There is also sponsus.org (which allows nsfw drawn art) and in the future there will also be comradery.co. (no idea on what they plan to allow as of yet)
There are options, all with their ups and downs.
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The problem I have encountered with the first of the month billing is “I have too many other bills coming out on the first,” or “Payday is the 10th and 24th.”
For those people, I suggested setting up their Patreon payments through PayPal then if the 11th is more convenient for them to make their payments, just transfer that money to PayPal on the 11th and let Patreon continute to do its thing on the first.
the other drawback to having payments on their join date is that it totally screws with rewards-based creators. if we send out our rewards once a month at the end of the month, we know that everyone has already paid and everyone will get their rewards at the same time. but what about when you have 100-1000 patrons all at different join dates? do i have to send out 1000 separate dms filled with rewards ?
additionally, how does that work for patrons who pledge to multiple creators? do they have to remember that they’ll get charged on the 2nd, 13th, 22nd, and 27th?
lastly, how does this affect the fees that are added on top of every charge?
when a patron signs up to my page, it says in multiple places that they get charged right away and then again on the 1st of the month. i put it in the thank you note, the pinned post, and in my own reminder posts at the end of the month that they get charged on the 1st and they can delete their pledge if they don’t want to get double charged. it also says it on the payment screen from patreon. if a patron gets upset that they’re charged twice, there’s always the solution to refund them the second payment and then they don’t get the rewards for the new month. but it’s kind of on them for not reading.
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Same! A lot of refunding an unnecessary admin… Just do a rolling 30 or allow creators to adjust the price for those joining on the last week of the month, for example? I have to explain to at least a couple new followers every month that yes, this is how Patreon works etc etc. Every month, honestly ))
Or Patreon simply implements what creators would like to have – it’s literally like 6-7 things, and probably relatively easily developed/implemented and keep us all here. But unfortunately I’m also starting to look at other options. It’s just too unstable and creates more anxiety than necessary (the currency-gate, the glitchy manager page, the billing cycles, the lack of removing a patron without banning them after refunding them the current month, a messy messenger etc etc. – it’s as if literally every aspect is a bit underbaked. for several years now…)
Don’t get me wrong. I love Patron, but it’s getting close to “sorry, but I had enough”.
I strongly agree that there should be an option for people to pay each month on the date that they joined.
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I am just so confused about the payments . One patron (joined first week of November but after the first .) He thought, it would have been cleared by now so I could get thia month but it hasn’t so both of us are wondering if the payout on December 1st will include both November and December
This depends on if you have pay upfront enable or not. If you use pay upfront, yes they should have processed a payment immediately and you may need to instruct them to contact patreon support to see why it didn’t. If you arent using pay up front, then no. They get charged on the next pay day and only for that month. So in this case, they would get charged on dec 1st, for one months charge. (Not 2)
Be mindful that if you decide to change to pay upfront, its permanent and has pros and cons you will need to consider. There are quite a few topics in here that explain more about the potential double charging, how it makes tier limits moot, etc. So be sure to read before switching cuz you cant switch back.
How do change ?
Hey @Nickyo36, this article explains how Charge Up Front works and show you how to enable it on your Patreon. Please know this is a permanent change and cannot be undone!
I have another question so I have 4 patreons two pledged 50 dollars each, 1 pledged 100 and another edited their pledged to 125 so totally is 275 but I am seeing that o my page it’s 4 pledges and total 252 .so my patreon plan is pro. So I am very confused
Glad you asked! The earnings number listed under your profile image on your creator page are only approximations of your monthly earnings. The earnings number will fluctuate throughout the month. While you can use this number as an estimate of your earnings, it will adjust throughout the month.
You can read more about this here:
This is a concern for me as well. Glad to know Patreon has/is considering this however. I’d love to know what the financial impact would be to charge on the anniversary of each month. Specifically how much of a cut that would take from each patron’s pledge.
Throwing my lot in here to say I’m vehemently against anniversary charging as this would not just wreck the way I’ve set up my rewards system around the first of the month, but it would also severely disrupt my workflow around pledge day (which I always set aside to communicate with all the patrons who get declined and help them through that). I cannot possibly envision having to do this on a rolling basis, every single day of the month without having a nervous breakdown.
We were all given a choice between charging upfront and only on the first of the month and we all made that choice consciously. It’s up to the creator to indicate this to his patrons and it should not be on everyone to cover for the lack of communication of a few.
If this does ever become a feature, I would seriously hope on some serious reconaissance around different focus groups using different reward systems and that, if introduced, it’s done so as a third alternative to the systems above instead of a blanket fix for everyone. Patreon is too big and has too much variety in the way of creators and their methods to hamfist this without seriously considering the implications of how it would affect them and their livelihoods.
