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I'm in a niche where people are interested for 3-8 months, then they go away and a new bunch emerges. It's based on a cyclical test – people stop paying attenti

by graeme 11y ago

I'm in a niche where people are interested for 3-8 months, then they go away and a new bunch emerges. It's based on a cyclical test – people stop paying attention once they take the test. Do you think this would work for Patreon? I have a site where people are extremely appreciative of the volume of free work I have online. Probably some would sign up for a bit. My only concern about testing it would be if the number was embarrassingly low in case I'm wrong about who would support it (sub $500). Though I suppose I could just close it if that happened.

jerf 11y ago
Mmmm... I'm on the patron side, not the provider side, so I can't say I've got enough experience to know. It is a bit of a mismatch, but it might still be worth a try. Might come down to whether you can make a good offer for Patreon-supporter bonuses. I assume you're already freely offering it, so you probably want to keep doing that. (Or possibly need to; I've never read the Patreon agreement for producers.) The other concern I'd have is that this sort of subscription service will tend to not have people cancel, then find out a year or more later that they were still subscribed and didn't realize it. I don't know if Patreon has policies or procedures for when that happens, if the patron feels like they've been "ripped off" because they forgot to cancel for a year. Most of what I'm patronizing doesn't have that issue.
- graeme 11y ago
  >The other concern I'd have is that this sort of subscription service will tend to not have people cancel, then find out a year or more later that they were still subscribed and didn't realize it. I don't know if Patreon has policies or procedures for when that happens, if the patron feels like they've been "ripped off" because they forgot to cancel for a year. Most of what I'm patronizing doesn't have that issue. Yeah, I wondered about that. I just sent Patreon a message to check. I do already freely offer it, and would keep doing so. I could increase the speed of releasing new ones if I got enough patrons, and think of some bonuses to offer. Edit: Patreon got back to me. They said it's fine. They pointed out there are ongoing email notifications when I do new stuff, and that patrons are pretty good about not forgetting they've paid money. I'll at least try it.
  - jerf 11y ago
    I at least would be interested in how it goes, if you remember to drop me an email at some point, and HN might vote up a good writeup as well.

by graeme 11y ago

jerf 11y ago

Mmmm... I'm on the patron side, not the provider side, so I can't say I've got enough experience to know. It is a bit of a mismatch, but it might still be worth a try. Might come down to whether you can make a good offer for Patreon-supporter bonuses. I assume you're already freely offering it, so you probably want to keep doing that. (Or possibly need to; I've never read the Patreon agreement for producers.) The other concern I'd have is that this sort of subscription service will tend to not have people cancel, then find out a year or more later that they were still subscribed and didn't realize it. I don't know if Patreon has policies or procedures for when that happens, if the patron feels like they've been "ripped off" because they forgot to cancel for a year. Most of what I'm patronizing doesn't have that issue.

graeme 11y ago
>The other concern I'd have is that this sort of subscription service will tend to not have people cancel, then find out a year or more later that they were still subscribed and didn't realize it. I don't know if Patreon has policies or procedures for when that happens, if the patron feels like they've been "ripped off" because they forgot to cancel for a year. Most of what I'm patronizing doesn't have that issue. Yeah, I wondered about that. I just sent Patreon a message to check. I do already freely offer it, and would keep doing so. I could increase the speed of releasing new ones if I got enough patrons, and think of some bonuses to offer. Edit: Patreon got back to me. They said it's fine. They pointed out there are ongoing email notifications when I do new stuff, and that patrons are pretty good about not forgetting they've paid money. I'll at least try it.
- jerf 11y ago
  I at least would be interested in how it goes, if you remember to drop me an email at some point, and HN might vote up a good writeup as well.