While most independent film crowdfunding campaigns rely on an established platform, there may be reasons you want to build and manage your indie crowdfunding website, also called “White Label Crowdfunding.” This choice is not for every project, so this post is designed to review the benefits and challenges. Remember that we can help you make this choice, and we do not charge for this service, nor do we have a stake in what direction you choose.
Why Build an Indie Crowdfunding Website?
In our experience, many who do an independent raise end up on a crowdfunding platform because that helps you reach more people, because the website passes along strong search engine results, and because many people routinely check the site. But there may be reasons you might want to do a more independent raise for your film – for example, if you already have a company or personal website that gets traffic, if you have a unique audience that you can easily reach, or if you feel very confident in your skills to market “from scratch.” If you decide to build your indie crowdfunding website, here is some advice.
Indie Crowdfunding Website Basics
The bottom line: Your website must clearly explain, promote, and continually update your project. Website building software, such as Well respected WordPress, makes all of the back-end website building easy, so all you often have to worry about is content and presentation. Here are some specific things to look for, whether you choose WordPress or another solution
Customizable Indie Crowdfunding Websites
Your pitch must be unique and stand out – now you are competing with the strong SEO and marketing of the established platforms. Thus you need to be able to customize your information with a look and feel that fits your project and captures this investor right away. This might include a logo, the site’s colors and theme, functionality, and embedded multimedia. Some website-building platforms offer themes either for free or at a relatively small price that can jump-start this process.
Security and Your Indie Crowdfunding Website
Crowdfunding is a highly competitive field, and if you have a product or service that is doing well, you must ensure your software includes adequate security so no one can come in and disrupt your pitch while actively looking for investments. Again, most platforms have plugins that ensure that you have decent security.
Payments Through Your Indie Crowdfunding Website
When investors are ready to put money toward your film, you want to ensure your site can quickly and easily accept payments. While some people would prefer to take the payment process off-line, others want something a service integrated in. Remember that you will need to collect a lot of information about each investor, depending on what type of raise you are doing. You may want to consult with an accountant about this.
Social Media Options
This may not be for everyone, but most indie crowdfunding pitches do well with some social/interactive options. For example, you might integrate a forum page using crowdfunding software so people can submit questions and comments for you and others (perhaps those who have invested) can answer. You also want to ensure your site quickly and easily links to your Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Twitter pages.
Administration and Data Capture
Ensure you can capture all of the essential statistics, including the number of visitors, where they came from, how long they stayed at your site, and what they looked at while there. Make sure you can see trends in the data as well. One benefit of creating your own independent indie crowdfunding website is having access to all that data.
You may want to look at other independent film sites to see which ones appear most compelling and thorough and decide from there what you need to make an equally strong pitch.
Other Indie Crowdfunding Website Building Tips
Here are more tips about building your independent film crowdfunding website:
1. Make sure that the crowdfunding software solution you choose is 100% customizable, meaning that you can ensure that the look of your website is the same – as the same feel – as your film. This might mean you can choose particular backgrounds, movie clips, effects, and music.
2. Watch for hidden costs – there should be few costs after your initial purchase of a theme, plugin, or media, or at least if there are, they should be quite straightforward.
3. Since some independent film raises evolve, you should look for a site builder you’ll feel comfortable with, even if your indie crowdfunding website may jump from equity to debt or vice versa.
4. Knowing what the life of an independent filmmaker is like, you need to be sure that your platform is entirely cloud-based and easy to use by many types of input, such as smartphones, so that you can update it from wherever you are, and also so that there is some backup that can happen a few times each day.
Alternatives to Building an Indie Crowdfunding Website
You do not have to build your own indie crowdfunding website, given that excellent platforms and websites are already available. Building your own indie crowdfunding website gives you a higher degree of independence, and it can be cheaper, but when you consider the added time and effort needed, it may not be worthwhile. Alternatives to building your own indie crowdfunding website include:
Established Crowdfunding Platforms
Many good indie crowdfunding platforms are available, some focusing solely on indie projects and others more generally oriented to crowdfunding. You need to carefully choose which platform to use depending on the raise you are doing (rewards, equity, debt), and the type of project you have. We can help you find the best fit. The good thing about using an established indie crowdfunding platform is that you retain all the creative control of your project.
Grant and Foundation Sites
Sometimes, grant institutions promote your project to help you get additional funding. They may have their own website that does this, or they may help you build your own. Some film festivals also do this, but at that point, your project is likely already made, and you are raising money for marketing and distribution.
Fundraising Sites
Another path you can choose is to list your project at a fundraising site. This is closely related to crowdfunding, but there may not be any rewards, and there is no debt or equity involved. This approach can be helpful if much of your funding will come from your circle of friends and family.
How We Can Help
We’d be happy to help with your Indie Crowdfunding website choices on three levels:
- We can help you compare this choice with using more traditional crowdfunding platforms
- If you choose the white-label approach, we can help you find the best site builder and host for your site
- Then we can help with content and SEO
And as always, our indie crowdfunding services are fully guaranteed. We also do not receive any money from any particular product or service we might refer you to, so our information will be unbiased and independent. Our goal is to help get indie projects funded!
Contact us if you’d like to discuss further what is involved in building an indie crowdfunding website.
