Some of the edits were done just days before the campaign went live and I didn't want Robin to have to do any more work on the video! In the end uploading the captions was a much better solution.

Oh and by the way, you may have noticed that I said there were four people who helped to make this translation happen, one of the four is a good friend of mine who prefers to remain anonymous.

Making History: The Story of Su Beng is now 24% funded

I'm hoping that it reaches 25% by the two week mark on November 9. 

Making History:The Story of Su Beng (24% funded as of November 8, 2013)

Thank you to the first funders who have given the first 25%. There is a long ways to go still and I have a feeling that the battle is just about to begin!

There are also so many people to thank, who are voluntarily working behind the scenes to support me and this project in so many different ways.

Documenting The Making History Crowdfunding Campaign

It took me awhile to figure out how to do this because I had initially created a new page for each announcement about the Making History Crowdunding Campaign. I had hoped I could just duplicate the pages and add them onto my blog, but alas, that is not possible.

Then I realized that I should just create another blog just for the duration of the crowdfunding campaign, so here it is with the pages I created and posted on October 22 and October 26.

The Making History Crowdfunding Campaign is now LIVE!

It's DAY ONE (10/26/13) and here's what you've been waiting for! The Making History: Story of Su Beng Crowdfunding Campaign is now LIVE on Indiegogo: 

http://igg.me/at/makinghistory

(Originally posted October 26, 2013, reposted November 8, 2013)

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It's Day 1 of the Making History: Story of Su Beng Crowdfunding Campaign on Indiegogo: http://igg.me/at/makinghistory

WATCH my pitch here and VISIT indiegogo to learn more how you can contribute to the crowdfunding campaign, and see what "Perks" are being offered!

This crowdfunding campaign is to raise funds to complete the biography of Su Beng.

The Making History Crowdfunding Campaign is going LIVE on October 26th!

Thanks for visiting! On October 26th, I'll be launching a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo.com called Making History: The Story of Su Beng. But you'll have to wait until the 26th to see the pitch video.

In the meantime... Have a laugh and check out this BLOOPER reel from the making of the pitch video.

(Originally posted October 22, 2013, reposted November 8, 2013)

To receive the latest news and updates about the Su Beng project join our mailing list!

 Here's a sneak peak of what I say in my pitch: 

Most of my friends know two things about me-that I’m writing a book and that I’m Taiwanese. I believe in the power of personal stories to inform and educate. That’s why I’ve been working on the biography of Su Beng, lifelong Taiwan independence activist, historian and author of this three volume, 2,000 page book, Taiwan’s 400 Years of History. This book took about 18 years to write, and has influenced generations of Taiwanese activists and still continues do to so. Su Beng is a controversial, complex character, much like Malcolm X or Nelson Mandela. Through it all, the one thing that he has always been fighting for could be summed up simply as, the fight for social justice for the people of Taiwan. 

Well, I’ve decided that it’s time to complete this project and I’m giving myself three months to do it. I haven’t been back in Taiwan for over five years so I’ve decided to quit my job, and to take a self-imposed sabbatical to spend it in Taiwan to complete my research. Yes, it’s actually happening and I’m going through with it but I’ll need your help and support to push me to the finish line. 

This project is not just about telling the largely unknown story of Su Beng’s life, but in the bigger scheme of things it’s also about the story of Taiwan, the people of Taiwan. It’s about their struggle under a dictatorship that imposed one of the longest periods of martial law in world history. 

This project is about injustice and the very basic human need for freedom and for our voices to be heard. That is the story of Taiwan. That was the story of my parents. My father was a professor at the University of Alaska and a US green card holder when he married my mother in Taiwan. But she was not permitted to leave Taiwan with him by the government. They were separated for nearly a year with my father in Alaska and my mother in Taiwan.  What kind of a government would deny people this basic right to come and go as they pleased? This was the question in my child’s mind that was the root of all my curiosity. It’s led me to my years of work in the Taiwanese American community which in turn motivated me to embark on this project to shed some light on the situation in Taiwan.