About 10 months ago when Danny Iny started plans for his new Book Naked Marketing Manifesto, he turned the concept of writing over its head.

What he did was pure genius, and it has shown me that sometimes getting started on a new project is just a little creative thinking away.

Instead of spending months writing an eBook before getting feedback from his audience, Danny did things so differently that I wish I knew of this before committing to writing time on my just completed eBook.

No 1. He surveyed his audience first

Now why is that so cool? People survey their audiences every now and then right?

There is nothing new about that is there?

Well, he asked his audiences on different websites he was involved on and only continued with the book idea when all he got was a resounding yes.

How did that knowledge change things for him?

He already knew he had an audience for Naked Marketing Manifesto and interactions during the survey stage had provided valuable feedback on the general direction the book should take.

Now it was time to take it even further!

No 2. He crowdsourced the funding of his book

Danny envisaged that his book would cost him at least $2500 to write and self-publish, so he created a project on Indiegogo and set the funding requirements for his project at $2500.

He could have picked the tab for that one (for sure, Danny Boy is not doing badly!), but he did not.

For those not familiar with this Indiegogo thing, it is a crowd funding  platform where projects are funded by the strength of the community. Remember how politicians do fundraisers during their campaigns? Well, crowd funding websites bring such fundraising to the reach of just anyone.

What advantages did Danny get by using the crowd funding model?

He succeeded in sharing ownership for his project with his fans, which got them talking more about his Naked Marketing book than they would have done had it just been another book in the marketing space.

No 3. He got people to pay to do the heavy lifting for him

Danny did not want to go to an isolated cabin and spend 6 months working on his new book. Yet, if the book was to be of good quality, it did require quality time to write and rewrite.

To solve that problem, Danny gave funders of his book the privilege of writing the book with him.

For contributing anything between $25 and $15, 000 to the project, funders received the perks of collaborating with Danny as he wrote his book. Now see the genius: apart from getting some really smart persons to pay him for his new book upfront, Danny boy was able to get them to commit time and their resources to ensure the book was a success.

Danny shared his ideas with his audience, and using their feedback on a section by section and chapter by chapter basis, he ended up with a Book that reflected the collective insight of all those who contributed to project.

Great idea, don’t you agree?

4. He used his book project to sell his services

As you know, crowdfunded projects are sustained by perks given to those who fund the campaign.

One of the perks for sponsors of the project was a Naked Marketing Bootcamp where funders got access to insider coaching on how to implement ideas in the book in their businesses.

In total, twelve persons funded his project for the Naked Marketing Bootcamp category, and had ‘free access’ to his LIVE training event.

That was another great idea, right?

What were the results?

Attempting to crowd source a new book is one thing. Doing it successfully is quite another.

Danny’s crowd-sourcing debut was a resounding success!

As of the time the project closed on Indiegogo, Danny had raised double of his funding requirements, ending at an impressive $5, 240.

57 funders raised $25 each for the privilege of joining the writing team.

4 funders raised $45 each for the perk of an autographed paperback edition of the book.

12 funders raised $105 each for a place on the LIVE Naked Marketing Bootcamp.

5 funders raised $475 for an acknowledgement as a key financial contributor to the book project.

That brings total funding raised to $5, 240. Not bad for a campaign that did not take more than a day to create.

Are you seeing what I am seeing?

If gears are not moving in your brain at this time, then something must be seriously wrong with you.

I mean, does this not excite you?

The only thing that limits what you can do with crowd sourcing is your creativity and imagination.

Danny used it to publish a book.

Can you use it to start a Video training course? Can you use it to raise funds to start a WordPress theme design firm?

As I said, only your imaginations can stop you.

Do you have a creative project you might have worked on had you some extra money to help along the way?

Danny says take it to Indiegogo and go all the way!

What are you still doing here? Get going!