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I would also prefer it to be optional. The last time they tried to do this, it was a huge failure. It tacked on so many additional fees, and just made a mess of things. If they go this route, they REALLY need to figure this out better.
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Personally, I like the existing system where patrons are charged on 1st of the month!
It’s pretty clear for me as a creator, while suggested system may result in a real mess.
Patrons just must know they will be charged again in the beginning of the next month when they are subscribing in the end of current one.
Moreover, even if they don’t expect this (although they should be aware since Patreon tell them about this), they get whole content that has been released during the current month, so I don’t think it’s something dishonest.
I’m totally against changing the existing system. Or at least make this optional and let creators decide (however I guess double system is not too comfortable for Patreon itself).
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I’m just gonna leave this here for everyone who thinks this is a good idea: Why content crowdfunder Patreon is halting its hated fee change | TechCrunch
It was rightfully rolled back before it was being implemented in December 2018, but I still lost a chunk of patrons / earnings because of it.
Batch processing on the 1st significantly reduces the payment processing fees.
Also this:
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I’ve said it in other places and I’ll say it here: I am also vehemently against anniversary billing. If I was subscribing to a single product like a magazine or something, then sure, that makes sense. But I and many other creators are offering CUSTOM content that needs patron payments processed before you can order a merch item, makes prints or other custom content. This is not something I can wait around all month to get confirmation of as it will put me essentially 1-2 months behind, perpetually, in sending out content.
Monthly billing as it currently is, with everyone charged on the 1st (after initial payments for those who are pay up front) is –essential- to how I run my patreon and the primary part of my business model. Anniversary payments would complicate everything and make Patreon no longer more convenient than just offering commissions, since the workload would then be the same. Currently, it simplifies a LOT of things for me and that’s why I’ve continued to pour my time and effort in patreon.
Monthly billing allows me to see exactly what I need to do for each month right away and I can plan accordingly and fill in the blanks as needed as the month progresses. If anniversary billing was a thing, then I’d be stuck waiting to see who’s payments processes, ALL MONTH, which will make items very late getting done, funded, etc. Currently, I can send out one batch of PM’s when payments decline, one batch of PMs to those who have processed and I need information from them to fulfill their MONTHLY rewards, and I can setup polls at the same time each month for content, request streams, etc.
If patreon forced everyone into anniversary billing, it would lose all functionality for me and no longer be worth it. I highly doubt something like this will be something they will make options for either since it will make payments really complicated but I would be forced to drastically slim down what I offer (or leave entirely) because custom or patron input content will no longer be viable in this format without significant extra work that patreon is supposed to save me (it’s essentially what I’m paying for) not make it more complicated.
If there are folks that are offering single monthly items like bundles/magazines/etc that don’t require custom work or REALLY want anniversary billing because it works for them, I’d really suggest people go make a monthly subscription item on Gumroad as it facilitates that much better and is anniversary billing for the subscribers! (I offer JUST my monthly art packs there, no custom content, because it functions better that way for me. You can even create different tiers on gumroad too. They even allow NSFW content!)
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https://twitter.com/mue_nsfw/status/1352346149903073280
Looks like we’re going down this road again. -_-
Just taking suggestions from the replies of other ways that would be easier to implement and effectively solve this issue for most people:
I was hoping that a change like this would at the very least be opt-in based, like charge up front.
i think a better way to solve this would be to add a checkbox somewhere when the patron is first pledging that indicates whether they want to allow monthly charges or just the one time pledge. then they’d have more control and be less likely to throw more problems at creators
Or a similar checkbox as to whether they want immediate access, despite another charge on the 1st of the next month, or to hold off on the charge until the 1st.
And some valid feedback:
https://twitter.com/rynconnar/status/1352346165279416321
https://twitter.com/_knucklebone/status/1352400076442898433
This is not a good look for “communicating better” 
Why were we not given a heads up on this as a possibility? Why is it that we weren’t given a better opportunity to give feedback before this massive change was going to be pushed through? Even as a test?
Why am I finding this out on TWITTER from SOMEONE ELSE?
Quoting this as a reminder, because I have a feeling, given how Patreon has been run in the past, it’s going to be the exact same thing again. I also lost several patrons because of it, because I had shut down my page. It wasn’t going to be sustainable for me if they continued with this move.
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Because Patreon does not see us as their customers. They see creators as commodity providers who sell to Patreon’s customers, the patrons.
Everything is about Patreon and what they want and what they think is good for them, but if they continue to give creators short shrift, they are going to fail.
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