Listen up project owners!

As you know, once you have created your project and clicked on "submit to the Ulule team", things start to get serious!

We receive everything. Evening, morning, afternoon...and we study each project with  great attention, so that your ideas are portrayed to the public as attractive as can be.

After checking through the several hundred projects submitted to Ulule, you can understand that we start to become a little weary about the elements which make or break a project...That's why we offer advice to improve your project before its publication.

So here's the list of things that we especially look at and  to which you must pay particular attention. Imagine that it's about the foundations of your project (and the owl is a little architect too!) 

• The title: catchy, personal and easy to remember
  

Your title is 3 lines long? That could be complicated to circulate by word of mouth!

Most people read titles and articles throughout the day, so take time to find something catchy for your project. You always have the possibility of adding a more detailed subtitle.

Some examples of titles to avoid:

- Help us to produce our life-long dream of a great and farcical touring theatre

- I want to finance my film

- The creation of my business

• Fundraising period: shorter is better
  

You might be tempted to make the fundraising period as long as possible, telling yourself that this way you will collect the maximum amount of money. Bad plan!

We're talking from experience: it's not the longer campaigns that have the most success...it is in fact the complete opposite!

A good crowdfunding campaign is a dynamic campaign: be present and active all the way through your fundraising. Motivate your networks, update your page, publish news, respond to your supporters. If you're not present, your supporters won't be either. Choose a reasonable fundraising period and animate it as much as possible.

Put yourself in your supporters' position, it's not with time that  they will be convinced, but with the quality of the project and your motivation.

The problem with fundraising periods which are too long is that potential supporters are likely to give their donations later and...forget!

If you produce a short and need 1000 euros, a fundraising period of 20 - 30 days is easily enough! Then add about 10 additional days per 1000 euros.

• Requested sum: the minimum necessary to make your project happen
  

The first rule on Ulule is the principal of "all or nothing": either you reach (and surpass) your goal and receive all the money. OR you finish at less than 100% and no one is charged. In other words, it is always possible to collect more than your budget...but never less!

So it is important to set the requested amount just under what you need to properly meet your project aims...then to work hard at exceeding it.

You ask people to have confidence in you. And the best way to convince them is to tell them the truth, and nothing but the truth! Be precise and explain in detail how you are going to use the collected sums. Because their confidence will also depend on your monetary ambition!

So maybe you want to edit your first poetry collection but you only have a handful of fans and 4 friends on Facebook? Then it's not the best of ideas to request £25,000 on Ulule...

Bear in mind that Ulule is a tool which depends on the power of social networks...and primarily yours!

By asking for ridiculous amounts, the majority of visitors will think that you have a big head and will go elsewhere. If you want to ask for €100 000 for a short, you really have to prove at first glance that you have the means to fulfill your ambitions.

• Project description: du soin et des liens

The 3 categories which compose the page are there to give a clear idea of your project, to make visitors want to help you.

Reading your project needs to be a pleasure for potential supporters: take care over the form, it really makes all the difference! Short sentences, key words, a bit of humour if you're feeling it...And include a photo on your Ulule profile, you have to embody your project!

Avoid long paragraphs which become bogged down with details, 10 page biographies...or the opposite, projects described in 1 line.

And above all, don't forget to re-read what you have written, spelling mistakes do not look good!

A little tip: include links to the different organisations (companies, various instutions) that you mention, and to your website or blog, your Twitter or Facebook etc...That makes your project a lot more credible.

• Media: everyone likes pretty things

Visitors to your page are like you: they prefer pretty pictures and animating videos to long, indigestible texts.

Bear in mind it's your main picture that represents your project on the site.

The more your page is nice to look at, the more people will be inclined to share it with their networks. Put yourself in your visitors' shoes: they receive a link, they click on it, they're curious, they want to see something attractive and interesting. A little video of you in your best robe and with all your dynamicism, could only make your motivation contagious!

To avoid:

- Badly cropped main pictures (respect the site's proportions: 560x310 pixels)

- Main pictures created from several different pictures (you can't see anything when they are reduced in the summaries)

- Low quality videos taken in bad lighting, with background noise

- Photos that are so small you have to squint to work out what they are

Voilà, some of the things you need to pay particular attention to if you want to see your great ideas on Ulule!

Of course we are always here to help you. I know that not everyone is a photoshop specialist or an ergonomics expert! 

Now you know everything! And if you still have doubts, don't hesitate to consult the other topics on the creation and promotion of your project.