geeu
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Yuki's Adventures - Relaunch! Updated Tiers Coming
🕑 Added 2021-03-12 21:27:23 +0000 UTCHi everyone!
First off, thank you all for your support! I've been able to pull back on other work in my life to make this more of my main focus. And with your help, I can make it THE main focus of my career.
So! What does that mean?
It means it's time to re-evaluate my Tier subscriptions to:
A) match what is more common current practices I've seen on other patreon pages, and
B) help me out, so I can make this my main career focus. Currently, $1,100CAD ($860USD)/month just isn't enough to survive on (not completely -helps a great deal! But Canada is expensive to live in!), but $3,000(CAD)/month is. And because I'm only making $1100/month, I still have to supplement the work with design jobs (that I HATE! but they pay more! :P). Unfortunately, though, it takes me away from this, and I dont wanna do anything else but this!!! :D
So this is what I have planned, and I present it to you months in advance because I want to both give you lots of warning that change is coming, but also to ask for your advice and input. I'm pretty bad at monetizing anything! I wish I could just give it away, but I gotta eat! :P So, my expertise is lacking in this area, and some of you are probably pretty good at it! So your advice is really REALLY welcome!
OK: So here is the break down for my updated Tier:
$5 - Basic Tier
- Access to Issue 1-5 (Story Arc 1 - issue 5 will conclude the first arc of my story)
- Custom (commissioned) artwork Previews
- Warm up Sketches (that I dont post now, but I do every month as warm up)
- Preview of Main Comic pages (Just the line-art, no text, no painting)
- Character Bios (illustration + write up about characters)
$10 - Image Series Sets
- Access to Basic Tier benefits
- The Image series sets (what you get currently in the $5 category)
$15 - Main Story Continued
- Access to Basic and Image series Set Tiers
- Access to the continuation of the main story (so Issue 6-onward)
$20 - Poll Tier
- Access to all previous tiers
- Voting rights for monthly Polls (ex. vote on which of the Master's collection I'll draw the next image series about. I'll give you their names, you poll which one you want to see first. Or, I'll give you a choice between scenarios that Yuki finds himself in, and you vote which one you'd like to see more.) This category will also allow for patrons to suggests polling ideas.
$200 Custom Commissioned Artwork
- Access to all tiers
- A custom art piece of your choosing and design.
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And that's what I've been thinking so far.
Now I wanna break some of this down so you understand why I'm making these choices, and then you guys tell me if I'm on point, or way off base here! :P
Basic Tier - Patreon recommends no less than $3 for your base tier, and that's the base minimum. If you want to be perceived as higher value, go up from there. So... I went up from there :P But not sure if that's bad form. What do you guys think? I feel like you get quite a bit for it... but not sure.
Image Series Set Tier - I produce anywhere from 3-7 Pages a week for this tier, and it amounts to about 25-30 hours worth of drawing and page/text layout. I believe it is worth the extra $5/month
The Main Story Continued Tier - I was totally happy to continue to release the main comic on the $1 tier... but lets face it... NOBODY else does that lol. And it really is a lot of work. Its about 30-40 hours/week to complete a page. And many others doing similar comics seem to be following this format. Release a few starting issues for, essentially, free, and then the rest you have to subscribe for.
Voting/Polling Tier - I want to involve you guys a lot more. I like the interaction, and I also like the challenge of working within a few parameters. There will be opportunities for you guys to also add your input on some of the votes. For example, if any of you come up with a good idea to vote on, I'll totally throw that into the mix. You will be part of the comic at that point! :D
Commissioned Artwork Tier - this tier is the most dramatic jump in price because these custom pieces take a lot more time and effort to put together. For example, one character, takes about 4-6 hours to draw. Any additional character is an additional 3-6 hours, thus turning my little $45 category into practically a free give away and I'm dying trying to keep up with it, plus the comic itself, plus design work. So I thought, this category has to be worth my time, because I have so little time as it is to do it all.
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ALRIGHT! That's it. I know its a little long winded, but I wanted to be as informative as possible. Plus, I really could use your feedback. So the more info you have, the better you can advise me further.
These changes wont be taking effect until I am finished Issue 5, so we have at least 3 months to discuss and come up with Tiers that work best for everyone.
But here is the final conclusion: If I can make $3000CAD/month, This will be my full time job. That means, defined regular weekly updates (right now I have to work between the other jobs I do, and sometimes it makes it hard to stay on schedule). It also means, more consistent communication with me (instead of a quick post, then I have to run back to my other work to meet my deadlines, we can actually have a community built here!)
