Initial Coin Offering is the full form of ICO. It is a way to raise fund for new cryptocurrency projects.
What are benefits of ICO?
Saves time and Money: If we follow the old way, to raise fund from investors/banks, then it demands a lengthy process where a lot of our time and money would be wasted. But in ICO, anyone can invest easily. It is not a costly affair like traditional method. Small companies always face the problem to raise money through traditional way, as they can’t afford to spend so much time and money. Here, ICO makes it easy to fund their company
Quick, cheap and easy Funding: ICO takes new venture in a new height. Now everyone can initiate ICO. There are so many platforms such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple or Lumen. The cost is much lower than tradition process to raise funding. It’s quicker, cheaper and easier.
Higher Profit: Cryptocurrency prices peaked quickly than traditional investment. So, there is a higher chance to earn a reasonable profit. However, this isn’t always true as crypto prices fluctuate upto 20% profit or loss on an average in a very short period of time.
Online Marketing: You can target your potential customer with online marketing. You can promote your new venture in an online forum, social accounts like LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, Company’s website. You can reach a larger audience with little effort.
Access to Global funds: You can access funds from any part of the world.
What are the steps to create an ICO?
Create Your Complete ICO Application in 48hour
1. Project Idea
It is necessary to formulate an interesting project idea which has the power to influence people. As we all know, a good project idea always has more chances of getting more investors.
2. Purpose of Tokens in the project
You have to determine the purpose of tokens in the project. A token is a tool which can be used for payment or investment. It can also be used for things like voting systems.
A token is the foundation of investment. Most importantly, it must have to be closely related to the product. It needs to encourage the investors to purchase it. It is better if you select a token symbol which is easy to remember.
3. How much will the Initial Supply of Tokens be?
You must fix the percentage of the initial supply of tokens that you are allocating or selling to the investors. It is not wise to distribute all of your tokens in the hands of a few token holders. Always try to distribute tokens to a large number of audience. It will increase your engagement.
Then, decide your Project Milestone with a complete release date.
4. Assemble Team (Hire Dedicated team/developers)
Now is the time to do the most difficult work, to build your own team. People have to see some new ideas and credibility so that they can believe and work for it. Now the question is, where and how you will find your desired team? Well, they can be from any part of the world. You can find them through any social account like LinkedIn or forum. Just assume, you found your desired team member, now what you would do? Send them a pitch! Well, if you ask me, I don’t think they will take you seriously if you send an email or attempt to contact them through Twitter or Facebook. They are professional people, and they have always get hundreds of emails every day. So, what’s the play? Well, LinkedIn could be a good fit for your potential team as it is used by professional people. And people take it quite seriously.
At first, build your relationship with the desired team member. Then make an appointment in person, if not possible then arrange a meeting in Skype or imo. It would be much fruitful if you talk in person rather than to send a pitch. It is necessary to show your credibility, passion and tell your desire to get him on your team. This would definitely impress him.
5. White Paper Document and why it is important.
Whitepaper is the most important document for your new venture. It is a report where the new cryptocurrency startup project writes about their new venture & its mission goal, how much budget is needed to start this project, what sort of currency will be accepted, and the time duration of ICO campaign, in one word almost every milestone of your venture. It should be formed very carefully and attentively.
Why it is So Important:
A whitepaper is a blueprint of your complete project. It would be read by a mass of people. So, if you want to influence and attract them in your project, it should have accuracy. Just assume, in a day, it would be read by hundreds of people. They are all crypto-specialists. By chance, if they find any fault in it, I am afraid they will leave no stone unturned to criticize you. And your project will lose its credibility. Hopefully, you understand my point. So, it’s important to take whitepaper seriously. You can hire a professional for the complete process. But if you to do it on your own, then give it a check to proofread specialists, so that they can correct wherever you go wrong. ICObench, a website where you can find a lot of ICO advisors. They can give you some advice.
6. Create ICO website
You need to create a website for your ICO with all the details such as the name of the token, milestones, team members, etc. You need to give more time and work to set up your site. It should be a usable site, and should look professional. The website should be responsive (i.e. working on all desktop and mobile devices). Design it with professional website designers. Keep it in mind that there would be thousands of users who will check your site at the same time, so it better be fast and secure. In the website, you have to give a guideline to your audience, such as, how they can contribute, so make a guideline with proper instructions. Website Uptime is also an important factor. Set countdown of date and time when the ICO ends and also add a subscribe feature for the users.
7. Coding Smart Contracts in Solidity
If we want to create an ICO we can either choose our own blockchain platform or use ethereum blockchain platform. Ethereum provides smart contracts which have been discussed in our previous blog post here. Ethereum Smart contracts are coded in a language called Solidity. It is a helpful and secure programming language to write smart contracts. What we are looking to publish are ERC20 standard tokens. After finishing the whole process, deploy the smart contracts to ethereum blockchain platform.
8. ICO Marketing Campaigns (Bounty and Airdrops) and start with real user
Now you have to create your own personal brand. To create brand consciousness and attract the investors, you have to do ICO Marketing Campaigns so that people can know about your venture. For this, you can use the forum (bitcointalk forum is famous for it, LinkedIn (the most credible platform), Facebook, Twitter, blog, email, Reddit, Telegram, slack, Medium and Github. Don’t limit yourself, try every possible social channel. The more outlets you try, the more clients. You can also develop a Bounty Campaign; it’s really fruitful.
To create buzz and awareness, you can do something more reliable like airdrop. It definitely increases investors’ attention and trustworthiness to your project.
