Frequently Asked Questions (Patreon)

Do you have some questions about this campaign? I have some answers! And, if I haven't answered your question, just ask your question in a comment.

Here's the contents I cover below:

• Who are you?
• What is Patreon?
• Why are you on Patreon? 
• Why are you on Patreon now? 
• Do you make any money from CK right now? Why not just display ads?
• What makes your blog unique?
•  Why not charge per blog post, per comic guide, or per song?
• What will change about CK due to the support you receive here?
• What are some sites that are examples of what you're trying to accomplish?
• What makes you think you’re capable of doing all of this?
• How do I know I’m going to like all this stuff you have in store?
• What Patron rewards are you bringing to the table?
• Will I miss out on lots of stuff if I can't afford to pledge right now?

Here we go!

Who are you?

I am Peter AKA Krisis, the publisher of Crushing Krisis - Philadelphia’s longest-running blog. It is the home to my writing and music, and it has grown to be one of the most comprehensive Marvel comics collecting guides on the web. Now it covers DC Comics , too!

I have been reading comics since 1991, writing songs since 1996, calling myself “krisis” since 1997, blogging since 2000, creating comic guides since 2010, and parenting since 2013.

I've been just a little bit obsessive compulsive about organizing things since I was seven, when I spent a lot of my free time dumping out my G.I. Joe file cards and then re-alphabetizing them for fun.

What is Patreon?

Patreon allows you to become a paid monthly subscriber to a creator - essentially, being a patron of their art!

Some creators choose to associate rewards with different pledge levels, but unlike Kickstarter there is no “end” to a Patreon campaign. Even if a monthly pledge goal is reached, all Patrons continue to contribute every month.

Why are you on Patreon? I'm in a hurry, so keep it snappy.

Crushing Krisis has transformed in the past five years from an enduring personal blog to one of the best comic collecting resources on the web with scope and detail unmatched by other collecting guides - and I did it all in my free time while working full-time and raising a child.

There is a high probability that you are here because you've used those resources to build your collection or guide your reading. If so , you know how valuable my research and organization has been. I saved you a lot of time and helped you find the books that you love. And, I think I can do even more.

In exchange, I'm asking you to contribute less than the price of a single comic a month.

What you might not know is that CK is also a blog that in some months features more content than your average major media website - especially on music and media critique - and that in its life has featured more original songs than most of your favorite modern artists have released in the past decade.

(I'd like to keep doing more of all that, too).

Okay, but why are you on Patreon now? There must be a longer story, right?

You're right.

I've been writing words and songs for over 20 years and I have rarely asked for anything in exchange for it. In fact, I've always been proud of paying out-of-pocket for everything related to my creativity from blog hosting to recording gear - and always giving it away for free.

That pride has been a disguise for a fear of failure. On some level, I've always thought, "Well, if you don't tell people it's worth anything it won't matter if they don't like it." 

2016 was been a year of taking big risks. In the spring, I resigned from a job I really loved. I did that seemingly-insane thing after months of planning and saving because I felt like I was about to miss my chance to do something else I loved - spending time with my hilarious toddler while she was still toddling.

Now I'm taking another huge risk: the risk of believing my creative work has value. I still want it to be freely available, but I think there are a few dozen people - maybe a few hundred people - who would pay for it willingly because they agree that it's valuable.

I love working and I'm excited to return to my full-time career when that time comes. There’s the chance that your collective response to this campaign could fundamentally alter my future plans. You never know unless you ask.

Do you make any money from CK right now? Why not just display ads?

Prior to this campaign, Crushing Krisis generated profit only from affiliate links. I have never featured ads or sponsored content.

I’ve found that focusing on that affiliate income makes me averse to creating content that won’t lead to affiliate sales, such as videos, songs, reading orders, or even comic guides of lesser-known material. That’s not only because that content doesn’t tend to generate affiliate clicks, but because I start to mistake affiliate clicks for people enjoying something on CK. 

I've also discovered through user interviews that sometimes people love CK for entertainment and reference but they just don’t click those affiliate links (which is fine).

Introducing Patron-based funding eliminates both of the challenges inherent in my affiliate profit:

• Your pledges won’t only be in support of only some of my pages or linked to a certain action like a link click
• You’ll be part of a trusted audience of advisors can let me know exactly what content you value most when I'm feeling unsure.

I have several reasons I’d like to avoid displaying ads to earn more income.

• Ads are visual clutter on the page - they're noise and they introduce messages and images onto CK that I don't control.
• Ads take people away from CK when I want them to spend more time there.
• Letting ads drive your revenue eventually alters your editorial approach.
• I surf the internet with an ad blocker on, so it would be hypocritical of me to display them on my own page.

