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I just had a Patreon supporter sign up at a $25 level last month, so I sent them a welcome package, the package was received two days ago, and they just updated their pledge to $2. They live overseas so the cost of shipping the welcome package was $13 + the price of product.
So after taking the advice of several people with much larger channels / Patreon pages than I, I’m removing physical rewards. Sucks but the cost to ship rewards is just too expensive. That basically closed the deal, though I’ve been thinking about it for a while.
Take into account, as a solo creator: how much does it cost to purchase the physical items, stamps, packaging materials, gas to go to the post office, + time / labor involved to create said product, to pack, to ship, and to manage.
Graphics and products don’t make themselves. I try to do new ones every year and each one takes time to design, price out, and set up on a product site. It’s an investment of time, mostly.
I’ll be shipping out annual rewards and the rest of the welcome packages for Patreon as promised, but that’s gonna be removed in the future. Sucks but that was kinda the nail in the coffin. I hate having to take something away.
There were two moments of consideration: the first was when I started producing more content on my channel and saw my YouTube channel analytics react positively to that, showing me if I focus on creative content, I’m directly seeing positive results.
(And yes, while ad rev is up, it’s still very minimal, I’m talking about watch time, view counts, subs, and engagement - all of those have increased)
The second was when a mentor said to me ‘if you focus too much time on fulfilling a reward, you’re limiting your ability to give your Patrons what they originally wanted to support you for - your content’
Saw a couple of common replies so I’m answering them in thread. Maybe he lost his job? Yeah, maybe. I too have seen a loss of income this year due to the pandemic (pattern exit surveys). So I have to weigh the circumstances & cut my costs as well. Hence removing physical rewards.
*patreon exit surveys.
And w/ one of my patreon creator accounts, I do wait an entire year to ship rewards. But even so, weighing the investment of time involved to design, plan, order, pack, organize, and ship when I should be making content instead...
And w/ one of my patreon creator accounts, I do wait an entire year to ship rewards. But even so, weighing the investment of time involved to design, plan, order, pack, organize, and ship when I should be making content instead...
We hired a Customer Service manager for Hak5 when it got to the point where I couldn’t run the shop warehouse and focus creatively on shows anymore. I can’t hire anyone... yet! So I’m choosing to focus on the thing that motivates and drives my passions the most.
And packing boxes ain’t that thing y’all.
