I need your help

PDFs are ok, but I usually get a huge amount of value by watching people do paint. Tiny things like seeing how much you load your brush, how you work the airbrush (blowback, trigger work). I’m also curious about 1on1 sessions, but the timing might be tricky as I’m in AU.

Aron Bury

Yeah, as a patron you'd get them all for free. You wouldn't need to buy them

I think they're great if you can make it invisible behind the scenes on Patreon. I subscribe to a couple of channels that are $XX for each map release or the link. If you can make a Patreon tier that has both the base membership ($5/month or whatever), and $2 per released PDF, I'd sign up. If I have to buy them separately, I probably wouldn't bother.

Loyd Blankenship

Offering a $2 PDF to Patrons before they are released to the public sounds good. Makes Patrons feel valued without any additional work on your part. $5 seems like a good price for a general release. (or 4.99 as folks have been saying) The chances that your PDF content will line up with what your Patrons are working on that month will probably be rare, so you will probably get more $5 sales in the future that early bird purchases anyway. People will find the PDF when they need the info - which is why they are watching the video on YouTube (often months later) so this revenue stream could be evergreen and ever widening as your library of PDF's becomes larger.

Thank you for the feedback, Billy. There are a lot of resources out there to be sure!

As a patron you'd get the PDF included in your rewards! You wouldn't need to buy it. Thanks for the feedback!!

Excellent!! Thanks for the feedback!

Ooh...LaTeX....bringing me back to college and CS classes!!

Thanks for the feedback, Emily. I appreciate it!

Just throwing my 2 cents out there (not hating). I think it would be a nice little Patreon bonus that I probably wouldn't look too much. Personally, I would never pay any sort of money for a PDF, there's just too much information out there. If I need ideas for painting one of my minis (I've only been painting a few months, so maybe others do it differently); I use Reddit, Google, Instagram or YouTube, get some ideas on colors and figure the rest out myself. Free is always better, at least that's the way I look at it. This is an expensive hobby. Minis, tools, paints, all cost a lot. I've seen plenty of people get the color recommendations from Reddit, for example. Like you said, there isn't one way to paint them. I personally like the way Warhammer TV does it. They throw up on the screen of their video what colors they're using. Sometimes if I really like a color, I might buy it, otherwise I just use whatever I have that might come close or like better. I would say it's definitely worth a shot for you to try it though. If you can make money with it, that's awesome. Just me personally, if I wasn't a Patreon (Patron?), I probably wouldn't be a buyer of the PDFs.

Billy Mark

As a patreon, I would pay $4.99 for a PDF painting guide from you. I also agree with the $4.99 instead of $5. I am on board also!

Walter

While I love the videos, I don't paint in front of my TV. I have purchased, over the years, several books on "how to paint miniatures." They've been helpful and even if I'm not painting that specific mini, I can find inspiration in the photos and the text explaining the process. This is a really good idea. I'm on board.

I think it’s an awesome idea, but if you plan on charging $4-5 for a pdf (which is fair, but I agree with the above marketing advice and make it 3.99 and 4.99), I would say only include free for patreon a who give $2 if you go for 3.99, and then $3 if charging 4.99. I think your work is worth it, and a $2 discount is great.

I think this is a great idea, and I think it is definitely achievable. I write PDF's for Computer Science concepts currently, to break down certain ideas, etc. Doing this for painting seems fantastic, because a nicely laid out and well formatted PDF is like finding a nice bit o' gold. The price definitely seems reasonable as well. I think you'll find you'll put a decent amount of time at first into creating the PDF, but it will get easier with experience. I think it would also be a good idea to have a section of your store to sell the PDF's at the standard $4, even during the Patron part. This gives people who do not want to become patrons the ability to still purchase your product, just at a higher price point, but then they don't have to wait as well. I also agree with what others have said here, in that it does not need to be an entire mini. Something like flame effects, OSL objects, etc. could easily be there very own, very intriguing PDF. I hope this idea is able to bear fruit for you. Also, there are great free ways to create very nice PDF's, such as LaTeX, if you don't want to pay for Adobe Acrobat Pro.

My original thought was that the PDFs would come out whenever I painted something to completion but based on some feedback from others, it sounds like they wouldn't mind smaller PDFs about individual parts of a mini. It's quite possible to do it once a month with that in mind. When you say $5, do you mean $5 on patreon?

The humor stays!..unless it causes the content to be demonetized..haha

That's some wisdom right there, Jonas! It's tough to shoot for the stars and not be over burdened at times. I'll try my best.

Paypal is totally do-able, just need to shell out for a paypal business account, so it's a possibility. What do you mean by "splitting up body party" ?

I like and support the idea! Would that be a one-off, or a regular release with different focuses? (basically a translation of your thematic videos). If it's a one off, 5$ would be a minimum. If I could see a sample of a few pages before buying, I would be happy to pay the right value for it (maybe have a minimum 5$ and offer the opportunity to contribute more). If you expect regular write ups, 5$ per month seems about right. Cheers from Europe! And keep up the great work!

I like the idea in general I think the pricing is fair and i'm sure the content will be great you're a fantastic painter! I view Patreon as a way to support individuals who I wish to achieve their goals and grow their channel. Your entertainment and great video content are brilliant, I don't tend to look for free stuff personally. I don't think it would be beneficial if it takes up a huge amount of your time. Having a direct communication link and behind the scenes access is reward enough. I suppose what I am trying to say is, I like it and I hope it provides you with the revenue you're after. However Keep your content unique, maybe put your own stamp on it a little! Don't lose that humour!

