Migrating from Patreon to Ko-fi. Migh need some info and what is your experience?

[arpeggiomax87]

So essentially I'm supposed to have hibbity jibbity joy drawing to an audience of 0?

[Kaydreamer]

I'm not overly familiar with either of them, but a number of my friends use both. The points of difference I do know are thus:

• Patreon uses a percentage fee-based model, whereas Ko-fi is a fixed rate for a Gold account. (Which is the type you would want, having analogous features to Patreon.) This may work out cheaper in the long run if you have a lot of supporters.
• The audience on Ko-fi is much smaller, and far fewer people are aware of the site or follow many creators there. This will potentially turn away supporters who may have otherwise subscribed on the platform they're more familiar with. (This being Patreon.)
• Ko-fi has a commissions feature which apparently works quite well.
• WEBTOON provides a direct link to a creator's Patreon.

I hope this helps!

[Lunar-Turtle]

Everyone starts with 0, everyone. Even big names like George Lucas, James Cameron started with 0. I started with 0 and hadn't any luck for years, many years. the success comes after many failures, no one gets success on the first try. And success is not for everyone, because many people leave before they can achieve it. it's the never-ending game of pushing forward and there is no way to cheat it. you can give up, it's your choice, but then you can't complain you never achieved anything. And you can't blame other people for your own misery. I used to think there was some curse over me, because no matter what I did, it never succeeded, failure after failure. Then I changed the way of thinking and focused on my work, not on others being better than me. That' when things change. Yes, in the beginning, you start with 0 and are no one, but if you dedicate your life to your work and be confident with it, you may succeed.

[Lunar-Turtle]

Yes, that definitely helps. I also came to the conclusion that ko-fi may be cheaper in the long run, since it has fixed price and patreon is practically more expensive with every dollar and patron. Practically the higher amoutn of people and prices, the more expensive it gets, it multiplies. While ko-fi has a set price.

An yeah, good point on that, there is not that big of a community. I was thinking about this and hwo to solve it. Considering the supporters come from the comic itself maybe it cen be fixed with telling them abotu the site. At least I hope so :,D

[Llyrel]

I'm not much of a Ko-Fi expert... I considered making an account on there, but I really, really don't like how it links people to PayPal which then reveals your legal name. Yes, you could make a PayPal Business account for free, which lets you choose a nickname and whatever, but my country has extremely silly/backwards laws about gaining any kind of money online and basically if you're not a registered seller you can't have a PayPal Business account, period. So in short, for me it's either "get fined over the PayPal business account and risk losing your job" or "put yourself at risk of being doxxed for a $3 donation". I don't like either, so I decided to stick with Patreon, which, as far as I know, does not reveal your personal data unless you want it to. And I'm afraid that, until either PayPal or my country fix their crap, things won't change .__.

That said, Ko-Fi does look like very interesting: I like how people can just give you one-time donations instead of subscribing for life and I know that people have been using it to post rewards for donators. I think the subscription-based model is only available if you have Ko-Fi gold, though? °°

[Lunar-Turtle]

That is actually very interesting and important info. People should knwo about this. I can totally see your point.

And yes, monthly donations are only in gold program, but considering how much extra money people pay on Patreon with fees, I think it may be still more worth it and cheaper for people to pay. Because it has fixed amount to pay.

[VibrantFox]

Well with regards to op I've only ever used Ko-fi so I can't provide a comparison and haven't made use of Ko-fi Gold so unfortunately no feedback as to how that works either.

However I have made use of the sites generally available tools for the past couple of years though and within that time I can say my experiences have been pretty pleasant. The only issues that I have seen come up have usually been with PayPal specifically and not Ko-fi itself. So I'd imagine it's useful to also have Stripe or at least have your PayPal linked with a bank account to avoid money holding issues (which makes for a whole other thread really)

I tend to use Ko-fi as a tip jar with various goals set based on whatever needs/wants (my current one is/was for a new laptop). I also use the commissions feature which has been really great for streamlining my commission progress as well as keeping things orderly (specifically in regard to properly sorting commission details and references cause I'm not a fan of disorder)

As for what I post it's usually comic or art WIPs, finished illustrations in higher resolution, finished Ko-fi commissions or requests as well as any other bonus art I feel like tossing up.

