Working through 2 months of stuff, thoughts on improving my patreon.
Added 2016-12-08 21:35:58 +0000 UTCRewards are still a go, just that in the whole month I was gone, I accumulated a lot of linearts to color. Exacerbated by a limited usage of max 5 hours per day then the rest of the day for laptop to cool and settle.
I literally cannot afford another hardware failure. I barely have $1 to my name now.
It's also been 15 months since I joined Patreon. It has a little up, waaaaay too many downs, still I float to the surface somehow thanks to all of you.
However I have not made much of an impact to self-sufficiency, managing to survive so far on so little because of the excellent USD / MYR exchange rate. I do really want to up my hustle and at least reach some kind of comfortable minimum.
I admit I haven't been a very good artist. It's been a trying year, so many ideas, so many lofty projects, some started, none completed. My output has only improved recently, I can do so much more, though I feel doing what I want hasn't been very profitable. My tastes don't always jazz with the wider audience.
So I ask: What can I do to attract more patrons? What other rewards can I offer to sweeten the deal?
Lately, I tend to overdraw and have many versions of one idea, then I just pick the best of the bunch to finalise. It's not sketches and prototypes, they're proper inked pieces that in the thrill of the moment, I did more than was necessary. Would you like it if only YOU got to see these extras?
(For example, I have inked 5 pieces of Miss Discord #34, a jokester demigod has lots of reality-breaking silly potential. But I'll only pick 2 to color and upload to FA. The other 3 can be patron-only rewards, does that sound like a worthwhile treat?)
I've only just recently dabbled in Streaming, thanks to the surprise upgrade to Windows 7. I'm wary of offering this reward, my MOBO isn't too happy about being strained so quickly, first try with Picarto's default tutorial settings has already caused the exhaust fan to randomly buzz like it's spinning out of alignment.
I can try recording coloring videos, haven't tried that one yet. It's not constantly uploading, it should strain my processor less.
I can also go back to animating, 50/50 alongside arting in general. The extra RAM boost has been doing wonders to Photoshop AND Flash. Animation takes a lot of time and focus, but if it'll bring the boys to the yard, I'm willing to give it a shot.
Or perhaps I'm offering too much and should just focus on one thing and do it bloody well? Skip the comics, trash the animation, just draw.
Comments
Are you familiar with Ursula Vernon? She has an interesting Patreon account: Plenty of support, NO rewards whatsoever. She, like you, has a very unique and personal style. In her case, I think what drew a lot of people to her was her "Digger" comic. My 2 cents are: Anything that engages people is good. A comic is a great way of building a following. You could offer Patreons early access, or streams of the creation, or alternative pages that were created, that kind of thing. Maybe collaborate with a writer for it, comics are a lot of work. Streaming is good, it gets people engaged with you. But don't limit that to backers: Again, you want exposure. You may do backer-only streams of specific material once you get into a flow. You most definitely need the tools to be able to create without worrying about your tools failing. A few weeks back one of your backers offered to ship you a used laptop. Take them up on it. It may work better than what you have now, with a bit of luck. Your HDD with Win install should be able to be moved over (as long as storage driver is set to MS generic, not a vendor specific one such as Intel), though you'll be fiddling with drivers to make it work well in the new machine.
Dawnwolf
2016-12-09 14:26:48 +0000 UTC
