2. Defining my goal

This is a vital part of creating your project.
A successful project on MMC is a project which achieves its goal before the fundraising deadline. Although no two ideas are the same, the hints we give below will help you come up with a great project.

This is the amount of money you need to successfully complete your project.

There are certain points you have to keep in mind when calculating your goal.

First of all, factor into your calculations the 10% fee My Major Company takes on funds raised. Next, think carefully about exactly how much you need to carry out your project, from the design stage through to production, not forgetting all the intermediate steps (development and distribution costs, promotion expenses, etc). Remember that you also have to use the funds you've raised to deliver the rewards that you promised to your participants.

It's important to be as transparent as possible, set realistic funding goals and explain exactly why you need the amount you're asking for. People will be more willing to invest in a project where the funding goal is clearly set out and where they see exactly where the money is going. On MMC, you're free to raise more money than the minimum goal you set (quite a few projects exceed their fundraising objectives), so there's no point in setting your targets too high.
On the other hand, if you don't manage to reach your fundraising target before the deadline, your project will not be funded and the money collected will be returned to your participants.

This is the amount of time you think you need to reach your minimum fundraising target. It must be under 180 days.

The deadline depends largely on the goal you’ve set, but there are also other factors to take into account, such as the date your project has to start production.

It's often a good idea to choose a short deadline, as it’s usually more motivating for people to participate in short-term projects

3. Pitching my project

Once you've set your goal, you have to start pitching your project in detail to the Internet community and show them why it's worth participating in.

You can customize and update your project area as much as you want. You can use any media, for example, and explain exactly what rewards you’re giving.

Depending on the type of project you've come up with, you can pitch it using several different modules:
- Videos (hosted on Youtube, Dailymotion or Vimeo)
- Images
- PDF
- Mp3 (uploaded to MMC or hosted on Soundcloud)
- Text

You can add, delete, update or move any type of personalized module.

Once you've made all the changes you want, you save your content and you're ready to go!

You don’t have to include a presentation video on your page, but it could increase your chances of success on MMC considerably. The effort you have put into making it will show the serious motivation behind your project.

Hints and tips:

- Take time to structure your video well, writing a script for it and using quality equipment and software.
- Whether you are shy or outgoing, be sure to film yourself. It is essential to build up a relationship of trust between project owner and contributors.
- make sure you give your video the number one spot. The higher your video is up the page, the greater the chance it will be viewed.

And to finish:

- Be enthusiastic and positive! Don’t be apologetic – ask web users to get involved
- Be concise – an explanation lasting one to two minutes should be enough
- Introduce yourself and say who is on your project team
- Explain the story behind your project and how the idea was born
- Say why you decided to obtain finance for your project via MMC
- Talk about the rewards you will be offering your contributors
- Say what will happen when your project obtains the finance
- Thank your future contributors!

You can use any video hosted on Youtube, Dailymotion ourVimeo that belongs to you. After that, it’s down to you!

With MMC, you can personalize your page's graphic display. Go ahead and try it!
Personalizing your project page's colors will boost your chances of success!

4. Choosing the rewards

Rewards are what participants receive in exchange for the pledges they make to the project. You therefore need to give a good deal of thought to what rewards you can offer and at what price.

The first thing to do is to offer rewards that come about as a direct result of your project. If you're bringing out a new rock music album for example, you can offer participants a copy once it’s released.

You can also offer collaborative rewards, which means you'll be including participants directly in the project, on top of their pledges.
If you're making a film, for example, this could mean including participants in it as extras.

You could also offer experiences to your participants.
If you're writing a cookbook, for example, you could offer to come over to their place and make dinner for them!

Above all, remember to be original and creative. Rewards don't have to be tangible, they could even come down to a simple "my sincere thanks" or they could hit an offbeat note (you'll receive a photo of me and my cat!).

Pour vous aider, nous avons mis à votre disposition une liste de contreparties en fonction de la catégorie d'un projet. Cliquez ici pour les découvrir.

There’s no ideal price for a reward.
What you have to remember, though, is that you need something to suit every taste and every wallet! Offer some low-priced rewards (between €10 and €30) that are within everybody's reach and also other rewards to appeal to participants with deeper pockets (over €100).

