Complaints and Entitled Folk - A Thread.
Added 2021-06-01 10:30:40 +0000 UTCHey Guys.
As some of you may or may not know. Patreon has been a tough position for individuals such as myself, fighting to be seen among others, being limited by groups with people who may not be interested in it, being banned from reddit groups for promoting work you've done. Individuals compiling groups of miniatures together and calling them "samples" and profitting more than the original owner, with most people having little to no interest in actually supporting the original artist, among a bunch of other things
The expectation on independent artists currently is too much with more groups of artists coming into the mix offering more models for cheaper, and others practically giving models away (because they've found a way to play the market in alternative ways). We're expected to learn new things ahead of the curve, bring out more models then the other guy, and cheaper, in addition to that, most of the "little" guys are their own admin, and HR. We're responding to messages that shouldn't really need replying to in most cases, Uploading to multiple different platforms (Takes way too long), supporting models, printing models, advertising models. As well as reaching out and finding other people to work with them (For me, its concept art). All of this stuff is time and money and it all goes back into making a better product for you guys.
This month will be 2 years since I started Patreon, and i'm ONLY just making something liveable, prior to know I've had to balance my Patreons/client work to ensure that I'm able to actually live. 2 Years of a balancing act, but now its coming to an end, hopefully.
However, the ground has been set and you can see things from my perspective, I hope, and understand my frustration to some extent.
So I just stumbled on my exit surveys, and sometimes people leave me some feedback which is nice to read sometimes. In some cases they're complementary saying how much they've enjoyed the models, others, explaining they don't need the next months pack, which is fine, other cases they're experiencing financial issues and explain that they'll be back in the future etc, which is also fine of course.
Other times, you get people like this. Now, seeing it without reading into the effort I put in, you'd probably think its an overreaction, and you still might, but this hit me in a spot I have to talk about.
1. Welcome packs help.
There is a welcome pack. There's been a welcome pack there for about a year. It consists of ~25 models some of which are unlisted on my store, Since you want to compare me, LOTP has 5x less models than me in their welcome pack.
2. Discount Codes. 30% is kinda low.
30% is not too low, not when your average listing is $3-4 there shouldn't even be a discount for $3-4 models in my eyes, but again. Its there because of the community behind us expecting a discount.
2.1 Discount Codes. 30% is kinda low.
In addition to this, i had a 50% discount to the back end of last month, and 50% discount for the whole of this month. So how you linked a 30% discount to me is beyond me, since the 50% discount code was the only code actually inside the dropbox folder.
3. Lord of the print does 50%
So now you're comparing me to a patreon which consists of a group of people with 10x more followers than me, taking roughly £20k a month. Nice. And with average STL price on their store of $10-12, a 50% discount to them is still not something that they're going to turn their noses up at. a 6$ sale is something i personally would love to have. However, none of my models are that expensive.
4. Not happy at all with this months modules or lack of.
Okay. So why did you sub? In April I released 15 models, if you want more than that,
- In closing. If you don't like something, that's fine. I'm not here to serve your individual needs, the patreon is not a storefront, its not something to receive cheap models, even though honestly, that's what it is. Its a platform to support me financially, every month to maintain a living of guaranteed sales for cheap, and then I can upload said models. I don't need to compete with other patreons, but I do, to try and stay afloat. Its been an uphill battle, and I'm determined to keep climbing even in spite of these individuals.
All this being said, i'm extremely pleased with the community i've built up over the past couple of years. Those of you who are always talking in the discord and getting involved, printing, painting my models and flinging banter back and forth, its been awesome, and i appreciate the time you take to interact with me, and you apprecaite the time i take to make models for you.
Just needed to get this off my chest, because that comment, albeit small, really boiled my piss.
Enjoy the read.
Comments
Was gonna come back with something equally self destructing as yesterday. But i'll just say thanks for your feedback. :) Also, this isn;t much of a professional environment for me, i want to keep it relaxed as i can.
2021-06-03 15:36:10 +0000 UTCI want to start by saying I really like your work. I also came for the chess pieces. I think it was a very unique idea, and printing, painting and making a terrain style board is now one of my new long term hobby plans that I really look forward to. I know Strahd got a lot of attention, but personally, even without the chess pieces, the pumpkin heads, scarecrows and sleeping halfling make the subscription worth it for me. I've seen scarecrow minis but have never been interested, but I loved the style and poses. The sleeping halfling is great because I can always use more non combat minis. All that being said, I'm going to be the sour grape in the bunch and say, I feel like posts like this work against you. It's like you read the internet comments and then were upset when the internet had something shitty to say, so you are rage venting to your customers/clients about how hard it is to run a business. It comes off as unprofessional to me. Also, the day you posted this I had just recommended your patreon to two friends who are just getting into printing, and I feel a little embarrassed when this is likely one of the first posts they saw/will see.. As someone who has a $30 sometimes $40 dollar a month budget for Patreon subscriptions I cycle my subscriptions between a handful of creators depending on which minis are most relevant to me that month, and your venting makes me feel like those sort of subscribers are not valued because they are not contributing monthly so you can "maintain a living of guaranteed sales for cheap". Your post makes me think you are stretching yourself in to many directions doing busts, minis, chess pieces, and modules. It is a lot for one person especially with all the admin and test printing that goes into it. Have you considered doing surveys to see what the large draws are for people? For example if not many people use the modules, maybe that is something you can phase out until you have more bandwidth. Also have you considered a quarterly incentive for subscribers? This might help retain subscribers for multiple months, as well as potentially give you more time for larger projects. You could also shift something you want to offer into that reward slot like the modules, busts, or chess pieces. I'm just spitballing because I wish you nothing but success. I think you offer high quality models in an oversaturated market that I'm sure is difficult to break into, especially for a living. I look forward to sharing pictures of the models I paint on reddit, as well and sending pics to friends. I will continue to recommend you through word of mouth, but I think next time rather than giving into the frustration and publicly venting, the better coarse of action would be to swallow it and let the work speak for itself, because it is great work.
Lazersk
2021-06-03 14:44:01 +0000 UTCKeep it up !!
Don Colucci
2021-06-03 01:07:20 +0000 UTC
