I know the general Patreon advice is to keep rewards mostly intangible, which I have (for the most), but as I reach the higher rewards, I’m feeling the pull of the physical - postcards/prints, commissions, art. My problem is that I’ve started to think in terms of a financial transaction: “If a patron pledges x, then there should be x amount of value in what I reward them with”. Is this wrong? Should visual artists be thinking in terms of being supported to do what they do?
Secondly, if I do offer a physical drawing, how would this work? I feel it should be one-off - I don’t want to be doing them monthly, really, as it stops me doing my thing. But what to charge for a one-off reward?
I offer postcards, prints, calendars and originals at varying levels. I used to do this monthly, but I’ve changed to a once a year thing because of logistics and postage. For my higher rewards like the calendar and originals or commissions, I have a clause where the person needs to have supported for x many months to be eligible so that I can cover my costs and people aren’t going to mess me around by pledging the day before etc. I think the most important thing is to make sure that you are covering not only any international postage but also packaging and your time besides any ‘profit’.
Thanks for this. I can see that’s one way of doing things - limiting when and how often rewards are sent out. I just wanted to make things as simple as possible, and that would seem to require keeping track of a lot of things: how long people have been patrons, when they’ve earned enough - does this ever get disrupted by declines? They are the bugbear of my Patreon life.
I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with just having patronage without feeling a need to give rewards. I don’t think it is good vs. bad, but intrinsic vs. extrinsic, patron vs. customer. Ideally, we’d all have patrons who are in it for the intrinsic reward of supporting artists, but extrinsic motivation sometimes motivates a larger group of people. And sometimes you might want to run a promotion that encourages people with physical rewards and hope they’ll stay for the sake of believing in what you are doing.
That said, I have a few physical rewards. My first one is a yearly exclusive patron button at the $5 level. Someone could pledge $5, get the button, and drop, but I’m hoping the reward makes them have some pride in being a patron so that instead they will pledge $5, get the button, and go to the $1 level. And it’s a one time $5 pledge to get it, the $1 patrons don’t get it after 5 months, if that helps any.
My other physical reward is a yearly bonus for continuing patrons, limited to my first 100 patrons. On my Patreon anniversary I figure out a reward to be mailed based on how much patrons have pledged cumulatively. Last year if they were over $100 in pledges they got two posters and 14 metallic mini-prints. If they were under that amount they got one poster and one metallic mini-print. It was a special for the first year and I probably will give some smaller things this year.
As far as the one-off rewards, I have been planning some of these as well. I’m going to promote it as limited time, limited availability commission reward. I’m waitin’ until I have more social media following before I try something like that though. At the end of the month the reward tier will disappear and anyone in it will be suggested to move to a lower tier to continue their patronage so they will get first shot at commission tiers in the future. As far as pricing, I would look at what some other artists are charging for their commission slots of comparable work. You might also do a poll on your Patreon and make sure it’s public so anyone who is interested can weigh in to see if you have enough interest for it yet.
Well, that’s the nub of it, I think! Your distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is spot on, and I do feel torn between wanting to give patrons extrinsic value (postcards, etc), and wanting just to be enabled to carry on doing my art. The two aren’t mutually exclusive - the postcards will be prints of work I produce for Patreon - but the cost would eat in to money that should be paying for time to produce art. It’s a bit of a vicious circle, but my thinking is that most people are extrinsically motivated, so that might help generate patronage that would in turn eventually allow me to do more art. Perhaps. It’s early days yet - I’ve only a handful of patrons as I’m still building the page back up after relaunching.
I’ve done something like this, which is to offer a ‘loyalty reward’ based on overall pledge milestones - so, a special reward for reaching $50, $100, etc, which I think is nice.
Regarding the one-off reward, I still can’t get my head around it. In terms of extrinsic value, it seems too much - you’d have to set it at a high level just to warrant doing it, but then you wouldn’t expect people to continue pledging at that level for nothing - and you wouldn’t want to be offering monthly physical rewards at that level (at least, I wouldn’t). The limited, disappearing reward option is a good idea, though. I may consider that, though for the moment I think I’ll stick with offering milestones and discounts on commissions.
Thanks again, @Lochy, your comments and insights are very helpful, as always!
You might consider making the postcards a limited time incentive to get people in or an additional reward to unlock as a goal. I did a postcard reward tier and had one person pledge so it was a lot of work and money to print the minimum number just for one person. I had to get rid of that reward. I tried it as a promo and it didn’t work great for me, but that’s not to say it wouldn’t for you. Just suggesting you promote it as a one time deal and see how it goes.
I love doing physical rewards myself. I started doing physical rewards late last year because I was attracting no new Patrons and wanted to try something new as I switched projects, so I started something I later named the $5 sticker club. Basically I send a sheet of stickers or something in that ballpark of value to my $5+ Patrons. People absolutely love it, and I attracted 3 new $5 Patrons this month. The stickers and other products I send out start up conversations, which lead to more people checking out my stuff. Currently most of my Patreon money is going back into rewards, but I’m still turning a profit, and each month I have excess rewards I am able to add to my inventory for selling at conventions for pure profit. That and the more my audience grows, the larger my profit margin is going to be, so I see my current situation as a necessary stepping stone to something really strong and functional. Obviously this isn’t for everyone and I haven’t been doing it long enough to say for sure it’s a great plan, but so far it seems to be working pretty well for me.
