One year on Patreon (Patreon)

GOALS

I scored 2 main objectives for Patreon:

•  Having 1% of my Deviantart watchers here. Currently I have 3,700 watchers, that means my goal is to have 37 patrons ... but currently I only have 12 :_(
•  I expected to earn an average of $ 50 a month ... but, eh! currently I earn about $ 120 ... (half is thanks to the Captain-commission) :D

THE PROBLEM

My main disadvantage is that nobody knows me. Unlike other fantastics artists, that in 3 or 5 years beyond the barrier of 10,000 watchers, I have 8 years on Deviantart and only have 3,700 watchers. Yes, I know I could do more spam on my page Patreon, but I guess my Introversion plays an important role to sell. Damn, look at me, this is the first time I write a serious journal in 8 years.

But apart from advertising, why this difference?, How they have got so many followers (and money)?, what am I doing wrong?

1- Poor quality: I'm not a master. Just... my artistic quality is not good enough. There are thousands of artists who draw better than me. Well, that is solved with practice (although I draw little time, like 1 or 2 hours, some days), but after 8 years on Deviantart, I have not noticed an great improvement in my drawing. I have improved, of course, but I do not know, maybe expecting something more... at least on the colour.

2- I not do enough Fanarts: The fanart makes miracles. Especially if you drawing something popular. Paint a pony and ... boom! Paint ​​another pony and ... kaboom! ... But I feel it's a bit like cheating. It is easy. A shortcut to popularity. When I make a fanart is because I want to get more exposure: "Hey look, this is popular, I'll do a drawing abou ... I get bored".

I prefer to create original characters. Have the opportunity to design and create the world around them (Is it because I'm an avid RPG-paper player?). I mean... I think it is more rewarding when people like your Original Characters (and beyond that everyone drool with Miia's body), I love when the people ask me about the characters or try role-play with them (and I hate not being able to answer because I don't know fucking English!!). 

I know that my OCs have not shown an attractive personality or a complex psyche, but that is due to my incompetence in narrating or expressing myself.  The fact is that Kazan and company have a background you haven't seen around here. There are cities and empires, there is a world war going on and a whole magical theory developed.

In short, I like drawing OCs but ... is not something with which gain popularity.

3. I Do not NSFW: I always thought that the easy route to success in deviantart (and another art websites) is the porn. On the Internet there are lots of teenagers trying to calm his inner beast. In my case I focus on the ecchi (sexy), but now I've started with some nsfw.

The problem is that to access to this nsfw, there is a pay wall. Only a very small group of people can access to this content, so, it's like I don't draw nsfw. I could put free, but I do not feel really comfortable doing NSFW. I don't want be known as a porn artist. Hey, I like to draw anatomy, but I feel like a pervert. And as with the Fanart ... feel like I'm cheating, taking an unfair shortcut to popularity. And fuck, I feel like a pervert.

4- Irregular Frequency: There are thousands of articles saying that to succeed on the Internet, one of the keys is the periodicity. Having a key day you upload your content. In my case I always try to do one or two drawings a week, but do not have a set day (and do not think I could fulfill this mandate because I'm a fucking procrastinator and I always will be).

5- Irregular Theme: I am sure that all my watchers follow me by the ecchi theme that have generally on my gallery (Google analitycs tell me the 90% of my visitors are male between 20 and 30 years old). And that focus on a theme is good, such as ponies, jokes, OCs, futa-furry or anything else; It allows to you easily recognize and identify ... But for me, always draw the same, I get bored.

I'm not a creative soul who needs to express his intense emotions on the canvas is the Internet, but, dammit, look at my gallery: Every so often, I get a picture that is out of my comfort zone. A pic that wants to be more than just a "sexy girl posing". A drawing to play with lighting or to include an effect (but then none meets my expectations T^T). Even occasionally, I do a little manga to tell something. 

I follow many artist that always draws the same theme all the time, and I'm surprised how they not bored to repeat... all time... the same.

If you want names, Ilya Kuvshinov is one of them. He almost the only thing that draws are female faces, with the eyes looking at camera, in a square format. Or Sakimichan, who prefers to make sexy-fanarts on a poster format.

Well, maybe, they have found the formula for success, and prefer to exploit it over and over (at the end of the day this can be a business, and you have to pay bills), but the fact is I admire his ability to not be distracted from their themes, but at the same time, I don't understand how (with they superior art skills) they do not try to go beyond the comfort zone.

REWARDS

Although perhaps the problem is in the rewards ...

1 $ - PNG

• PNG full size + Step by step:  I think this it's a reward that nobody cares. I do not know why. I always thought that would be the most popular. Many artists use this level as a "tip jar". But I wanted to offer something more valuable. I always find useful to know the size in which the authors work, see clearly his strokes and his mistakes to learn from them. Everyone knows that reducing an image size, small errors disappear (I hate to find really small spectacular images).

5 $ - PSD

• PSD layered: I think is useful to know how an artist use the layers. There are artists who share the PSD, but with all the layers fused ... and that is completely useless. You can not learn anything, you need to deconstruct the drawing to learn how it was built. It's like dismantling the TV remote to see what's inside.
• Access to NSFW: I'm not an author who draw NSFW and had never done, but decided to try to do, to see if was any difference. And... woah! there is. I am sure this range is the most popular thanks to NSFW. In fact, anybody choosing the previous level because this reward is more... succulent.

10 $ - Video

• Video: I get the feeling that anybody cares about this reward. I do it because everyone offer and is relatively simple to make. But I don't feel comfortable recording me on video. I drawing very slow and I get nervous thinking that someone will see me drawing. I always want to avoid long/continuous pauses or the heavy Gb videos, so I continually pause the recording when I'm out of my (lovely) cintiq. So I do not know if eliminate this reward.
• Raffle: Free Commission: I think people choose this level to this reward. Everyone likes a free drawing.

So I do not know what to do with the rewards. When I started a year ago, this was the system most popular used by the artists in Patreon (png -> psd -> video) ... but I think it doesn't work for me.

In short, I think the key of my Patreon is the NSFW and Raffle: Free Commission. Maybe I need to lower prices again (1, 3, 7 or so) or I may need to remove the pay wall in the nsfw to attract more people. I don't know.