We’re less than six weeks from launching the new Bikeverywhere website, and already thinking about enhancements with Phase 2. Those upgrades, however, take money, so next week I’ll be launching an Indiegogo Campaign, a crowd funding project to get us started working on site upgrades almost as soon as the new bikeverywhere.com is launched.

Crowd funding is a fascinating way to raise money. In my case, I will make the pitch, explaining that Bikeverywhere is a better way to find bike routes online. The main pitch will be with a video and the Campaign description. I also offer “Perks” for backing the project. The basic perk will be an extended membership on the site for $12 and a membership plus Bikeverywhere t-shirt for $25. From there it goes up to the ridiculous level of a $10,000 backer. In the unlikely event that one of those would surface, they will get a three day luxury bike and houseboat tour on the Mississippi River for the backer and up to 7 companions. Probably not worth the cost, but if a backer believes in the project to that level, he or she should get something besides the satisfaction of seeing a great website.

If I reach my goal of $8000 in backing, I get the funds. (If not, no one is out any money). At that point we’ll look at the list of potential enhancements, check it against requests from members and compare to the amount of money available for upgrades. Then we begin designing and coding the enhancements.

If I don’t get the money, the same process will happen, but it will take much longer to improve the site.