After the Tapastic Support Program ...what are you going to do?

taihendechu 2015-11-09 13:42:02 UTC #1

I was away for quite some time... and the news about the support program hit me out of the blue. I'm feeling super unprepared and my supporters (that loyal sticky bunch <3) are starting to wonder what my plans are... uhm.. yeah.. I have none. You? D:

All I know is Patreon... but is the most popular alternative the best?
So short and simple question:
What's your plan for the future? Which platform will you be using and why?

I guess we can all agree, that we loved the Tapastic support program and it hurts to see it go. But maybe we can help each other in this time by collecting information and exchanging about possible alternatives? As soon as I have a working internet connection again, I will start to inform myself too... and of course I'll share whatever useful insights I'll (hopefully) stumble upon...

PotooGryphon 2015-11-09 14:25:20 UTC #2

I've been using Patreon for over a year now, so I'm already nice and established and building a community there. Yay!

I did have plans to eventually migrate my supporters to the Tapastic Support Program since I liked the TSP system better, however, I never got around to doing that before they announced the end of it (thankfully).

I use Patreon because it's seems to be the most well known/trusted support site. When you mention Patreon to someone, they aren't confused, they pretty much know right away what the site is and it's function since so many indie creators use it.

The site also accepts Paypal which is a huge plus and takes care of VATMOS for the artists.

There are feature that I wish Patreon had like scheduling posts and a way to more easily offer rewards for accumulated support backing like what TSP had, however, the site does serve it's purpose and is funding my comic making career. (way better than nothing ;D )

There are also ways to make you Patreon resemble your TSP page. Like Kit & Cat's page is my absolute favorite. (gives me so many ideas on how to improve my own page)

Fany's is another gorgeous page I'm drawing inspiration from

I've seen a few artists get ready good conversion rate from offering a special thank you reward to supporters that make the switch from TSP to Patreon (or whatever site you eventually choose). Or, in one case, an artist offered a Milestone Goal of unlocking 2 pages per week update for the full month if met. They got it and then some.

I guess another plus to Patreon is a lot of creators from Tapastic are moving there, so announcing it to Tapastic readers will be pretty familiar as they've heard the same announcement from other creators.

Either way, in whatever support backing site you eventually choose, good luck to all in this time of change and keep us posted on how well it's going.

Kura 2015-11-09 14:39:53 UTC #3

I only used the support program for one thing really, and that was to temp/ lock episodes ahead for supporters to read ahead. Once this is done I'll honestly have no alternative, and when I asked about it on the stream tapastic staff informed me they have no current plans to implement that back into the system in another way (at this moment in time)

I have tried to do this on patreon, but the results were very negative because I work on more than one comic, with several being done in very different styles and uploaded at very different speeds. The problem was mostly the fans for one specific comic, every time I updated any comic everyone would get notifications on it, and people who were fans of the comic before mentioned would get angry, I would get nasty pm's, insults telling me that I am lazy by not working on the comic they want, and threats to stop pledging to me. To the point where it got so frustrating that I stopped posting the pages ahead on patreon and informed my patreons that if they wanted to continue getting pages ahead of time to move their support to tapastic where they can select the comic or comics or mine that they want to get notifications on instead of getting them for all of them, and it worked. Now with TSP going down I unfortunately do not have a alternative or way to fix this problem.

Aside from that and just looking for a platform for tips and monthly support for no reward, I'll just continue working with patreon. (I used to have rewards on it but I just do not have the time to do all that extra bullshit anymore, so I had to remove them)

AnnaLandin 2015-11-09 14:55:02 UTC #4

I'm already in the process of trying to lure my Supporters over to my Patreon! I've been on Patreon for well over a year, and while there have been hiccups (the entire VATMOSS-mess, the occasional mess-up in charging, etc.), it's been fairly reliable, and it's an established site used by a lot of other people - it's a well-known place to go.

I have been having trouble getting people to sign up, though. My number of backers has been pretty stagnant (though Supporters are shifting over! Yay! <3) for a while, and I've kind of been scratching my head wondering what to do to improve that. I want to start doing backers-only livestreams, but right now most of the Patreon-money is going towards hosting and a future investment in Project Wonderful ads, and a bit towards printing costs for con-merch. I might start doing it once I hit a specific milestone.

