Patreon advice from Patrons!

[el_fury]

I'm looking very seriously into starting a Patreon account, and I'm in the research phase right now. I'm seeing a lot of advice from people running Patreons, but none from the backers themselves!

Here are a few questions, and feel free to give advice that wasn't mentioned here.

Do you prefer paying people per month, or paying for the deliverable itself? (ex: per episode, per issue, per illustration, etc.)

What are some rewards that you like to see?

What kind of milestones will convince you to stick with a Patron for the long run?

Thanks!

[keii4ii]

Per month, by far. I know Patreon lets me set a monthly limit if supporting a creator who does per creation, but I still prefer per month.

In most cases, I don't care about the rewards when it comes to Patreon. What I care about is the GOALS/ milestones. "More comic updates if I reach X dollars/ month!" "X happens when I reach Y dollars!" etc. I want the rewards to be modest, so the creator doesn't end up spending too much time on reward management. That's a major potential pitfall.

[el_fury]

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I assumed people liked per month better so that they can better control their spending.

But I feel like you also run the risk of not getting enough done in a month, and people feeling like they didn't get their money's worth. I guess the same rule applies to everything: stay consistent with your updates!

[joannekwan]

Definitely I would rather donate a small amount per month, as long as the person I'm supporting is active, or I know they're on hiatus and will return working soon I don't mind waiting for content.
I don't really care about rewards or perks either, I just like giving a little bit to creators I like to show my support and appreciation. I wish I had enough money to support everyone I like though!
Milestones I like, maybe start another series, that's one I have for mine, and also physical print copies of their work available for giveaway or for purchase.

[gateofselidor]

I only donate monthly. I have limited funds to allocate for this, and lots of artists I want to support, so I won't support an artist unless I'm already confident that they can provide the content (obviously I don't cancel my pledge the minute they miss an update or go on a break for a bit, but I wouldn't support someone who routinely takes months to get a new page done, or disappears without warning). So I never feel like I'm not getting my money's worth.

I don't support artists just for the rewards, but these tend to influence the amount I give. The only rewards I'm especially interested in are early updates, and some types of bonus material (learning more about the worlds people's comics are set in, extra comics with side stories and cut scenes). Livestreams I'm not interested in, because thanks to timezones, my job, and my own comic, I'm rarely able to just sit and watch someone draw.

For milestones, I just like to see people thinking about the future of their projects, having ambition and ideas for where they're going. Often that's things like increasing the number of updates for their comic, but one of the artists I support currently also has milestone goals for renting studio space, and hiring an assistant.

[getsuart]

Unless you're super productive, I would advise you to set pour patreon as a monthly one. I've seen some doing it per two weeks, but I'd prefer giving per month, and I think it's most of the patron's case too!

As for rewards, I like everything. Sketches, postcards or whatever. I saw some sending personal drawings to each of their patrons ; I wouldn't recommend this because it will cost you more than what you will get.
The best milestone for me is... getting moar pages. Moar and moar. YES. And even more ambitious things, such as prints, animation or else.

[el_fury]

Yeah, I definitely agree with the livestream thing. I never have time to watch others' streams, but I DO see the merit of streaming yourself working. I'm so much more focused and diligent when I know other people are watching.

[Jrej]

I have yet to experiment with my patreon account.
I though at first a presentation video would attract people but it didn't do much.
My perks are just an accept to thuimbnails and making of pages but I would rather work on the next page than do a patreon special blog. Hopefully patrons just wanna support the artist and his project.

Honestly I haven't advertised it too much but I am waiting on more content or interesting goals.
Something to think about...

[PotooGryphon]

Do you prefer paying people per month, or paying for the deliverable itself? (ex: per episode, per issue, per illustration, etc.)

Definitely prefer monthly charges. It's easier to keep track of how much I'd be spending per month (yes, you can cap how much you spend a month, but still prefer monthly).

What are some rewards that you like to see?

More releases. Physical merch is also cool, like buttons, shirts, books, plush, so on. However, I find the most important thing is just more of what they're currently doing.

What kind of milestones will convince you to stick with a Patron for the long run?

I actually don't pay much attention to this... I guess more updates per week is a great milestone goal. I'd also be all for print run milestone goals.

[el_fury]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer.

Another question... are any of you supporting artists with multiple projects?

I have one weekly web comic, and it has a pretty broad sense of humor, intended to be accessible to most people. I would like to do some other series, still humor, but aimed at more specific demographics. Like gamers, or Harry Potter fans. Is that a situation where I should just start a separate support campaign for the new series? Or is there a way to add it as a Patreon goal without alienating fans of the original series?

[fanyart]

Hi creators! Sorry for the "spam", but I've made templates for header (banner) images both for Tapastic and Patreon pages with highlighted areas that will be always visible under most circumstances:

Both blank templates in png can be downloaded here, with some commentary and instructions:
https://goo.gl/kx7EUX

Please share this so that other creators know about the templates and can ensure that the important parts of their header design are always visible!

[Shanny8]

I'm exploring the possibility of doing a Patreon, but I have issues(do I- LOL)...I'm not exactly a camera person(nor a PR type, but when at cons/shows I put on my best game face/shit-eating grin and deal with it), so for me(right now) any type of streaming is out of the question.

I dont mind sending out(actual, original) sketches/drawings- but only on a higher tier. I guess the point I'm trying to get is that I dont mind doing the goals I just dont want them to start interfering with my actual work time/schedule. I seen where one Patreon/patron had a tier goal of answering questions on a "behind the scenes" blog- that, I can do(provided they didnt ask any question about plots/stuff that I couldnt answer).

I guess I'm trying to figure out ways of rewarding my backers/contributors without sacrificing a lot of time(which is already precious enough).

[el_fury]

Not even streaming without a mic or camera? Thats what I do, because I have similar issues with cameras. ><

I know what you mean about time being precious... I set caricatures as a reward tier for early adopters of my Patreon and I'm regretting it a little, haha. I'm about to restructure my Patreon and I think I'm going to make product giveaways a reward tier. I already spend a lot of time making merch (that's where the bulk of my income comes from), so it seems like a nice reward without a lot of extra time spent on my end.

That's why I like the idea of the "Behind the scenes" blog... it's documenting work you would be doing regardless of whether you had a Patreon or not. I'm sure it'd still take more time than anticipated though.

[Shanny8]

I guess also now that i thought about it- if I did engage in a "behind the scenes" blog...would that be like answering the comments section at the bottom of a posted comic page? Or would I have to find/develop a whole nother section for that?

Then I start to get in zones where my mind is like, "I dont have time for that s**t"- but then I have to try & make time, coz I like doing art and I like money.

I just hate being a PR/sock-puppet-monkey...sigh.

Caricatures...I remember the days of doing those.