Behind The Scenes...?

And other special features, too...

I've been trying to get this whole Patreon thing figured out for awhile now, and the good news is that I've had a little success to that end. I've actually come to one conclusion: that I should go for monthly contributions instead of having them be per-post. I suppose that makes sense. As much as I'd like to think otherwise, the things I post to my Passing Thoughts blog probably aren't worth that much. After having done a little math on it, I note that I put up somewhere between ten and fifteen things a month, on average, which means that an average month of reading that blog would cost a Patreon subscriber $10, if I'm low-balling it, and given that I've done Text Plays almost exclusively there for the better part of a year there, that does seem a little high for what people actually wind up getting.

As for the Looking Back articles I do on That Guy With The Glasses, well, I've always kind of debated about putting those through Patreon or some other service that might generate some sort of revenue for me. Part of me says I should probably be the most confident about those, because they always seem to get more hits than anything else I'm doing online right now, and for the most part, the do tend to be more original than most of the rest, as well. At the same time, there's a part of me that's saying that a fair amount of those hits are coming from the fact that the Looking Back series is going up on a site that gets way more traffic than my little backwater Blogger personal blog. On top of that, I've never been quite as consistent about getting those finished and posted as I would have liked, moreso lately because I've had a few really major things happen to me this year, and therefore, don't feel quite right about asking people to pay for that.

So, the conclusion I've come to on that is that I should really take my asking price down from a dollar a post to one or two dollars a month, which actually does sound a bit more reasonable. I must admit, it's actually kind of embarrassing that it's taken me this long to think of that part.

And then there's the matter of subscriber perks and milestone achievements. I must admit, I'm actually very limited in most of my resources, and therefore, I'm really not sure as to what I've got to offer. As it stands, the only thing I've got as a milestone that I know for sure that I'm going to keep is the Subscribers Pick Text Plays. Beyond that, I'm really not at all sure what I could offer. All I've really got for useable photography and A/V equipment are my phone and the webcam I do my Mixlr show and the occasional YouTube video on.

The idea of Patreon-only written material does come to mind, because that is what I've always considered my strongest suit. At the same time, though, the pessimistic side of me that's been getting stronger lately is telling me that that's a dumb idea because I wouldn't be able to do it effectively, simply because I don't really know what my audience likes and/or dislikes, due to a lack of responses in general to my work, be it positive, negative, or neutral.

Really, what this comes down to is a plea for feedback. What I'd really like to know is what people want to see and/or hear if and when I finally get my behind in gear and make these changes. Setting a schedule that I'll stick to for more than a couple months and actually doing the things I say I'll do in a timely manner are items one and two on my list already.

So, what's a reasonable amount to ask on Patreon? And what would make good perks/milestone unlockables? I will try to make use of suggestions and comments this time, as I fear I have failed on that task before. Thank you for your time and readership.