psudonym
patreon
Inky Ghoul Sketch and Some Thoughts
🕑 Added 2017-09-23 18:24:55 +0000 UTC I know I shouldn't think too much about it, but seemingly no matter how successful your Patreon is (well, I dunno if your patreon is in the thousands it might be different) that you can still feel a weird little sting whenever someone has to drop you. I hope this doesn't sound like guilt/pressure from me to get you guys to stay. If you need to go or find my content lacking, then I think you should use your money elsewhere. But I wanted to mention one of the things that keeps me anxious.Because Patreon is a direct tie to your popularity on top of your ability to produce, periods where you're changing as an artist or periods where you feel it's become difficult to produce anything, can lead to direct losses in your overall patronage. This can have a weird cyclical effect of causing extra stress affecting further your ability to produce. This isn't new to anyone in the creative industry. I just imagine the cycle is much quicker now that there's a direct feedback. When someone drops, you wonder if you did something wrong.
You wish you engaged more. You wish they engaged more. At the same time, you can never blame them. And you shouldn't blame them. As I don't blame you. It just becomes one of these daily challenges that you try to roll with. But I worry every time I open my Patreon, that 50 people might just have up and left in the middle of the night.
And if they did, it wouldn't be their fault. Instead you just wonder what you did wrong. Exit Surveys tend to help mitigate that. But you always hope that when someone was a patron of your work, that they got something that they wanted or liked what they saw. These anxieties, if you have them about your own work, never stop no matter how famous you are or your success level. Being a performer and an artist can mean a lifetime of doubt. And with the internet, with real time follower counts, every time you check your phone there's a chance something will tell you that you did wrong.
Comments
Kevin Hall (@_smokebeard)
I hate how the brain can work right that, the things I want to remember vanish, but the stuff I want to forget stays... I have to echo every one else comments, a lot of things can make a persons patreon's commitment vary. I know I've had to trim a few people from my list now and again, mostly for financial reasons. But I try and re-add them when I can.
epyon_avenger
Man, that is the worst. I feel like if I could reuse all the memory slots in my brain that embarrassing memories from 10 years ago are taking up, I'd be 100% more successful in life. >:p I get'cha though. Like the fly in the soup or the one tile that got placed the wrong way, makes it hard to focus on everything else. >:[
Psudonym
One of the things is though, is that numbers are definitely NOT down for me. It's just a thing about how it feels. You sorta lose sight of all the positive things people say and fixate on the people who leave. It's like remembering that one time you did something embarrassing over 10 years ago and it causes you to break down in the middle of the day. I guess not everyone gets that...
epyon_avenger
Speaking only for myself, I generally try not to change my patreon commitment unless I have to for financial reasons for the exact sort of thing you're talking about above. That said, I suppose it's not that different from a mom and pop shop/restaurant/pub? Sometimes things change, regulars come and go, etc. Doesn't mean anything is wrong with the product, and people may come back too. Cold comfort when the numbers are down, I'm sure, but hopefully means they'll just come back up again and higher than ever with time.
Aidenke
It's definitely a tough thing to have to confront on a daily basis, a literal form of judgment on what you've done, but as your work, of all kinds, has been what's drawn people to support you, I hope that you can find a level of comfort with continuing to try to do things that inspire you in hopes that every one person who wants to leave are replaced by two more who embrace the fun. :)
Philip D Jones
Psu, I love your work. Some of it gets me going in the morning better than a cup of coffee. So i am sticking with you, no matter what. Being your patron is a privilege.
Space Robot
Speaking a bit candidly from the patron end, I've mostly wound up dropping when my financial situation's changed or when the creator hasn't produced anything for more than a month or two. In the former case it's not really anything the artist can control, and in the latter the cause is pretty obvious, so I wouldn't really worry too much about it. Subscriptions are just going to fluctuate over time regardless, it's just how services like these tend to work.
