cathoderaydude
patreon
Tiers, etc.
🕑 Added 2022-01-18 02:14:23 +0000 UTCSo, it's been a year since my channel and Patreon really started taking off. I'm reevaluating how I use Patreon, so it's one of These Posts as I try to figure out how to steer this vehicle.
In short: I'm going to switch my tiers up as follows for new subscribers but everyone reading this will get grandfathered in (Reddit says so anyway):
$2 is just the "thanks for the support" tier.
$5 gets you early access and Discord.
$10 gets you patron-exclusive videos of whatever type I make.
$20+ gets you in the credits.
That's it, much simpler offering, and higher top tier because everyone tells me I'm undercharging.
There's a poll down there, just because I'd like to know if those numbers sound absurd. Let me know if you would have walked away or picked a lower tier if you saw those when you signed up. Any other changes mentioned in this post are happening anyway though.
As I've said, I have no idea what I'm doing and am desperately trying to make this make sense to myself as much as anyone else. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Here's a bunch of details you can read if you like, although they boil down to, "I always hated how I set this up and I don't think anyone else liked it either."
Basically: It's hard to come up with bonus content, much harder than I thought. I really wanted (and still want) to offer exclusive material to patrons, but the first thing I've made that I felt was really worth it was the email video last week. You all seemed to enjoy that one, and I've had some suggestions about other patron videos that sound like good ideas, and which I'd never want to do publicly. So that kind of thing makes sense to me, but a lot of other stuff I intended to do doesn't.
I'd originally made the $5 tier pretty much because I had this idea of posting pics of stuff I've recently acquired that won't make it into a video in the near future. Trouble is, that's basically emailing you a tweet. None of the other creators I'm pledged to do it, and it feels weird to receive an email for "hey here's some pictures" and then have to reply through Patreon's crappy comment system.
Meanwhile, I made a twitter (@crdudeyoutube), which I think is a great way to establish a larger persona, but almost every time I go "oh I should post this on twitter," I think "oh but wouldn't it be depriving the paying customers," a hurdle that I simply created for myself.
I was doing patron only mail-call videos, and those made sense when I was getting unknown viewer mail, but that hasn't happened for a while, I just get ebay packages now and I can't make a video about every individual one. Besides that, right from day one multiple people told me "you should really just post those publicly, they do numbers on other peoples channels."
I also used to be worried about either getting scooped, or spoiling my Big Reveals if I posted stuff on Twitter, but in short, I'm less worried these days. With a growing audience, only a small number of people will ever see my tweets anyway (look at Tech Connections' twitter follow count vs channel sub count.)
Besides, at this point it's really Discord where I'm discussing the up and coming stuff, and it's only $2 to access that right now, something I should have adjusted for this exact reason (although, again, I won't kick out any existing members.) In short, I've realized it's just not very natural to post random stills of stuff on here, so I should stop pretending I'm going to do that and just post them on other mediums.
Of course, then it wouldn't be exclusive, but - and here's the crux of it - does anyone care? Every time I ask about this stuff, people say they just want to support me and the tiers are mostly meaningless, but the fact is, this is the only place where I allow people to give me money and then promise them something, and I need to feel like I'm delivering, even if that means promising less for the same amount. I'd rather be honest than stack up a bunch of benefits that don't really exist, especially if it's just me making more work for myself.
I've needed to rework my tiers for ages anyway, partly because my ambitions have grown (it literally costs more to do what I'm doing now), but also because I'm just not making the kind of extra stuff I thought I would be. It turns out this is all incredibly hard. So the above adjustments are just to flatten things out, offer less nonsense that's more practical elsewhere, and bump up prices to support what I'm doing better.
Comments
Dan Sparks
I was so impressed when this happened, no other patreon sub of mine has bothered to configure this
Creesch
Just throwing this out here. I see a bunch of creators who have multiple tiers and are very clear that higher tiers don't give anything extra besides their gratitude. Others don't even offer tiers and just let people pick whatever they want to pay per month. Two random and widely different channels to show this: - aging wheels has tiers but they offer basically the same https://www.patreon.com/agingwheels - Gold shaw farm just let's you pick the number: https://www.patreon.com/goldshawfarm People willing to pay for the higher tiers will likely do that regardless of the perks, so I really don't think you should feel to pressured in differentiating the tiers too much and there is also the opportunity to simplify it much more.
