A Tier for Hugs

A couple of years ago, when I moved back from Brazil to Portugal after almost a decade removed from home, I had a plan. With the relative success my Patreon had had until then, and with the help of the people who decided to support my art activities, I would use the resulting income to kickstart my freelance illustrator career in Portugal. Future growth would be obtained by increasing my audience and the pool of watchers where new supporters could be found. Until that income became sufficient to ensure the livelihood of my family, commissions would make up the difference.

Problem is, the growth never came. My Patreon income has been stagnated for the last 3 years, despite the growth of my audience in other platforms. And in the last month, it had a sudden decrease of 15%, which frankly made me panic. My plan was no longer taking longer than expected to take effect: it was falling apart.

My cheap reward tiers were supposed to symbolize a low barrier of entry for supporters, but I severely underestimated the psychological effect they would have in inhibiting support with higher amounts, even if in practice, nothing was preventing supporters from increasing their pledges.

The new tier, "Expert", was created to mitigate that effect. It doesn't offer any additional art content for now - just the promise of my amplified gratefulness and Discord hugs on demand. The associated pledge amount is $8/month.

If a significant portion of my $2 supporters make the move to the new tier, that will compensate for the recent decrease, and then some. It will incentivize me to dedicate more time to interact with you, to draw my own characters, and to share my own takes on popular fandom characters. The stuff that I like the most, and I know that you like it too. You've told me so throughout the years.

It should go without saying, but I don't want any money from you that you can't afford to spare. For those that can afford it, that additional support would make a great difference, and would bring a smile to the woof who loves to make you smile - and who would love nothing more than being enabled to continue doing so.

Thank you all so much for your continued support!