NEWS: Apple's new requirements on Patreon.
Heya!
I'm sure some of you have read the news that due to new Apple requirements on the App Store they'll be adding a fee on top of your pledge if you pledge via the App Store version.
However, you will not be required to pay this fee if you pledge via a web browser. So make sure you go that route! This change does not affect current pledges though! So that's good.
You can read more about it all in this article.
On top of this Patreon is moving over ALL creators to the new standard subscription model by November this year which means the legacy model, that I use, will no longer be in effect. This means that any new pledges (again, old pledges are not affected) will be charged as soon as you join.
This also means that me sending a Dropbox link with the pinups at the start of every month will no longer be viable since I'd want new patrons to get something as soon as they join.
The idea I had was to always leave up 1 months worth of past pinups in the feed and then simply remove them when the new month rolls around.
However, putting the full packs as posts on Patreon leaves them vulnerable to Patreon-scraping websites. And putting the Dropbox link in the post also gets scraped.
So either I bite the bullet and let this happen or I find another way to implement Dropbox links!
If you guys have any ideas of how I can make the new subscription model work, do let me know in the comments! Maybe you're pledged to other creators that has a good model going?
Comments (16)
I can understand the concerns about the Patreon scrapers, but those too require someone to have a pledge in the first place and therefore the intention to scrape your stuff. And if that intention is already there, then it doesn't matter if you make it easy for them by having the stuff in posts or more effort by handing it out via DMs. I personally prefer being able to see all the past content for the tier I pledged, meaning things just being uploaded as Patreon posts, but I can also understand why some creators hand it out via DMs. I don't think it helps as much as they hope it does, but I can still understand their reasons. As a sidenote here: Discord isn't safe either, if there's someone who can be bothered to scrape it. The main reason I prefer the former model is mainly because it takes the pressure off of keeping up with stuff being given out, since that's most of the time (if done via DMs) time limited, I /have/ to keep up or I'll miss it. And keeping up has been real fun since June since Patreon broke my notifications... I've not gotten a SINGLE notification since June, so I am even less a fan of the DM sent model by now : / While I have zero experience on how making art for paying the bills works, I can share my thoughts from the side of someone paying for the art: if people want to support you, then they will support you, regardless of your stuff being available elsewhere for free.
I guess what I struggle to see is how giving full access to all pinups I've done since 2016 for one subscription fee is viable? Maybe I'm old fashioned since I'm basically doing the magazine subscription model where you pay for upcoming articles. Which is why I went the Gumroad route which has been very good for me! I am however thinking of putting low res nude versions in the Patreon feed but then if you want the full res versions you stay until the start of the next month as usual to recieve them in DM's. But yeah missing out on the DM's is a problem of course! Which is why I decided to leave the Dropbox links up in case someone has missed the DM with the link in it. But maybe I simply have to move with the times and do it the Netflix way hehe. Aka have some kind of vault where I have 8 years worth of pinups available for $10 as soon as someone pledges. It does seem to work for other creators! Alternatively have a higher tier where you get access to this vault? I'm thankful for the input though and you are 100% correct about people who wants to support me will do so no matter what. Scrapers shouldn't decide the user experience for the every day patron.
Probably a wild idea, but have you ever thought about sending out links via email? I have no idea about the options Patreon offers you.
DM's are kind of like email since they do notify via peoples connected email. Although traditional email would be a bit of a hassle since I would have to send things out manually ): I don't think there's a mail integration with Patreon in that way
Hey, not sure if this could help but have you looked into using Zapier? It has Patreon, Dropbox, etc. integrations and triggers for new member creation. So in theory you could have an automation that triggers when someone signs up, grabs a share link from Dropbox, and sends an email using that new member's email. You could have it always link to a "last month" folder that you would update with the appropriate files.
I have seen a couple artists place the temporary links on a private discord channel. (That requires a role to access) Is discord as likely to be scraped as Patreon?
I'm not sure! I haven't seen anything about discord scraping but the problem is that it requires users to have a discord account which may be an annoying hurdle for some. Sure, most people these days have one but I wouldn't rely too much on third party sign ups hehe
Glad to see that my Anti-Apple bias proven right again.
Yeah most other artists I pledge with have a new member welcome message with the last month's dropbox link. I guess they just change the link every month
Right now the welcome message route does seem like the best option!
Can you create discount codes on Gumroad? If so, my suggestion would be to have a post with a discount code for the latest pinup set to make it free, then just edit the post each month (or delete it and write a new post with the new code).
Since Gumroad suspended me I could look into doing something similar with Itchio! That's an interesting idea
Some artists just send automatic messages to every patreon at the start of the month with a new dropbox link. Maybe something like that?
That's what I do currently! But yeah if I do that someone who joins after this message is sent out they'll get no full resolution pinups when they join ):
What the fuck does Apple?! XD
They sure love to be very anti-consumer!