Hi the 2017 Shooting Themselves in the Foot award goes to Patreon. Oh, if you haven't heard, Patreon have made some changes and it's blowing up. Its exploded Patreon like the champion of creators everywhere. The platform of choice for creators given in 2017 was the year of D monetization on YouTube and all the other crap that's going on as some channels lost 8090 almost all % almost all of their funding.

Um, I didn't lose I Don't think I've been hit at all by the ad pocalypse, except the D monetization thing keeps happening on videos and it's so it's probably dropping. It's in the last month or two, I might do a video on this I've got a forum thread by the way of all my videos that have been demagnetized recently and it's quite a few, but overall I really haven't been hit by that, but tons of creators have, so everyone has moved to Patreon as a way to keep their channel going. If you don't know Patreon, it's a platform where people viewers can support, become a patron, and support creators directly for their content, pay us directly, and then we're not reliant upon ad revenue and things like that. My channel I'm okay.

I've got lots of different sources of income, but probably the majority, vast majority of youtubers out there. They're a sole source of income was the ad revenue from the YouTube videos, but now YouTube is stripped away that almost totally. For a lot of channels, they have to rely a hundred percent on Patreon. And let's have a look.

Patreon have made some changes. Here we go: I've got, by the way: I'm a reasonable size Patreon I've got a reasonable number of backers I've got thirteen hundred and eight backers for three thousand, eight hundred and eighty seven dollars a month I charge per month instead of per video because I do so many videos and it's all ad-hoc some videos there. Yeah, it's just easier to do here I think it's better for everyone to do the monthly and I have 800 patrons who pledge $1 a month 300 so that's the majority. 384 who pledged $5 a month, 59 who pledged 10, and 32 he pledged 20.

awesome and six thank you very much who pledge 50 bucks or more per month. And up until now since these changes are that if you pledged $1 you got charged a dollar. If you pledged five bucks, you got charged five bucks and that was it. And you there were no other fees.

The fees were absorbed by the content creator. and let's actually have a look at the fees. By the way, let's see how many I've lost. I think I've lost.

A few people have emailed me and said look, sorry I want to support you on Patreon but I'm I'm just boycotting them now or whatever I'm it's no huge number I've still got thirteen hundred and eight, but last month, hang on. Last month, here we go thirteen hundred and forty-two see how it's been going up. 1207 1269 13 2013 42 So 30 and 42 I'm now 1308. So I've lost like 40 odd patrons.

which isn't a lot, but I expect this to get bigger. Given that I've got 800 patrons, this will more affect those who donate only a dollar. So let's take a look at what I got What the fees came out previously which were absorbed by the Creator Me: they weren't absorbed by the patrons who donate the money. as I said, if you donate $1 you got charged a dollar and this is now changing.

So out of the four thousand, three hundred and ninety seven dollars was the process pledges. The processing fee was six points a let's say 6.2 percent I calculate fees 6.2 percent and this is either PayPal or stripe credit card processing fee basically. so that was 6.2 percent plus another fee. Foo Patreon for keeping their website going in fine.

you know, 5% sir. a fine fee and people have always understood this and this is part of the reason. So like like so I got 88% of that and that was pretty constant. Yeah, 88% all the way.

Dance Turtles all the way down 88% and patrons The people donating the money always understood that whether it was PayPal via PayPal I am it sort of moved away for a used to have PayPal donations now I move to Patreon I don't people still do donate on PayPal and that's great but I have recommended people move over to Patreon because I can handle tears better and I can release material better and I can contact people better and interact better. It's it's you know it's just a better platform. It's worth that 5% easily and people just expect that. Yeah, not all my money is going to the creator, some taken out by the credit card fee.

People aren't stupid, they understand this and Patreon will take their fee like but anyway, there's their blog and I'll link it in. You can read the whole thing. but basically they're changing the burden of the fee from the creator me, on to the patrons. you who are donating the money and this is just so massively stupid.

I Can't believe they did this are they. They go in here. all their justification, blah blah blah blah where. Now it's more clear.

blah I people don't care right? So what? Their people understood the fee before. People aren't stupid. So I starting to separate anything new. Service fee of 2.9 percent plus 35 cents will be paid for patrons paid by patrons for an individual pledge.

