As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, I’ve decided on a couple of first steps in trying to make LiA self-supporting (at least a little). Please see below the fold…
Update: I’m overwhelmed by the response on the first day – my sincere thanks to everyone who contributed! Some of you didn’t note your username, so all I have is email addresses – and I’m obviously not going to share those. So if you don’t see your name below, that’s why – rest assured I’m grateful. Patreon may be a little scary, it seems, since everyone chose to use Paypal, heh.
That said, here’s the honor roll so far:
- Pocari Sweat and Steven (leading the pack)
- Ronbb (first to contribute)
- SKK
- Mark
- Sonic
- Daan
- Chris
- Rita
- Piotr
- Richard
First things first – thank you to Chris Bennett for pointing me towards Patreon in the comments. I very much like the idea behind that site and I’ve decided to make it a part of what I do here going forward. I’ve set up a site with them, which you can view here.
The basic idea behind Patreon is pretty simple – you find a creator you like, you support them on a per-creation basis (a blog post, a song, a video, whatever). You pledge whatever you want (a penny, a dollar, anything) for every item they create. In practical terms, that means every time I post content on Lost in America, those pledges kick in.
What I really like about Patreon is that they’ve set up a pretty diverse artistic community in a short time (the founder, Jack Conte, is a very cool guy with an interesting story) and that it works great for anyone who wants to support the site on an ongoing basis. For example:
- Let’s say you want to pledge $5 a month to support LiA (or any other creator). You can pledge .10 a post, a buck, whatever – but when you create the pledge you simply cap it at $5 a month. That means when I’ve created enough posts to reach the cap, your pledge stops for that month. And if you want to stop for good, you just cancel the pledge.
The only major drawback I see here is that you have to join Patreon if you want to pledge – though that’s easy enough to do, and they take Paypal, all major CCs, etc. for donations.
- Shout-outs to everyone who supports. I think this is a no-brainer.
- Maybe a guest post for the top contributor every month – assuming they want to do one?
- Reader requests for the top contributors – stuff they want to see a post about.
- Truth or Dare (geh-heh)
Really, the sky’s the limit here – that, and the fact that I have a finite amount of time so this sort of thing has to be realistic. Let me know what you think might work.
Flower
November 17, 2013 at 4:31 amOh ho? Interesting. Well, I hope everything works out for the best for you. ^^
The patreon site is a kinda neat idea imo – I like it!
Ronbb
November 17, 2013 at 4:50 amJust made a donation. Wishing you all the best.
elianthos80
November 17, 2013 at 10:46 am*applause* 😀
Ronbb
November 17, 2013 at 4:38 pm:)…trying to do it in lightning speed or before I can't.
sonicsenryaku
November 17, 2013 at 6:58 amAyeeeeeeeee…..nice and quick (i expected you to maul over this for a couple more days) Well im making due on my promise so continue the good work; until next time.
Rita
November 17, 2013 at 7:08 amOooh the pledge sounds wonderful. Plus the donate button will being seeing use already from my end >u<
AND YES TRUTH OR DARE WHAT DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT
melodic thoughts
November 17, 2013 at 10:18 amreader requests! like say if you have the time, you could provide short posts of places in Japan (well you do already 🙂 but maybe a little more) like places u frequent, a few shots of your house and stuff like that that isn't too hard :D:D
or maybe a very very short and mini podcast of your own, on content that we don't find on RC. something really really short, since everyone here knows you invested so much time on LiA already
melodic thoughts
November 17, 2013 at 10:21 amif say, you would agree to the mini podcast suggestion, pleeeeasssseee do hunter x hunter hahaha. thanks as always!
ohh, i thought of something else again! maybe the podcast could guest the top contributors for LiA – a payback for those who donate!
admin
November 17, 2013 at 10:35 amWell, the challenge here is time and the time to learn, really – those RC podcasts all I have to do is show up and be obnoxious. I've never done one before and really don't even know how to go about it.
melodic thoughts
November 17, 2013 at 10:48 am😀 haha, nah you're not obnoxious at all~ thanks for considering it though!
elianthos80
November 17, 2013 at 10:55 amFast and efficient as usual :D.
I hope I can contribute soon-ish with a donation, given my current job situation this seems the way to go for me at present amont the supporting options. I apologize in advance for quantity and frequency/consistency (or lack there of). But hey it all adds up, right? 😀
Once again thank you for the labour of love that is LiA and best, best of luck.
Ktullu
November 17, 2013 at 12:31 pmGood decisions. I'm fine with whatever it takes to keep LiA up and the choices you made were the best of the bunch. You certainly deserve some compensation for the (obviously huge) amount of time and effort that goes into maintaining this blog. I'm looking forward to the extra content that comes from this. Ever since I drifted here from RC, LiA has been a site I visit daily for my anime-related reading, and hopefully it remains like this for many years to come. Best wishes to you! I'm off to sign up on Patreon.
chris Bennett
November 17, 2013 at 6:48 pmThanks for the shout out! I think the guest post idea is great, I would love to do one myself, as im sure would many others. You might want to consider putting a small, unobtrusive, end-note at the bottom of each article to remind people of their option to donate, and to introduce the idea to new people coming along to the site.
admin
November 17, 2013 at 11:11 pmPaypal does have a "subscribe" option as well, which I could consider adding for those who like the idea of doing something monthly but don't want to join Patreon for whatever reason…
totoum
November 18, 2013 at 12:28 amOh wow that was quick,didnt even have time to reply to the previous post.
Back when you asked me about the donate option a while ago I gave you an honest answer, and while I'd still think that for nearly every anime blog out there, if there's one that deserves some support it's yours! (even if I can't quite donate yet but when I can I'll be sure to do so).
As for the the mini podcast idea if you go through with it and if ever you need help editing it I'd be very happy to help 🙂
Arsalan
November 18, 2013 at 12:36 amI try to limit automatic payment type stuff in all aspects of my life (it's amazing how much I saved when I started to cut that down), so I'm glad you added a donation button. I prefer that.
admin
November 18, 2013 at 1:19 amThanks, totoum – I really just wanted to pick an option and go with it or I'd have chickened out. I appreciate your feedback when I asked.
Arsalan – I am too, since that's the option everyone has chosen so far! Maybe Patreon is scary?
William
November 18, 2013 at 5:10 pmI'm planning to donate as well later on. I used to be a big follower of your blog, but have dropped off lately due to increasing life commitments and thus have very little time to watch anime.
I still come here for the 2 – 3 series I watch a year – I loved your Shin Sekai Yori posts – they really show the love and passion you have for anime, and it was amazing reading your well-articulated thoughts and ponderings about it.
Thought it was a true masterpiece.
Thanks again for keeping up an amazing blog, and expect a donation from me soon.
P.S. Consider it thanks for introducing me to Seirei no Moribito! 🙂
admin
November 18, 2013 at 11:11 pmThanks William! Your last line, especially, makes me happy to hear. P.S. – I have a Moribito page at the new aStore… ;-P
David Robinson
November 18, 2013 at 3:55 pmFor A second after reading the title, i thought you were going to shut down the blog, i was like NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Windaerie
November 21, 2013 at 3:55 pmYour posts are always insightful and timely, thanks for that! Struggling a little bit myself out of college and thinking about going back to school, but you deserve our support. 🙂 Hope this little bit could help!
admin
November 22, 2013 at 1:26 amIt helps tremendously – Thank you!