Proposed Reward Changes

Hello everyone!

I am thinking of making some significant changes to the way tiers work on Patreon and I wanted to pitch them here before I go ahead. Basically, the number of patrons has been floating between 100-130 for a long time, but recently patrons have been shifting more to the $5 tier. This makes sense to me as the higher $15 tier no longer has an exclusive comic as a reward and the other $15 exclusive rewards like animations or CG sets were always limited in number and never regular.

I have always been the biggest contributor to the Patreon, but recently my share is reaching a level I can't sustain. This is because of an drop in overall monthly pledges, as well as me giving a raise to Pop Lee to help with inflation. So, either we make fewer pages per month, or I bring in more patrons, or I offer incentives for patrons to increase their pledge.  I don't want to do the first one, I've continued to try the second one, but now I think I have to focus more on the third option. I had hoped that making the side comic and bonus pages free would be enough to bring in more patrons, but I don't think that has happened. So, now I'm trying another route.

So, I am considering making the bonus pages exclusive to $5+ patrons, side comic pages exclusive to $15 patrons, adding a voting option to the bonus pages and all voting options available only to $15 tier patrons. I am also working with Pop Lee for him to offer a new reward for $15 patrons, which would be painting and art experimentations that he does for the comic.

Please let me know how you feel about these proposed changes. I have always wanted to give as much of the comic away for free, the main comic pages will always be free, but the Patreon needs to be sustainable if the comic is to continue and there are hundreds more pages to get through. I am open to ideas and input from the community.

I have always seen every pledge as a gift. No one owes me any money and I understand this is a luxury purchase. The comic doesn't exist without the patrons and probably would have stopped a long time ago without all of your support. Thank you to everyone who has given so generously already.