As you probably know by now, I’ve decided to take the advice of several Matt Chatters and set up my own Patreon page. Patreon is still new enough to elicit more head scratching than enthusiasm at this point, but I think once you understand it, you’ll agree that it’s a better way to support folks like me than PayPal or Kickstarter. Here are my thoughts on it.
The main reason I decided to go for Patreon was the payment structure. The problem with PayPal is that you’re limited to either paying a subscription (so much per week, month, etc.) or a one-time payment. The subscriptions are great, of course, but it puts me in a position of feeling guilty if I have to take some time off. If there’s no new episode that week, you just paid for nothing. I understand that most of you folks would probably say–“So what, Matt? Enjoy!” But I still don’t feel right about it.
Patreon, however, allows you to pay only when I release new content that I specifically label as “paid.” This maintains the pressure on me to continue to release new episodes (if I don’t–no money!), but I don’t have the dread of pissing off a subscriber if I don’t get it done on schedule.
The one-time payments from Paypal are probably the least offensive option for most people. Unfortunately, almost everyone who does that never donates again. I guess the mindset is, “I paid him $50, that’s enough for here to eternity!” I always appreciate, of course, these awesome gifts, but they simply aren’t a sustainable way to produce the show. I’d prefer, actually, for that person to do the $1 or $5 per episode deal instead; that way, I’d have a steady flow of income for quite awhile, and hopefully by the time I’d collected the $50, the person would simply let it continue. At any rate, I’d have a much better way to plan my spending and make sure I don’t blow my budget.
Another great thing about Patreon is they take a much smaller cut than Paypal. If you give me a $1 through Paypal, I usually get sixty-seven cents. Paypal takes out a full thirty-three cents (33%) for their fees! Patreon, on the other hand, only takes out 8%. I don’t know anyone who wants to support Paypal; you just want to support the content creator. So I think this fact alone is enough reason for you to switch to Patreon!
Finally, Patreon is simply a more fun way to handle all this. There’s more of a community feeling to the site, like Kickstarter. You can see all the other patrons and interact with everyone on the pages. Thus, you can let others know you’re a true supporter, though you can also remain anonymous if you prefer. I can also set up funding goals and rewards for folks. In short, I just don’t see a downside.
So, if you’re currently supporting me through PayPal, consider switching over to Patreon. It won’t cost you anything extra, and both of us will get better benefits. If you’re not currently supporting me, now’s a good chance to climb aboard. For only a buck per show, you’ll be supporting a rather excellent show and its humble, only slightly nutty producer!
Better than Paypal.. but this is realy not solution your money problem. Problem is small audienc, not way to pay (at least not primary).
– I would like to pay for your Dungeon and desktops book update (i dont care that i will pay price of new book for new 50 pages.. its worthy), because is deeply.
– I would like to pay for some deep gamasutra like game design article or some market analysis stuff, but unfornutely.. you dont creating such articles (BTW i do, i have more views on niche non english local market).
– I would like pay for some deeper pdf like zin or something like that. With deeper thoughts like in your podcasts, which are much better that video stuff. Even those interviews, are too, like to say it.. frendly, too fluent.. there is isnt real discussion, real passion, or goal to find realy something unique, some solution, something news.. its like pub gossip.
BUT pay for these video stuff, i dont want to pay, its good for entertaiment, good for some info, but isnt such deep as i want to. Dont take me wrong, but is mostly second monitor stuff, which im watching in background, something like radio or TV. It realy doesnt matter that you show is best retro on market (because it is).
I think that solution is simply get more audience and mometize you video on youtube, i already wrote some hints about that into other forum thread. Other more geeky way is realy do hard work and more deep stuff without free version or for bigger media, which will pay you.
I respect with is something have price tag and you have to pay, but donating is problem. If im donating, you simply can win, because im everytime thinking about: “You would will donate some PHD guy from USA, who have all advantages of which you havent (amazon, ebay sent all the stuff, netflix, non dolar=euro, all companies have USA representation ) or you will donate Unicef some dying childs in Africa” – Children everytime won.
This isn’t necessarily a zero sum game. Just because I donate to Matt Chat, that doesn’t mean I can no longer donate to charitable causes. I don’t even consider the source of the money for the two to come from the same source. I sacrifice some of my own income for charitable causes, however the money I spend on Matt Chat is not the money I would have spent on charity. It is the money I would have spent on other forms of entertainment, be it games, books, movies, etc. I simply choose to forgo some of those options and ‘purchase’ Matt Chat episodes instead.
