How to design ICO website
What is ICO and why is it so popular?
For many startups and new-born entrepreneurs, fundraising perhaps is one of the most critical challenges to overcome on their way to success. For some of them, traditional funding systems are just not an option. Also, finding the best way to pitch your investors can lead you to the situation where all the right moments are already taken by somebody else.
ICO is the possibility for a startup to bypass traditional capital raising process. The cryptocurrency startup can raise money through an Initial Coin Offering campaign, where their supporters can buy crypto coins with fiat money or virtual currency.
It’s almost like buying equity in a company, but not quite. Instead of getting equity, contributors get native tokens issued by that particular organization based on how much you put in.
Before running an ICO campaign, companies usually have a lot of things to do and questions to answer. They create a plan on a white paper which provides information about the project: what goal the project will be reached upon completion? How long will the ICO campaign run for? How much money is needed to be raised? How much of the virtual tokens will the founders of the project keep for themselves, what type of money is accepted to buy tokens with?
What are the risks of running ICO?
Even the idea of blockchain and ICO sounds quite promising it’s important to be aware of all the risks before you decide to invest in it.
First of all, it’s unregulated. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hasn’t made an official ruling on ICO tokens and investments. This means that there is no guarantee that any of token sales couldn’t be later recognized as a noncompliant.
The main idea of ICO campaigns is for startups to raise funds and launch their product. Investors should be aware of the fact that a significant percentage of startups (even well-funded) fail. So any investor shall not forget to do their homework researching all the pitfalls.
Even Though ICO white paper may state an impressive return target, it is rather an expectation than a guarantee. Therefore the investors should be ready for volatility and potential loss.
Another reason to be more than just cautious. Since crypto finance is a growing field without clear regulatory guidelines, cybercriminals attempt to find opportunities to steal funds from investors. Even an investor beginner knows that forewarned is forearmed.
What it takes to run a successful ICO campaign?
There were many successful ICO stories over the last months. Let’s go over some of the most recognized ones to find a formula for success.
Ethereum
Probably one of the first blockchain based distributed computing platform. It’s an open software platform based on blockchain technology that enables developers to build and deploy decentralized applications.
Within 42 days of its ICO Ethereum raised $18 million which made it the most well-known ICO campaign.
The blockchain opens a lot of opportunities in every area where there is a middleman to remove. And this is how the idea of Ethereum’s decentralized apps and smart contracts become so viral, and as a result, Ethereum’s token has become the second largest digital currency.
MobileGo
GameCredits is a company famous for launching the first mobile gaming store that accepts cryptocurrency and holding $53 million ICO in one month. Moreover, they managed to raise $4 million in the first day.
By buying MGO, the enthusiasts can gain exposure to the mobile gaming market which is currently growing day by day.
MobileGo owners are able to engage in peer-to-peer match play and organize decentralized gaming tournaments, which have several privileges such as:
- They are fully controlled by players (so third-party organizers are removed).
- They can earn an income – monetary prizes.
- Don’t require a separate mobile app (run directly inside the GameCredits mobile platform).
- It’s also beneficial for those who create related content (streamers and gamers).
Monster Byte
A cryptocurrency platform where gamblers are playing bet on sports or play games like Blackjack.
When the company announced a presale on July 6th, 2017 they sold out 2.5 million tokens in 5 minutes. Just a few days after they during general sale Monster Byte sold over 5 million tokens.
Monster Byte specializes in the development of custom-built Cryptocurrency Gambling software and websites. Their mission is to become the world’s premier destination for cryptocurrency gamblers to not only wager on sports, but also bet on games of chance like Blackjack, Roulette, and Baccarat.
What you need for successful ICO
So now it’s not only your storytelling skills that are important but also your ability to sell this story.
Since ICO fund-raising operatives are not regulated by financial authorities such as the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and some ICO campaigns are fraudulent it’s crucial to keep your reputation clean and gain traction among your initiative supporters and enthusiasts.
Even running your ICO campaign there still is a risk for your idea to be left behind if no one believes in it.
A Website is the first step towards funding if you are about to start your cryptocurrency project.
ICO campaign from A to Z
An ICO campaign always has three stages of existence:
1. pre-ICO
The company publishes the white paper, works on legal considerations, informs potential investors about the amount and price of tokens available to buy. The white paper should cover all of the internal processes of your application, how the whole system works, and how the token will be used within the system.
2. Actual ICO
The completion of the ICO is usually live-streamed, and the team is usually 24/7 available to receive calls and communicate with supporters. So it’s important to make sure you added all possible and secure ways of communication.
post-ICO
3. post-ICO
Contributors to the ICO can then sell, buy more or exchange their PAY tokens. TenX had over 40,000 people that tried to contribute to the ICO but it reached its goal after the first 4,000 contributors. So that leaves a big demand of at least 36,000 people that still want to buy PAY tokens. And potentially a lot more as it becomes more and more popular in the time between the ICO and being listed on exchanges. This, in turn, helps raise the price of the token.
It’s important to take it into account and prepare all of the functionality changes in advance as you never know how long the sale would last for.
What makes a good ICO design?
While you might need some additional design done, #1 point of how you run and promote your ICO campaign is your website. UX/UI design company experts can easily guide you in core ICO websites creation rules.
ICO websites usually have a typical structure which gives answers to:
- What is your business?
- Who are the Team?
- Why your supporters should trust you?
- What are the coin concept and its benefit?
- What will happen when they click the CTA button?
- What will they benefit from?
- What is tokes sale timeline?
Let’s talk about it in more details:
- Intro screen – an important part of ICO landing page, the first impression you will make on the client. And it’s also the most informative. From the very first look your user can understand which stage of ICO is currently taking place (pre-, during, post-ICO), how many days left for the end of each stage.
- Progress/current state bar gives an understanding of what progress the campaign has made so far.
- Product Description – informs about what goals you are going to reach with investments, what is the impact your product is going to make and how anyone can benefit from it.
- Media & experts recognition – is mainly about how others see your product, and do they trust you. This part basically contains any kind of the public acceptance of your idea.
- Distribution of tokens – informs about the ways and correlation of Token distributions.
- Token sale – a timeline of public token sale: the schedule of pre-ICO and ICO campaign.
- Project plan/timeline – represents a full vision of your project, your current achievements further plans.
- Additional materials including following: one-pager, white paper, business model, ICO disclaimer, terms and conditions, privacy policy.
Summary
Creating an ICO landing page, we suggest you keep an eye on security and professionalism in order to build a trustful relationship with your potential investors. You need to be good at explaining your idea and disclosing the risks your clients will go through. The landing page should be well-structured and consistent, make sure you’ve prepared and designed a white paper and a one-pager and all of your social pages and marketing campaigns are created according to the brand book.
