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"Even a single $1 monthly subscription from one person is enough to make up the revenue of several hundred views for that month, ad-blocked or not."



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Hello, Legion!I've made this space into a Q & A to lay out why I'm on Patreon and help you decide whether you want to become a Patron. I'll try to go in order of increasing complexity with the questions, and you can stop reading whenever you're convinced one way or the other!I'll also explain how exactly donations will or will not be rewarded, how they will be allocated, and other items of interest as needed.Before I jump in, if you are here to become a Patron, even if you are just here to read this page and think about it... thank you! I am beyond grateful that you might find my content worth your time and money.-HA. First and foremost, my reasoning is similar to many content creators: I want to ensure that I can continue to make top-quality videos for a healthy, growing community to watch and enjoy.Apart from that, here are my particular reasons:A. Yes, I do. Happily, YouTube is already helping me to realize the dream artists and creative people share of being able to sustain some form of income from their own creative endeavors.So, let's get at the meat of this question.A. Any content creator that relies on ad revenue lives with one anxiety above most others:There's nothing wrong with using an ad blocker. Ads these days can be frustrating, so the prevalence of blockers and their use by many people is understandable.The downside, though, is that the amount of income generated by ads on YouTube and other streaming content has dwindled precipitously. The revenue proportions affected/blocked are significant, and this is just as true for full-time, high-income content creators as well as part-time hobbyists such as myself. One 2015 report estimated that $22 billion had been lost in the overall internet economy that year as a result of ad blockers, and the number would double in 2016.Therefore, giving my viewers the opportunity tosubscribe and support me via Patreon is a great way to completely eliminate this concern on my end. Completely eliminate it. And it's done through negligibly small, totally voluntary donations.A. Even a singlemonthly subscription fromis enough to make up the revenue ofviews for that month, ad-blocked or not.Think about that. $1 a month is worth hundreds of ad-enabled views.Multiply that by 10—whether that's one person paying $10, or ten paying $1—and you're offsettingof individual ad blockers. With just $10!Now, keep adding orders of magnitude (10, 100, 1000, etc.), and Patreon's usefulness as a buffer against this prevalent issue is, I hope, profoundly clear.And what this means is that all you really have to give to make a massive difference in the life of the channel is $1. This is especially true considering how well $1 a month can add up across a growing base of subscribers. Until the channel grows to such a size that monthly donations no longer fully make up for the number of ad-blocked views, the problem will be truly and completely gone.A. I do not provide any incentive for contributions from channel Patrons apart from the content I already make on YouTube. More on that in a moment.But, know that you will have my gratitude, and the knowledge that...(a) You have complete amnesty to use whatever adblocking software you'd like,(b) You have, even at the minimum amount of giving, made a more sizable contribution in a single month than you'd make watching 1,000 videos (which, assuming you watch entire videos without stopping short, is 17 days of YouTube binge-watching with no breaks).A. Firstly, not all of them do. But, I don't mean in any way to comment on the correctness or incorrectness of that decision in general. To each, their own. I don't think there's any one "right" answer to how to use Patreon.For me, the answer to this question has solely to do with what is right for my channel's community. This community has always been and will always be one in which privilege, or status, is determined by someone's behavior toward me and toward other people; in other words, their overall civility. If I come to enjoy having you as part of the community, it's because you earned my good opinion by treating me and my other viewers with respect. That's how one earns favor.On the other hand, regardless of how well you participate on the channel itself... coming over here and becoming a Patron makes me grateful to you indeed! But it can't make me like and enjoy your presence in the same way that genuine, positive participation can. Never like good manners and common decency can & will.So, being totally candid with you, the idea just doesn't sit well with me that an ill-behaved $10 subscriber could have access to anything that a stellar, long-time, non-paying subscriber does not.Nothing against channels that do provide special rewards. More power to them. But, if you become a Patron of my channel, I'd ask you to consider your donations just that: Donations. Because you like my content.If looking at it this way is at all an issue with you, I understand and I urge you quite sincerely not to donate at all. I am totally happy to have you enjoy the channel without contributing monetarily.A. I understand the temptation to feel like $1 is not impactful enough. At the same time, you might feel like any amount higher is tough to justify in your budget (especially if you are a Patron of multiple channels). Suddenly, you end up in a weird place where you don't donate because you can't afford to be as helpful to the channel as you want to be.Hey. Stop it. You stop that right now.I cannot stress this enough: (A) $1 isthanimpactful enough,(B) How much you give beyond that is totally up to you. I'm serious. Don't worry about it.In the questions above, I believe I've made a compelling case for why $1 is all you need to worry about giving if your desire is to support the channel in a meaningful way (beyond simply watching and taking part in the community). Another reason a $1 monthly donation works so well is that it'ssmall. I don't want anyone worrying even remotely about whether their donation is something they can afford. That's silly.I would have you bear in mind though, if you do choose to give more than a dollar, you're (at the very least) tripling that already substantial individual impact. So, all that being said, I leave it to you and ask you not to feel "cheap," or guilty, for giving the minimum. The minimum is awesome.A. I will earmark every cent exclusively for the channel's expenses and hardware. You'll help me maintain up-to-date equipment and make improvements directly related to my content production. Your contributions shouldn't be considered as going toward my "bills."A. Patreon was created to help guarantee artists a reliable income from their creative endeavors, thanks to fans who are voluntarily willing to contribute to that cause. To be fair, my reaction upon seeing Patreon for the first time was that it did seem odd to directly finance another person's livelihood simply because you believed in their creative work.The more fiscally conservative voice in all of us might ask, "Shouldn't purchasing their work (or, in these cases, watching ad-enabled videos) be enough?" But, then I thought about it some more. When you consider that (a) many people are perfectly willing to donate when we like what someone does, and (b) a bunch of negligibly small donations can add up to a big difference in a creator's quality, potential, & personal well-being, the existence of Patreon makes good sense.That's why I've elected use it, and I hope you'll consider supporting the channel on Patreon, even minimally.This concludes the Q & A. If you think another question should be added... ask me about it! And, I hope to see you on the channel.