Bi-annual Shareholder's Report #002: October 2020 - March 2021 (Patreon)

I try to put every dollar the channel earns back into covering costs, improving production, filling a Perkins-shaped hole in the internet. I made this YouTube channel in April 2018 to promote my DriveThruRPG products, then launched this Patreon in May 2020. In the last six months, things have gone gangbusters. It's going so well, revenue briefly overtook my ambition, so we're going through a period of rapid change as I try to spend this money effectively.

Goal results from Shareholder's Report #001

My goal in the first Shareholder's Report was to publish more content, more often. To do this, I wanted to try outsourcing parts of my process and improve my setup. For the latter, my iMac went from 8gb RAM to 32gb RAM and it has helped my production speed IMMENSELY. 

I've only gotten around to the former in the last month properly. Everyone who contributes to the channel gets paid — nobody works for free.

• Video script writing. I've approached three people to write video scripts — one is the most experienced GM I know, another has the deepest knowledge of 5th Edition math and mechanics of anyone I've seen, the last is the funniest person I've ever met — and I'm expecting to get these scripts back sometime in April. 
• Video editing. I've also approached our mate Luna to edit some videos because she's got that good silly energy my channel needs. 
• Playable content writing. I'm trying to partner with an adventure writer to make playable content specifically for Patreon. I am sorting through applications this week.
• Calligraphy commissions. Two people are going to help revamp and elevate hand-written game aids and handouts. Things are about to get fancy around here!

I also hit my 2020 goal of 5000 subscribers in March! Better late than never :)

Revenue October 2020 - March 2021

Last year, DriveThruRPG was my main source of revenue and I'd only just gotten monetised on YouTube. But now Patreon is king. Patreon revenue has increased by at least 15% every month. From December to January it increased by 53% — what!? This is wild and unprecedented growth. DriveThruRPG has kept pace with last year, and YouTube ad revenue feels like it's plateaued since I turned off mid-roll ads. The YouTube revenue for March includes my first sponsored video.

Expenses October 2020 - March 2021

Here's a very strange thing to say: I'm not spending enough! I generally don't like spending money in my day-to-day life, but that's a habit I need to break now that revenue is up and there's opportunity around every corner. There are lots of costs here relating to maintaining, a few frivolous purchases, but not enough investment into the new spaces. I want to be bolder with this money. 

• Office supplies AU$35.83
• Minecraft server test AU$24
• Stardew Valley on iPad (a moment of weakness) AU$7.99
• Steam games for streams AU$47.49
• The War of Art (a self-help book) AU$24.14
• Ikea boxes for storage AU$34
• Bank fees AU$24
• Spotify premium AU$36
• Imac upgrade AU$600
• Imac repair AU$179
• Mic replacement AU$298
• No Plan No Problem shirts AU$61.82
• Ethernet cable AU$25
• D&D props (potions) AU$156
• 5000 subscribers celebration (thanks!) AU$83
• Soundproofing blankets AU$63.6
• Twitch subscription AU$8.99
• Art commissions AU$45.5
• NPNP hosting and licensing US$200
• Discord bot US$80
• Discord Nitro US$40
• Contest prizes US$150
• Page layout assets US$87
• SEO consultent US$50
• Moderator fees US$40

Cash on hand April 2021

YouTube, Patreon and DriveThruRPG are all set up to automatically payout when they hit a certain threshold, so I'm not factoring those holdings into this calculation. Here's the cash the channel has available:

• PayPal AUD balance AU$808.85
• PayPal USD balance US$5161.86
• Bank balance AU$263.70

Future expenses and goals

One worrying thing about my revenue breakdown is how heavily it skews to Patreon. At the moment, DriveThruRPG is around 7%, YouTube is around 14%, but Patreon makes up 79% of the whole shebang's revenue. The worrying part is that I have no control over Patreon. I don't take your support for granted or any kind of guaranteed factor — independent of each other, 200 of you could decide you'd rather support other creators or buy an exotic pet tomorrow. So I want to pay attention to these percentages, see if I can put some energy into publishing more content on DriveThruRPG (which I haven't done for nearly two years) and secure more video sponsors for YouTube and get these numbers closer to a 20% / 30% / 50% split. An even three-way split would be ideal, but I don't think that's really feasible.

The theme here expenses-wise is: I need to spend this money. In the last report, your support offered stability, so I knew I could continue and cover all my operating costs. But now your support means I can experiment.

These last few months I've been in a time crunch worse than ever before in my life. Between studying full-time, my freelance contracts and this YouTube channel I am working almost every waking hour. I've become one of those people who takes little naps in the afternoon, like an old dog. On top of this, I just took a part-time job — I don't know how this will affect my goal of getting to weekly videos, but it doesn't look good! This time crunch is the most incentive I've ever had to outsource, and now I have the resources to do so. This should be a period of experimentation and transformation.

I think a focus in this immediate period coming up is to overhaul the channel's branding and visual style. I want to commission some great background art for videos. I want a new logo. I want new graphics, stream overlays, banners. I want to subscribe to image libraries, license art properly and elevate this whole operation.

That transformation also applies to Patreon. I've put a little bit of thought into how these PDFs look, but I want to make this a complete overhaul. That's why I've got these calligraphers, that's why I want to hire a dedicated cartographer, that's why I want to hire multiple writers.

If I lean into streaming more, I also want to fix the whole setup. It just looks awful at the moment. Literally the worst Twitch channel in the world. This would mean picking up a desk mount for my mic, a dedicated mirrorless camera instead of a webcam, maybe wall-mounting a light, commissioning art and music.

And lastly, I wanted to talk about my team and why I pay our mods. On Discord we have three mods: Luke who will be running games for Patrons in the future, Gabby who is our dedicated welcoming committee and community event manager, and mistershifty who captains our Street Team, the people who promote video links out there on social media. The mods keep me from getting overwhelmed, and even though I'm only paying them a nominal fee, it's my way of buying them a few beers every month for the vital work they do.

Some upcoming expenses to meet these goals would be:

• Paying writers for Patreon (???)
• Paying script writers (Jack, Mike, Luke)
• Paying video editor (Luna)
• Paying calligraphers (Alex, Brad)
• Paying a cartographer (???)
• Paying moderators (Gabby, mistershifty)
• Commissioning branding overhaul (logos, backgrounds, banners)
• New dedicated camera for streams
• New desk mount for mic during streams
• Monthly community event costs
• Monthly Street Team event costs
• Advertising costs
• TAXES

Questions? Comments?

I'm an open book about this kind of thing, so please feel free to hit me with any questions, comments, suggestions below.

Thanks! You legends :)