I've been posting comics encouraging people to shift over - this is my big announcement re: the death of the Support Program (click for larger view):

Oh wow, you've had some terrible luck with bad backers! I've NEVER had complaints about what I've chosen to upload, and I've been posting lots of very, very different things. : ( I'm sorry you had to go through that!

AffectedMind 2015-11-09 15:35:27 UTC #5

Patreon, that's pretty much it. I'm happy with it, but seems people are not, but whatever, I'm gonna use it anyway. I saw too much whining about this site to defend it anaymore... It's awesome, just try it.

TopJimComics 2015-11-09 15:39:56 UTC #6

I'm pretty bummed, I had just completed my support comic and was so excited to submit my comic for approval and this news hit about 2 days after. I don't have a lot of readers, but I really think the ones I had might have enjoyed the way I was going to set up rewards on Tapastic. It doesn't seem to me like Patreon has the same system where it keeps track of the total?

AnnaLandin 2015-11-09 15:49:47 UTC #7

It doesn't have the same kind of total-support-milestone structure built in the way Tapastic does, but it DOES keep track of the total amount of money someone's backed you with, so you COULD implement the same sort of structure over there if you wanted to. : )

PotooGryphon 2015-11-09 15:52:11 UTC #8

TSP required artist to have 500 subs first before qualifying to join the program, however, you can start a Patreon (or other support backing site) at any time which is another plus.

Patreon does have a system of keeping track of total backing and breaks down who's backing, how much, their email, and their reward tier, however there's some manual tracking require if you want to give out rewards for accumulative backing support. Like basically, keeping an eye on the Patron Manager for when a supporter reaches a level.

AffectedMind 2015-11-09 15:58:00 UTC #9

Oh and one more little thing. Stop complaining and raging about SP going away, it's not fun but you can't rely on site that someday can be closed. Just how inkblazers did. People relayed too much on the site and you did the same here... it was in beta. It's more believable that any other hosting site will be doomed than a tip jar site where it's meant to rely on.
(I'm sorry, but it was just a heavy rock laying on my heart)

TopJimComics 2015-11-09 16:22:12 UTC #10

Wow, I didn't believe you but you're right. Talk about a poor choice of font colors! Go to this page and try to find it::

https://tapastic.com/support/setup-guide/welcome

It's there, but hidden at the bottom in a nearly invisible font color (at least on my desktop). It confuses me then why when I submitted that I was told that I didn't meet the "formatting requirements". If I'd of known I only had 10% of the necessary subs I would have never even drawn anything for it. Oh well, it doesn't matter now. Thanks for the tips on Patreon.

I'm confused by your post @AffectedMind. I'm not sure I raged or complained, and when I reread the other posts in this forum I don't see raging or complaining either. Tapastic's support program was set up exactly the way I wanted a support program to be set up, and I'm bummed it's gone. I'm not raging or complaining, I'm trying to figure out what to do ... which I believe was the original topic of this post. I learned a lot of valuable information about Patreon, so I think that was pretty productive.

AffectedMind 2015-11-09 16:38:42 UTC #11

I'm not saying someone is raging or complaining here, but I bumped into people that are complaining about it, And many of them instead of try Patreon or other sites or move on or anything, they still want to rely on this site, even if the terms can change each day (I have a feeling like they are scared of changes). Like i said people can't rely that much on crowfunding from the hosting sites, because they can be closed anytime. Tip jar sites are less likely to get closed, it's a big responsibility.
Many people are like: Here I didn't have to put so much effort and on Patreon I have to. The more effort you put the more proud you are after being succesfull...
Sorry if you understood me wrong, or feel like I being mean, maybe I used wrong words.

serenitysquirrel 2015-11-10 01:12:09 UTC #12

Hadn't done the support program but currently trying to decide whether to do the uncensored version of my comic on my own host (which is already set up) or via Patreon at low donation.

joannekwan 2015-11-10 05:56:39 UTC #13

I just started a Patreon not too long ago, got no issues with it so far. The SP and now Patreon are more like tip jars for me, I make more from Ad Revenue, but then again I only started publishing comics six months ago.