Maintain or drop the price...

Mwpensword

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So I currently have a couple chapters available in early release only for $5/month patrons and up. Would it be better to make these available to all paying patrons since I dont have much advanced content yet? Do you think that would increase the number of patrons? Would it decrease likelihood of larger donation?
 

Saileri

Your Friendly Neighborhood IT Guy
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Lowering the price will naturally increase a bit the number of people that might consider getting access. Although, you should set the Tiers according to how much they potentially give and how much work/time/effort you have to spend to fulfill the promised rewards.

If you are writing a lot of shorter chapters with quite fast releases, then lower prices of Tiers is a decent strategy.

I'll use myself as an example here, but have in mind I do weekly releases, so change things accordingly. On my Patreon I offer 3 Tiers that focus on advanced chapters - 1$ for 1, 5$ for 4 and 10$ for all. There are further ones, but for extra things. At first, my Tiers gave 1 and 3 chapters but were still priced the same. Since the beginning, I plan to reach 2 and 5 chapters per pledge respectively at some point. Changing the pledge description is better than changing the pledge price mid-writing. As I slowly gather more advanced chapters I'll at some point reach the threshold I planned.

As for someone who would post more often, Tiers like 1-3-5$ would fit decently, and the number of chapters given should be calculated by yourself, having in mind how many are you able to comfortably write. I usually finish 2-3 chapters a week if I have enough spare time, but 1-2 with the usual amount of time. Thus I started with lower numbers of chapters per pledge until I reach a healthy amount of advanced ones, in case I slow down my writing due to some circumstances, like starting another Uni term in 2 months.

Also, going down instead of up with prices works much better. Even if you overshoot you can easily back down without hurting your present patrons. Going up might naturally cause some distress. But it's of course not something that shouldn't be considered. Just never forget speaking to them first.

I've seen a lot of authors who post frequently, daily or every other, with Tiers like 1$ for a few and 3-5$ for whole access. And this will naturally work with the amount of content they are putting out. Faster chapters, more exposition, more potential supporters, so the price can be lower. I'll leave the link to mine here, just in case u want to take a peek. Plz no hate, dis no self promotion.
 
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Mwpensword

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Jul 20, 2020
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Lowering the price will naturally increase a bit the number of people that might consider getting access. Although, you should set the Tiers according to how much they potentially give and how much work/time/effort you have to spend to fulfill the promised rewards.

If you are writing a lot of shorter chapters with quite fast releases, then lower prices of Tiers is a decent strategy.

I'll use myself as an example here, but have in mind I do weekly releases, so change things accordingly. On my Patreon I offer 3 Tiers that focus on advanced chapters - 1$ for 1, 5$ for 4 and 10$ for all. There are further ones, but for extra things. At first, my Tiers gave 1 and 3 chapters but were still priced the same. Since the beginning, I plan to reach 2 and 5 chapters per pledge respectively at some point. Changing the pledge description is better than changing the pledge price mid-writing. As I slowly gather more advanced chapters I'll at some point reach the threshold I planned.

As for someone who would post more often, Tiers like 1-3-5$ would fit decently, and the number of chapters given should be calculated by yourself, having in mind how many are you able to comfortably write. I usually finish 2-3 chapters a week if I have enough spare time, but 1-2 with the usual amount of time. Thus I started with lower numbers of chapters per pledge until I reach a healthy amount of advanced ones, in case I slow down my writing due to some circumstances, like starting another Uni term in 2 months.

Also, going down instead of up with prices works much better. Even if you overshoot you can easily back down without hurting your present patrons. Going up might naturally cause some distress. But it's of course not something that shouldn't be considered. Just never forget speaking to them first.

I've seen a lot of authors who post frequently, daily or every other, with Tiers like 1$ for a few and 3-5$ for whole access. And this will naturally work with the amount of content they are putting out. Faster chapters, more exposition, more potential supporters, so the price can be lower. I'll leave the link to mine here, just in case u want to take a peek. Plz no hate, dis no self promotion.
To be honest I've already peeked at your patreon before. I get curious as to how successful each person is and so checking their patreon is a way to measure that objectively. My chapters are pretty short and I only have 2 advanced chapters at all right now. I have 2 patrons that can access them but I'm thinking that maybe until I have more I should drop the price to everything for $1 instead of trying to enforce a gap at this point. Still just getting started really.
 

