Princess Jes
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2013
SPOILER ALERT!! Geez!!!That's been my plan all along. I guess you could call it the REAL "endgame", Steve.
SPOILER ALERT!! Geez!!!That's been my plan all along. I guess you could call it the REAL "endgame", Steve.
That's been my plan all along. I guess you could call it the REAL "endgame", Steve.
First, I want to thank everyone for the candid opinions, and I've read through them all.
Someone asked about our 'motivations', so let me be very clear. This is a business. The servers that are serving up the post you're reading right now cost $13k a month and while I wish that was my biggest expense, it's far from it. But, Patreon is not about supporting the boards, or the DIS. To produce the content we produce on YouTube/iTunes, I pay three full-time salaries with full benefits. That includes the vast majority of health insurance costs (employees contribute less than $100 a month towards a health insurance plan that we pay more than $1000 a month for per employee), not to mention all the other associated expenses that come with having employees. People seem to love our reviews, and they seem to love our willingness to be honest. I've stated frequently that we will not review anything that we're not paying a publicly available rate for. Every dining review has to be paid for. Every hotel review has to be paid for. Then there is the equipment - they need computers, cameras and other equipment to do the job. I do my best to put a premium on quality to the best capacity that I can and that costs money. In short, the podcast/video production is a cost center and its a cost center that has grown exponentially over the last 6 years - and well beyond what I projected when we moved into that realm.
I won't even go into the salaries and expenses that are part of running the rest of the site/Dreams Unlimited. Your heads would explode. I'm just talking about the shows and the video content here.
I hear comparisons being made to other podcasts and what they do on Patreon. I don't know what their business reality is, I don't know what their costs are, but I do know what mine are. For years, I turned away advertising in all forms (save for Dreams) on any of the shows. In looking at the costs to produce the shows last year, a decision was made that we needed to be more aggressive in generating revenue. Even in doing so, I try to curate the sponsors to make sure they offer something I think will be of real value to the audience. I can tell you honestly, I routinely turn away lucrative offers either because I don't feel passionate about the product, or I feel it's not a good fit for my audience.
Patreon was set up as a way to help offset the increasing costs of running the show. Last year, the show and video content we created cost more than $150k to produce. Patreon doesn't cover that, and while I don't need the entire amount covered, I do have to offset those costs because this is a business. In all sincerity, I don't begrudge anyone at all who feels that $10 a month is too much, and I'm as grateful for those people (who watch the show, enjoy our content) as I am to those who are willing to pay for Patreon. I will continue to do my best to produce informative, honest, entertaining content that has always been, and will always be - free to watch for anyone willing to give us their time.
Pete
Thanks for posting and sharing your thoughts Pete.
I'd like to think everyone knows that this is a business for you - and as you said you need to (at least) cover the costs associated with this unit.
I do think that your solo shows (along with increased activity from Ryno, Fiasco, etc.) have sparked a renewed interest in Patreon so might be a good time to examine if revenues could be maximized with a lower priced tier (obviously 100 people paying $5 is more total revenue than 20 people paying $10). But just like Disney has way more data that we do when they make decisions, I would also assume you have done some analysis around this and know what is best for your business ... but never hurts to re-examine things
First, I want to thank everyone for the candid opinions, and I've read through them all.
Someone asked about our 'motivations', so let me be very clear. This is a business. The servers that are serving up the post you're reading right now cost $13k a month and while I wish that was my biggest expense, it's far from it. But, Patreon is not about supporting the boards, or the DIS. To produce the content we produce on YouTube/iTunes, I pay three full-time salaries with full benefits. That includes the vast majority of health insurance costs (employees contribute less than $100 a month towards a health insurance plan that we pay more than $1000 a month for per employee), not to mention all the other associated expenses that come with having employees. People seem to love our reviews, and they seem to love our willingness to be honest. I've stated frequently that we will not review anything that we're not paying a publicly available rate for. Every dining review has to be paid for. Every hotel review has to be paid for. Then there is the equipment - they need computers, cameras and other equipment to do the job. I do my best to put a premium on quality to the best capacity that I can and that costs money. In short, the podcast/video production is a cost center and its a cost center that has grown exponentially over the last 6 years - and well beyond what I projected when we moved into that realm.
I won't even go into the salaries and expenses that are part of running the rest of the site/Dreams Unlimited. Your heads would explode. I'm just talking about the shows and the video content here.
