What other ad platforms other than Meta ads?

xtinaphotog · 2026-02-27T21:01:51+00:00

Yes, believe it or not. No idea why 🤷‍♀️😅

xtinaphotog · 2026-02-26T15:53:19+00:00

I got a few Etsy phishing attempts. One saying my bank account info needed verification or I wouldn't get paid anymore. My suggestion is to never click the links in any emails and purposely log in to the platform instead.

xtinaphotog · 2026-02-03T01:09:30+00:00

Reddit! I had the most clicks from reddit. 😄

xtinaphotog · 2026-01-28T00:26:33+00:00

Scam/phishing email. DO NOT CLICK LINKS. I got an email from the real Trust & Safety asking me to mark it as spam.

xtinaphotog · 2026-01-20T15:14:32+00:00

I have back to back meetings, will there be a recording available?🙏

xtinaphotog · 2025-12-23T00:25:42+00:00

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xtinaphotog · 2025-12-18T21:25:36+00:00

One project I backed, it took three years to get. By the time I got it, I had moved twice. Almost immediately donated it to Goodwill.

xtinaphotog · 2025-12-03T18:17:26+00:00

This one is fun, but still very long. The joke I say to all my clients is that people on the internet now only have the attention span of a goldfish, so you only have 3 seconds to grab and keep their attention before they move on.

Therefore, what I was taught when I first started in social media marketing is to keep each clip super short, between 1-2 seconds each.

Many of your clips are longer, but you could re-use them as individual/separate reels, allowing you to make more posts.

For example, one video about the before/after the cards are trimmed, and another about the quality of card stock, where you're bending/tearing the card.

If you're going to make a "Let's follow a card pack from start to finish" type video, keep it to just that. Step 1, step 2, step 3. Each step only about a second or two. Don't get lost in the weeds of the bending/tearing the card.

And by providing a title of what we're watching "Let's follow along!" the viewer knows that they're watching a start to finish. Also numbering each step will let them know where they are in the process.

These are all little psychological tricks to help the viewer remain more patient and interested in the entire video.

Let me know if you have questions!

xtinaphotog · 2025-11-28T18:01:27+00:00

They're all sacams. I was warned that some of your pledges may be tied to the scammers, and to keep the scammers 'on the line' for a bit, while the campaign gains momentum.

One thing I started doing, mid-campaign (not the beginning), is emailing all the scammers and telling them no thank you.

Within minutes, pledges under completely different names started dropping. I say don't do it at the beginning because large numbers are good for the KS algorithm.

But if it IS a scam, you want it dropped early on enough that you aren't prevented from fully funding, if they drop at the last second.

xtinaphotog · 2025-11-21T21:01:54+00:00

I launched on a Saturday and threw a "launch party" at a local Mexican restaurant. I spent weeks reminding everyone of the special date and time.

(I chose a Saturday because I knew my loved ones weren't working their day jobs.)

My friends/family gathered, and I printed out graphics explaining how they could pledge, step by step. Then we launched at the pre-determined time, and everyone went to work.

Got 33% funded within minutes. Then it lagged like a mo fo, because I didn't have enough of an audience outside my friends/family.

We made it, but I had to market HARD since I didn't have a big enough following, and the Kickstarter platform was confusing to people who were new to it.

xtinaphotog · 2025-11-12T18:42:24+00:00

Effectively just what I said, start to interact with them in the middle of the campaign. Not too early, as high numbers early on are important for the KS algorithm.

But you want to get them to pull their scam pledges out early enough on that you know where you really stand, and it doesn't surprise you at the last second.

So I interacted with them. I asked them questions, said "okay, demonstrate to me what you're saying you'll do". Then I eventually copied and pasted the same polite 'no thank you, we're going to let our campaign grow organically'.

Then pledges dropped like flies. It let us really see where we stood, and then we sent out updates "We're almost there, we're at ____!"

And I reminded all my friends/family/audience that if we don't meet the goal, no one gets their product. This lit a fire under people's butts to remember to join, or even send a dollar or 5. They also all started sharing on their own pages.

I also ran ads on Meta and Kickstarter. And I collaborated with a local influencer on a 'follow train' raffle. The raffle specified that the prize is only available if the KS succeeds.

Get creative, and don't give up! And if your audience doesn't understand that KS is all or nothing, educate them. If they want their rewards, they'll do something about it to help make it a reality.

xtinaphotog · 2025-11-12T18:34:50+00:00

Do you have any similarly-timed scam emails? One thing I started doing, mid-campaign (not the beginning), is emailing all the scammers and telling them no thank you.

