Got a great idea, but the only thing holding you back is money? Then fret not, the internet may have a way to get your idea from aha to oh yeah – crowdfunding.

The traditional route to fund great ideas has always been from savings, parents, relatives, friends, banks, venture capitalists, angel investors and listing, but increasingly this is being gazumped by crowdfunding, online portals that match up those looking for money with those willing to invest.

The major difference between old and new is that instead of getting the money from one source, you will get it from many people, each unknown to the other, all willing to contribute different amounts of money towards your innovation / invention.

Most of these sites work on a similar model, join the site, describe your idea, why it’s special, what outcomes you expect, how much money you need, what you’re offering in return and when you need the money by and then send it live.

On most sites if you raise all the money you’ve asked for, by the due date you specified, you’ll receive the funds collected (minus site commissions and charges), if you don’t raise all the money by the due date you specified then the money is not collected, investors aren’t out-of-pocket and you don’t receive any money at all.

In 2011, the year these sites started to gain marketplace traction, there was about $1.5 billion in funds raised across all crowdfunding sites, last year that total figure rose to $10 billion and it is expected to double to $20 billion in 2015.

There are thousands of crowdfunding sites, including:

General: gofundme, kickstarter, indiegogo, pozible

Education: projected,  adoptaclassroom, donorschoice

Philanthropy:  kiva, razoo, giveforward

Medical: gofundme,healthline,fundrazr

Music: pledgemusic, sellaband, oocto

For a list of more crowdfunding sites, divided into categories, click here and for an alphabetical list click here

For more insights on Crowdfunding have a listen to a couple of the radio segments I’ve recently done…

Clare Blake – 4BC (19 minutes 30 seconds)

David Dowsett – ABC WideBay (6 minutes 35 seconds)