When you price a reward, remember to factor in all the costs involved in producing it, and don't forget to keep a margin for financing your project!
If, for example, an album costs €3 to produce, postage is €1 and MMC takes 10% and then you offer it as a reward for a €5 contribution, you'll only have €0.5 left over for making it!

5. Getting my project online

1) Publication

Once your project has been designed and text and illustrations added, you will need to submit it to us for approval by clicking the "send my project" button.
Our team will get back to you within 72 hours (three working days).
Please note: when you have sent your project, you cannot modify it before you receive the response from our approval team.
If your project is approved, you then have the option to put it on line and start payments or to modify it. If you decide to modify the parameters of your projetc, you will need to re-submit your project to us for approval.
If your project is rejected, don’t be discouraged! You can still send us any other project that comes within our selection criteria.

2) Visibility in the projects directory

Initially, your project will only be accessible via a direct link (your project address on MMC) or by using our search engine.
If you don’t know your project address, click here to access your project.

Why?
We know from experience that a project has little chance of achieving its objective if the project owner does not promote itactively. This principal enables us to exclude participatory finance "tourists" and provide coverage for projects with real motivation behind them, and which project owners promote pro-actively.
We have therefore perfected a whole range of tools to help you pass on the message about your project. To follow our advice see the next page!

What do you need to do to appear in the directory?
Two objectives:
- persuade at least 5 different contributors to participate in your project
- obtain a minimum of €100 in contributions in total
Once these two objectives have been achieved, your project will automatically appear in the project directory.
Please note: if your project falls back below the limits described above, it will no longer be available in the directory.

6. Promoting my project and successfully raising funds

There are several ways you can go about promoting your project, and here are a few hints to get you started.

The most creative, innovative and best-explained projects are the ones that are highlighted on the "Discover the projects" page. Our project approval team is always on the lookout for the most original and creative projects.

The first thing to do is to get your family and friends involved in your project - your greatest fans are often those nearest to you! Long experience has shown that you need this initial support to get your project off the ground and without it things become much more complicated. Persuade them to take part and remember to tell them that if your project doesn't reach its funding goal, they'll get their money back, just like any other participant.

But don't forget the other two circles - your friends' friends and the rest of the Internet community! These are the people who’ll probably bring you the most and the biggest pledges.
This is where Facebook Connect comes in. When you get your family and friends to connect to My Major Company using their Facebook account, it means that they will also be letting their own friends know about your project.
How does it work? It's dead easy, all they have to do is accept the application and their participation in your project will be posted on the wall for all their Facebook friends to see.

A new participant means a new fan. You can build up your fan base by regularly updating your project and keeping participants posted about its progress. To help you, we’ve come up with some tools :
- A powerful messaging system. If you go to your area "My Projects", you can contact some or all of your contributors and your fans to invite them to promote your project. You can also use this system to deliver your rewards by filtering functionalities.
- Advanced sharing features. Share your page on social networks (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc..), send an message to all your email contacts ("invite my contacts" button on your page), export your project widget on your website (button "export "on your page), your blog, and those of all your friends.

One last tip, but also one of the most important : no spamming:)
A barrage of e-mails is enough to put off even your most fervent admirers!

7. Fulfilling my project

If your project has met at least 100% of its goal before the deadline, the money raised will be paid into your Credit.
For us to pay this money, however, your account must be certified and for this we need a copy of your passport or identity card. To see how to do this, go to your "My account" area.

Once your account has been certified, you can ask for the money to be transferred from your Credit to your bank account so that you can go ahead with your project

If your project fails to meet its fundraising goal, all the contributions made by your participants will be paid back into their MMC Credit and your project page will be closed.

Once the money is transferd to your credit, you have access to the documents provided by MMC (collect bill, justificatives).

Your first aim will be to fulfill the promises that you made your participants and deliver the rewards you offered. This step is crucial.

You can use the community contact tool to contact participants and deliver their rewards. This application provides your participants’ contact details (name, address, etc.) and allows you to get in touch with them and brief them about their rewards or ask for extra details.

Make the best use of your money for your project

The final stage, is, of course, fulfilling your project. Make good use of your money! Make sure every penny counts and use it wisely.
A successfully achieved project is one that lives up to its initial promises. If it doesn't do this, you'll soon have a serious image problem, which will be difficult to get over.

What it boils down to is being transparent, original and reactive.
Following these guidelines will give you the best chance of ending up with a successful project!