Yes. And also no. I am well aware that my sporadic posting has cost me patrons. I am also aware that I am not necessarily a great value when it comes to paying by the month versus paying by the item.
But.
I am a poor person. I’ve gotten pretty comfortable saying this publicly, in part because I have been working hard to become not a poor person. And half of what I earn in pledges from people I in turn pledge back to other people. Some of them are from the hypno community, some of them aren’t, and I pledge no more than a dollar to each of them. Someday I will be able to pledge more, but for now a dollar is all I can manage. Some of those pledges are “per month” and some of them are “per item” – but with my pledge capped at a dollar, because that’s the only option that was given to me. Right now, with the way that my life is, if I were called on to unexpectedly pledge more than that dollar, for instance, if someone released 4 or 5 stories or recordings or what not in a month, it would have horrible repercussions for me financially.
Yes. If I have $5 taken out of my account without me planning for it I am pretty much screwed. This is what it means to be a poor person. So, from my point of view, it makes more sense to pledge my dollar a month, because I can plan for it and budget accordingly.
And also.
Some of the people to whom I pledge don’t put something out every month. Some of them don’t put anything out for several months. Some of them are regularly prolific, and some of them are randomly prolific (putting a bunch of stuff out in a two week period and then nothing for some time.) I don’t care why they don’t put anything out during their dry times. The people I support I do because I want them to succeed. The product that I get in return, no matter what it is, means nothing to me compared to the comfort and ability of the people I support to live their lives. I’m not naive; I understand that many people pledge to creators because they want something tangible out of it like a story or a file or a whatever, but I do not.
(I’ll let you in on a little secret – I have never once taken advantage of the early access that I get from pledging. In truth, I have never actually even gone to the patreon pages of the people to whom I pledge to see what they’ve posted. That’s not why I pledged to them.)
So yes. I get it. Most people think it’s a waste of their money to support someone who posts sporadically. And those people are more than welcome to not pledge. The people who choose to stick around will make it easier for me to live my life which will make it more likely that I will be better about posting; I choose to believe that those people support me because they want me to personally be successful, and not just because they might get stuff out of it.
But thank you for your advice.
Signed and supported, because a per-piece payment scheme where there’s no limit on piece number is literally my financial worst nightmare.
This is why, while my Patreon is per-piece, I have a strict limit on number of pieces per month, and usually post half that.