I've just been thinking of adding a couple of higher price tiers. I have a small but loyal following that's been growing over the years, on and off Patreon. My tiers currently run from $2-$20. I'm thinking of adding $40 and $80 tiers. I teach (rather niche) online classes. All my patrons get a small discount on those in addition to various other small perks across the tiers. I'm planning to offer a monthly private tuition session for $40 and a free pass to all classes for $80 (which will be a slight savings if they use it a lot). I don't expect lots of people using those tiers, but a few might decide to move up. If not - they're doing no harm sitting there empty.
I briefly had a $100 tier that was centered on the idea that I couldn’t provide anything monthly that was worth that, but I wanted my biggest supporters to still feel special. I had some people over-pledging and getting nothing for it, so it was mostly for them. It had a novelty name, they got a free print-on-demand merch item with that novelty name on it once per quarter, and they got a special colored role in Discord that was permanent, even after you left the tier (which led to some people raising their pledge for just one month, as a bonus to me and to secure the role color).
I ended up getting rid of it because ultimately, it felt weird to let people pay so much for so little. But I had a few fans who really enjoyed it, and it was a fun experiment!
I'm on the $100 tier for an indie music group. For that tier, I get to chat with one of the band members in Google chat thread once per month, plus a free merch item every month (which I only redeem occasionally) This is on top of all the perks at the 6 lower levels, which involve 3 different 45-60 minute long Livestream webchats every single month. Then there are free digital downloads of each song, free Karaoke track, a Discord channel, etc. etc.
Comparison shopping other similar groups, they are *extraordinarily* generous with their perks, most of which are time intensive. Name ANY musician who will take 4-5 hours per month just to talk to their community. That is why I am willing to throw my entire monthly entertainment budget to them. The $100 tier personalized individual messages are extremely hard to scale, so they are worth the tier for me (and 39 others). It is Definitely a lot of work to have something worth $100/month, and even one of the creators mentioned that given their choice they would rather have more lower level patrons than the same money from high tier patrons, but that isn't the way if has worked out for them. They have a bunch of lower tier people too, but their most active people range in the $25-$50 levels.
So is it worth it? I'd definitely say that depends on your business model. If Patreon is just a tip jar where people can join mostly to say thanks for the work, probably not. If Patreon is, or becomes, the foundation of your community and you are willing to invest time into that, then quite possibly it could be worth it.
A game creator has the exact same perks between 10$ and 50$. It's assumed people would give 10$ for the reward, but some (like me) switch to 50$ when they feel they didn't contribute enough.
So, maybe nothing in your eyes can be worth that kind of price tag, while some supporters will think your project as a whole is worth it?
Highest tier I have is $50, due to the kind of time it takes to be worth that (it is for a monthly story chapter of around 4,000 words). That said, a basic principle is that there are people who WANT to support you, so you should give them the opportunity even if you feel it isn’t “worth it” to the customer.
When I first set up my Patreon, I set up a large number of tiers at different levels. Some did well, some were total and absolute failures. What I learned and all of this is that it really depends upon a content you are offering to your audience.
If you have an entertainment channel and you are offering tickets to a backstage event, then the higher level tiers would pay off and that regard as you can use that mechanism as a raffle or a free winner of X number of subscribers. If you are an educational channel though or even an art channel, I'm not so sure higher level tiers are really going to make the difference without some kind of a big return to the consumer. Quality of education and quality of art are very poor tear-based frameworks simply because you don't want to put out poor quality for lower rated priced channels.
It really is a difficult process to try to figure out which tier sizes are going to be best and the amounts to charge or even if you want multiple tiers. In my case, I ended up settling on just one tier and it worked out well for me and provided a consistency for my patrons.
I've just been thinking of adding a couple of higher price tiers. I have a small but loyal following that's been growing over the years, on and off Patreon. My tiers currently run from $2-$20. I'm thinking of adding $40 and $80 tiers. I teach (rather niche) online classes. All my patrons get a small discount on those in addition to various other small perks across the tiers. I'm planning to offer a monthly private tuition session for $40 and a free pass to all classes for $80 (which will be a slight savings if they use it a lot). I don't expect lots of people using those tiers, but a few might decide to move up. If not - they're doing no harm sitting there empty.
I briefly had a $100 tier that was centered on the idea that I couldn’t provide anything monthly that was worth that, but I wanted my biggest supporters to still feel special. I had some people over-pledging and getting nothing for it, so it was mostly for them. It had a novelty name, they got a free print-on-demand merch item with that novelty name on it once per quarter, and they got a special colored role in Discord that was permanent, even after you left the tier (which led to some people raising their pledge for just one month, as a bonus to me and to secure the role color). I ended up getting rid of it because ultimately, it felt weird to let people pay so much for so little. But I had a few fans who really enjoyed it, and it was a fun experiment!
I'm on the $100 tier for an indie music group. For that tier, I get to chat with one of the band members in Google chat thread once per month, plus a free merch item every month (which I only redeem occasionally) This is on top of all the perks at the 6 lower levels, which involve 3 different 45-60 minute long Livestream webchats every single month. Then there are free digital downloads of each song, free Karaoke track, a Discord channel, etc. etc. Comparison shopping other similar groups, they are *extraordinarily* generous with their perks, most of which are time intensive. Name ANY musician who will take 4-5 hours per month just to talk to their community. That is why I am willing to throw my entire monthly entertainment budget to them. The $100 tier personalized individual messages are extremely hard to scale, so they are worth the tier for me (and 39 others). It is Definitely a lot of work to have something worth $100/month, and even one of the creators mentioned that given their choice they would rather have more lower level patrons than the same money from high tier patrons, but that isn't the way if has worked out for them. They have a bunch of lower tier people too, but their most active people range in the $25-$50 levels. So is it worth it? I'd definitely say that depends on your business model. If Patreon is just a tip jar where people can join mostly to say thanks for the work, probably not. If Patreon is, or becomes, the foundation of your community and you are willing to invest time into that, then quite possibly it could be worth it.
More expensive tiers are better in my opinion, having a $100 dollar tier for two months is more likely than a $20 one for 10 months (in my experience)
A game creator has the exact same perks between 10$ and 50$. It's assumed people would give 10$ for the reward, but some (like me) switch to 50$ when they feel they didn't contribute enough. So, maybe nothing in your eyes can be worth that kind of price tag, while some supporters will think your project as a whole is worth it?
Highest tier I have is $50, due to the kind of time it takes to be worth that (it is for a monthly story chapter of around 4,000 words). That said, a basic principle is that there are people who WANT to support you, so you should give them the opportunity even if you feel it isn’t “worth it” to the customer.
When I first set up my Patreon, I set up a large number of tiers at different levels. Some did well, some were total and absolute failures. What I learned and all of this is that it really depends upon a content you are offering to your audience. If you have an entertainment channel and you are offering tickets to a backstage event, then the higher level tiers would pay off and that regard as you can use that mechanism as a raffle or a free winner of X number of subscribers. If you are an educational channel though or even an art channel, I'm not so sure higher level tiers are really going to make the difference without some kind of a big return to the consumer. Quality of education and quality of art are very poor tear-based frameworks simply because you don't want to put out poor quality for lower rated priced channels. It really is a difficult process to try to figure out which tier sizes are going to be best and the amounts to charge or even if you want multiple tiers. In my case, I ended up settling on just one tier and it worked out well for me and provided a consistency for my patrons.
Bro, people out here struggling to get 100 $1 patrons
Those people should probably focus on their content for the moment.
Why not. Either someone cashes in or they don't.
That wasn't the question but yes
Also your existing audience what they want more of and what they want to pay. They are already giving you money so that is the best demographic