Hi everyone!
First off, thank you all for your support! I've been able to pull back on other work in my life to make this more of my main focus. And with your help, I can make it THE main focus of my career.
So! What does that mean?
It means it's time to re-evaluate my Tier subscriptions to:
A) match what is more common current practices I've seen on other patreon pages, and
B) help me out, so I can make this my main career focus. Currently, $1,100CAD ($860USD)/month just isn't enough to survive on (not completely -helps a great deal! But Canada is expensive to live in!), but $3,000(CAD)/month is. And because I'm only making $1100/month, I still have to supplement the work with design jobs (that I HATE! but they pay more! :P). Unfortunately, though, it takes me away from this, and I dont wanna do anything else but this!!! :D
So this is what I have planned, and I present it to you months in advance because I want to both give you lots of warning that change is coming, but also to ask for your advice and input. I'm pretty bad at monetizing anything! I wish I could just give it away, but I gotta eat! :P So, my expertise is lacking in this area, and some of you are probably pretty good at it! So your advice is really REALLY welcome!
OK: So here is the break down for my updated Tier:
$5 - Basic Tier
- Access to Issue 1-5 (Story Arc 1 - issue 5 will conclude the first arc of my story)
- Custom (commissioned) artwork Previews
- Warm up Sketches (that I dont post now, but I do every month as warm up)
- Preview of Main Comic pages (Just the line-art, no text, no painting)
- Character Bios (illustration + write up about characters)
$10 - Image Series Sets
- Access to Basic Tier benefits
- The Image series sets (what you get currently in the $5 category)
$15 - Main Story Continued
- Access to Basic and Image series Set Tiers
- Access to the continuation of the main story (so Issue 6-onward)
$20 - Poll Tier
- Access to all previous tiers
- Voting rights for monthly Polls (ex. vote on which of the Master's collection I'll draw the next image series about. I'll give you their names, you poll which one you want to see first. Or, I'll give you a choice between scenarios that Yuki finds himself in, and you vote which one you'd like to see more.) This category will also allow for patrons to suggests polling ideas.
$200 Custom Commissioned Artwork
- Access to all tiers
- A custom art piece of your choosing and design.
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And that's what I've been thinking so far.
Now I wanna break some of this down so you understand why I'm making these choices, and then you guys tell me if I'm on point, or way off base here! :P
Basic Tier - Patreon recommends no less than $3 for your base tier, and that's the base minimum. If you want to be perceived as higher value, go up from there. So... I went up from there :P But not sure if that's bad form. What do you guys think? I feel like you get quite a bit for it... but not sure.
Image Series Set Tier - I produce anywhere from 3-7 Pages a week for this tier, and it amounts to about 25-30 hours worth of drawing and page/text layout. I believe it is worth the extra $5/month
The Main Story Continued Tier - I was totally happy to continue to release the main comic on the $1 tier... but lets face it... NOBODY else does that lol. And it really is a lot of work. Its about 30-40 hours/week to complete a page. And many others doing similar comics seem to be following this format. Release a few starting issues for, essentially, free, and then the rest you have to subscribe for.
Voting/Polling Tier - I want to involve you guys a lot more. I like the interaction, and I also like the challenge of working within a few parameters. There will be opportunities for you guys to also add your input on some of the votes. For example, if any of you come up with a good idea to vote on, I'll totally throw that into the mix. You will be part of the comic at that point! :D
Commissioned Artwork Tier - this tier is the most dramatic jump in price because these custom pieces take a lot more time and effort to put together. For example, one character, takes about 4-6 hours to draw. Any additional character is an additional 3-6 hours, thus turning my little $45 category into practically a free give away and I'm dying trying to keep up with it, plus the comic itself, plus design work. So I thought, this category has to be worth my time, because I have so little time as it is to do it all.
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ALRIGHT! That's it. I know its a little long winded, but I wanted to be as informative as possible. Plus, I really could use your feedback. So the more info you have, the better you can advise me further.
These changes wont be taking effect until I am finished Issue 5, so we have at least 3 months to discuss and come up with Tiers that work best for everyone.
But here is the final conclusion: If I can make $3000CAD/month, This will be my full time job. That means, defined regular weekly updates (right now I have to work between the other jobs I do, and sometimes it makes it hard to stay on schedule). It also means, more consistent communication with me (instead of a quick post, then I have to run back to my other work to meet my deadlines, we can actually have a community built here!)
Thanks everyone who took the time to read this! :D And also, thank you in advance for any of your feedback/input on this topic! I'm looking forward to your comments!
GeeU
GeeU
2021-05-22 16:11:37 +0000 UTCGeeU
2021-04-14 19:16:50 +0000 UTCGeeU
2021-03-26 21:41:03 +0000 UTCGeeU
2021-03-15 19:20:02 +0000 UTCMadafakir
2021-03-15 15:26:15 +0000 UTCYuki
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2021-03-14 10:21:50 +0000 UTCFull_Metal
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2021-03-13 12:44:00 +0000 UTCVendura
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2021-03-12 21:48:11 +0000 UTCVendura
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