Creesch
You can link your discord account to patreon in the settings of patreon. It will then automatically give you access to discord.
8b!t7r3x
How do we join the discord?
M@trixX
Just make 1€ tier. I will support you that amount of money no matter what, even if it means subscribing for 10€ tier for one payment every ten months. I want no extras. You truly deserve it for the content you create, but I can't afford more and I believe there are more people like this (*cries in central european)
What about offering something sillyish like a sticker or a mug or a signed headshot or a raffle ticket or a link to download something (vintage desktop wallpaper? music?)? I like the idea of exclusive content, but I also feel like you deserve to be able to share the videos you make with as many people as possible. If I were you, fretting over what should be YouTube content and what should be Patreon-only content would drive me crazy--and maybe even result in less content production overall.
Harley Davidson
i might consider switching early access and patreon exclusives? i think the exclusives really draw people in and those of us who really want early access and the ability to give feedback are already paying 10+
Thomas Fuchs
Just as my phone always says, charge more!
I may be the exception but I don’t tend to use Patreon for ‘extra’ content but rather just a means to pay for the content I enjoy. Please don’t feel pressured to produce more content for higher tiers - it’s just what we can justify for the content you already lovingly produce. Hopefully that helps, all the best and thank you!
Kevin Bornewasser
Agreed, the early access is always nice because of the community interaction. "exclusive bonus content" is always a mixed bag, it is hard to make it compelling while also not dividing too many ressources from the main (public) content.
sorry didnt know what you meant by grandfathered, so I took the safe route and doubled the investments :P
vince
imho stuff like the shill email review seems like good patron only/backup channel content. i don't think you're crossing a line sharing spam emails publicly or anything, but it feels appropriate to me for a smaller audience, and is very youtuber-meta compared to your other content. anything related to actual tech or preservation or games/media , even stuff you meant to be a patron incentive, i support you releasing publicly to everyone. as others have said my motivations for supporting you aren't about exclusive content (mostly the opposite in fact) i do enjoy when there's a small delay between "final" video versions and public release, for the chance to comment/ask questions when it's a little quieter. no pressure to hold back though... when i used to write for my blog i couldn't wait to hit publish when the editing was finally done :) i ought to join the discord for this anyway can folks opt into the new pricing without un/resubscribing? i know you can set a custom pledge amount, but unsure if that's equivalent
Dan Sparks
I don't think I was ever aware there was a shoutout thing in a lower tier, aside from funding excellent videos I just wanted to get my dumb old name in the credits because a friend of mine occasionally sees my name in credits here and there and tells me which helps me know she's watching The Good Stuff anyway, I love your videos, I don't think I personally would have gone for $20 a month vs $10, but if I went from the $15 (??? I think - ALL MY PRICES ARE IN STUPID UK MONEY) tier to the $10 tier (I don't know how grandfathers work, I only had one and he was evil) then I'd probably stick there or you could bump it up to $12 / month which - if I were a new subscriber - might make me go for the $20 because an extra $8 feels like a lot less than an extra $10 i don't know if that's helpful or even lucid, but my relationship with money is pretty messed up, who knows how that happened, surely I'm the ooooooonly oooooooonnnnnnne the tl;dr is I will gladly pay $15/month to watch your videos, I don't feel like I need to be in the credits for that, and I don't need a discord or a lot of extras or stuff you're only doing because you feel like you have to justify tiers, so I'm super glad you're moving away from that, hell yes If you're gonna offer that at $10, that feels like a goshdarned BARGAIN (it is at the moment for $15 or £11.50 in Normal Island Money)
I’m as the others who are here just to support you doing something you love and we love to watch. Bonuses are not why I pay. I’m at $2 rn but I’ll probably bump it up in the near future if I am able. Thanks for the great content. Btw, My 9 year old loves the channel too, and neither of us think your prices are outrageous. We think you have a magical way of being opinionated without be offensive or annoying. It’s a gift :)
Adam Baxter
I'd love to jump up to the $10 tier, but I think it will come up as $15/AUD, I *might* be able to do that as a yearly subscription, but I'm pretty sure yearly subscriptions suck for creators on Patreon