Thanks everyone who took the time to read this! :D And also, thank you in advance for any of your feedback/input on this topic! I'm looking forward to your comments!
GeeU
Comments
GeeU
yay! Thanks Hunger88! That's a huge motivator to hear you say that! (And to all of you who have said the same in the past few months!)
I also think that you should charge more. I'll join the 15$ tier :)
I only just recently subscribed, but I totally agree that you should be charging more. I’m definitely going to join the 15 dollar tier at least.
GeeU
which part you are looking forward too? Just the consistent release dates or are you interested in one of the categories, like the voting category?
cant wait for this new tier stuff to come in effect!
So worth it, you're artwork was great when I first discovered you and you've only improved since then. May you fully escape the wagey cagey soon, comrade
GeeU
I realize I can pin a post to the top, and I figured this is one I would like everyone to see. So, I'm going to leave it here for a few weeks to make sure everyone gets a change to read and add their 2 cents. :D
GeeU
Ya those are all valid points! And I would tend to agree with you. I want people to enjoy the image series side of things because they are equally as fun as the main story, but I 100% agree that most people will go with the slightly cheaper option (for a multitude of reason, but it will most likely pan out that way) and if that is the case, then I'd prefer they spend the money on the main story. Also, Yuki's comment on regularity - I also agree will help with retainership. I have been at it for a few years now and see a direct correlation between more consistent posting and an increase in patronage. Its just been the 'real life' work that sometimes pulls me away for extended periods of time. But Im taking a big step back from that now. Im gonna be making so much more less, but this is so much more important to me. And I've set up my life that I can survive on much less for now. So Im doin it! :P And I made these life style changes for that exact reason - to be more present and available for my patrons and for this work.
Madafakir
I dont mind. Still fair price for that awesome arts :) Especially if it means that we'll get new comics faster :)
Yuki
i made my reply post, but now i read this. thats exactly what i meant. i would be down for that idea!
Yuki
im the same opinion as you, cause many ppl would probably go for the cheapest in that case the 5 or 10$ option. but when you keep posting a few images a certain day every week, i mean if there is regularity in the uploads and no major breaks like it was sometimes before (no hate^^), then ppl would pay more for your work! :3
Full_Metal
So from my understanding the stories such as the Yuki training comic is part of the image series, that to me are stories set in between each main story comic. I would agree that more people probably are more interested in the main story, and that is why it would be more advisable to put that at the slightly lower band of $10 to keep people invested. But if you do like you said more image series comics (say 2 image series comics to 1 main series comics) and have some crazy content in them I am sure a number will join the $15, but that is just my opinion
Personally I love the main story comic more than anything, wish we had more!
GeeU
Ya I like that idea! I can do that. I was thinking the main story was the higher value because a) it takes more effort to complete one page vs 3-7 pages for image series, and b) its the main story... so I thought people were more interested in that story than the image series sets... Turns out, I could be wrong though? Do you guys value the image series sets higher than the main story comic?
GeeU
YES! I'll be able to create at least 1 page/week (of the main comic), or 3-7pages/week (of the image series), plus some other little extras, like warm up sketches, or character bio pages. And that will be every week. So just to be clear, every week you'll get at least 1 completed page (Main story) or 3-7 pages (image series) + a couple of bonus items like sketches or bios. Also, I will be able to put in on a regular schedule too. So, for example, I can schedule every Thursday to be new page release day. (or Tuesday... or whatever day seem to work best).
Full_Metal
Having been a content creator previously I understand (and half expected this at some point) why you need to do this and fully support it, my only advice would be to swap the prices for the Image series set and the main series set continued, I think most people would find the reasonable
Would this also mean we would get more frequent content? Rather than being spaced out, or would it be a similar pace?
Vendura
I'm still a fan of your work and i was looking for the next issues , but i don't wanna loose that because of the Tier change .
GeeU
Oh! I think I know what you are asking. Im currently looking into whether or not I can give all of my current patrons a legacy discount... so you dont pay more when I switch over because you've been with me for while and were here before the change. So far, cant find a quick tier adjustment or custom patron rule type thing on the back end of my page. Does anyone know how to do that? I'll keep researching to see if I can make that work.
GeeU
by legacy tier advantages, what are you referring to? Are you getting a discount from Patreon for being legacy? Or is this something different? (sorry for not already know what you mean. I'm still learning how this works, but I'll get it!)
Vendura
So i'm going to loose the Legacy tier advantages ,i was in ?
