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Added 2023-07-11 16:35:36 +0000 UTCThank you so much for your words and your support. It is very important for me to know that you like what I do. It really matters to me that there are people who appreciate my attention to detail. I have always considered this to be my strength, I really like to reproduce everything with high fidelity. And I see confirmation of this in your words, I understand that I can do it.
I have no doubts or fatigue from LOTR-things. I like the style, variety and general atmosphere. I was more interested in what you are interested in =)
When I read your messages, I really forgot to breathe, it is very valuable for me. Thank you again for your words.
I'm really close to burnout, but I try not to cross the line. I try to work hard and improve efficiency. I think it's very important to meet the deadlines that I set for myself - 2 models per month on Patreon. But I also try to get enough rest (this does not always work out, as I said, the bills will not pay themselves).
I continue to look for and fulfill orders, and recently a fatal thought came to my mind - I took very little pay for my work. I donβt know why it happened, maybe itβs my financial illiteracy, maybe I didnβt value myself enough. I will correct. Of course, I would like to work only for Patreon, but I'm afraid that this is still far away, but I hope not too much. I just have no idea how to tell more people about my work. Instagram blocked my access to ads. Probably the only thing that saves me is that you share my posts. And I definitely know how to make cool models for 3D printing.
I don't know what else to write.
Thank you!
Comments
Thanks for such an exhaustive answer. I definitely need to think a lot.
Marrion 3d
2023-07-12 17:33:15 +0000 UTCVery glad to hear you've still got plenty of motivation for LotR designs, cause I think we do too :-D. To be honest, I have no idea how much time in terms of hours goes into large scale designs like the ones you make, nor how much you ask for commissions. So take that lack of knowledge into account when reading my opinion. But I still think two models per month on Patreon, of the size and quality that you deliver, is a lot. The greedy part of me (and I presume other fans) will always want more, and faster, but in the end, I doubt your patrons can keep up with printing/painting your designs at the speed that you post them anyway. So going down in pace will most likely not hurt anybody. And not burning out is the most important thing, both for yourself as a person, and for us as patrons. So making sure you don't burn out is also 'giving' us patrons something, if that thought helps you :-). You still have very few Patrons, which means 2 things to me: A) it will indeed be hard to consider Patreon as a proper source of income for a while, and B) you have the opportunity to play around still with how you do things on Patreon (in terms of speed of releases, number of designs, etc). It's easier now to adjust your 'official' release schedule, than it is when you have many more patrons. The more you have, the more you'll feel pressured that adjusting it could lead to a loss of Patrons. Perhaps you could take off the pressure a little for yourself, by making it 1 official model per month on Patreon, and if you manage to do more, than that's a nice bonus. But if it's not an additional target, it hopefully will put less pressure on you. If you manage an extra one in a certain month, or an extra one per two months, that's fine. But if you don't manage any additional model at all, that's equally fine. Getting more patrons will take some time, and it's the chicken-or-the-egg question: the more they get when they join, the faster the growth might be. I'm not talking more models per month, but more like 'more models available when they join up'. For now your already released models are still accessible, so every month, when a new patron joins, he'll have more models for that 'first month price'. This makes joining more tempting every month, so it might help to increase the numbers. But there's very little visibility I think of what new patrons will get. They cannot (before joining) assess the amount and quality of the designs they're currently getting. So putting some more exposure on that might help. Like a pinned open post that everyone checking out your Patreon can read, with a visual overview of available models that they'll get when joining. I'm not sure if that is how you want to keep things in the long run, because it allows for people to join for a month, take it all, and leave. Once you have a larger set of models on Patreon, you could consider locking the old ones down (for instance new Patreons can get older designs from other platforms where you sell them, at a discount, with a discount code offered on Patreon when they join). Or you can offer a 'welcome package', a set of older models new patrons get for free as soon as they join the first time. Advertising for yourself on Facebook and Instagram, and via some 3D printing communities, could be a way to increase exposure. Even with just posts of your designs, and perhaps some printed versions (if necessary supplied by patrons). Perhaps a collaboration with some other Patreons or MMF Tribes that do LotR-inspired designs (like Davale Games or The Printing Goes Ever On and On) could help increase exposure. Sharing a model from them with us, and vice versa, is something that many Patreons in the 3D miniature design sphere do once in a while. I'll make sure to post your Patreon in the advertisement channel of a large 3D printing Discord I'm a member of. It's mainly focused on miniatures, but if only one or two LotR-fans notice and decide to join, it's already something.
Wim D.
2023-07-11 18:13:18 +0000 UTC
