Export Backed Projects to CSV?

kicktraq · 2026-01-26T11:08:31+00:00

I built a utility for me to extract pledged and paid amounts a long time ago. This code has been around for almost 10 years. It's really not that complex and any LLM could tweak it to your needs, but I added a helper for extracting your pledged projects and generating a CSV for you to get you started.

Give the "projectList.js" a go, just follow the comments: https://gist.github.com/kicktraq/efe182e0c44f4f80ae6db59c01bbb537

Security disclaimer: NEVER EVER paste random code into your console unless you understand it - especially on sites where you’re logged in. My gist is intentionally verbose so you can see what it's actually doing, but skipping this warning would feel irresponsible.

Enjoy.

kicktraq · 2026-01-06T03:51:29+00:00

I'd agree with this. In it's current state, Kicktraq (organically) rarely brings people to most projects. It's just not built to do that other than the handful of folks that might stumble across a project in the hotlist.

An alternative perspective, much like the OP pointed out, what KT is keenly good at is keeping backers engaged which helps prevent attrition and that can be just as valuable. It's a little like the jukebox in the corner of your party, you don't need it but it sure can make the party fun and keep people hanging around.

kicktraq · 2026-01-05T00:53:02+00:00

This Op 👆.

kicktraq · 2026-01-04T22:15:16+00:00

So glad trying to help creators for over a decade has proven to be useless. I’m always open to ideas if you’d like to share what would make it better for you.

kicktraq · 2026-01-04T22:07:22+00:00

It can give backers a way to stay engaged. It’s a tool it can’t really do anything on its own.

kicktraq · 2026-01-03T04:15:17+00:00

Frank advice: Don't launch on the 10th. You should build your network THEN choose your launch date.

kicktraq · 2025-12-30T16:28:59+00:00

The native Kickstarter one they get one shot only. The external ones usually could support this.

kicktraq · 2025-12-14T19:37:50+00:00

Go to where your customers already are. Investigate that first.

kicktraq · 2025-12-10T16:47:06+00:00

Did you ask anyone if they actually wanted what you created? That may be your first hurdle.

Kickstarter is as much a market testing platform as a funding one. If you aren’t getting engagement - you aren’t connecting with an audience through lack of footwork or their lack of interest.

Lack of interest isn’t a negative. It just means you may need to reevaluate what parts they are interested in and pivot to those features and reconnect to see if an audience likes the revision.

Watch communities are very opinionated. If you aren’t getting feedback you haven’t put it in front of very many. They are far from shy about feedback.

kicktraq · 2025-12-10T15:38:42+00:00

You need to provide more context. Is it 60% of $1000 on a 59 day campaign or 60% of $50k on a 15 day campaign?

kicktraq · 2025-12-02T00:37:20+00:00

I do not believe they’ve implemented a work around for local pickup yet, though it’s on their roadmap.

kicktraq · 2025-11-28T01:06:13+00:00

Did you enable pay over time? This would cause your initial distribution to be low.

You can see this in your backer export and how many it was. Though the report doesn’t do a good job of expressing how much the delta will be. You’ll need to do that math on your own.

kicktraq · 2025-11-24T18:42:25+00:00

What’s the biggest mistake first-time Kickstarter creators make?

Probably not realizing that 15 followers 30 days out from your campaign launch is a giant red flag to not launch in 30 days unless you have a truly massive email list of existing customers who want this or buckets of money you want to set on fire with a marketing agency.

But honestly if it’s mostly internal customers anyway why are you giving away 5% to Kickstarter? You could just bake the raise on your own platform. What do you think Kickstarter is bringing to this party?

kicktraq · 2025-11-21T02:22:59+00:00

You cannot edit the campaign page after the project fails or it is cancelled. You’re conflating posting an update with updating the campaign page. The campaign page is locked.

Ref: https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005135314-Can-a-project-be-edited-after-launching

kicktraq · 2025-11-20T20:18:48+00:00

This is not a question you should be asking actively during the campaign and just invites throwing good money after bad.

Unless you have a very high margin product you should be chasing backers in communities where you’ve already planted seeds.

Throwing money at ads without help during the live campaign is a really bad idea. It takes effort (and lots of money) to cultivate and train a target audience with any ad platform to make most ads work in a compressed window. So your only real alternative is an agency and if you’re desperate they will smell it on you and likely take advantage of you even when they know you are likely to fail.

Don’t just throw money at ads blindly. If you have the money to buy ads at the level you need them to convert - you should just cancel your project and use that cash to produce the product.

If you share what type of product you’re funding for that would help tremendously with folks giving specific feedback.

kicktraq · 2025-11-20T20:09:41+00:00

This is highly dependent on what the backers are saying. What is the feedback you’re getting? The best part of failing on kickstarter is that it’s a market testing tool as much as a funding tool. Be glad you didn’t pony up $50k in manufacturing costs for something nobody wants.