The one thing you haven’t mentioned, which would help people make some decisions on the show is how often do you plan on posting? Still once a week? Are you promising a certain length? Will a 5 minute retrospective get the same rate as a 1/2 hour 1 part of 3 interview? Will you max out a length so that we know an interview will get broken up if it goes past 30/45/60 minutes?
It would help those of us with limited incomes plan accordingly, thanks in advance!
Hopefully Matt will chime in on this himself as only he knows the answer, but I can personally say that I backed without worry based entirely on the quality and length of the content thus far. I imagine that the videos will continue as they have, so basically 4 per month in varying lengths of 25 to 45 minutes. If one is a little bit shorter, another will be longer and everything will average out.
One thing about Patreon, though, is that you can cap your donations. If, say, you wanted to donate $5 per video, but then if he made more than 10 videos that would overly stretch your budget, then if he happened to make 11 videos that month, you would still only send $50. If you’re being budget conscious, just pick the amount that works best for you per video and then also make sure to set an upper limit that won’t cause you any financial issues. As much as I’m sure Matt would appreciate the support, I can’t imagine he would be happy to find out you were giving more than you could afford. I believe he says something to that effect either in the Patreon video, or at the end of the latest interview. I can’t remember for certain which it was, though.
That’s so cool that Brian Fargo has backed you!
Yeah, I also saw Augustin Cordes and Seth Robinson on there. LGR has backed as well, which is one of only two other channels I’ve been willing to support. It’s awesome to see some of these guys paying you back. It’s well deserved. As an example, I knew nothing about Augustin Cordes or his games, yet thanks to Matt Chat I ended up backing his Kickstarter project for Scratches. Seth Robinson is another designer I learned about through Matt Chat. Even designers I had heard of, such as Brian Fargo, I learned far more about thanks to this show. I subscribe to several video game channels through YouTube, but this is without question the one I would rate the highest every time.
I’m an idiot. Meant to say that I backed his Kickstarter for Asylum. Scratches was the previously released game. >.<
Technical issue, other that grey color for use hyperlink would be great. I searched link for pathreon page and it was diffult.. This should be some world press template setting.
About Matts Patreon, $5 per video for podcasts is simply to much, because there are 4 videos per month its 20 buck per moths. Its more that i paying for internet connection. Here is can buy good gaming magazine (120 pages ) just for 5 bucks.
Its there even some promise how much podcast per month i will get? Because present podcast frequency is one forquarter?
I would like to pay something between 5,10 per month, thing that it is right price for this “service”. I thning that is better get smaller ammount money from bigger group of people that bigger ammout form just few. Because there is not price per region, try think more worldwide.
Lands income ranking for inspiration (US is on 10th place from 195):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita
and believe crapp about bigger income, bigger outcome. In poor countries are prices usualy worst than in rich couries.. If someone telling something else it is usualy hypocrisy.
Matt, I just set up my own Patreon page this week. One thing I caught onto was the opening image. When people use the Patreon DISCOVER search engine it pulls up a square. That square is made from the MIDDLE of your starter image. So if your name or key visual information is over to the side, it’s not going to be seen in those squares resulting in lost clicks to your page. It’s something you could think about on your image seen on your page.
Patreon process an “*approximate 3%” for credit card processing fees (we use Stripe, trusted by thousands of sites) and 5% for Patreon to cover operating costs. “*2.9% + 30¢ per successful charge.”
“PayPal’s fees are typically 2.9% + $0.30 USD per transaction”
You can use paypal with patreon, and I’m wondering if that means its basically $0.60 + 11% meaning in a $1 donation, you would really only get $0.39 and the other $0.71 would be eaten up in fee’s.
You said:
“Another great thing about Patreon is they take a much smaller cut than Paypal. If you give me a $1 through Paypal, I usually get sixty-seven cents. Paypal takes out a full thirty-three cents (33%) for their fees! Patreon, on the other hand, only takes out 8%.”
You don’t know how fee’s work.
Patreon will mail you a check instead of the Paypal option. But, yeah, better to blast somebody for being ignorant before doing any research yourself.