Pat(reon|hetic) · 11:11pm Oct 23rd, 2017
I have a Patreon. It isn't for the money (I don't need it), it's for my fans... but it isn't working out yet.
Currently I have one patron donating $1. I'd prefer to have a few patrons, so I could do cool stuff for them, like take polls to see what they want me to work on next, release stuff early, etc. I'm just not sure how to do that thing. I've seen other ponies' Patreon accounts who have a similar follower count, and they seem to be more successful.
So I'm curious whether I should do any of the following things to improve Patreon participation:
0) give up and remove Patreon account altogether
1) increase word count: charge $1 every 20,000 or 30,000 words instead of every 10,000
2) reduce cost for the higher tiers, which are more likely to draw interest
3) stop releasing stories for a while, see if that encourages ponies to contribute
4) wait, the account is still new and fans will come eventually
5) something else
I'm open to suggestions! 
I kinda failed at Patreon once already, yet I'm starting to reconsider that. D: I dunno how to make it work good, tho.
4706280
As I recall, most of what you were offering was contract-related stuff which isn't really what Patreon is for (like, editing services). It isn't really a platform for indirectly selling your services, it's more for add-ons when you already produce a lot of work (either free or pay).
Not 3) please
I dunno. Maybe people who would patreon are already patreoned out. Maybe you didn't get on the patreon wagon early enough. I have a good number of donors, but most of them pledged early on.
I say go with number 4. Just wait and see who might nibble.
I don't have personal experience so take these suggestions with a grain of salt. That being said, here's what I've seen others do:
1) mention your patreon as often as you can without being annoying. Put it somewhere obvious on your user page, put it in the author's notes of your new stories, make blog posts like this every couple months, etc.
2) Try to release on a somewhat regular basis. If people know what they're getting and when they're getting it they'll be more willing to give money
3) give it time. It's always hard to convince people to give you money when they don't have to.
#1 is the most important. If people don't know that you're asking for money they won't give it to you. If it's not in your stories' descriptions or author's notes, how will your readers know about it? You don't want to be obnoxious but you definitely don't want it to be hidden.
I'm gonna say either 2 or 5, though I don't know what that something else might be. I know I've been pretty tempted to switch to the Flutterbatshit Insane tier just for the creepy stuff in the mail. I'm sure I bug you enough on Discord that I should bump it up to at least Discordant
I think the account's old enough that you should've gotten a few more patrons by now. The word count seems perfectly reasonable, though it might not be a bad idea if done in conjunction with 2. Cutting people off from new fics might work, but I could see it backfiring just as easily. You should wait until you've exhausted your other options first. What's probably hurting you the most is that people know you don't need the money and won't quit your job to focus on horse words
4706396
It might be that I have too high a baseline output. I don't need incorrigement, so I'm not getting any. With you, it's more of an attempt to squeeze out horsewords. (Plus, you're a better writer than I am.)
If you honestly don't need the money, then what's the point? If you're looking for statistical data on what your fans want, you're only going to end up with data from the select few people willing to pay actual money to let you know (since you've already said that you don't need the money)... which is going to skew your results wildly, if you even get enough usable data...
You might do better just running polls through your blog. You have plenty of followers, I'm sure many don't care to comment all the time, but taking a poll is a lot easier for those people to do, and it won't cost them anything.
4706584
You have a good point. The mane reason is I want to have something less Fimfictiony to use to communicate with a broader base of people. I plan to put other creative works up as well, though most will be pony related because ponies.
It's more for fun than profit, so I'd still like to leave it up unless it becomes a distraction.
4706377
, even if I think it might be the best option. 
I only included that to
Hm, I'm really not sure for this one.