ADVICE TO CREATORS: How to get More Tips!

I posted this advice in another thread and it seemed to be largely appreciated, so I figured I would make a separate thread for it and see if I can refine the advice a bit!

Since Tapas has been making a lot of efforts to improve the tipping feature and coin earning, it is high time that us creators start experimenting ways to utilize the feature in a more effective way!

My suggestion is: A reward system.

This is something I have been experimenting with since early this year, around the time that the tipping feature was first released. I've seen what works well with Tapas' current setup, and what doesn't. I would like to share my knowledge with you guys.

But first, I'll tell you why you should get a reward system.
Many creators will probably want to avoid them, thinking tips are something people should give out of the kindness of their hearts. And some people do. But most don't.
These "most people" have two different things they are asking themselves that keep them from just tipping for charity's sake:

1. What's in it for me? I would rather spend my spare time doing something else.
2. Does it even make a difference for creators? I doubt my tip would change anything at all. I'll just not tip, and avoid wasting my time.

By setting up a reward system, you are sending a message to your fans. You are telling them that their efforts are appreciated, that they make a difference, and that you care. That you see them, and want to bring them joy in return for the joy they bring you.
And for those that don't care much about the creator behind the content and are only there for the content itself, you are giving them a good reason to toss those coins at you.

Now some creators are going to ask themselves: But what's in it for ME?
Here's what's in it for you, aside from that warm fuzzy feeling inside that you get when you extend interaction with your fans and get to see how happy they get:

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Now that you know why you should get a reward system, I'll tell you how to make it successful!

1. Make sure it's easy for you to maintain! I cannot stress this enough, my old tipping reward system nearly burnt me out and ate up time from the comics. And the comics are what people want you to focus on primarily!! When you create your rewards, make sure they are low effort things, preferrably things you would do anyways, or special exclusive content that you've already created and that you can make new when you have time. The mistake I made was one where my old reward system depended on me making new exclusive content on a constant basis. Avoid something like this at all costs!
   Good exclusive content reward: Make it, add it to your available rewards list once it's done.
   Bad exclusive content reward: Add a general description to your rewards list of a type of thing that you'll make new stuff of on a monthly basis. Unless you're primarily a patreon artist surviving off of exclusive illustrations, and a comic artist as a secondary profession. In that case, this is a good and easily manageable reward.

2. Create a range of tiers that goes across different price levels and value! Some of your fans have a lot of free coin earning opportunities. Others have very few. So try to have a few rewards that are just a few hundred coins worth, or low tippers will be discouraged to even try. Also have a few rewards that are mid value and some high value, for the ones that are able to get a lot of free coins. Otherwise you're losing out on coins that some of your customers are technically capable and willing to give you.
   Note: If you only have a premium series, keeping a reward system will most likely not be very successful. However if you have several comics, of which one is premium, my advice on this whole price thing is to not have any really low tipping reward tiers. Tippers that low are already spending the coins they have on your premium comic.

3. When creating rewards (Or when pricing your art or signing contracts in other sides of the art business, for that matter) think like a businessman. Not a parent, and not like your local emo kid. Some artists think of their art like parents do of their babies. They are invaluable, amazing collections of starlight that must be appreciated with highest honour - and of course, they are worth every penny in the world. Or they took a looot of time, and therefore they end up being priced in a way that no person would ever buy them.
   Other artists hate their own art, and think it deserves FIRE, not money. They underprice themselves, and thus they end up unable to quit their day job to do what they love for a living, they overwork themselves for lower revenue, and the even more unfortunate thing that happens is that their low pricing manners make the customers undervalue them too. When you underprice yourself for commissions for example, you turn people away because they think you're a scammer, unexperienced, or that you're slow and don't complete the work thoroughly. Why else would you sell yourself so low?
   Whichever of these two things you believe about your art, YOUR FANS DO NOT AGREE! They see a comic. They see entertainment. They see A PRODUCT.
   Insanely low prices make people suspicious and they start to wonder if what you're offering them isn't what you're telling them it is. Price yourself properly, and people will value you higher.
   ALSO, INSANELY LOW PRICES WILL MAKE PEOPLE THINK PROPERLY PRICED THINGS ARE EXPENSIVE. So if you underprice yourself, you don't just screw your own chances, you mess them up for the rest of the online art world too!
   WHEN PRICING THINGS IN COINS: 1250 coins = $1

4. Don't pick the rewards you want to send out or that you would like to receive. Pick the rewards that you believe your audience wants. As a creator, you might be super interested in sketchbook art, character sheets, badges, etc... because you're a creator yourself. When you look at other people's comics and art, you want to see what's beyond the art. You want to see the things that you can learn from as an artist. And you want special odd collectibles that connect you to that artist.
   Now some fans do want these... but they are not main target rewards. Most fans care more about finished products and things that can be enjoyed as entertainment. If you want to provide bonuses like these, either offer them as low tier rewards or bundle them up with other rewards that are more valuable to a customer.

5. Take inspiration from what other creators provide as patreon rewards or tipping rewards, but keep your audience in mind! Look at what creators, preferrably ones similar to you, offer. Especially if it's the first time you're creating rewards of some sort, or if your content is selling badly in relation to your audience size and you're exploring new ways to motivate more of your readers to support you. However, any time that you think "maybe I should try that?" stop and ask yourself two things: Will I be able to provide this reward in a proffessional way and/or on a cosistent basis? And will my audience want this? For example, popular rewards for an erotic romance creator, a horror creator, a magical girl creator, etc are not going to be the same.