Saileri

Your Friendly Neighborhood IT Guy
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May 6, 2020
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It is your decision. I did as I wrote. I'm increasing the number of chappies per pledge as I go until I reach a satisfactory level, to me at least. But well, I started publishing after I wrote 7 chapters, just so I already have some spare ones in case something happens and my time disappears. If you drop now and then increase it later, possibly having a few more new patrons at that point, you will have to (or at least that would be a polite thing to do) inform them about the change, and some might not like it.

I'd stress out that I'll be increasing the chapters per pledge with time. You are just starting so it's normal to not have a lot. Mention it in the Patreon bio and perhaps even in the pledge. Mention it in the custom messages your new patrons get (if you set them up, if not it would be a nice idea to check them out).
 

vanta_luxe

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Mine is set to 5$ a month, with a goal to write 10 chapters a week, alternating fictions.

I think really it's just what works for you.
 

yansusustories

Matchmaker of Handsome Men
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I think this depends on what you want to achieve and what's your philosophy behind it.
Personally, all my tiers (link in case you wanna check for amounts and benefits; more info is in the introduction to the site) give the exact same benefits. That is because to me, Patreon is less about buying (where I would assign an exact price) but about supporting. The people becoming my patrons like what I do and want to help me do more of that stuff. So they support me with what they are comfortable giving or able to give. Depending on which situation they're in, that might be a smaller amount in comparison (but a huge amount to them nonetheless) or a bigger amount.
I am thankful for both of that because I know how hard it can be if you're in dire straits financially and really need to choose what you do with the money you have. I'm just thankful that people like my stories enough to make the decision to want to support me so I wouldn't feel comfortable giving out different benefits. After all, to me, every single dollar is a bit more time I can spend writing. Sure, a higher amount means even more time but I just want to show my patrons that even those small amounts are very highly valued by me and I feel like having the same benefits for everyone is the best way I can do this. I don't know, this makes it feel less business-like and more friendly and like a community to me, I guess?

Honestly though, this is just my personal take which is very much motivated by my own experiences. Not trying to say it's the right way or anything. It might even be a little strange :blob_sweat:
But, in anyway, I feel like there's generally no right or wrong in this case. If you want to maintain the price, you can do that and no one can say it's wrong but if you feel like lowering it will make you feel better, then you should go for that. Only you can decide that.
 
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Mwpensword

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 20, 2020
Messages
44
Points
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I think this depends on what you want to achieve and what's your philosophy behind it.
Personally, all my tiers (link in case you wanna check for amounts and benefits; more info is in the introduction to the site) give the exact same benefits. That is because to me, Patreon is less about buying (where I would assign an exact price) but about supporting. The people becoming my patrons like what I do and want to help me do more of that stuff. So they support me with what they are comfortable giving or able to give. Depending on which situation they're in, that might be a smaller amount in comparison (but a huge amount to them nonetheless) or a bigger amount.
I am thankful for both of that because I know how hard it can be if you're in dire straits financially and really need to choose what you do with the money you have. I'm just thankful that people like my stories enough to make the decision to want to support me so I wouldn't feel comfortable giving out different benefits. After all, to me, every single dollar is a bit more time I can spend writing. Sure, a higher amount means even more time but I just want to show my patrons that even those small amounts are very highly valued by me and I feel like having the same benefits for everyone is the best way I can do this. I don't know, this makes it feel less business-like and more friendly and like a community to me, I guess?

Honestly though, this is just my personal take which is very much motivated by my own experiences. Not trying to say it's the right way or anything. It might even be a little strange :blob_sweat:
But, in anyway, I feel like there's generally no right or wrong in this case. If you want to maintain the price, you can do that and no one can say it's wrong but if you feel like lowering it will make you feel better, then you should go for that. Only you can decide that.
Really like your philosophy on this.
 
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