Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Patreon Fever Dreams

Fast Paraguayan Fun Fact: beware of any medication (prescription or otherwise) that you buy in this country, as they tend to "double up" on normal FDA style dosages. As it is, I took a half dose of their Sudafed type drug, and almost immediately started to experience a host of sweaty, feverish side effects plus increased heart-rate shortness of breath, etc. The last couple days have been rough, considering this has just been a head cold, and not my annual October bout with bronchitis.

ANYway, perhaps due to the medically induced fever, I've been giving serious thought to doing the Patreon thang, and monetizing the blog...something I've never really considered in the past. I never wanted to stuff this blog with advertisements, and I was never so hard up as to throw a "Donate" button on the blog...I always figured that people who wanted to support my "work" (such as it is) would simply buy the publications that I occasionally put up for sale. And folks have...and that's awesome.

But ya' know what? The last couple-three years with the birth of my children, it's been mui difficile to find the time to blog, write, work full time, AND take care of my family responsibilities. Being down in Paraguay (and thus NOT working full-time) has allowed me a little more free time to blog/write (at least, once I got the older child into half-day daycare), but it's tough to justify the time I spend when it's mostly for fun. We all need hobbies (and creative outlets) but part of being an adult is making sure  those are properly prioritized with one's other duties.

So...Patreon. For those who don't know about it, it's an on-line method of old school patronage...you pledge support for artist/creators, and then pay them something when they actually make something (like a blog post). It's a cool idea; several of the bloggers I follow are using Patreon (not necessarily for their blogs...Tim Shorts for example has a Patreon page for his micro-adventures). The more people that pledge a creator, the more money the creator receives for his/her work, the more incentive to create work. People can also pledge support at different levels, often with "special bonus incentives." Game designer and artist Anna Kreider gives free advance PDF copies of all games and publications she writes to patrons of the $20 level.

But $20 per blog post is a little steep for my bank account. For my own hack level of writing, I was thinking something like a nickel. I mean, if I had a nickel for every blog post I've written I'd have...um...close to $75. On the other hand, if I had a nickel for every page view, I'd have more than $38,000. That's a lot of nickels.

Anyway, it's just something I'm considering. It would mean a lot of futzing around learning new web sites and rigging things up with the blog...which I hate to do. Even if I do decide to get on-board with Patreon, people don't have to pledge anything...you can read the blog just like normal. And, no, I wouldn't be charging my patrons for little, cheap-o posts like yesterday's "I'm sick" announcement.

[Patreon also allows you to set a maximum monthly amount you want to pay if you're worried about prolific creators]

Okay, that's enough of that. I'm still sick, but I'm getting better (I even ate some food this morning). Yak at you later.
Coming soon?

8 comments:

  1. I've been kicking around the "Patreon Thang," too.

    I don't know if I've got the quality of material to justify it. But I would like some monetary support for my blogging.

    In any case, I hope you get well soon.

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    1. @ Stella:

      Thanks, and yeah I know how you feel. Getting paid to write blog posts has always seemed...um...not all that cool to me in the past, though there are some blogs that actually contribute a shit-load of good stuff, and I'm not sure I really fall into that category.

      Delete
  2. I'd be afraid that monetizing a hobby -- or in this case blogging -- would suck out the fun. Though it looks like "Dyson" figured out a decent balance (only certain posts trigger Patreon donations -- the ones with maps I guess).

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    1. @ Mike:

      It was just a passing (feverish) thought. There's still idea that I haven't yet "paid my OSR dues" by releasing a free game, so maybe I should do THAT before asking folks to patronize my blog.

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  3. I slapped up some ads, people can mostly ignore them if they want.

    Re drugs in other countries: there's a chance the Sudafed you took was the actual medication and not the weak fake medication thats been on the shelves for years in thr U.S. to thwart the low level meth cookers.

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    1. @ JD:

      As a guy who's very hesitant to even take Tylenol, my system may have simply been especially susceptible. But yeah, everything here seems pretty hardcore.

      Delete
  4. Give it a go JB. You just have to figure out what you're comfortable with. I threw it up there to help cover some of the costs of my zine and to grab a gaming book or two and two help me support other gamers. All my stuff is up for anyone to download. What I do for my backers is send them a surprise in the mail, a micro adventure that's printed on a laminated note card. It has helped me a lot with covering costs and people seem to like it so far.

    Give it a go JB. Just have fun with it.

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    Replies
    1. @ Tim:

      Now, you and I both know that most income I Make off this stuff just gets pumped right back into the gaming community...you just want me as a new patron to your zines, don't you Tim?

      Never trust a Steelers fan.

      Actually I'm a bit surprised the Whisk has anted up to Patreon for all her clever culinary creations.
      : )

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