You mentioned in the IGG that you pondered doing a pay by strip patreon. I am 99% sure that is perfectly viable by Pateron and I would be more than happy to chip in on such an adventure. Very happy to see you around again and good luck with everything!
Patreon does support a pay-per-deliverable approach. What it doesn’t do (not formally anyway) is support a minimum revenue before production begins.
For example, if I only have enough backers to earn $250/strip, I can’t produce a single strip. So I guess I’d have to state clearly that I can only start production once I get to $500 per “deliverable.” Then once I get to $500, I can get going, but then we need to determine what frequency backers are confortable with… It’s the backers footing the bill after all.
The other approach (monthly payments) is messier. I’d have to manually track revenues and every time I get to $500, I can produce a strip. It makes accounting (and accountability) much more complicated and error-prone.
But yes, that’s definitely a better route to go than IGG.
Here’s a crazy idea I’ve been working on. Why not do a stretch-it-out patreon? Get a slush fund through igg and then spend that to make up the change while the patreon isn’t high enough. If the patreon goes over 500 then start by filling the slush fund to some preset amount and then start doing extra strips.
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Jaycee
It’s doable, but I’m trying to avoid maintaining two accounting systems unless I absolutely have to. Two systems make it more complicated to give visibility to the backers and are more error prone.
I’m currently looking at Patreon and if I were to use a “pay-per-content” approach, I only need to wait until I’ve reached the necessary amount before starting production. I think that might be the simplest approach…
–Jaycee
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Travan
Of course the downside to the ‘pay per content’ approach is that it gives less clarity to the backers about how much they’re going to pay. If you back per item expecting one per month and suddenly there’s four, your donation just skyrocketed
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Jaycee
Agreed. I think the first thing I’d do is to be clear that I’m bringing the comic back on a weekly basis. Thinking back on it, I don’t think extra money would mean more weekly pages, it would probably be some extra backer-exclusive content instead (ebooks, pin-ups, maybe exclusive comics, etc.)
–Jaycee
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Shan
You can cap monthly contributions on Patreon, so you can limit it to just paying for one post per month regardless of whether there’s 2,3,4 and so on.
You can see the potential problem on the other end for someone making the product who needs revenue to do so …
Just to make it explicit, what are the plans for the archive of comics and now-inaccessible old members content? Any plans to bring them back, in installments maybe?
I’d love to give the comic for free, but I no longer have the extra cash to do that. To put things into perspective, it cost over USD $60,000 over the course of 7.5 years to produce all of the content on the site. This is a HIGHLY conservative estimate and does not take into account my own time (for which I never received a dime). The bulk of that money was paid by the members, but I myself am probably short $10k-$15k (again, a very conservative estimate).
If you or anyone happen to have that extra cash, I’ll be glad to continue supporting a free and open Internet. What do you say?
18 thoughts on “One More Comic?”
Sad Fan
BF was one of my favorite comics and I really miss following it. Of course, I’d like to see more!
Jaycee
If you haven’t done so already, be sure to check the IndieGoGo campaign.
https://igg.me/at/bf410
Lurker
Spammed a link to some forums and Discord channels, let’s see if it generates more interest
TheTitan84
You mentioned in the IGG that you pondered doing a pay by strip patreon. I am 99% sure that is perfectly viable by Pateron and I would be more than happy to chip in on such an adventure. Very happy to see you around again and good luck with everything!
Jaycee
Patreon does support a pay-per-deliverable approach. What it doesn’t do (not formally anyway) is support a minimum revenue before production begins.
For example, if I only have enough backers to earn $250/strip, I can’t produce a single strip. So I guess I’d have to state clearly that I can only start production once I get to $500 per “deliverable.” Then once I get to $500, I can get going, but then we need to determine what frequency backers are confortable with… It’s the backers footing the bill after all.
The other approach (monthly payments) is messier. I’d have to manually track revenues and every time I get to $500, I can produce a strip. It makes accounting (and accountability) much more complicated and error-prone.
But yes, that’s definitely a better route to go than IGG.
–Jaycee
Travan
Here’s a crazy idea I’ve been working on. Why not do a stretch-it-out patreon? Get a slush fund through igg and then spend that to make up the change while the patreon isn’t high enough. If the patreon goes over 500 then start by filling the slush fund to some preset amount and then start doing extra strips.
Jaycee
It’s doable, but I’m trying to avoid maintaining two accounting systems unless I absolutely have to. Two systems make it more complicated to give visibility to the backers and are more error prone.
I’m currently looking at Patreon and if I were to use a “pay-per-content” approach, I only need to wait until I’ve reached the necessary amount before starting production. I think that might be the simplest approach…
–Jaycee
Travan
Of course the downside to the ‘pay per content’ approach is that it gives less clarity to the backers about how much they’re going to pay. If you back per item expecting one per month and suddenly there’s four, your donation just skyrocketed
Jaycee
Agreed. I think the first thing I’d do is to be clear that I’m bringing the comic back on a weekly basis. Thinking back on it, I don’t think extra money would mean more weekly pages, it would probably be some extra backer-exclusive content instead (ebooks, pin-ups, maybe exclusive comics, etc.)
–Jaycee
Shan
You can cap monthly contributions on Patreon, so you can limit it to just paying for one post per month regardless of whether there’s 2,3,4 and so on.
You can see the potential problem on the other end for someone making the product who needs revenue to do so …
Joe England
Ahh! I’m glad to see that there’s yet hope. Good luck, Jaycee!
pythix
Just to make it explicit, what are the plans for the archive of comics and now-inaccessible old members content? Any plans to bring them back, in installments maybe?
Jaycee
At the moment, the short-term plan (as was mentioned in the Indiegogo campaign) is to make it available as a higher-tier reward for big-money backers.
I haven’t decided anything for the long term yet.
–Jaycee
Dr. O
Wait, You’re back?! O_o
Jaycee
I’m baAAAack…sorta. If you read the latest posts, you’ll get a better picture of what’s happening.
–Jaycee
Guesticus
Hope this works for you, can’t afford to fund personally, butt still hope it works
SomeOldGuy
Sorry to hear this news.
It was great while it lasted. Another one sucked behind a paywall.
Good by free and open internet!
Jaycee
I’d love to give the comic for free, but I no longer have the extra cash to do that. To put things into perspective, it cost over USD $60,000 over the course of 7.5 years to produce all of the content on the site. This is a HIGHLY conservative estimate and does not take into account my own time (for which I never received a dime). The bulk of that money was paid by the members, but I myself am probably short $10k-$15k (again, a very conservative estimate).
If you or anyone happen to have that extra cash, I’ll be glad to continue supporting a free and open Internet. What do you say?
–Jaycee
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