I feel the same about post types! I’d like to show how many comic posts there are on mine. Or maybe have the numbers be by tag. 12 Bonus Comics, 56 WIP etc
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One issue for me regarding showing the numbers of items that would be unlocked immediately is that the bulk of my posts are short videos - so far over 500 - which are available to the lowest tier. But since there was ongoing issue with patrons pledging, accessing and downloading dozens of videos for their own use and then deleting their pledge, I implemented a practice of changing the YouTube privacy settings from ‘unlisted’ to ‘private’ after about a month. This is noted to all patrons on every video post so no surprises, but a new person may expect access to a few hundred videos and only be able to see about 20.
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If this is based on post types then it wouldn’t accurately reflect my content at all. I post all my images inside text posts because of the image compression issues which, last I checked, still weren’t resolved. I also prefer to present my images so that people can scroll through them vertically instead of clicking on the gallery pics.
Instead of listing post types I would much more prefer using featured tags for this purpose. Also potential patrons already know they’ll be getting images, so it would be a lot more valuable if it said “you’ll get x number of comic posts, x number of sketches/wips, x number of zine downloads” etc something more specific along those lines.
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I agree with this idea. Featured tags could get a lot more love here.
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Hmm, what about those of us who offer patron content but it’s mostly pretty small stuff, as our patrons tell us repeatedly that the main reason they are pledging is to support our podcast (which is free to everyone)? This new format would be a bit odd for creators like ourselves.
Also, how will this new format handle the fact that patrons at different levels unlock different things? You have to become a patron at our highest ($20/episode) level to unlock some of the rewards, for example. That might seem a little misleading to those who plan to pledge at the $1 level.
Also, it doesn’t seem to be doing a great job of figuring out what kind of content there is to be unlocked, just checking our 2 campaigns to see how it’s showing up. So it’s saying there are things to be unlocked that aren’t there, and mis-categorizing other things . . .
(Editing this reply to say that it is actually BADLY mis-characterizing what kinds of posts there are. I can imagine some unhappy patrons if they sign up expecting what is listed there . . . )
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This! Most of my posts are image/gallery posts, but being able to see an overview of what those posts actually are by using featured tags would be great. That would also give us greater control over what gets shown there.
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Is there a way to turn this feature off? It’s inaccurate and misleading. I have posted hundreds of images.
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This new panel would be much improved if there was an ability to pick out a handful of post counts that are relevant to us, from a pool of both post types and tags. So, perhaps I could pick:
- 9 Audio releases
- 3 Livestreams
- 20 Art packs <- Custom tag
- 10 Wallpapers <- Custom tag
It might be sensible to allow a person to rename a tag in this interface to get the pluralisation right. So you’re mapping a custom label to a live-updating count of a certain tag.
Complex I know! But unfortunately a lot of this marketing stuff doesn’t really work in universal ways…
Also, I’m sad to lose the icons in the first version! I think the text only version is easier to gloss over. Could you badge these images like an iOS notification badge? Something like that?
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Hi all! Thank you for the feedback. Our Data Science team has completed the analysis of this test and what we have found is that though conversion rate did not change when we showed the card that summarize the locked content, it did help with retention. In other words, there was no change in the number of new patrons, but there was a significant change in the new patrons that subsequently maintained their pledge in the version of the card that actually shows the stats. We believe this is because seeing the numbers sets expectations with patrons around how much content there is to consume, and therefore motivates them to stay on for longer to consume that content. This corroborates our qualitative research talking with fans and patrons about expectations from their membership.
The version of the card with the stats for each media type is now live for everyone, though we’ll continue to make improvements, so your feedback is still absolutely welcome.
What do we do if what you are showing is badly mischaracterizing the types of posts?? That is likely to only confuse potential patrons.
Happy to take a look if you can provide more detail.
For example, how do you decide what’s an update? For my husband’s campaign (https://www.patreon.com/gregross) he doesn’t actually post any updates. He doesn’t create any videos or audio content for that campaign either, though he sometimes includes other people’s. It might be misleading though to call them videos and have people expect that he has created his own videos. You also have that he has 644 images, but those are generally incidental to his posts (they are just to illustrate the content, and again, are not images that he creates). He would not characterize his posts with any of the words that you are actually using.
Similarly with our podcast campaign (https://www.patreon.com/futilitycloset). I don’t know how you have decided which posts are “updates” or not, and the categories of types of content you’re using are mostly just kind of off, not what people would be expecting. The only one that actually makes sense for that campaign is audio.
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If you are going to show just 3 tiers, why not let creators choose which tiers to highlight? It seems obvious that showing the cheapest 3 tiers encourages patrons to join at those levels. I think many creators would prefer to show one low tier, one mid-tier, and one high tier - for example, $5, $20, $100.
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Many of us promote our pages using unlocked public posts that we then share on social media. However, when non-patrons click on this material, they see the post but have to really dig around to locate the page or figure out how to join. This is such a ridiculously huge missed opportunity. There should be an easy way to convert people who land on these posts. They’ve just become warm leads, and the platform currently delivers a dead end!