This is awsome! 🤘🏻 Good on you that you have high goels! And I think this is a Great idée. You just have to watch out for becoming over burdened. You have to find a balanse between the ambitions of the pdf and time. Ok?

I think that would be a good idea, my 22 cents would be: Pricing: 5 bucks would be my gues for a price learn from the rest, there's a reason why companies charge 4,99 instead of 5 bucks. It's not misleading, it's marketing and it works. Specific content: I would pay the money for minis I would want to have. Seeing I'm mainly interested in 40k Aeldari most of the things won't be very Interesting for me. Unless it's a colour scheme I like, i don't like "splitting up body parts" like they do on the 40ktv yt channel. From a consumer point of view I like the system someone else above me talked about, with getting 1 download a month for patreon support. But would be fine with the system you talk about. Maybe switch it up when your library gets bigger would be a thing for the future. Love the idea, my one request would be to get some more support for other payment options. The CC may be popular in the US, but in Europe it isn't and it's a PayPal (or iDeal) world mainly.

This is a great idea! I look forward to them :)

BirbSeed

That kind of information would be saved for the video, whereas the PDF is much more to the point. Is that OK?

Being someone who spends and embarrassing amount each month on patreon subscriptions purely for these kind of step by step/colour guide pdf's, i'm all for it. Going more in depth into your thought process behind why you chose certain colours, the properties of how they mix when highlighting/shading etc, and the techniques you used would be very appealing to me personally and would distinguish you from the tons of other creators who are just posting basic SBS pdfs.

sam adams

I don't think I'd be comfortable having people bid on that. Maybe I'll just include it as incentive for patreon :)

Scott this sounds amazing! Consider me in! Also a thought perhaps patreons could "bid" dollar amounts to see how you would paint a mini of the winners choice, film your painting of that mini so the winner and others can follow along, perhaps those videos could be at an additional cost to view it tier or something. I'd be in on that as well

John Jayne

Calvin, thanks for the feedback. I'd toss them up on my store that I have: <a href="https://miniac.bigcartel.com/products" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://miniac.bigcartel.com/products</a> would this work?

Awesome idea! Many are using it. About the paints, you can always show alternatives to paints that you used like the conversion charts and sort if people are so inclined to knowing the color to get themselves an idea on how to further combine colors. That the way also to learn from these PDFs. Great idea scotty boy! (In the voice of a pirate crewmen ) lol

Sergio Martinez Jr.

I like this idea. It would be great, but I don't know if you even need to do a whole miniature. I would love to see a guide with just a power ax or what not. Just done in maybe 2-3 different ways and explain how to do it in a few color combo choices ie blue, green, pink. I do agree on the $5 bucks though. ( Five dollar holla.) As far as the color choices, I think if you say what you use, others can translate it to other paint rangers on their own. That way you don't have to worry about that part. I don't mind the time limited pdf's. But I do think if your going to sell them, get a store set up so you can just post it then and be done. I feel like it would be a huge time sync to track down and do it all manually. If it's on your patron it's great, but then I would say it's on us to download it during the month. I would almost be concerned that it eats up to much time to create a new one along with manage requests for past pdfs.

Thanks for the feedback, Justin. TIps and Advice is a possibility. Could you give me an example of what types of tips you would want to see in a PDF? Would it be in its' own PDF or included in the painting guide for a particular mini?

I guess it wouldn't stop them from leaving. They would just leave as they had previously intended to do. If I kept a backlog of PDFs, there would be no reason to sell them individually then. If you could become a patron for $2 and get 3-4 PDFs v.s. pay $5 for one, the path you would take is clear. I'm not sure which is a better idea! I appreciate your feedback.

I think this is a great idea. Personally, I never look at painting guides/videos as gospel anyway. I'm always looking for ways I can incorporate ideas and techniques in my own journey of solving problems. I agree with Ryan above that having a list of recommendations, even in broad terms as opposed to exact brands/items, would be a great resource. Maybe also some kind of monthly "Tips/Advice" on certain techniques that are used on a particular project?

I don't know much about all the colors in all the ranges. Would it be valuable to describe the color in common terms and/or include a swatch of the color? I envisioned doing the second one for sure.

Thank you for the feedback. Just so I understand what you're saying fully, you're saying that if my PDF is as detailed as the image I linked above, I should sell it for $5? It should still be for $2+ patrons, for the discount. Does that sound right?

I think this is a good idea. However, I'm not too sure about the time-restrictions part. Having a large back-log of PDFs available for download to new patrons would be a good incentive to get people in the door, and having quality in those guides with regular releases will keep people on the channel. If someone is going to be a jerk and join the patron just to download all the PDF guides and then leave the next month, why would having time-gated access to the guides stop them from leaving? The only thing that's going to stop people from leaving is regular content releases, not time-gating previous ones.

Aubrey (The Hobby Humanist) Robertson

Yes, agree with price point I think it's worth at least $5 if it's that detailed. I think as long a you have a post or video or text in the document along the lines of "I used Citadel Ushabti Bone but any off white cream with a yellow green tint such as Vallejo German Yellow would work", etc. Or recommend one of those equivalents guides, explain how to mix colors, or recommend the mobile app paintRack, etc. Recommending things might also be a way to monetize via partnerships I suppose.

The intricate detail of the step by step is amazing, and after taking your Masterclass, I would very much be interested in this approach. If you included some of the background knowledge of why something is the way it is, I think your pricepoint may be a tad low...I would expect to pay more like $5 for something clearly detailed. Also, clear images of each stage "frozen in time" allows someone like me who is a slower painter, to really examine the part I am tackling, and understand it, not just "paint by numbers".