I know for a fact that Ko-fi is also consistently adding new features to the site or at the least making features that in the past were exclusive to Ko-fi Gold more widely available (which is nice for us "normies"). The most recent update I think was a direct messaging feature and all the details about that were here

Ko-fi's also pretty good in providing fairly robust info as to how to set up your page and how to utilize all of the site features so whatever seems hard to understand can be found at either of these pages

Ko-fi

https://help.ko-fi.com/hc/en-us

You can also just follow Ko-fi's ko-fi here (which i think is one of the defaults when you make a page) but it's got all their updates in the posts section

View Ko-fi's Ko-fi Posts

I will echo on what @Llyrel mentioned about how unless your PayPal is set up as a Business Acct you more than likely will have to deal with your legal name exposed so as I'd mentioned earlier Stripe may be worth looking into. Of course country laws vary and my only experience is that of someone in the US so def recommend asking around ;;;

Overall though there's a lot of different approaches people have for using Ko-fi so it also doesn't hurt to see how other folks are using the platform and see what works for you personally

[Lunar-Turtle]

Well, that's a long one. Thanks a lot for such a detailed overview. I have ko-fi for some time now, but till now I didn't mean to use it as an alternative for Patreon. So I am familiar with some things you say, but it's very nice you put in your personal experience

[frgmnt]

...Wait, I thought that the way Ko-fi works is specifically made so people don't see your paypal with your legal name? Wasn't it a "paypal wrapper" or something like it? Did something change recently?
Anyway my country is also like this (are we from the same country? because damn, that's exactly how it is here), so... this is a big problem... I was seriously considering making a ko-fi

[ble]

I'm trying both, but i'm also not familiar with Kofi. I made my Kofi account like 2 years ago, but forgot to promote or do anything with it lol

I want to be more active with Kofi, but don't know where to start.

What i heard is that with Kofi is that you can set commissions. But, that's something outside of the work of making the comics, so idk.

[Llyrel]

Ko-Fi does not show your legal name... but PayPal does. So basically if people are donating through PayPal, they will be able to see your legal name unless you have a Business account. I've seen Stripe being suggested as an alternative to PayPal Business, but then again... my country requires you to be a registered seller for that, so Stripe is a nope for me too ;__; I'm from Italy, btw!

[frgmnt]

I see, thanks for confirming this.
Not Italy here, but laws are similar afaik, so yeah, I guess it's not worth having to choose between being doxxed or fined for tax fraud and the like.

[FritzC]

If u don't enjoy creating without an audience you can just stop

[MeltingCORE]

(Just ignore the daily temper tantrum up there. That user has been pulling the exact same stunt with the exact same wording... for far too long.) Anyways, heya! I've been using Ko-Fi and Patreon for awhile. My experience with Ko-Fi is that it's great for commissions! There is a way to offer monthly content but I have not tried it out yet. So, I'm not sure how well it works compared to Patreon. You can also always leave your Ko-Fi open for general tips and maybe offer something in exchange (ie HQ art/unreleased art)?

[Zak]

I actually got a Ko-Fi donation the other day. As far as im aware the amount or anything didnt change. But you could probably ask @nathanKmcwilliams about the process of sending money through ^^"

And i myself, am thinking of trying to push it for some donations and goodies.

[Lunar-Turtle]

@MeltingCORE Yeah I know. As I said, I feel sorry for someone like that. Being so bitter and hateful, that's just not the way to go.

I already have both Patreon and ko-fi, but I would like to move to ko-fi entirely over time. Sadly I could not find ho their monthly subscription exactly works, so that's what I'm trying to figure out :,D

@Zak Well good luck to you

[Zak]

Thanks. I hope to interact and help each other through this process lol

[Fedriz_Marini]

Dude, I didn't start pubblshing expecting to have immediate success or Subs, Even at 0 I would still pubblish because I lòove what I've been working on, the subs and likes are just an addition, and if you want to be known, just try on the "Promotion" section of the Forum , it could be usefull, but bashing against others that were more succesfull isn't that way!

[Fedriz_Marini]

BTW, Ko-Fi sounds so much of a good Idea, I initally thought to use Patreon, buuut, I will opt for that one!
THis thread was so usefull, thanks a lot

[Lunar-Turtle]

@Fedriz_Marini Just let it be. It's like standing on the top of the hill and reaching out to someone beneath you, trying to help him out, and all he does is throwing rocks at you. I think he needs some mental help to get better, but like this, it's not possible.

Also, I am so glad this thread helped you in some way