{"id":32614,"date":"2016-06-29T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T10:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=32614"},"modified":"2017-05-01T11:58:08","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T15:58:08","slug":"patreon-year-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=32614","title":{"rendered":"Patreon: Year Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like I said this time last year<\/a>, now that I get most of my income from Patreon<\/a>, I feel the need to do a little accountability \/ disclosure. As of right now, just over 400 people are donating every month to keep this site goingNote that not all supporters are part of the Patreon. There are a small handful of people who prefer to use PayPal.<\/span>. It seems good to talk about how things are going, what I’m planning, and how I think I’ve done. <\/p>\n

I’m also going to talk a tiny bit about personal finances. This is usually taboo in our culture, but then our culture hasn’t adapted to a world where individuals make their living via crowdsourced donations.<\/p>\n

Still, if you don’t want to read a bunch of personal stuff about money, give this post a pass. <\/p>\n

So let’s start with the bad news…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Bad News<\/h3>\n

I lost my Escapist gig this year. That was a nasty blow. We parted on agreeable terms. No hard feelings. This was just yet another gaming site going through downsizing, which has been going on for the better part of a decade. <\/p>\n

My wife Heather has a job caring for a 94 year old woman. It’s a wonderful job and her employers are gracious, generous, thoughtful people. But still. 94 years old. This is not a job Heather can keep until retirement. We don’t have a plan for when this job ends. I certainly don’t make enough to support all of us on my own.<\/p>\n

I’m not trying to get pity and I’m not trying to get you to give more. I don’t want to turn this blog into some insufferable Public Television-styled begfest.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I want this site to be a fun, entertaining place to hang out, and constantly asking for donations would ruin that atmosphere. For me and you.\n
  2. Guilt is a terrible<\/em> motivator anyway.\n
  3. I’m super-uncomfortable asking for money. I do it, but I don’t like it, and I certainly don’t want to do more of it.\n
  4. I have no proof, but I strongly suspect there’s a sharp falloff when asking for money. I imagine that a friendly reminder every month or so is probably harmless. Weekly is probably a little irritating and (I’m betting) only nets a tiny bit more money. Daily is obnoxious and might even result in a reduced readership and reduced donations. I only think this way because it’s how I respond to requests for money. I love to feel like I’m being generous. I hate feeling like I’m just paying them to shut up and leave me alone.\n<\/ol>\n

    The most obvious way to make this job more secure is to try and grow my audience. That sort of endeavor requires caution. I just got done lambasting BioWare for a bunch of decisions that seemed calculated to reach out to a new, larger audience at the expense of their long-time fans. That sort of thing can easily blow up in your face. You might alienate your passionate, friendly, loyal fans and exchange them for a disinterested, entitled, rude, impersonal mobAnd good luck getting your original fans back if things don’t work out with the new audience.<\/span>. Worse, you can kill the thing that made you want the job to begin with. Since I’m making exactly the site I want right now (aside from wishing I could get more done) any changes would involve making something I like less. And if I’m not enjoying this then what’s the point? I might as well stop bothering you and get a real job.<\/p>\n

    So to sum up: My living situation is a little on the untenable side. We have a nice arrangement now, but it can’t last forever. I don’t want to beg for more donations, and doing so probably wouldn’t have a very large impact on my income anyway. I wouldn’t mind having a larger audience, but I’m not willing to make any sweeping changes and it’s unreasonable to imagine a bunch of new people are going to show up for no reason.<\/p>\n

    That’s the bad news. Now let’s talk about…<\/p>\n

    The Good News<\/h3>\n

    This wall of text is bugging me. So here is a stock photo of a clock.<\/div>
    This wall of text is bugging me. So here is a stock photo of a clock.<\/div><\/p>\n

    Last year<\/a> I felt like my output was lacking. At the time I said:<\/p>\n

    I’m going to try to focus on getting back to the style of work I did a few years ago: Long-form, multi-part, deconstructionist nitpicking with the attitude that we nitpick because we love. The recent Fallout 3 analysis<\/a> was the first of these. Mixed in with that should be some programming posts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    I’d say this was a solid success. My output is way up. The Mass Effect series<\/a> is probably the most popular thing I’ve done since DM of the Rings, and the column is better than ever<\/a>. I did the Mass Effect series, plus<\/strong> I kept up with the weekly column, plus<\/strong> I finished Good Robot, plus<\/strong> I managed to give everyone a few paragraphs of commentary on the Wed-Thu-Fri Spoiler Warning posts. Also, I uploaded more alleged music to my Soundcloud page<\/a>, which entertained less than a hundred people but shut up I like making this stuff anyway<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    The Mass Effect retrospective is being compiled into book form. Maybe that will sell.<\/p>\n

    Good Robot wasn’t a smash hit, but the income gave us a few months of breathing room. <\/p>\n

    The Final Fantasy X series<\/a> is going over well. <\/p>\n

    We have about nine more months of old Let’s Plays to repost<\/a>. Those are fun. I don’t know what I’ll do on Sundays when those run out. <\/p>\n

    I’m pretty confident that my problem is with audience discovery, not retention. I think I’ve got stuff here that people would enjoy if I could get them to read it. The problem is that it’s hard to get people to click on text articles these days. This is not because [insert popular cultural boogeymen here, usually millennials] are all senseless dullards who have lost appreciation for the written word. I think the problem is that the world is awash in unwanted words and think-pieces. Demand is as high as ever, but the signal-to-noise ratio is terrible and finding words that are worth your time is harder than ever. It’s really hard to convince someone, “No seriously, this one is different. Just read some of it.” <\/p>\n

    Our tools for discovering good videos are a lot better than our tools for discovering good text. Like, when someone shares a video on Twitter, you get a sexy thumbnail and a sense of what you’re in for:<\/p>\n

    \n

    Hehe @shamusyoung<\/a> got namedropped in the new TUN video https:\/\/t.co\/30CN77JXLa<\/a><\/p>\n

    — Rita No Mercy Wulf (@Varewulf) June 6, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n