Patreon update! (Newsletter: week of 1/27)

Hi bud! I'm going to use this week's newsletter to give you some updates.

Let's start with some stats. Since leaving The Verge and (re)starting my YouTube channel on August 26th, 2024, I have gotten over 2.5 million views on YouTube, over 173.2K watch hours, and gained 106K followers.

A metric I love is where you folks are consuming my content. My top cities are New York, London, Singapore, Bengaluru, and Sydney, with 35.5% of folks watching on their computer, 33.4% watching on a phone, and 18.9% watching on a TV. Of the folks watching on a phone, the majority use iOS devices. And most folks identify as male, but my female and user-specified audience is growing and currently makes up around 5% of viewers.

In this time span, I made around $6,500 from YouTube. September was my highest-paying month, and my highest-grossing video was "DJI vs. GoPro: Who has the better cam this year?."

Since launching on September 27th, 2024, I have made 30 posts on Patreon, and there are now 209 paying members, which equates to nearly $1,000 in income per month.

I could not ask for a better start! And lately, it has felt like I have finally found my groove, which means it's time to try some new things. First, I will be cutting the cost of this Patreon in half! With the two new prices being $2.50 and $5. The sort of pay-what-you-can structure will stay the same, with both tiers giving you the same benefits but secretly liking the $5 tier folks more, hehe.

I want to make this space more accessible and hope that the lower cost will encourage more people to join. Unfortunately, because of processing times, this will not be reflected on your end until next month. If you joined through the iOS app using Apple’s subscription services, you won’t see the price change at all. To fix this, you will need to re-subscribe. I highly recommend doing this via Patreon's website to avoid Apple's fees.

When I started, this income was crucial to continuing to grow, and as a thank you, I pulled all the email addresses of all current Patreon subscribers. I call you folks my Founding Members, and in a few months, when I drop my first pieces of merch, you will not only be the first to know, but you will also be receiving a thank you discount via email. So be on the lookout!

The other change is that I will be moving the Patreon chat to Discord! If there is anyone out there who is really good at setting up Discord servers, I could use the help. Please shoot me a DM if you are interested.

Okay, I think that's all. As always, I greatly appreciate your support. For the first few months of my career, this income quite literally kept the lights on, and for that, I will be forever grateful! Please let me know if you have any other suggestions for how I can improve this space.

-Becca