Hi Chris. Yes, I agree that a physical reward - such as stickers, postcards, prints, etc - may draw in supporters, especially if it’s reasonably priced. My worry is that this will do little more than pay for itself. I can see you may make a small profit, and can sell on at conventions, or whatever, but the cost would seem to eat away at what the money is for: to enable you to continue to do what you’re doing. Maybe if you could price it right, and there were enough patrons, then eventually there would be economies of scale for bulk printing of physical rewards.
I think at the bottom of this problem is my continuing struggle with how Patreon works: people pay you to do whatever it is you do. I still feel drawn to physical rewards because it feels like patrons need something of value in return and - in the current mindset of most people - digital things aren’t as valuable because you can get them mostly for free (or should that be ‘free’?).
Anyway, I’m rambling now. Food for thought - thank you.
I mean, Patreon works however you want to make it work. I don’t look at the money eaten by paying for physical rewards to be lost, because most of my Patrons signed up specifically because I was offering those rewards. I see the average $2.50 I’m spending on each $5 patron a necessary step in getting that other $2.50 I’m getting from them. And not every tier needs to just barely turn a profit. My tiers above $5 are not even attempting to meet the value of the donations. They’re just there for those who want to support me, for the most part. I mean sure, not every artist is equipped to do things this way, but it’s definitely a path worth considering.
Good points. My only worry is that everyone will opt for that tier rather than the ‘just support me’ ones, which sort of undermines everything. But I’m focusing on the negative. Thanks, Chris.
My highest level ($30) gets a monthly handmade postcard, which works well for me, since I host monthly postcard swaps on one of my sites. All my other rewards are digital: names in the footer of some of my sites; discount codes good for my shop; digital collage sheets and line work sheets. It takes me a few hours a month to deal with rewards, and I really try to pull from the work I’m already doing—so, most months, the line work or coloring sheets come from the sketches for whatever paintings I’ve done the previous month.
I’ve reworked rewards several times since joining Patreon three years ago. I always ask patrons if what I’m doing is OK, and each time, I get the same answers: we don’t care about the rewards.
That’s interesting. I guess there are two types of patron: the value-for-money type, and the support-your-endeavours-whatever type. It would be interesting to see which predominate with creators with lots of support - those who give away their main product for free (like Zach Weinersmith or CGP Grey - that level - though I don’t know if they offer physical rewards).
All this is really a lesson in economic theory, I suppose - how people make decisions about value and reward. However, I think I’m starting to get my head around it. Offering physical rewards for those who want that is an option, but the main focus should be supporting/taking part in the free distribution of art/whatever.
Now, the question is, should physical rewards be low pledge/low profit incentives, simply to get people involved (as, I think, @chrisjeffery suggests), or higher pledge rewards that seem targeted to those who are already there just to support you, but might like a little extra something just to get something special (as you seem to be suggesting, @lisavollrath). At the moment, I’m somewhere in the middle. Most of my reward levels are digital/non-physical, while I have one $15 level that includes a postcard. For me, also, postcards could be used for other purposes - to sell, or as promotional material for my illustration work, so I think it’s something I’ll do anyway. But I’m just trying to work out which approach will expand my support base more whilst being viable in terms of time and money.
I have 13 supporters now, and brings in the magic $100+ a month. Two people are in it for the rewards, the other believe in what I am doing. But what’s cool is how excited they get when I give them their physical reward. I keep the physical to UK only, but the physical adds up. I do all sorts of art, but am trying to really build up my print making. I had started in January with wanting to do videos as well, but the video editing is stupid eater of the most precious resource of all: time. The beauty of the print making is they get a digital copy, various quality depending on the level they support at. But they can save up their patronage and then say which real world print they want at $30. THese people have also become my street team and are promoting my work on facebook for me. Win win…
I decided to send physical rewards to the higher tiers, but only for Christmas! A very exclusive present, done only for them. For instance, last year I sent them a hand made puppy of one of my characters, and this year they will have a board game based on my most popular series “Atlas & Axis”.
I only go to the post office once a year, but I send my patrons stuff that nobody else will ever have. I hope this helps them decide to support me at least until next Christmas!
Hi Bronwen, what do you use to produce your calendars? Do you have them shipped to you and mail them out, or do you use one of those redbubble type places?
I have my calendars done through vista print because they print locally here in Japan. All postage is international for me and factored into the tiers so I send it out by hand. Just FYI, I moved from a tier-based rewards system to a lifetime contribution rewards about a year ago. This way everyone gets the same reward once they hit a certain benchmark - some just quicker than others.
I haven’t made many new patrons since the change but the ones I do have are very happy with it! It also makes it much easier to handle the logistics on my side.
