Hello! This question will probably be quickly answered by patreon admins or a creator who’s had access to this beta feature for longer than I have.
I just got access to annual memberships and immediately turned it on. I also immediately saw a big bump in folks switching over to annual memberships from monthly, with a few new folks pledging annually as well. The patreon dashboard is showing my income earnings with a significant boost this month (which I know includes those annual payments), and my page is also showing that I’ve hit my next target goal and well surpassed it. But did I really meet my monthly goal?
For example (hypothetically, not real numbers): My goal is “when I hit $1000 per month I’ll start an audio podcast”, and before annual memberships were available, my monthly income was sitting at around $500, but several large contributors switched to annual in August making the income show that I’m earning $1500 this month, and my page is showing that I surpassed that $1000 goal. But did I really surpass that goal if, in essence, you divide the annuals by 12 months and I’ve only seen an increase of $80 per month so I’m actually making $580 per month? Does it just mean I’ve surpassed the goal for August, but I didn’t surpass the goal next month (unless I continue to see a big whoppin’ increase in pledges in September too)? Because my normal growth pattern wouldn’t show a $1000 increase in pledges next month too.
My question is: At the start of next month, will this income earning report reflect a decline back to my normal growth pattern per month given everyone signed up all of a sudden for the annual membership in August? And will it show that, even though I’m currently past my goal, it’ll drop below the goal again? Since this bump is due to lots of monthly patrons choosing to switch to annual, I worry that my goal hasn’t actually been surpassed, and it’s just showing I’ve passed this goal due to everyone switching to annual all of a sudden. I don’t want to post and say “yay! We’ve hit this goal!” if next month I have to be like “Ha! Just kidding!” if it drops below the goal.
I’m assuming I’m correct in how I’m reading the data, but want to be sure. And if this assumption is correct, wouldn’t it be wise to make the goal more accurately reflect MONTHLY pledges by dividing the annual pledge by month and showing that data as a part of the goal instead of lumping it all together? If my patrons think I have hit my goal but it’s just because everyone’s paying for annual memberships in August, then I can’t really start an audio podcast logistically this month if next month I haven’t hit that audio podcast goal and can’t pay for the RSS feed / guests.
I’m fine with getting a nice bonus in my checking account this month, but I don’t want for the goal on my page to show we’ve hit a target if monthly, I’m not actually anywhere near that goal.
I hope that makes sense. I’m trying to explain it as best I can but I’m confused by what I’m seeing on the page.
