Patreon Dreams
6 years ago
General
So! You might know I have a Patreon if you've seen me shouting about it here and there. Have a look!
https://www.patreon.com/mahiri
It's not really the biggest success so far, and I think I have a problem. Some people follow it for my vore content, something I'm known for by now I figure. Some people don't even want to see vore content. How can I please both kinds of people without losing pledges?
Ideally, I want to get it up to somewhere around $120 per story, which would allow me to split the money into two different short projects a month. One with vore, one without. And patrons would only be charged for one of them, so they're never paying for content they don't want. The only problem is, I really can't justify working on that much writing for less than that goal amount. A short story is normally $80, and even with the maximum discount it's $64 each.
So, I'm just putting those thoughts out there to see what people think! Should I make it exclusively vore content, in hopes of appealing to those fans? Or should I hold on and try to promote it to my goal so I can do two stories a month? Or give up and just work on commissions only? I really like getting to be able to chose the characters involved for these side stories, and getting to develop canon relationships too. So I don't want to just drop it. But right now it's not quite where I want it to be and I figure it's just not enticing enough! What could really elevate it to something you'd want to support, if you're not already?
https://www.patreon.com/mahiri
It's not really the biggest success so far, and I think I have a problem. Some people follow it for my vore content, something I'm known for by now I figure. Some people don't even want to see vore content. How can I please both kinds of people without losing pledges?
Ideally, I want to get it up to somewhere around $120 per story, which would allow me to split the money into two different short projects a month. One with vore, one without. And patrons would only be charged for one of them, so they're never paying for content they don't want. The only problem is, I really can't justify working on that much writing for less than that goal amount. A short story is normally $80, and even with the maximum discount it's $64 each.
So, I'm just putting those thoughts out there to see what people think! Should I make it exclusively vore content, in hopes of appealing to those fans? Or should I hold on and try to promote it to my goal so I can do two stories a month? Or give up and just work on commissions only? I really like getting to be able to chose the characters involved for these side stories, and getting to develop canon relationships too. So I don't want to just drop it. But right now it's not quite where I want it to be and I figure it's just not enticing enough! What could really elevate it to something you'd want to support, if you're not already?
FA+

1.) Just make whatever YOU want, and people can pledge based on if they want to support YOU. That way, whatever money you get who cares, you're making the stories for yourself anyhow :P
OR (the second option isn't much different)
2.) Take away the requirement to write anything for patreon at all. Maybe some months you will, maybe other months you won't, again people are supporting YOU, not just throwing you money to get something. If they want to do that, then they can get a commission xD
Actually, looking at your patreon you haven't even met your goal where you said you'd write a story every month! Why are you bothering with it yet then? xD (Also up that goal price a bit if you want to make more per personal story) :3
You need to not worry too much about pleasing others with this. That's what the commissions are for, I'd wager that they're your main source of exposure and income. This is what you say it is. A side project, a way for you to build up your own world and your own characters interactions. This is as Mahiri thing, and so Mahiri rules supreme.
What you're saying would be incredibly difficult to do, and I'm not sure you could actually pull it off using the settings Patreon has. It's certainly not something I've ever seen, people only paying for certain submissions. I don't think that's workable or viable.
I understand you want to do this, and I think you should, I really do. I would love to hear about your world and characters and the stories that you can tell in that world, but you're getting hung up on the numbers, instead of treating this as what it should be, supplementary. Again, while I do not know your financials, I would assume Patreon isn't your primary source of income and even if you hit the goal you wanted to, it wouldn't be. From how you phrase it seems it would be the equivalent of just taking on another commission.
I think you should do what YOU want. Write the stories you want to see, with the pairings you want to see happen, and the stories you WANT to tell. Push your Patreon more, shout about it whenever you can, put a link at the bottom of every post, every journal and just keep at it. Aim for one post a month but if you can't hit that, then do every 2 months? Or as often as you can. I'm sure, eventually, you will hit the goals you want to, but that doesn't mean if it takes you a while to hit those goals that you should just give up on it. Hell, I'd argue this'd be good to do even without the Patreon as a break between commissions. Writing nothing but what other people want you to seems like a decent way to start burning yourself out.
My DMs on Telegram are open if you want to talk abut this a little more :3