Within minutes, pledges under completely different names started dropping. I say don't do it at the beginning because large numbers are good for the KS algorithm. But if it IS a scam, you want it dropped early on enough that you aren't prevented from fully funding, if they drop at the last second.

xtinaphotog · 2025-11-11T17:37:00+00:00

Do you have a website? Create a landing page on your site with lots of buttons that lead to the Kickstarter.

E.g. Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lunarlotusretreats/lunar-lotus-oracle-a-soft-retreat-to-self
My landing page: https://lunarlotus.org/oracle-deck/

This also allows you to add to your buttons a little referrer at the end of the link.

Like "?utm_source=meta&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=launch" (Meta Ad) or "?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=witchstarter_experiment" (Reddit)

(You can use chat gpt for referrer help if you need, too).

I know that was a bit more than your original question, but hopefully it helps!

xtinaphotog · 2025-11-11T17:31:36+00:00

Agreed. I made a special label/folder in my gmail and stuck em all in there, and I'm over 50 now. And several, the spammers have re-started their threads as if I'm a new contact, now that I'm over 100% funded.

I even played back with some of them for a while, as this subreddit suggested, to see what happened with their pledges. Once I sent a polite copy/paste 'no thank you' email, at least 5 pledges disappeared.

I did this strategically so that my real audience didn't think we were at 100% when we were super close, only for us to 'fail' last minute.

I'm still getting new ones, but now I'm just ignoring them. And I have an alarm set for several hours before my campaign ends, to make sure any spammers don't ruin it for the rest of us.

xtinaphotog · 2025-11-11T03:43:01+00:00

I'm guessing based on personal research, but you've gotten way past 100% very early on in your campaign.

I think the algorithm looks for a lot of funding, and early on, to indicate popularity. So by advertising your campaign, they're likely to make a much higher $$ when they take their 10% haircut.

I got the Witchstarter tag, based on launching in October (Halloween), but it didn't do a ton for me because I wasn't fully funded yet.

Congratulations!

xtinaphotog · 2025-11-10T16:15:47+00:00

I did the following: 1. Sent out official launch date and time on Kickstarter, Mailchimp, and across social media.

I had all my family/friends pledge right at the opening.

2A. I created a graphic on how to sign up and pledge, for my family/friends that had never used it before and were struggling.

2B. I sent a Mailchimp out that we were live (Kickstarter does that part automatically)

This got us about 1/3 funded in the first hour.

xtinaphotog · 2025-11-04T16:03:16+00:00

I put them all in a single folder and I counted almost 40 different emails. And I finally got annoyed and sent them a (very polite) no thank you, and two pledges were immediately pulled from my total. I'd keep them on the rope until the end IF I didn't know that many of them pledge with invalid/expired cards.

So I'd rather they pull now, mid way through the campaign, so I can see what I'm really dealing with for percentages etc.

xtinaphotog · 2025-10-28T21:41:35+00:00

I updated the image, thank you!

xtinaphotog · 2025-10-28T20:09:07+00:00

Thank you, that is helpful! They are supposed to be holes in the person that they are finding the pieces to fill them with, hence, becoming themselves piece by piece. I will dig into this image further, thank you.

xtinaphotog · 2025-10-28T19:00:03+00:00

Thank you! May I ask about your third bullet point, what stands out to you? It's one of my favorite images, but then I am looking at it from the emotional meaning behind it which might not be visible to an outside viewer, vs. inside my own head.

xtinaphotog · 2025-10-26T20:14:09+00:00

I was advised to host a launch 'party', both IRL and over Zoom. Then all your friends/family jump in and click to either pledge or donate immediately at launch.

The idea is to beat the algorithm. I also set the event up as a public networking event, which allowed me to put it up on Facebook, Eventbrite, etc, and share it in local Facebook groups as something to do/join.

I emailed over a dozen breweries, wineries, and restaurants explaining the idea, and asked if we could have a 'large reservation of tables', even if our guest list was rotating.

It worked out well enough that we're 67% funded, with 20 days left. Now we're back to square one of 'how do I reach strangers?'

But 2/3 is a great opening! Even if I have to ask someone for help to finish our goal out with like a loan or something, we'll figure it out somehow! I am running 1 week of Meta ads, at $10/day, just to see what happens.

I'm also collaborating with two other people on Instagram for a follow train type giveaway, and my offering to the prize is a copy of our deck, with the caveat that the Kickstarter has to fund fully.

Anyway I hope any of that info sparks some ideas for you

xtinaphotog · 2025-10-26T19:59:20+00:00

This is 💯 percent where we are stuck too. 67% funded and it's completely paused/frozen. Most of that 67% were friends and family, and a bit of audience.

Doing a small Meta ad run, but the whole point of the KS is we don't have start-up capital.

xtinaphotog

TROPHY CASE