Patreon, Pledges, and Prices (Patreon)

As you may have already seen via the Patreon newsletter or the many, many people posting about it on Patreon and other sites, Patreon is now charging an additional fee for patrons with each pledge on top of taking a percentage of your pledge (2.9%+$0.35), meaning you pay a little more than what you've actually pledged, with $1 patrons paying $1.37 instead.

When I first read the newsletter it seemed like a good thing, that I'd be getting more financial support from my followers, but after hearing the public outcry, I looked past the flowery jargon and realized what a bad idea this is. Like many Patreon creators, I rely heavily on $1 patrons, and this "update" has convinced many patrons to cancel their pledges. Thankfully, none of my followers have done so, and I thank you all for that, but if this new policy is here to stay, it could end up driving away potential patrons, and make Patreon not worth the effort.

As sad as this makes me, I'm not going to quit Patreon. Despite this setback and my very, very slow growth here, I really like Patreon as a concept. I mean, I have over 2700 watchers on deviantART alone; if all of them pledged just a dollar I could finally pay off all my loans, quit my job, and focus entirely on just making art. That has been my ultimate goal for years now, and I'm not going to quit, so I'm going to try some new things to  help make things more fair for my supporters, and I'd like feedback from all of you.

I've got three ideas to deal with this problem:

1): Simply put, you can buy me a coffee instead.

2): To offset the new payment policy, I could change the payments for my pledges, lowering them so that even with the added payment, you still get charged the old amount. Here's a quick chart to show what I mean:

$2  Pledge = $1.61 +  $0.39 fee  

$10 Pledge = $9.38 + $0.62 fee 

$15 Pledge = $14.23 + $0.77 fee

$20 Pledge = $19.09 + $0.91 fee

$30 Pledge = $28.78 + $1.22 fee

$50 Pledge = $48.20 + $1.80 fee

Of course, this will mean that my $1 patrons would technically be $2 patrons now, because Patreon doesn't allow pledges lower than a dollar.

3): This is a less direct method of balancing costs, but I could also increase commission discounts across the board for all my Patrons, so while you'd still be charged a bit more for pledges, I will charge you a bit less for commissions.

Those are all my ideas; if anyone else has any ideas, feel free to share them with me. I've already contacted Patreon staff about this issue, and I hope they will listen to their userbase.

And now, one final thought before I finish: if anyone who supports me wants to lower their pledge or stop it completely, for this or any other reason, I totally understand and I bear you no ill will.