Kickstarter

Kickstarter is still where a project with no list of its own has the best chance of finding backers, because people browse it the way they browse a shop. All or nothing is the rule: miss the goal and nobody is charged, which protects a creator from half-funding something they cannot deliver. Nothing about the platform helps after the campaign ends.

Free to launch. If the project funds, Kickstarter takes 5 percent of the total and payment processing takes 3 percent plus 30 cents per pledge, with a reduced 5 percent plus 8 cents on pledges under $10. If it does not fund, there are no fees at all. Budget for roughly 8 to 10 percent of the raise disappearing before anything is manufactured.

A first project with no mailing list, where the platform's own traffic is the difference between funding and not. Anybody with an audience already may keep more of the money elsewhere.