"The Greater Cause" - John's New CD

[sue d.]

Don't freak me out, Zak!

Yes, the goal is within reach! yeah!

As I told John this morning - "You realize that if the goal is met, you're NOT going to get the full $35,000. Both Kickstarter AND Amazon Payments take out a percentage... Kickstarter takes out 5% off the top, and Amazon 3-5%."

He pauses, and hesitantly says "yeah. Reality is that I need the $35K at the very least - it still won't cover all the expenses that go into making a top-notch album...."

This got me thinking - I don't want to sound greedy, but wouldn't it be totally terrific if we went OVER THE TOP on this? I saw that Steve Taylor's "Blue Like Jazz" movie on Kickstarter ( http://kck.st/a0WPar ) raised $345,992 of the $125,000 goal! Whoa!

Do you think it's possible to hit $50,000 for John??!

[Preacherman777]

It will be interesting to see what happens once the goal is met. If donations will continue to come in. Hopefully they will, to help alleviate some of that loss for John.

[sue d.]

Hopefully they won't be rescinded either - someone just took down $500... nooooo.... not good!

That is always a fear of mine - that people will change their mind at the last minute. I want to hope that people will DECIDE to pledge at the last minute - much better!

[zak89]

At the rate of climb, I don't think 50k is feasible in the time remaining. You'd need to expand the backer 'base' - those already committed can only do so much. But I could see it going over 35k by a few k. If we could hit 40k, even, that would cover the cuts from Amazon/Kickstarter.

The trouble is that if we hit the goal primarily through folks that have been increasing their pledges, hoping to bump it over the finish line, there's going to be big 'sigh of relief', and the pressure will go way down.

I wouldn't read too much into one person backing out - as we get close I think there will be people who will spring to fill the gap. But going over, at least significantly, I'm not seeing it yet. We need more backers, not bigger pledges, and that's hard to get. The Twitter thing seemed to help, but many fans aren't going to be social media people - how do you reach them?

[Preacherman777]

The project needs to raise an average of 182.70 per day for the next 10 days in order to make it. Things seem to have really slowed down the last couple of days. Let's hope that turns around.

[executioner]

I have faith we will make it.

Mountains move when you make a stand, I see the power of the praying man.

[sue d.]

Zak wrote: many fans aren't going to be social media people - how do you reach them?

That's the question. If anyone knows the answer, I'm listening!

Things really haven't slowed down - what's happened is that a few people dropped their pledges down for various reasons, and many more have added or increased their pledge.

You all don't see that because you just see the numbers, not what the backers are actually doing (pledging up or down).

So you'll have to trust me - pledgers are increasing nicely!

[sue d.]

It's now up to:

$33,458
pledged of $35,000 goal

I wonder WHO will put it over the top?! It won't take much!

[LivingRock]

YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!

PRAISE YE THE LORD FOREVER!!!!!!!!

[Jan]

WHOA - OHHHHH YEAH!!!!!!

[Preacherman777]

Obviously, some people really stepped up and came through here. Awesome!

[sue d.]

WHOOHHOOOOO!!!! and we still have 10 days to go!

THANK YOU JESUS - John is NOT done yet!!

[loengard]

John once sang, "As long as I draw breath, my lips will praise You...". Now he still can in a way all of us can enjoy. Thanks Sue and John!

[fcollazo]

Great for John! Now let him rock hard, right where J&H left off!

[ricanrolear]

excellent!!!!!!!