Patreon Survey Results & Discussion

I recently posted a survey in hopes that I could dig up some useful information to help me in my attempt to create the content you want, how you want it, and so on. 136 people filled out the survey, which is close to half of all of my Patrons, which is pretty great! Let's take a look, shall we?

(Also, I posted the analysis of my broader Tumblr survey here, if you're interested!)

This falls in line with the data from Tumblr as well, and is more of an attempt at giving context to things. I do find it interesting that the 3-6 month period was the biggest boom in new Patrons. I was really busting my buns during that period, so that might have a lot to do with it. Also there was a ton of Guzma during that period, which makes some of the other data I've found make a bit more sense as well.

It interests me that a respectable portion of discovery came from YouTube and that those people became Patrons. Discovery through established characters and fandoms is nearly 50% and that's not much of a surprise, that's how I built my blog to work after all.

Guzma leading by such a wide margin is still a shock to me. Reflecting on how scared I was to take a swing at his voice and what kind of role his character has played in my growth really puts into perspective how important it is to like...try things, despite your own doubts. I think what might bum some people out is that Yuuri is sitting in the 10% range, though I'm willing to bet lots of people like Yuuri just fine, but he's not as big of a fave or falls into the "can't pick a favorite" camp. 

Not a lot to take away from here other than the whole "bring people in with established characters and they'll also listen to my original work" thing is a viable strategy. This makes me really hopeful about my plans for the future.

I'll be working on coming up with that system very soon! Utilizing submitted ideas and scripts will likely become an integral part of what we do with voting and whatnot in the future. More on that later in the post.

Exciting times! I've gotta round up my ideas and get some artwork done and whatnot, but this'll be a thing before too long. Perhaps I'll pick a few faves of mine and put it up to a vote to test out one of the boys and see how everyone likes him.

This is where we start getting to the meat of the Patreon specific questions. 50% for Patron input is a huge number, and thankfully that's a really simple thing to start doing. Most of you are aware that a lot of what I do is commissioned work that is graciously shared by the commissioners on the blog, but I want to start doing non-commissioned stuff to allow for more input from Patrons. This doesn't just mean the exclusive audios either, I want to get everyone involved in all sorts of ways. If I start collecting submissions of scripts and ideas, I can start putting those up to a vote. I can start determining the content of the exclusives based on voting as well.

Where we run into a problem there is that Patrons are all paying for a thing, and if a majority keeps winning out, those equal footing patrons are getting the short end of the stick. So I would have to balance it. Like, Guzma couldn't win every vote every month, so I'd offset it by rotating options (if one character wins, they'll be sidelined for a month or whatever) and just trying to keep things enjoyable for those who might not fall into that camp. Last time we did a vote for example, Sidon and Guzma were tied and shifting back and forth for days. So we'll try and work around situations like that as best we can.

Personal access? I can do that. I wanna start doing monthly Patreon Q&A's, maybe share some stuff on the technical end, or about my writing. Just activity in general, without blowing up your inboxes. 

More exclusive audios, now that's the tricky part. I feel like three exclusives is a pretty solid number, considering I really really really don't want to put a ton of my content behind a paywall. So my compromise I offer up is: make the exclusives more exciting, incorporate Patron input, etc. 

We'll touch on how to incorporate the voting and whatnot shortly.

This one is tricky. Obviously, low tier custom audios are really cool...but...there are 100+ lower tier Patrons. Even if we were talking individual thank you audio messages, that would be a huge task that would likely overwhelm me. Not that I wouldn't love to do stuff like that, I just know my limits. 

So, a compromise might be doing some sort of "Shorts" series where I do some fun lines or try out some different voices and just have fun. It would be an exclusive thing at a low tier. 

The monthly Q&A will absolutely become a thing as well, that's easy for me to do and I'd be happy to do it!

Those would take priority over something like Discord integration.

What this tells me is that as it stands, the lower tiers are in really good shape. I have wondered if I made the wrong move not leaving the $1 tier as a sort of "tip jar" then have the archive at $3, but with Tumblr as shaky as it is for browsing and listening to my work, I think keeping it at the first tier is key. 

Early access is a winner in itself, but it's the one thing that I feel like I could bump up or down to make room for something new or different. That would likely involve stuff like my OC content, audios that have been voted on, etc.

Got it, they're a key factor and won't be going anywhere!

The takeaway from this is that I'm at the sweet spot with three exclusives, and getting Patron input on those would make them a lot more special and exciting. So that's what I'll be trying to do rather than condensing them in favor of a bigger audio.

This is where I'm a bit stumped and really want to hear everyone's thoughts on this. I've gotta give a lot of thought to how I want to structure the tiers with a mind for incorporating voting. When I wrote this I was thinking maybe one audio would be voted on, but now I'm thinking all three exclusives should be voted on. It's clear that 10 dollar voting 5 dollar resulting audio is a big favorite. 

I'll discuss what tier changes I'm thinking at the end of this post and get your thoughts on it!

The SFW audio isn't going anywhere, then.

I'm really bad a keeping track of files and stuff, so I can't guarantee that I'll ever be able to do scripts included with EVERY audio. However, I do want to integrate scripts AND writing in general with my original characters. Also, if I take scripts that are submitted, it wouldn't be too much of a bother to include them with the audio. Really this is a matter of me just doing the damn thing, but I know I'm gonna struggle with consistency. My hope is that as I start to streamline my whole process this won't be a bother at all and it'll be super easy to include the scripts. 

Like, you have to understand how my brain works. I keep things in one massive text file and just work and edit and delete it from there, rather than individual files because I would absolutely lose track of things or forget to save something or somehow someway screw it up. So things are far from neat and orderly. It's actually a huge clusterf@ck. 

If the interest in Discord integration had been higher, I probably would give this more thought. I think doing a "Send in your questions!" post each month then a pre-recorded Q&A audio is the way to go for now. If Patreon integrates their own live streaming for Patrons, perhaps we could look into that in the future.

A self indulgent question. One day when I get this whole audio thing figured out and running like clockwork, I'd like to get into streaming regularly and have Twitch be a side thing. I've said this a bunch and what I've come to realize is Patreon, my voiceover stuff, that's such a huge priority that right now I can't make a ton of room for much else. I've never been good at maintaining balance, and I don't want screw things up by getting my priorities out of order. If you have stopped by the channel, watched a stream, hung out, I appreciate it! If that's not your thing, that's cool too. 

So...where does this leave us?

I think what we're looking at is a need for some change in my tiers to incorporate more input and direction from Patrons. My proposed additions would look something like...

$1 - Archive & Update
$3 - SFW Audio
$5 - Voting on SFW Audio, Early Access
$10 - NSFW Audio, Monthly Q&A
$15 - Voting on NSFW Audio
$20 - NSFW Audio #2
$30 - Direct suggestions & brainstorming for NSFW Audio #2
$50 - 3 Minute audio commission

The only added tier would be $15. I feel like moving an audio to the $5 tier and adding voting to $10 would potentially screw up some of the balance I've got going on. The progression through the tiers feels good to me, but perhaps there's a better way I could do this and I'm just not thinking outside of the box. Admittedly, I'm scared to change things.

The 30 dollar tier has been dead in the water for a while now because I had this idea for a thing and it never panned out and there was never really any value at that tier outside of "you get to support me better". Now it'll become REALLY cool because I'll do a monthly post where me and the people in that tier (and higher) will brainstorm the NSFW Audio #2 each month and make it a group effort. 

As always, I'm open to suggestions and will answer any questions you might have. Not just for the tiers, but for everything we've discussed here in the survey. Thank you for your participation!