Having worked in business analytics, I can tell you that many sites are only seeking a few dollars of ad revenue per visitor per month. To get that money they inundate every visitor with thousands of ads. When I'm one of those visitors, I vastly prefer to chip in the estimated advertising value of my eyeballs rather than see all the ads. 

I’m giving you that same opportunity.

I know hundreds of people who blog. What makes your blog any different?

Maintaining a single blog for 16 years as its sole author takes a special brand of determination. It’s a feat very few have achieved. CK has run longer than Dooce, but not as long as Kottke, to use a pair of familiar names.

A sampling of what I’ve accomplished on CK to date:

• CK consists of more than 1.7 million words in more than 4,000 blog posts and nearly 300,000 words on more than 100 blog pages. That's more than 2 million words - or, more than 20 average paperback novels.
• Crushing Comics includes nearly 100 pages covering every major long-running hero and team at Marvel, plus every Marvel Event and all of Valiant Entertainment. Of those pages, I've published over 20 of them since this campaign began!
• The comics content on CK keeps increasing - at the launch of this campaign I had already made 50 comics-themed posts in 2016 compared to 102 posts in the previous fifteen years. That number keeps going.
• I have recorded 115 original songs (and many covers) for CK - more than nine albums’ worth of material
• I produced a singer-songwriter podcast (before they were called that, because it launched before the first iPod existed) that ran for seven seasons and 52 episodes - it can still be found on the blog
• I wrote a superhero novel during National Blog Posting Month in 2010 (which has since doubled in length during the re-writing and editing process). The opening chapters were serialized on CK as a part of my Patreon launch

And, here’s a glimpse behind-the-scenes the blog:

• A 1,000 word blog post takes 30-90 minutes to write, edit, and link.
• A new comic guide takes 8-40 hours to complete, depending on its complexity and how often its character(s) has appeared.
• I have the next 50 comic guides already mapped out, plus over 100 more ideas for guides in my queue to begin.
• I have nearly 100 completed songs that have never been recorded in multi-track digital quality.

I noticed you are asking for a monthly pledge. Why not charge per blog post, per comic guide, or per song?

All things are not for all people.

I don’t want you to feel cheated by being charged if I publish a guide of your least favorite character or post a cover of a song you hate. You are sponsoring my ability to pay attention to all of CK, not paying for me to create one specific piece of content.

Also, I'm experimenting with different posting frequencies; I've even had a streak of launching comic guides on a weekly basis. If I move CK in that direction on a permanent basis, it won’t make sense to charge you every time I publish something because that should be happening constantly.

What will change about Crushing Krisis due to the support you receive here?

The first thing to change is that CK will stop costing me money to maintain.

At $31 pledged dollars a month, my hosting costs (which recently increased unexpectedly) will be covered. 

That would be a great start, but at $120 pledged dollars a month all of my absolutely necessary CK-related costs will be 100% covered - including domains, software and plugins, subscriptions, and a few new tools I need. I’ll have some special content rewards that go along with those goals.

(Yes, it really costs that much to run a blog. I broke it down in another Patreon post. )

Those both feel like a reasonable goals and I’m confident you will help me reach them.

The next set of goals will bring new content to CK, including more comic guides, editorial content, tools for readers, and multimedia. That culminates in the range of $300-600 a month. Hitting those thresholds will allow me to make two huge changes that require both time (which I now have!) and capital (which I no longer have - that’s where you come in!) to unlock new  possibilities for CK: 

• a responsive, mobile-friendly redesign [Update on 2/18/17: I moved up this goal significantly to be completed when we reached the $66 milestone - it's live on the website right now!]
• the creation of a limited liability corporation (“LLC”)

(I also explained this range of goals in  Patreon post. )

A $600 dollars per month goal sounded high to me. Then I did the math; 600 is far less than the number of weekly active users on CK. Basically, if half my regular, returning readers pledged between $1 and $3.99 each month we’d shatter that $600 goal many times over in a single day.

My plan doesn’t end at $600/month. If I am fortunate enough to push beyond that level, I can transform CK in ways that were never possible in the past. I think CK can be a lot more than a personal blog with an obsession with music and comics. It could be a destination you feel compelled to check every day while retaining a personal and obsessive viewpoint on whatever it’s crushing on. 

(A specific thing I would like to do on the editorial side is feature the voices of collaborators with a different viewpoint than my own to hear what they are crushing on.)

I truly believe you can help me get there.

You have a lot of big goals for CK. What are some sites that are examples of what you're trying to accomplish?

Here are a handful of sites I admire and would like to emulate in some manner:

• Brain Pickings: https://www.brainpickings.org/
• Comics Alliance (sadly, now departed): http://comicsalliance.com/
• Comics Beat: http://comicsbeat.com/
• Largehearted Boy: http://blog.largeheartedboy.com/
• Mighty Girl: http://mightygirl.com/
• Multiversity Comics: http://www.multiversitycomics.com/ 
• SlashFilm: http://slashfilm.com
• Technical.ly: http://technical.ly/
• Women Write About Comics: http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/

Whoa, hold on. I've read some of those. They are some major websites. What makes you think you’re capable of doing all of that?

