Thoughts on Patreon?

WeiseGamer

WeiseGamer

Your #1 Source For Indie Gaming
Hey Guys,

What are your thoughts on Patreon?
When should you make one?
When should you start to tell your viewers about it?
Should you start passively with outro card, then YouTube annotations/cards, then actually verbally saying it?
When is it too soon/early to ask for this support?

These are all questions I've been asking. I made one, am working on filling out all the details and profile stuff still, but wondering when i should mention it to my viewers. I do reviews for small indie games so developers can get free advertising in a market otherwise saturated and competitive as hell to get your name out there. I was thinking the devs may contribute if they wanted to support me making more reviews, and the gamers who watch may support me to purchase more indie games (for the ones that I don't get free keys for), get better equipment, hire people to help me edit eventually, etc.
 
It makes sense the moment you get a wide AND active viewerbase. For proposing it, I'd test the waters first, mention it on a specific video asking for thoughts on the matter and see how the viewerbase reacts. If the feedback is positive, then start linking it in video description and either in annotation card or end-video annotation, plus mentioning it at the end of each video as a reminder.
 
Conso1727 said:
It makes sense the moment you get a wide AND active viewerbase. For proposing it, I'd test the waters first, mention it on a specific video asking for thoughts on the matter and see how the viewerbase reacts. If the feedback is positive, then start linking it in video description and either in annotation card or end-video annotation, plus mentioning it at the end of each video as a reminder.
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Since you are in a similar niche of mine, reviewing games, what would you say good rewards are for the support? I think the typical $1 gets a name listed in my outro sequence is a gimme, but anything higher I'm not sure yet.
 
If you're going to ask for money, you better have been producing quality content for a long time and have a large active fan base behind you. Because you're essentially saying "I want to make this my full time job and YOU are going to pay all my bills from now on". If you're committing to something like that, you're stuck with it. You will have to make good on your promises and be prepared to get called out when you don't. This is honestly not the type of thing you want to do unless you have thousands or even hundreds of thousands of subs.
 
WeiseGamer said:
Since you are in a similar niche of mine, reviewing games, what would you say good rewards are for the support? I think the typical $1 gets a name listed in my outro sequence is a gimme, but anything higher I'm not sure yet.
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I suggest you have a look at what Lazy Game Reviews is doing, It's a very valid way, in alternative Classic Game Room recently started a Patreon too, but his rewards are maybe a bit too elitist, while with Lazy Game Reviews you still have access to everything regardless of the fact you donated or not.
 
This is something I've been thinking a lot about too.

A lot of the big channels I enjoy use Patreon and have wanted to use it myself. But with only 450+ subs it seems a little pretentious for me to do it. But the way I'm looking at it is that if I try and get the ball rolling now, building up enthusiasm for it then it might make my dream of going full time come quicker than I'd think and give loyal subs a reason to root for the channel.

I think being a small channel you'd have to think long and hard about how to approach it and introduce it in a way where it comes off genuine and that you don't seem to be getting ahead of yourself.
 
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TigerXtrm said:
If you're going to ask for money, you better have been producing quality content for a long time and have a large active fan base behind you. Because you're essentially saying "I want to make this my full time job and YOU are going to pay all my bills from now on". If you're committing to something like that, you're stuck with it. You will have to make good on your promises and be prepared to get called out when you don't. This is honestly not the type of thing you want to do unless you have thousands or even hundreds of thousands of subs.
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I don't find this to be the case necessarily. I've been sponsored and paid for videos in the past.

I've had money donated on twitch streams within a month of starting a stream from the ground up.

I'm not asking to live off this full time, but to assist with things that would improve reviews, and in the sense of developers donating, I do free advertisement and don't see why saying "they can donate if they like" is necessarily bad. Additionally, I'm not saying they have to donate to keep me doing videos, it would be something I do regardless but ignoring the opportunity doesn't seem like the best option either. If you money ***** yourself out there, sure, its going to be like you say. I'm simply saying if you want to help me continue to make reviews, assist in being part of the creation process in allowing me better equipment or hiring a video editor full time some time, etc, then you can.

Finally, Patreon is a monthly thing. You can cancel anytime you want. I think people can start/stop and I mean, to people I've donated to and gotten burned on, I just stop donating. No harm, no foul.

I don't like that YouTubers think looking into monetization to improve one's channel is only for large channels, and I really don't like how people think its just a cash grab to try to live off YouTube riches. If I got $10 a month, it means I can use that $10 for advertising to continue to promote the companies, developers, and their projects and not pay it all out of pocket like I do now.

/rant, sorry :)[DOUBLEPOST=1453229694,1453228593][/DOUBLEPOST]
Conso1727 said:
I suggest you have a look at what Lazy Game Reviews is doing, It's a very valid way, in alternative Classic Game Room recently started a Patreon too, but his rewards are maybe a bit too elitist, while with Lazy Game Reviews you still have access to everything regardless of the fact you donated or not.
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I'll definitely check them out!
 
Also to expand on my previous post and for some context:

Right now I'm uploading 3 or 4 videos a week. 2 Let's Plays, a stream highlight and a podcast (which is also live on Twitch).

I love adding graphics and effects in my videos and put a lot of time into editing. But with my new schedule I'm giving viewers more content but it's not as elaborate as before. I've also always wanted to offer more content such as tutorials, reviews and live events but don't have the time for it. With a patreon that'd put my goals out there for everyone to see and encourage people to support me if they want to see that kind of content.

Working a full-time (busy!) job I pretty much put all of my free time into YouTube so the only way of giving people more would be through Patreon. So I think as long as people see what it could bring that'd really help in getting the ball rolling.
 
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Personally I don't believe it to be the way forward unless you have a very large subscriber base. I don't actively seek out people's Patreons to know if this is the norm but as an example, a channel I enjoy watching has 232,000+ subs and on his Patreon only 30 supporters (a total of $48.70 per video).
If it were me, I'd consider Paypal or GoFundMe. This would allow a one-off donation and you could still arrange rewards without your viewers feeling tied into a long term financial commitment.
I don't intend to suggest that you're not worthy of some support from your viewers but I think you may be disappointed by the rewards you get with Patreon in return for your hard work. All the best, whatever you decide I hope it works out.
 
Idk, I don't see youtubers get into Patreon until they get get bigger... but I watch mostly comedy... might be a different culture with the gaming boys..... and gals ;)
 
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