BBBen
patreon
I've changed the $1 tier...
🕑 Added 2019-11-07 22:09:55 +0000 UTCSpecifically, I've removed it, but I wanted you to read the article to find that out, because:
Existing $1 patrons don't have to change anything
You can keep the current pledge level if you want to and I'll still give you the same rewards (the weekly updates) that I ever did. I really appreciate your support and loyalty and I don't want to kick you off the tier, or to try and force you to pledge more.
Why am I doing this?
Long story short, when pledges are really small ($1, in particular) a huge percentage of that pledge is taken in transfer fees by the credit card companies or Paypal. I just don't get all that much of the money, compared to the percentage I get even with a $3 pledge.
Basically, when you pledge $1 I only get 30 cents of that, while if it's a $3 pledge, the credit card companies still take a fee, but I keep way more. Those numbers may not be totally accurate, but apparently around 15 patrons at $5 would give me about the same amount of money as 200 patrons at $1!
So the $1 tier is a trap, and your money doesn't go where you want it to. If I'd known about this in advance (Patreon didn't tell me when I started this page!) then I never would have included a $1 tier in the first place.
Is this just so I can push patrons to pay more?
Believe it or not, no. I actually like having a $1 tier as a tip jar and I've resisted removing it even though Patreon and other people in the industry have been advising me to drop it for a while. It really is those damn credit card charges which take most of the money.
It also makes things a little easier for me to manage, with fewer tiers.
I don't need to worry so much about which rewards go where - I can just give almost everything to the $3 tier, except the games themselves, which will go to the $10 tier. That's how things will work going forward.
Please tell me if this bothers you, so I can work something out.
Although you're not losing anything, I still want to keep my patrons happy. (It is still possible to pledge $1 manually, without selecting a tier.)
If you pledge to other Patreon creators you might have seen that a lot of people are doing this at the moment, so maybe this is old news for you, but if you have any further questions drop them in the comments below, or in Discord, where I'll be around to chat about it.
Comments
BBBen
In this case, it's not a change I'm making because of a change on Patreon's end, so much as I'm seeing the writing on the wall. Their fee structure has always been punishing to $1 pledges and when they've tried to change that patrons have left, but campaigns that do away with $1 tiers do better.
Didi & Nok' Tus
Hmm... Is that how it's working now? We thought they'd gone back to the previous model -- which had 80 or more cents going to us from the $1 level. Guess maybe we need to check into that. All we know is that every time they've tried to change their fee structure, we've lost patrons.
BBBen
Actually, they've always had the credit card companies' hands in their pockets. They tried a couple of times to change the payment structure but people assumed that Patreon was scamming them and trying to improve its own profits, so they revolted and Patreon had to back down. Now if you start a NEW campaign they've got a different system that doesn't have as much of an issue with this, but it also comes with higher Patreon fees to offset the problem. I got to keep the old style, which is still better for me, but it kind of means I have to get rid of the $1 tier.
Wild Bill
Wait, what? I thought they'd reversed course on that and gone back to consolidating payments like they used to.
Good to know
