[Blog] Ideas for Patreon Upgrade (Patreon)

So, as many of you know... My finances aren't great, and I'm earning less than 1% more money via Patreon than I was 2 years ago. I'm also more exhausted than I've ever been, to the point where success feels impossible to me... I really need to make my Patreon more exciting to help increase how many patrons I've got.

I don't really have any projects that most people care about, so in order to maximize income, I need to specifically target specific interests, like popular fan art and waifu stuff, as well as providing unique perks to the Patreon. I probably can't just outright copy what another artist does while lacking the skill they have.

My Patreon used to be about fostering a very specific type of relationship with patrons, with quite a bit of fan interaction via ketch suggestions & voting polls. But these days, I've given more value to the simple $1 tier - which doesn't encourage users to join the Patreon or even spend money in the other tiers. So, I'll have to change that -- but I can't just come up with a bunch of new random strategies out of nowhere, or work too hard because I've already run my health into the ground.

So here are some ideas I was considering:

$1 Patrons

- Voting Poll #1: Fan Art

A monthly poll. You pick the winner, then I draw a pretty cool illustration of said character. Connected with Character Suggestions [$7 Reward Tier].

- Sketch Collections:

Assorted sketches, you know what this is like by now. Though you'd probably get less sketches than usual so that I could redirect my energy elsewhere. Though hopefully I can provide more value with fan interaction despite providing a lower quantity of images.

- Game Dev Updates:

Recent updates for any game development projects. You should be familiar with this too.

-------------------------------

$3 Patrons

- Voting Poll #2: Bonus OR Gender Swaps

I haven't decided if this will just be an extra poll on top of the first one with more options, or if it'll have the consistent theme of gender-swaps. I guess it depends on general interests?

-------------------------------

$7 Patrons

- Concept Art Blog:

Extra sketches, leaning more towards concepts and the development of projects. You are familiar enough with this by now. Though since we have voting poll synergy, it might mean there's less of a reliance on this particular reward since this tier will now have additional value with an upcoming perk - Character Suggestions.

- Dropbox Archive:

A monthly archive of my entire body of work. You know what this is by now.

- Character Suggestions:

Suggests characters from pop-culture to be featured in Voting Poll #1, with each month having a new theme. Ordinarily, I think these suggestions would only last a few days (rather than the whole week I'm giving it now) - so that we can get to voting more quickly.

-------------------------------

$10 Patrons

- Pogchamp:

Yeah, this reward is still basically nothing. It's just here if you want to give me a bit more money. I'm honestly not sure what sort of regular reward I could give this tier without adding more stress onto my plate or making the experience more complicated for you guys. If I did feature something, it would have to be fairly low maintenance...

-------------------------------

$50 Patrons (Limited: 10 Slots Max)

- Sketch Suggestion: Anything you Want:

Pretty much just how the old Sketch Suggestions worked. You send ideas for whatever you'd like to see drawn - whether that's a specific subject or popular character. Or you could even use one of my characters you enjoy that you feel isn't drawn often enough these days, like Female Link or Bodyslide Girl. It's also kind of an evolution of the old Dungeon Master tier.

There are no polls involved, so the scales can't be swayed by other patrons. I pick what to draw in the available time, and it's much less overwhelming in scope than the older sketch suggestions, which were previously open to 100+ patrons.

-------------------------------

Anyway, that's that. Just some ideas I've been considering in order to make my Patreon more appealing to general audiences. I'll probably need to make sure I take a lot of rest because this is higher maintenance than my current Patreon formula, but it might be easier if I don't promise too many guaranteed illustrations.

As a $1 Patron, if you only had the choice of getting one perk between sketch collections or voting polls, which would it be?

Don't forget to eat & sleep.