Creator Confessions: Why Does The Dead Zone Exist?

Anyone who’s ever run a Kickstarter knows about the dreaded “dead zone.” And while its impact varies greatly depending on the level of the creator, it’s always there. The reason for this is mainly psychological on the part of the consumer. There are tons of videos and articles out there that are tremendously helpful with giving tips on how best to minimize dead zone impact and also break out of it. But little time is devoted to explaining why it exists in the first place.

For those who don’t know, the dead zone is a period in the middle of the campaign when projects may get two, one, or even no backers a day for an extended period of time. For huge creators that get thousands of backers, maybe their dead zone is just getting ten backers a day. But still, it’s all relative. Sometimes it comes five days into a campaign. Sometimes it could come the second day. Whatever the case may be, the dead zone is only broken in the campaign’s final days when backers starts pledging in greater numbers.

The reason the dead zone exists is quite simple: human nature. People are most interested in backing a project either in the very beginning or the very end. They want to jump in right at the start because they want to support the creator for a good opening and are eager for the project. Likewise, other backers pledge at the end simply because time is running out. It’s a “now or never” type of decision that promotes action. The middle of the campaign doesn’t have either of these factors. The people that were super eager for the project already backed and those that are hesitant don’t have a time constraint to make a decision. The dead zone is perfectly natural. It’s no creator’s fault that it exists. So the best thing to do is not get down on yourself because you’ve entered it. The answer is just simply to put your head down and get to work doing the best you can to fight this period of inactivity.