Planning to Change things on le Patreon (Patreon)

Hello everyone! 

Bit of a sudden post for all of you, I presume, but hopefuly I can articulate it well enough for you all to understand!!

Lately I've felt like I'm swamped with work, I keep getting high stress purely due to the pieces that are pending, wheather it's patreon polls, chillstreams, rewards that have regretably stacked, or comms I'm obligated to take to cover up for bills & expenses.

I'm not personally someone who spends money haphazardly, I'm very frugal and besides ocassional games on steam or junk food every now and then, I use all I earn to cover the ludicrous bills and food costs. I'm no economist, I don't know jack about all that, I don't keep up with politics or inflation or any of that, but I can tell you, shit is more and more expensive each year, and it's quite hard to cope with the pricetags currently :s

For perspective, currently patreon nets me 400 to 450 pounds a month on average. I keep my earnings on the platform public, both in monetary value and patron number. Out of this amount, exactly 300 come from the custom pledge tiers, who I absolutely appreciate, for they give me a LOT of consistency in my earnings. But I think count the earnings of this pledge in particular to the patreon-funded works is a bit unfair, since they're basically paying the premium to have consistent art without relying on commission forms, RNG or anything of the sort.

I love doing patreon-funded works, comics, while more sparse than I'd like, are fun! Doing polls is fun, too, even tho it bums me a lot to see very low participation in them. I think I've done consistent work with them, and I don't want to end doing them. But I think, for the sake of my sanity and to aliviate a bit of my growing bag of pending work, I have to make the non-custom-art pledges actually fund it.

So, I'm working out on ideas to prep it in a fair way that stays transparent and it's not just "pay me for nothing lmao". I regretably don't think my patreon will "pop off" unless anything short of a miracle occurs. I don't paywall, I don't have a flashy style or content that gets the big bucks, and I'm not interested in being a clout chaser or being obssesed with following the newest furry trend. I've always been more of a lone guy doing my own thing, with a stupid knack for being anti paywall, even if they objectively give you a lot more money. I can't think of anything ATM that would convince a lot of people to give me money suddenly, for what I realistically offer. 

For the record, the current comic project Seekn' Heat! is by no means canceled or affected by any changes made in the future. I abhorr canceling projects half way, just need a bit more time than initially planned :D

So, while I'm trying to think of details and perks to offer, have an initial draft! Please let me know your thoughts! 

As is, I have two main approaches to push for:

First one is adjusting the Goals that I originally set. Apparently patreon outright got rid of this feature, but it's easy for me to keep tabs of earnings to fund these projects. Simply put, the money given to me by all of your generous donations is pooled to fund projects, whether its an illustration, an image set, a comic, etc etc. This alleviates the /every month we do X Y and Z/ that we've been doing, takes a bit of pressure off you guys regarding having to post suggestions, polls and whatnot, and gives these events a bit more weight. Hopefuly that'd build up a bit more excitement, and I can put more effort besides just cranking em out nonstop.

The negatives of this approach would be that some people could feel alienated if the project voted for is long term, and they're not into it, without recourse for change. Currently it's OK to have maybe a poll picture feature something someone is not into, cuz we do these monthly, 's not a big deal! But when a comic may take several months to be funded for and/or drawn, and that's the primarily source of patreon-funded content being made, well, I don't dig that a lot~ 

Setting up interesting pledges for this would be hard, too. I really want chillstreams to "pop off", and doing this approach, I will try to make a pledge that gets more eyes on it, but otherwise I may just retire it. I can't make anything that relies on RNG, as per patreon rules! That means I can't just get a project be a chillstream, and have people roll in them for achance to win art. UNLESS y'all are cool with everyone posting an idea and me handpicking them. Open for suggestions on this.

The other option, a more drastic choice perhaps, is going full ham on using patreon as a commission system /slash/ tip jar, with an ocassional poll or project. By this I mean, pledges focused for commission priority and discounts, opening up a few more custom art slots, that kind of jazz. I don't mind incrementing my comm workload, because at least currently, custom art pledges have been my most reliable source of income. Takes me out of the worry of having to take comms outside patreon as often. I pondered the possibility of "money jar" pledges, where every month that pledge adds credit to redeem art after you build enough of it. Could give those people that want art but can't afford a high amount every month a way to get some! Not particulary complex for me to keep track of, either. 

Big big wall of text lmao. Figured just writing it all out and sharing a bit of my thoguht process could give you guys some insight on what's going on me head. I've been getting more and more anxious as of late, sitting down and working has been hard, and that don't help in the longterm either. Gotta do something bout this :>

As prices of things go up, I feel like I have to follow suit, if anything so I can literally afford food and electricity, but I am always terrified of risking losing interested customers cuz my prices become unaffordable :s

I am planning to adjusting all pledges, tweaking the lower value ones, and likely increasing the price of the custom art one in tandem with my normal commission prices. 

ALRIGHTY THO, that was a big one :D

I appreciate all of you who read it all, and doubly so if you write down your thoughts, opinions and any feedback or suggestions you may have! It's my patreon but you all are the ones paying for it, it's only fair you get a say, too! 

Thank you kindly, much love <3

Asbie