Arlena Fae
patreon
Big Cha-Cha-Changes!
🕑 Added 2019-11-10 12:33:37 +0000 UTCI know this is long but PLEASE READ THIS.
I'm totally revamping my Patreon! It's just not manageable as is and hasn't grown enough to be able to justify trying to keep the reward system I currently have (like I can't afford to put the amount of time currently needed into it). So I'm simplifying things and removing some rewards. But before we get to that I'll go a little more into why I'm making changes.
I've gotten a lot busier with life things and will only be getting more busy. I'm going back to school 😁 and focusing on getting one of those "real jobs" I've heard of. And I'm really excited for my career goals. I gave this a shot and it's time to..not move on fully, but move on somewhat. Plus, living in America, it'd be nice to have a job that'll provide health insurance (so, ya know, I can finally have that and no longer worrying about one day, potentially having to choose between dying or a massive amount of debt I'll never get paid off LOL) 😅.
I love cosplaying but I'm torn between enjoying and hating being self employed LOL. It's nice to have freedom when it comes to time and gives me a chance to do things that I otherwise couldn't (since America doesn't believe in giving vacation days). But the financial side of things is stressful and unstable. If by some miracle this blows up in the future, then I'll probably go back to focusing on Patreon. For now though I want to focus on a stable career and Etsy/Storenvy--especially since that has grown a lot.
There's a reason I bring up Etsy/Storenvy. It's because patterns/templates and bettering my tutorials is what I want to put my focus and effort into both on those sites and my Patreon. Crafting and creating tutorials is truly what I enjoy most (and not just most about cosplay, just most overall). I'm genuinely so passionate and excited about it 🥰. I want to be able to put more time (and money) into creating higher quality cosplays and tutorials (especially video tutorials). So that is what my rewards are going to focus on now.
WHAT REWARDS ARE LEAVING?
First, let's cover some rewards I'm getting rid of.
I'm shutting down the boudoir tier immediately b/c even with it becoming more casual I don't see me being able to produce content for it before the end of the year. I did enjoy producing that content. I got to have a bit more freedom with creativity and it was fun coming up with ideas for costumes and sets. But, ever since my living situation changed, I just don't have a space to shoot them anymore. And with my refocusing on templates, it's just not worth the time (and money) it'll take away from that (especially with my Patreon size). So we've gotta say bye.
I'm getting rid of physical rewards! Well most of them. The only tier keeping the physical rewards are the highest (pick my cosplay ones). Those aren't a type of tier most people subscribe monthly too, so I figured the rare occasional pledge will be easy enough to keep up with. But the lower physical reward tier is shutting down. December will be the last month for holiday cards and Polaroids. And while holiday cards are most likely gone forever (er.. for the foreseeable future), Polaroids will still be available at my booth at conventions and on my Storenvy.
Monthly booklets are also leaving but being replaced by something similar. I'll get to that soon. Before and after photos are also leaving because I just wasn't able to produce those frequently enough (at least not in a way that I felt was interesting).
NEW REWARD TIERS
Here is how the new reward tiers will look! You'll notice there's less tiers now. I'm sticking to only have 3 low-priced tiers and then the two biggest ones.
Tier 1-$1
-Credited in YouTube Videos
-Access to Private IG/Exclusive WIP Photos
Tier 2-$5
-HD Photos
-Early Access to YouTube Videos
Tier 3-$10
-Fan Signs
-Patterns/Templates
-eBooks & Build Guide
And then the $100 and $500 tiers are staying pretty much the same. I may just be changing up the print bundles.
Let's break it down!
Tier 1 is pretty straight forward. You'll get your Patreon username in the credits and access to my private IG which includes exclusive WIP photos. I'll also probably start sharing those here on Patreon more frequently now that you can post multiple photos in one post (although I'm still hoping Patreon creates an "album" or "gallery" upload option). Both these rewards already exist. They were just at different tiers.
Tier 2 is also pretty straight forward. It's keeping the HD photos of any cosplay photos from said month and losing the rest. Instead I've moved down YouTube video access to kind of balance out the loss.
Tier 3 is keeping the fan signs and patterns/templates and adding eBooks/Build Guides. I'll be making build guides for a majority of my patterns (mostly focusing on any that don't have a video tutorial to pair with them). This will hopefully give some extra guidance on how to use the template and build said cosplay piece. The Build Guides should be almost monthly. I also want to start making eBooks. I'm starting off making them character specific and give them a bit nicer layout than my current monthly booklets. I want to only feature and take high-quality photos for these booklets. My goal is to produce these at least quarterly to start with.
THE FUTURE
So obviously, I'm still cosplaying and will still be running a Patreon. I will be focusing less on trying to rush costumes because I have been trying to make one each month or more (to make up for not making one a previous month). It's left me on the verge of being burnt out. I want to make sure I keep enjoying this, so I'm going back to taking my time crafting and focusing on multiple projects over longer amounts of time rather than just one at a time, over shorter amounts of time. I honestly work better this way (keeps me from getting bored or annoyed with a project when things get tricky).
Doing things at a slower pace, I'm hoping, will allow me to put more time into editing photos/videos and taking them! Right now it's been costume after costume with no breathing room to enjoy said costume or even shoot it. I was basically picking between things and editing videos and making costumes ended up being the only things I was getting done. Which meant less content when it came to photos.. So I'm fixing that!
Thanks so much for everyone who's supported me here on Patreon so far and I hope you stick around through the future changes! I understand if you decide to leave. Boudoir was a popular tier but it was never my main priority and it no longer fits in with my goals. Thanks for having pledge though! Hopefully some of you are excited about these changes.
Comments
Arlena Fae
Thank you! I'm hoping this works better too ><
Shawn Shaffer
Good luck in school. I am interested to see the new changes. I hope they work better for you and that you keep doing great work.