6. MAKE YOUR FANS CONTACT YOU, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!! And make it super clear to them that they have to contact you and tell you what rewards they want. I used to have a reward system where this wasn't the case. A few shitty things happened, and as we all know a few bad apples spoil the entire batch. Here are some of the things that happened:
   People that didn't want rewards got rewards. Yeah, you may think "why wouldn't you want rewards?", but some people don't. Especially if you are a creator of many different things, and ESPECIALLY if horror or other NSFW things are among them. Sending out these types of rewards to everyone can result in people being offended or uncomfortable, and might lead them to not tip you again. Or you will have to remember specific people who want rewards but don't want certain types of rewards. Remember what I said about making sure it would be easy for you to manage this system? Yeah, this will definitely create bumps in the road.
   People that didn't care about rewards got rewards. The problem with this is that you are wasting work hours on useless things, when your fans would rather you put those work hours on your comic!!
   Some people couldn't be given rewards. I ran into a few accounts where it was entirely impossible to send a PM. Most likely these are mobile-only users that registered with FB, but I am not entirely sure.
   Some people got their rewards, but never realized, and they commented angrily about it. I responded, telling them I had PM-ed their rewards, but they returned on the very next update saying again that they hadn't received their rewards. Repeat. Some users are mobile only. Some simply don't pay attention. Regardless, they don't know that PMs exist, they don't notice or get notified that they have received a PM, and they don't get notified or they ignore the notifications indicating you have replied to them about their complaints. They will get frustrated, and they will blame that frustration on you.

7. Make a clear tipping info list, telling people what tipping is, how to get free coins, and where to contact you for their rewards. Try to explain things as clearly as possible, in a manner that is as few-worded as possible without losing clarity. You need to keep people excited about the idea, without leaving them confused. Try to think of it like that one good teacher you had, who was short, clear, informative and threw in a funny joke here and there so you didn't fall asleep. Once you've explained how things work, you get to the part of the list that's dedicated to rewards and how many coins are required to get them.

8. How to structure your rewards: Your rewards should look a bit like a price staircase (but preferrably not one that's basically just rewards building up where you get the reward below it included in every reward above it. People don't like the idea of having to pay for things they're not interested in to get the thing they really want. So if you use bundles, be careful with them and make sure to provide single rewards that are good on their own too. Since your fans will be the ones contacting you to get their rewards, they'll also have the ability to pick and choose which ones they want!)
   If you have rewards of different types that exist in different levels, categorize them and then follow the staircase method within them.
   You can choose for yourself if you want to put lower prices higher or lower in the list. So far, putting the cheap ones first has worked for me.
   Involving some illustrations for the rewards is good too, as it makes the list look less like a government letter and more like an exciting idea.

9. Make an announcement that you made a tipping reward system, and remind people once in a while!
   People forget if you don't. What I've found works for me is placing a small reminding banner at the end of my updates, or making it my comic banner, or using the custom ad banner to my advantage. Preferrably all of them, since phone users never see the series banner or custom ad banner and often ignore author descriptions.
   You might feel like a sellout doing it, but let me tell you: people will appreciate your clarity. People used to come to me asking if I had a patreon page, even though I had it plastered all over the series banner. But people just never noticed. No wonder my patreon was doing badly, people thought I didn't have one!
   So remind people. Not through announcements since those are for new things, but use ways to remind people.

10. Here's a tip I learnt from the restaurant business and carried over to entertainment: SWITCH THINGS UP!! People grow bored with the same old same old. Successful restaurants change menu with the seasons and give people the chance to try new things, while still keeping the classics that keep them coming back. Similarily, to excite people and make them want to support your patreon page or tip you, change the look once in a while, try adding a few rewards, and maybe removing ones that people aren't interested in or that aren't giving enough revenue to be worth the effort. Change around the design of your series banner/custom ad banner and your tip/patreon reminders frequently. Explore new ideas, and show your audience that you're still alive and kicking, rather than just going with the flow.

11. Another tip stolen from the restaurant business: DO NOT OVERCOMPLICATE THINGS!! It takes more time to do, it gets cluttered, it will confuse the consumer and it's all generally bad news. Do you want a steak that has been garnished with 50 different spices in 11 different complicated steps, served shaped as a spade by a waiter that tells you how to eat it in order to not embarrass yourself? No? Same goes for your rewards list, your stories and your art. Details are good, when used correctly and in neat amounts. Overcomplication attracts noone. SIMPLE AND CLEAR SELLS WELL, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUR CONSUMERS ARE MAINLY ONLINE AND/OR ON MOBILE!

So, that's the advice I could think of for now. Oh, and here comes the extra treat as a cherry on top: Doing this will not only benefit YOU!
Since Tapas gets a share of tips, increased tips means increased income for Tapas. Increased income is increased growth. Tapas can then invest that money in developing, maintaining and improving the site at large. Now I will make it clear here and now that I have no insight into what tapas actually would do with such money, but as an outsider speculating I can see that it would only make sense that they'd invest in things that will earn them more money and make them more attractive to creators and consumers. Whether this is through advertisement, developing new features, hiring more people, or whatever, the bottom line remains: When Tapas grows, so do ALL OF ITS CREATORS. And our revenue too.

I will provide my own current tipping reward info/list for you all to have a look at so you'll get more of an idea of what I mean with all of these points!102 Keep in mind, as I stated in one of the points, that the exact rewards I provide might not work for you! Don't use it as a template. Use it to get an idea of how a well performing info graphic can look. Now keep in mind when you see my reward tiers that I am a premium creator and therefore do not have any low tiers.

Happy rewarding! And don't forget to reward yourself once in a while!