January 2022 State of the Patreon! (Patreon)

Hi everyone, Happy New Year! Sorry about the delay in getting this together and posted, but I really wanted it done right and as I mentioned a bit earlier I moved over the New Year. It's very hard to concentrate when I both literally and figuratively don't know where my spoons are so I fixated on getting my place into a semi-decent state. The good news is I have made a LOT of progress and I am so excited about what this new space is going to enable :))

Awhile back I asked you all to help me by filling out a survey. I learned some tremendously valuable things!

• Y’all are here for comics!!!! (This is very good because I am also here for comix)
• Many of you really like the behind the scenes/WIP content
• The least popular features were discount codes (because sales cost extra money - relatable!) and vlogs/video, but the other stuff was well liked

This is good: it means that I won’t invest too much of my time into reinventing the wheel and trying to branch out into other forms of media. Instead I will double down on making the best dang comics I can. :)

A really good distribution of people answered:

And most of you feel like you’re getting good value. Great!

I also asked you to describe my work in your own words. This will really help me describe it accurately for others. Here’s a word cloud of the answers:

I described my goals a few weeks back (Plan: Patreon Feedback - Please let me know what you like! | Jam on Patreon) - working on solarpunk comics and tech explainers. 

I think of Patreon as a project accelerator.

 I’ve used funding from this Patreon to hire all sorts of people to help me along the way! Colourists, flatters, editors, admin people to help me with the websites, as well as upgrading the software and services that make the whole process faster. What I make from Patreon I invest BACK into comics, and it opens up avenues for me that I wouldn’t have access to otherwise.

My goal is to make more comics, and to get them out more quickly.  To support that goal, I’d also like to improve my marketing this year and bringing more people in to help with the cause :). I’ve done a bunch of research and it seems like aside from doing a better job at explaining what I’m doing, giving new Patrons fewer tiers to pledge to results in more people being willing to give it a try.

Towards that goal, over the course of the year I’m going to reduce the number of pledge levels available to three:

$2 - Quality Testers

• Page-by-page comics delivered right to your inbox!
• Convenient monthly round-up newsletters so you never miss a thing
• Sneak peeks of comics-in-progress (pencils and inks)
• Access to Patreon-exclusive events like fanart day, ask-jam, bonus comics

$7 - Lab Techs

• Exclusive behind-the-scenes content every month
• Scripts, rough drafts, concept art and development work
• Insight into jam's creative process and the tools they use
• Dropbox archive with year-in-progress content, and a free rotating comic from the archives!
• Plus everything from $2 Quality Testers level!

$25 - Collaborators

• Automatic quarterly shipment of the newest zines, stickers and goodies -- save on shipping!
• Monthly studio vlog update and exclusive Q&A with jam
• Plus everything from $2 and $7 levels! 5 exclusive posts per month!

If you’re pledged at the $1 level, you can stay at the $1 level and get the same content you are getting now. You’ll be “grandfathered in”. The finished pages and special events will still be posted as “all Patron” access. I will also set those posts to go public after a month so new people can get a better idea of what kind of work is available inside.

I also plan to create “mirrors” of the retired “$1 Early Access” tier at Ko-Fi and gumroad. Mostly because I’d like to try out those two sites to see how they work. Nothing will go there that isn’t on Patreon, and Patreon will remain my focus.

Here’s how this transition will work: I’m going to retire tiers one by one. First I will open the new tier, and then a month later close the tier that it is replacing.  When a tier closes you’ll still able to see “all Patron” content! But if you want to get access to content that’s exclusive to a certain level, you will need to opt-in to a new tier. Starting this month, I will also be using the existing tier levels as “preview” for the new tier’s content, so especially if you’re a $10 Patron you’ll have a long time to decide whether you want to opt in to the shipments at $25, or whether you’d like to stick with the same kind of “Lab” content at $7.

So from now on I’ll be posting as if these new tiers are in place, so you’ll get a sense of it, but at a discount:

$2 = Quality Testers 

$5 = Lab Techs preview

$10 = Collaborators preview

And here's the transition schedule:

January: “Preview” posts start! $2 will be renamed from “Sneak Peek” to “Quality Testers”

February: $1 Early Access tier closes - available on KoFi and gumroad

March: $7 “Lab Tech” tier opens

April: $5 Behind the Scenes tier CLOSES.

May: $25 Collaborators tier opens

June: $10 The LAB tier CLOSES

So by June that will all be sorted out and I’ll do a big re-launch for my birthday at the end of June :)

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

This transition will have a lot of steps and it's even a bit confusing to me, so we'll take it slow and go step by step. 

Coming up this year: LAUNCH of Food Zine and Shenzhen Fast to public! On Patreon: Finishing up the Career Zine, finishing up the script for Good Bones and getting into pencils, building a new studio, and more development of my vtuber for fun. 

I've attached a 2021 Patreon Rewind document - all the good stuff that was posted here in 2021 (including every tier so you can get an idea of what gets posted at every level!)

Ok, stay stronk everyone! Let's tackle this new year with GUSTO