3 ms·

> Well, it's 5% + processor fees. Exactly. The total cost is probably over 8% (pretax), which is more than those sketchy check-cashing places charge. It migh

> Well, it's 5% + processor fees. Exactly. The total cost is probably over 8% (pretax), which is more than those sketchy check-cashing places charge. It might be worth it if the adoption rate is high enough, but does anyone have personal anecdotes or (better) independent statistics on Patreon adoption and income?

mikekchar 10y ago
To be honest, I thought it would be in the 20% range, so 5% + processing fee sounds pretty good in comparison. From the perspective of funding software, I'm mostly thinking about indy game devs. Game portals can take up to 50% of the sale price. From a business perspective, the processing fee is (I guess) incurred by the payee, so that's unfortunate, but I have difficulty thinking of a reasonable way to avoid that in any case. The 5% service charge that Patreon takes should be be an expense for you, as a business. Then you have to pay for marketing and advertising, so you're not going to walk away with more than 80% of the payment no matter what you do. At least you have the opportunity to directly balance the marketing/sales effort against the income (which is not something you can do if you are trying to sell through an existing sales channel -- they will advertise as much as they want and you will either like it or lump it). Patreon also gives a limited form of marketing by featuring projects in the newsletters they do, so that's a small benefit as well. As a remote contractor that works in another country, I'm fairly well acquainted with bank charges :-P Most banks will happily charge you 6% for foreign exchange, and then still charge you $20 (plus a percentage) to transfer funds to another bank. It is (information) highway robbery. Like I said, 5% to actually provide a valuable service is refreshing. P.S. For anyone in Japan, funnel all your money through a personal account in Shin Sei bank. You can thank me later. Not associated with the bank in any way, other than to be enjoying reasonably priced ForEx. Edit: To answer your question, Tarn Adams has been sustaining about $7K a month from Patreon. He is likely an outlier, though.

mikekchar 10y ago

To be honest, I thought it would be in the 20% range, so 5% + processing fee sounds pretty good in comparison. From the perspective of funding software, I'm mostly thinking about indy game devs. Game portals can take up to 50% of the sale price. From a business perspective, the processing fee is (I guess) incurred by the payee, so that's unfortunate, but I have difficulty thinking of a reasonable way to avoid that in any case. The 5% service charge that Patreon takes should be be an expense for you, as a business. Then you have to pay for marketing and advertising, so you're not going to walk away with more than 80% of the payment no matter what you do. At least you have the opportunity to directly balance the marketing/sales effort against the income (which is not something you can do if you are trying to sell through an existing sales channel -- they will advertise as much as they want and you will either like it or lump it). Patreon also gives a limited form of marketing by featuring projects in the newsletters they do, so that's a small benefit as well. As a remote contractor that works in another country, I'm fairly well acquainted with bank charges :-P Most banks will happily charge you 6% for foreign exchange, and then still charge you $20 (plus a percentage) to transfer funds to another bank. It is (information) highway robbery. Like I said, 5% to actually provide a valuable service is refreshing. P.S. For anyone in Japan, funnel all your money through a personal account in Shin Sei bank. You can thank me later. Not associated with the bank in any way, other than to be enjoying reasonably priced ForEx. Edit: To answer your question, Tarn Adams has been sustaining about $7K a month from Patreon. He is likely an outlier, though.