Ran into a problem on the new site.

Actually, these past 2 weeks of website building have been nothing BUT problems. It's like I'm dealing with a Hydra of problems; solve 1 problem, and 2~3 more appear. Still, I guess it's part and parcel of building a site all on your own, eh?

By the way, how you doin'? Good?

Anyway, there's a problem that I've run into as I'm building the new site, one which loosely connects back here on pixivFANBOX: The credit card processor which I'm using takes about 50% of the $1 dollar tier I'm setting up there.

What do I mean?

I've currently integrated my site with "Stripe", a credit card processing company that makes their profits by taking a percentage fee of every transaction made. That fee (for my country) would be 3.4% + 50 cents. You can see it yourself by clicking here.

How is this a problem?

Well, the problem is the flat + 50 cents. This means that the lower the transaction amount, the higher the percentage that Stripe would take.

So, using the $1 tier as an example; for every $1 transaction, Stripe would take 3.4% + 50 cents = 53 cents. In other words, Stripe takes a whopping 53% of the $1 tier (HOLY SHIT). Honestly, you'd be supporting Stripe more and RandoWis less in this case.

If we used the $3 tier as an example; for every $3 transaction, Stripe would take 3.4% + 50 cents = 59 cents. $0.59 would be 19% of $3.

The lower the transaction amount, the higher the percentage taken.

Unlike what is advertised, majority of your money isn't going into supporting RandoWis (which technically makes me a fraud, haha).

"What about pixivFANBOX?", you might ask.

pixivFANBOX takes a flat 10% of the total amount earned. Another way to look at it, is that for every $1 pledged here, pixivFANBOX takes 10 cents. Arigatou gozaimasu, FANBOX senpai.

The solution?

It pains me to say this, but in order for most of a supporter's money to go into actually supporting RandoWis, and to make the tiers viable for me to even earn from, tiers are going to begin at $3 on the new RandoWis site. I'll also be adding a $7 tier there so as to not choke potential supporters with too little choices (a mistake I made here, when we first started), making the options available on 'randowis.com': $3, $5, $7 (all in USD).

What's this news got to do with here?

Well, it's my intention to make the experience of supporting me here and 'randowis.com' to be as identical as possible, if not completely identical. For this reason, I intend to add a ¥700 (~7 USD) option for this FANBOX page as well.

Many of you, if not all of you, know that I am not a fan of making higher tiers, but if 'randowis.com' would have this option, I feel it's only fair that it be available here too.

However, I'll only add this ¥700 option after relaunching the main RandoWis site.

What do you think?

I know I've said time and time again that I won't add anymore tiers, yet here we are not only adding another one, but removing the smallest tier on 'randowis.com'. I can only apologise for these constant contradictions, and that the reasons above are enough to justify these decisions. While I know some wouldn't mind, I implore those that do to please speak your mind.

As I come to terms with myself for making these changes, I'd thought it be at least fair to inform you all first before implementing them.

So, let me know your thoughts if you have any!

Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the comments!

Feedback is always welcome, so please speak your mind!

Love you much much, and I'll see you in the next post! ♥

-RandoWis