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Hi, I replied to this 2 weeks ago but never received a response.
Thanks.
Hi @FutilityCloset, those are both great points. We’re pushing a change shortly that labels text posts as “Writings” rather than “Updates.” One thing that I’ll note is that the test was originally designed to get a sense of the impact of showing a summary of the value of membership. We believe that in the long term the best way to represent value is by focusing on the benefit type, rather than the post type. Given that this particular test showed such positive results we have rolled it out, while we work on an alternative that will better represent your membership. Hope this helps. Ursula
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Yes I have to agree @Spottyjaguar that for me I like the old layout where people see the about section first. I wish there was a way of us being able to choose a ‘template’ of sorts since all our pages are so different. This would be the best of both worlds. I also don’t like how not all the tiers show, especially as the higher tiers for me are so important. OR we could choose which tiers show up in the main page. It seems very odd to me the way it has been changed.
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You may have noticed recently that we introduce a new footer to the landing pages (see screenshot below). This new footer does a better job of explaining what Patreon is, and how it works. This was done in response to many creators today adding all that information in their About section. Unfortunately, our research has shown that lengthy About descriptions actually hurt conversion. We do plan on experimenting more with the positioning of the About section, and looking to give it more prominence. Our hope is that creators will help by editing the content of the About down and keep it focused on their work and what they offer.
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Hmm. I’m not sure what the load time is for email responses but my email response isn’t showing up? So here i’ve copied it over and made the adjustments i wanted to make to make it clearer that i couldn’t do from my phone after sending it.
I dont mean to sound like a downer, because I appreciate the effort and think that info is good to have there regardless, but footers, being at the bottom of the page, arent really in an area most users are going to readily see when they have questions. It’s a last resort of desperation to check the footer for FAQ stuff. So if the purpose is to answer questions, I dont see it doing the trick. Heck, I dont even get down to the bottom of the page enough to see the footer to have even noticed that difference without you stating the change.
It might be better to have a tab along the top of the page (next to the patreon logo) that could be “what is patreon” and link to some FAQ pages for those that aren’t logged in, because the home page of patreon is all about the creator side of it (which can be helpful but not useful to all potential patrons), and the creator pages don’t have any help for potential patrons, especially those who aren’t even signed up for patreon. (Once logged in there’s access to the help section in the user drop down but maybe changing that suggested navigation link to “FAQ” for logged in users would be helpful instead of having to dig for it, if you really want to prevent creators from feeling like they have to put that information in their about sections. Or a tool tip for new users pointing out where the FAQ is, if there isn’t already one. (Though tool tips are easily missed or canceled without reading.)
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Okay, I see where now it says “Writings” instead of “Updates” and that’s a help, but it still says that if you become a patron you’ll get 649 images and 50 writings. Given that the main benefit he’s offering are blog posts, that is just really weird and off. He’s not offering images as a benefit. So if people are planning to join to get the promised blog posts, it looks like there are only 50 of them, when there are hundreds more.
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@Temrin I agree, having a tab that when you click it maybe makes a wee pop up mid screen with the ‘about’ would be good. After all we don’t want to lead people away from the page they are on. ALSO I too agree re the Footer, I rarely read footers unless I can’t find a website’s contact info or delivery options! Someone is going to have made their decision way before they get to the footer and if they don’t understand what they’re looking at (although they should by that point as most people will have been sent by the creator themselves) then they’ll go before reaching the footer.
@ursula for me weaving a story is very important for my about part of my page. I write as well as make art and it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t use that area to its full advantage. I personally like to read about the artist if I am following one and if someone only has a paragraph (and or no video) then I don’t feel like they are putting any effort into their page and it puts me off! My ‘about’ is a chance for me to set the scene and show my personality. I think it would be great if you could have maybe 3 different types of ‘template’ for a patreon page, one for visual creators like me, one for writers and one for musicians maybe? Would that cover all the bases? Or just a choice of 3 layouts. One size doesn’t fit all unfortunately and it would be AMAZING to have more control over how the page looks and at the moment I really don’t like the way it looks when you land since my page was built around making it look good via the old way! Also when you land you have the tier choices and it cuts off most of the text on them too which isn’t very helpful either and doesn’t make sense?
Just to add - this is what my page looks like on landing at the moment:
Which is ‘ok’ but the little pictures are animated and these don’t show because they are made so small (compared to what they look like on the page as it was). And as you can see people can’t see what they’re going to get right away. I’d love it if the images came up bigger too and the cost was on the select button? I also have 6 tiers altogether and some people won’t get that they can see more of them below it.
Zoomed out it looks like this. I don’t get why it’s not using the full width of the page? It should surely fit to whatever size the browser is like most modern websites these days (for instance squarespace or shopify have fully flexible pages that fit to whatever device is being used).
For me, i prefer how my page looks in the old way, where my video is front and centre:
Maybe it could be good if it was more like this (and not forced to the centre of the page so much?)
This is not perfect, and instead of the price in the buttons maybe ‘learn more’ to go to that or expand that tier.
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