I hear comparisons being made to other podcasts and what they do on Patreon. I don't know what their business reality is, I don't know what their costs are, but I do know what mine are. For years, I turned away advertising in all forms (save for Dreams) on any of the shows. In looking at the costs to produce the shows last year, a decision was made that we needed to be more aggressive in generating revenue. Even in doing so, I try to curate the sponsors to make sure they offer something I think will be of real value to the audience. I can tell you honestly, I routinely turn away lucrative offers either because I don't feel passionate about the product, or I feel it's not a good fit for my audience.
Patreon was set up as a way to help offset the increasing costs of running the show. Last year, the show and video content we created cost more than $150k to produce. Patreon doesn't cover that, and while I don't need the entire amount covered, I do have to offset those costs because this is a business. In all sincerity, I don't begrudge anyone at all who feels that $10 a month is too much, and I'm as grateful for those people (who watch the show, enjoy our content) as I am to those who are willing to pay for Patreon. I will continue to do my best to produce informative, honest, entertaining content that has always been, and will always be - free to watch for anyone willing to give us their time.
Pete
First, I want to thank everyone for the candid opinions, and I've read through them all.
Pete
First, I want to thank everyone for the candid opinions, and I've read through them all.
Someone asked about our 'motivations', so let me be very clear. This is a business. The servers that are serving up the post you're reading right now cost $13k a month and while I wish that was my biggest expense, it's far from it. But, Patreon is not about supporting the boards, or the DIS. To produce the content we produce on YouTube/iTunes, I pay three full-time salaries with full benefits. That includes the vast majority of health insurance costs (employees contribute less than $100 a month towards a health insurance plan that we pay more than $1000 a month for per employee), not to mention all the other associated expenses that come with having employees. People seem to love our reviews, and they seem to love our willingness to be honest. I've stated frequently that we will not review anything that we're not paying a publicly available rate for. Every dining review has to be paid for. Every hotel review has to be paid for. Then there is the equipment - they need computers, cameras and other equipment to do the job. I do my best to put a premium on quality to the best capacity that I can and that costs money. In short, the podcast/video production is a cost center and its a cost center that has grown exponentially over the last 6 years - and well beyond what I projected when we moved into that realm.
I won't even go into the salaries and expenses that are part of running the rest of the site/Dreams Unlimited. Your heads would explode. I'm just talking about the shows and the video content here.
I hear comparisons being made to other podcasts and what they do on Patreon. I don't know what their business reality is, I don't know what their costs are, but I do know what mine are. For years, I turned away advertising in all forms (save for Dreams) on any of the shows. In looking at the costs to produce the shows last year, a decision was made that we needed to be more aggressive in generating revenue. Even in doing so, I try to curate the sponsors to make sure they offer something I think will be of real value to the audience. I can tell you honestly, I routinely turn away lucrative offers either because I don't feel passionate about the product, or I feel it's not a good fit for my audience.
Patreon was set up as a way to help offset the increasing costs of running the show. Last year, the show and video content we created cost more than $150k to produce. Patreon doesn't cover that, and while I don't need the entire amount covered, I do have to offset those costs because this is a business. In all sincerity, I don't begrudge anyone at all who feels that $10 a month is too much, and I'm as grateful for those people (who watch the show, enjoy our content) as I am to those who are willing to pay for Patreon. I will continue to do my best to produce informative, honest, entertaining content that has always been, and will always be - free to watch for anyone willing to give us their time.
Pete
You should not be paying that much money per month for a forum (of any size). I'd look in to that if I were you. I ran a similarly trafficked website (according to Alexa rankings) 10 years ago which had video and graphical content and it was not even 10% of that number.
Does that include the DIS and the thousands of archived post? Would that cost that much money?
I mean I like how everyone is saying well if they lowered the price they’d have more subscribers. Tell that to Disney who keeps raising the tickets as well.
You can just go to each show on iTunes/YT and read the title/description. it usually gives you what you need to know.I've been listening to the solo shows so and have been enjoying them. Thank you Pete. I've fallen behind as I was trying to listen to "A Song of Ice and Fire" on Audible.
I just wanted to add that I miss having the other shows mentioned on the Discussion show. I don't follow all of the content like "The Disneyland Show" but I might tune in when you discuss SWGE opening or something similar. Same with "The Universal Show" . So I liked knowing what was on the other shows and when they would be uploaded. If Craig could read a quick list that would be awesome since I believe he would be the one uploading everything.
You can just go to each show on iTunes/YT and read the title/description. it usually gives you what you need to know.