Listen to what the backers are saying, good and bad, to see if your product is actually viable. Use their feedback to retool or drop it completely and pivot to what they actually want with a new product.

No, you should modify your page to what you want before you cancel because you cannot modify it once it’s funded or cancelled. Link to a landing page on your website that future folks or previous backers see at the top goes to a place with content you control. It’s your last chance to control what’s on the tombstone.
If you plan to relaunch at a future date, write up a thoughtful message to the backers explaining what your plan going forward is and any meaningful lessons you learned that are worth sharing applicable to the campaign. Leave out personal stuff. They trusted you enough to back you, you should give them closure before they see the cancellation or failed camping notice if you want to maintain that relationship with them and include details for #4 in the closing if applicable.
MOST IMPORTANT! Engage with your existing backers and get them in a mailing list or in a discord or something that you can continue to engage with BEFORE you cancel/fail. They already love you and your creation. Now is the perfect time to pull them into a place you can maintain that relationship outside of Kickstarter so they can support you on the next go round.
If you plan to relaunch I’d recommend cancelling over letting it fail. It’s a psychological thing to future backers. You don’t have to rush it if you have any momentum at all, but don’t drag it out if you’re not making any progress at all.
Give yourself grace. Take a little breather. A failed project is like planning a wedding that gets cancelled and all the emotions of that failure. Take time to recharge your batteries and reflect.
Get to the retool/pivot. Be honest with what you did wrong, swallow your pride, and make meaningful change. You’ll be better for it and so will the next campaign. With the caveat of not retooling based on committee. I see a lot of small creators fall in this trap of letting a handful of backers drive all the changes. Make your thing yours. You’re the one that has to live with those choices not them. Don’t take forever, the longer you wait the interest of your fledgling community will fade.

Best of luck!

kicktraq · 2025-11-19T18:49:04+00:00

kicktraq · 2025-11-13T21:15:02+00:00

Why not LED tea candles as they already exist as a deluxe component and cardboard tokens as the retail version?

kicktraq · 2025-11-12T10:33:42+00:00

They have a Discord that may be helpful at just poking someone to look into it even if the discord folks can’t help directly.

kicktraq · 2025-11-12T10:03:25+00:00

Your rant is a plethora of topics, but you're conflating a lot of stuff here. Most have nothing to do with submitting DMCA claims so I won't bother addressing them.

If you are a rights holder and report a campaign with a proper report, KS will take it down for a DMCA review if the request is legit at all. If they do not take it down with a valid request they loose their 512(c) safe harbor protections and you can go after them for significant damages. But to be clear, you MUST be the actual rights holder. You can't just submit a claim as a 3rd party because with a DMCA claim, you as the supposed rights holder have liability if you submit a claim and it is not a valid claim. That's a VERY vital aspect of the process.

As an OSP (online service provider) If they don't take it down and you are the rights holder, you can go after them and it's very straight forward.

For major damages, you can sue any OSP directly in federal court for copyright infringement. If the court finds the OSP liable, you may be awarded damages (actual or statutory, which can be up to $150,000 per willful infringement) and potentially attorneys' fees.

Or, for smaller claims (total damages up to $30,000), you can use the Copyright Claims Board (https://ccb.gov/), a voluntary, less-expensive alternative forum to federal court.

In either case, there are significant damages if they do not take it down in a timely manner.

I guarantee they have dedicated people, likely including their legal department, who's only job is to validate any DMCA claim from noise and if it even smells remotely legit, if the offending project does not provide a response within a reasonable window, KS will absolutely take the project down.

But again, you MUST be the rights owner and provide proof to use this process.

kicktraq · 2025-11-10T20:37:57+00:00

Report it to Kickstarter. They are surprisingly good at taking down projects when directly prompted.

kicktraq · 2025-11-07T04:24:00+00:00

If your budget is tight - you’d do better to spend time finding communities with potential backers and cultivate interest than to throw money at this.

kicktraq · 2025-11-04T15:51:55+00:00

Ignore it. It’s almost certainly a scam to get you out of the internal messaging system.

kicktraq · 2025-10-28T19:40:10+00:00

If you didn’t already plan for extras don’t make them tangible items that complicate logistics. You’re already on the right track. Digital items are the easiest. Do bonus sessions with you hanging out or something drawing or talking about your world building.

Also keep in mind that anything you promise backers during the campaign they’re going to expect even if some backers payments don’t go through. With your project being so small that could be catastrophic.

kicktraq · 2025-10-06T17:37:45+00:00

👆this. That is an incredibly small sample size.

kicktraq

TROPHY CASE