Annual Memberships and Local Currencies now available (Patreon)

Patreon have made some (more) changes that might be of interest to you: Annual Memberships with a discount, and Local Currencies. I've enabled both just now and thought I'd tell you a bit about these features.

Annual Memberships

With Annual Memberships, you'll be able to get 2 months free on your pledge, if you pay for a full year in advance. Apparently 30% of supporters are interested in this feature. I can see the appeal, especially if it's about supporting a project that'll take some time to be developed, like a video game or a movie. It also cuts down on micro transaction fees for smaller amounts. We creators can set a maximum discount of up to 16% (=2 months free compared to monthly payments), which is what I've enabled. 

If you're interested in switching your existing monthly pledge over to an annual one, Patreon have described how to do this here. 

Pledge in your Local Currency

The world's a big place, and not everyone thinks in US Dollars. When I signed up with Patreon back in May 2018, it was the only option to accept donations. Many of you are in Europe and the UK, and I understand that a fluctuating amount isn't as handsome as a stead amount. 

Just this month Patreon have introduced British Pounds and Euros as additional currencies, and Tier Prices are auto-adjusted (so US $10 becomes GBP £8.50 or EUR €9.50). Because I live in the US, those currencies will be converted at my end for a 2.5% fee. New supporters from the Eurozone and the UK will automatically see the new currencies, or can select their preferred currency at the very bottom of the page.

While this feature is currently a voluntary opt-in, Patreon will make it the new mandatory default later this year. This will not affect your existing pledges though, so if you're happy with how things are going right now, you don't need to do a thing.

If you're interested in switching your pledge over to one of the local currencies, Patreon have explained how to do this here. 

What else is new?

This week doing some web development to bring ad-free videos to my websites, so that supporters like you don't have to endure YouTube ads anymore (at least for my videos). I'll let you know when this is fully implemented and testable. 

I'll have another announcement post for you tomorrow.

If you need anything, just let me know :-)