Remember when Kickstarter first blew up?
Everyone was talking about it.
The most amazing part of Kickstarter is that it introduced a whole new concept of commerce. There’s never been anything like it before.
Now that the dust has settled, Internet users are familiar with the crowdfunding model, and there’s room for competitors to step up and capture market share.
Can you build a site like Kickstarter?
You’re probably aware of this, but…
Building a site like Kickstarter will require a LOT of functionality. You are basically creating a two-sided marketplace with sponsors and creators. You need to handle payments, give creators tools to customize and launch campaigns, close campaigns automatically, etc.
Now some good news.
There are already pre-built solutions you can use to do a site like this. You won’t need to hire expensive developers or try to write the code yourself. To be honest, I think you’ll be surprised by the tools I’m about to share.
So let’s do it!
How much does it cost? Building a Kickstarter-like website with the products recommended here will cost $119.40 with an annual cost of about $75/year after that.
The site you will build
If If you follow the instructions here, you’ll use the Backnow WordPress theme to create a site that looks like this:
There aren’t that many options available for creating a crowdfunding website. While there are a few alternatives available (which I’ll share later), none come close to the quality of design and feature set available in Backnow. We’ll take a closer look at this topic in a bit, but for now, let’s cover the checklist you need to complete to build your website.
Click here to see more about Backnow now.
How to Build a Kickstarter Site
The process of building a Kickstarter site from scratch can be covered in just six easy steps.
- Get a domain name
- Sign Up for Web Hosting
- Install WordPress
- Install Backnow
- Set Up Backnow
- Start Your Site
I will guide you step by step. You’ll learn how to build a website, get the design and features right, and finally it’s up to you to promote and launch your site when it’s ready.
Things you need
There’s only a handful of critical products you need to build your website.
WordPress
You’ve probably heard of WordPress by now.
You may not know what it is the world’s most popular site builder or more than a decade old.
As a tried and true site building solution, WordPress has a huge community around it. There are themes and plugins to create any type of site you want with any design or features you can imagine, even a site like Kickstarter!
Why WordPress?
As Already As I hinted, the greatest strength of WordPress is the community that surrounds it. That’s why you can find amazing pre-built solutions for any type of site, including crowdfunding websites.
WordPress is an extremely stable and secure platform. Unpatched security vulnerabilities are extremely rare in WordPress and it’s incredibly comprehensive and supported by major hosting companies.
And perhaps best of all, it’s free!
How to Use WordPress
Creating a WordPress site from scratch is now easier than ever. I have a complete step by step guide that you can follow along with:
Make your WordPress website.
That guide will help you register a domain name, sign up for web hosting and install WordPress. Starting from scratch, you’ll quickly find yourself with a working WordPress site online.
Once your WP site is live, anyone with an internet connection will be able to edit and view it. However, it still won’t look or work like Kickstarter.
That’s where the next tool comes in.
Backnow
Backnow is going to transform your simple website of WordPress into a fully functional crowdfunding website.
Backnow is an exceptional theme and there are two main reasons why I recommend it over other alternatives.
Design quality
First of all, Backnow is a gorgeous theme.
The typography is crisp and modern, the layouts are spacious, and the little pops of color really bring the template to life. Backnow achieves a minimalist aesthetic without looking plain or drab.
Also, it’s clear that the style of this theme mimics Kickstarter a lot.
I think this is a great choice because Kickstarter was pioneered the crowdfunding model, which means that visitors have a very close association between this model and the Kickstarter design. They established some conventions and it is better to reuse those conventions on your site. This will help visitors understand how to use your site faster and generate better engagement.
Robust functionality
While Backnow comes with plenty of features for customizing styles, you get the actual crowdfunding functionality from the free WP Crowdfunding plugin. Here’s the thing…
The developers that created Backnow, Themeum, are the same developers that create the WP Crowdfunding plugin. That is why the integration is so careful and precise. These two products work perfectly together.
In addition, when you buy the Backnow theme, you also get a 30% discount on the premium version of WP Crowdfunding. While you could use this plugin with another theme, it’s unlikely you’ll find an integration as successful or a design that’s a great fit for crowdfunding.
How to Use Backnow
Backnow it can be installed quickly and easily just like any WordPress theme.
After your purchase, you will receive a zip file that you can upload to your site. Themeforest has a short tutorial here that you can follow to activate Backnow.
Once you’ve installed the theme, you can start customizing your site. Themeum has a support center full of tutorials for using both Backnow and the WP Crowdfunding plugin.
Backnow Alternatives
There aren’t many themes designed for building crowdfunding websites, and some of them really under delivery. In fact, there is only one other theme that I would recommend as an alternative to Backnow.
Born To Give
Born To Give focuses on charity websites and crowdfunding donations. You could still repurpose it for another niche, but it’s a natural fit for donations.
Born To Give WP theme powered by the WP Charitable plugin that has amazing reviews and works great. However, you’ll also need to purchase the Ambassador extension for WP Charitable, which costs an additional $145.
We have a handful of additional crowdfunding WordPress themes you can check out for more alternatives.
Start your own site as a Kickstarter
I hope you feel empowered to create your own website and launch your website as a Kickstarter after following this guide.
It’s not going to happen quickly , you’ll need to invest quite a bit of time and energy to build this site. However, you will not be stopped by any very technical or expensive barriers. There’s no step in the process you can’t get past.
If you follow the step-by-step instructions and tools shared here, before you know it you’ll be live with a beautiful Kickstarter-like crowdfunding site. is.
.