This is not a pie-in-the-sky plan. In addition to my blogging experience, I’ve got the professional experience to back it up. Here’s a sample of my resume:

• Degree in Journalism and experience as a copy- and content- editor in every one of my job roles since then
• 10 years in an internal agency developing print and web projects, including launching social media for a major healthcare company and running comms for the biggest event in Philly
• 6 years volunteering to direct logistics and communication for a music festival that grew from a back yard to a registered 501(c)3 organization.
• 3 years recruiting and managing a huge team of Account Managers and Analysts at a rapidly-expanding business intelligence start-up, where I also used PHP/MYSQL daily.

(That last one is critical - I might have had all the editorial experience to do this before 2013, but now I have the business acumen and analytics know-how to create success. Seriously: I loved that job.)

I’m excited to head back to a career with those experiences, but until I do I want to spend my time creating awesome things. 

Help me to do that.

You sound like you know what you’re doing, but how do I know I’m going to like all this stuff you have in store?

With your support and with the majority of my non-parenting attention focused on CK for the foreseeable future, here are just some of the possibilities I am considering. 

Keep in mind that some goals may change over time based on your support and reader engagement, and some require higher pledge totals to make a reality.

Crushing Comics Goals

• Publish one or more new guides a month until we cover every Marvel comic from the Silver Age to present as well as a large portion of DC Comics from Crisis on Infinite Earth to present.
• Revise older hero guides to the standard of the newest ones like Thanos and Squirrel Girl
• Complete the data set in the Omni/OHC database; expand it to include more data points. Then, add similar Masterworks and Epic databases - maybe even include DC Absolutes and Omnibuses!
• Revise and expand the X-Men Reading Order; break ground on the Marvel Now era reading order.
• Expand to cover indie comics and specific authors
• Provide tools to help you plan your purchases for the year

CK Editorial Goals

• Post regularly without interruption
• Run more regular features like the June 2016 Omnibus Survey countdown
• Start one or more “From The Beginning” feature that is a read- or listen-along of a classic run from the start (and let Patrons choose the series or musical artist)
• Bring back weekly new release roundups
• Review more collections and new comics

Multimedia Goals

• Launch an active YouTube channel
• (Re-)Launch a podcast
• Regularly record music in my home studio
• Play regular streaming concerts
• Host regular video chats

Meta Goals

• Add custom graphics/illustrations to the CK layout
• Regular advertise for certain characters and series
• Redesign CK so it’s mobile/responsive friendly
• Invite (and pay) guest-writers to contribute columns

Okay, you convinced me - this is going to be awesome. But, I’m used to getting a little something something in return for my pledge, you know what I mean? I’m talking rewards. What are you bringing to the table for me?

I'll be honest with you: I don't want to build a lot of specificity and exclusivity into my Patron rewards. Creating that exclusive content will take away from time spent on CK. I'd rather create totally amazing new content there for you to devour with the satisfaction that you made it possible for everyone to enjoy.

That said, I do want to reward you as a Patron in different ways:

Early Access (and some behind-the-scenes access) to content like guides, new release posts, and multimedia (including some instances where that’s a big positive, as with new release recaps)

Getting Involved, including voting on characters and topics for future guides, posts, and multimedia. Many Patron levels also include the option to be interviewed for the blog. Also, you’ll be the voices I trust to give me feedback to shape further changes to the Patron levels, Goals, and CK’s direction in general.

Sponsorship visible on CK, including packages for specific high-traffic pages

I can’t afford to pledge right now - does that mean I’m going to miss out on lots of stuff?

First, let me be incredibly clear: I am hugely appreciative of your continued readership and support even if you choose not to become a Patron at this time. Your dedication to CK allowed me to conceive of this campaign and it is not something I take for granted.

Second, I am happy to discuss ways for you to support CK other than pledging! We should chat if you’re a writer, musician, artist, editor, videographer, printmaker, comic site owner, fellow Patreon, or creator of other cool things either physical or digital. I’d love for you to be involved in CK in some way.

Finally, based on my current plans for this campaign, your experience with CK and its existing content will not significantly change. You may occasionally see a new post or page marked “For Patrons,” but they will become accessible to all readers shortly thereafter.

Down the line, there is the possibility that some of the most labor-intensive or niche features of Crushing Comics may become limited or “for Patrons only.” For example, labor-intensive comprehensive Batman Reading Order may be Patrons-Only, as would a niche interest page specific to his 90s ongoing sibling book Shadow of the Bat, but a page for Dective Comics would certainly be public after its period of exclusivity.

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That's it! But, if you've got more questions, I've got more answers.