So if you pledge $1 to your favorite YouTube channel or create or whoever it is Patreon, It's not just for Youtubers, but that's where a large part of their thing is. If you check, if you pledge, instead of being charged a dollar like he used to be, you'll be now charged a dollar a 38? Is it because it's 2.9 percent roughly? You know, a dollar like so 38% more. And this you might say. Okay, well, it's not a big deal, but a lot of people, including myself, back multiple people.

That's the whole idea of Patreon. You joined Patreon and then you can. you know. Let's say you want to donate 50 bucks a month to your content creators.

You choose which content creators you want and which you know percentage of your money you're willing to donate each month. I goes to whoever patron, whoever whichever content creator you choose and like, it adds up If you're back in 10 people at $1 each instead of being now $10 a month or whatever. it's now. What? Thirty thirteen dollars, 80 a month and it's just.

and people are emailing. I've other creators in the engineering space when we've been talking about this and they're seeing a lot of their patrons saying sorry I'm not I'm out, you know I'm not going to use Patreon anymore. This is ridiculous. Just on principle, some of them and and that's fair enough.

I Don't blame them too. I'm thinking about doing it as well because it's ridiculous. Like to put that fee on to the patrons is just the rudest thing possible. It's unbelievable.

People aren't dumb, they know that fees are going to come out and the creators don't get all the money. That's fine. And they they're solving a problem which didn't need to exist. And now they've created this huge uproar.

It's exploding all over the interwebs and like it's just they go and look at all the new stuff and all the channels that are talking about it. It's just nuts. You know there's creators out there that I follow who have now suspended Patreon for like they're just you know, until all this clears or they fix it or whatever. It's just it's just a joke I don't plan on doing that yet.

But yeah I am reevaluate in my position on using Patreon because this is this is just ridiculous to pass it I Like they're not dumb, they have the brand, the credibility and now they've almost I'm not gonna say they've destroyed it, but it's a huge hit. They were the platform of choice for Youtubers with the whole ad pocalypse D monetization thing. They were the saving Grace o or the White Knight coming in and they were, you know, like, join Patreon and everyone was doing it and now it's like to do this anyway. Why are they doing it either? They're trying to like, it's designed by committee and they're trying to like, you know, solve a problem that doesn't really exist.

They got in, they talked about getting all these complaints from you know, patrons about how they're being charged and how their money goes. and they've added a few more things and they've gone all. we have to solve this. No, you didn't.

You didn't have to solve this. Um, you were doing just fine. You were the industry leader in creator monetization. It's just so dumb.

So it's either they've tried to solve a problem that doesn't exist and they've just shot themselves in the foot and they're just like dumb I can't believe they're that dumb or something else is doing this. They have to get more money, tighten up their books, make their books look better because I'm about I want to do a video on this I think Patreon is prime for a buyout and I'll do I'll have to do a separate video on this because I want to do a video on how to create a YouTube competitor and I think part of that is buying patreon anyway. Oh, I won't say any more. I'll do I got some thoughts on that.

How that can happen. How I create an AI competitor for YouTube can be formed and it involves Patreon and now. so I don't know whether or not there's something else going on. whether you know they're trying to fatten up their books or do whatever I I don't know, but putting the fee on to patrons is just ridiculous PayPal Never did that if you don't need to via PayPal it always was absorbed by the creator and they was there.

Even an option on PayPal for creators to you know the PayPal donate thing to shift the fee I don't even think there was on transactions. there is, but not on donations that the money just came out. You know you just got your five percent less or whatever it was and I don't get it. I Do This is they're going to have to reverse this.

The outrage is going to be so we're going one level deeper. Okay, well so this was an update. There you go. So they had to do an update and the update says nothing about oh people are upset.

No, you like it, Doesn't even say that underly. anyway. I I don't know, that's it. It's just it's just blowing up.

I Haven't seen a huge hit, but as I said, there are at least 40 I think who have gone from last month and I've had quite a few emails of people saying that they're that they're Gonski and I fully support their decision in doing that. If you don't support Patreon doing this, then the only way they're going to change is to remove your money from it. And if I get a hit by that, so be it. But this is just ridiculous.

I You know in principle do not support the fee being put on to patrons. I Think that's just a that's a kick in the guts and they're they're destroying their reputation. They were like Patreon could do no wrong until they did this. Unbelievable.

Anyway, that's it. Discuss down below. Catch you next time.