I did a Kickstarter back in March 2014 for Volume 1 (180 pages) of my webcomic. I had 42 done at the time. Went for a $5k goal, got $6k so we did pretty good!
Here are my biggest takeaways:
I will never, EVER do another Kickstarter before my content is 100% complete. Interior pages are one thing, but the comic pages need to be done. After one gross miscalculation after another, it took us until January 2017 to get the books shipped to backers because we were so bad at estimating how long it would take us to produce pages. It depends on your project and experience of course, but imo rewards for a Kickstarter should not take more than a year to put out after funding has ended.
I would avoid the holiday season because 1) people are spending their money elsewhere and 2) you want to try your damnedest to use up that money before the end of the year so you don't get hit with a butt-ton of taxes.
Don't complicate the campaign with a ton of merchandise. I've found that while having a couple things like keychains or posters are cool, 80% of people are just interested in the product. If you're going to offer merch, do 1-2 things tops, and make it something that has low production costs like prints or stickers. Don't go for big things like tshirts, people don't care enough.
Don't draw out your campaign for more that a month. Your chances to fail increase dramatically if you do.
Make your standard reward tier (what you're kickstarting) $25-$30 at least. This is what most people are going to pledge at so you have to make it count! Having it at $5 or $10 will really hurt your final number. About double the retail price is good--you gotta remember that they're not just buying from a store, they're supporting your work!
You need a video, graphics, solid rewards, and your campaign text should be succinct and organized. All of these play together and a deficiency in one can hurt you a lot.
For the love of God, don't talk at length about yourself or your passion in your video. People want to know about the product itself, not you.
Research everything. Calculate your costs of production, merchandise, printing, shipping, barcodes, isbns, packaging, fees, etc. to settle on a number. There is also a ton of reading material out there on how to make a successful Kickstarter, so read that and look at the successes and failures yourself. Pick out exactly why you would or wouldn't back certain campaigns yourself. Take notes.
And lastly, it is absolutely wrong that just posting it on Kickstarter will get enough traffic to fund you. Yes, you will get some traffic, and you'll have some backers just from people browsing the site, but they cannot be relied on. Depending on how much you're asking, it might take up a good chunk of your life that entire month trying to promote it.
Personally, I didn't have much of an internet following when I launched my Kickstarter, but I had deep roots in the local comic community and knew a couple big-ish names online. I made a list of all of the people I knew with influence and sent them individual emails or messages asking for their help in sharing it. I printed flyers and posted them up in local comic books stores, colleges, and cafes. I handed out flyers with the books I was selling during a convention, had people sign up for a newsletter in advance so they could be notified when it was launched. In my experience, if you have people who care about YOU, want to support YOU, and see you as an individual succeed--those are the ones that will pay out.
If you are curious, you can see my Kickstarter page here:
And here is the breakdown of my pledges:
I know that was a really long post, but I hope it helps you out a bit!